Weekend at the Farm December 15 - 17, 2017

This is White By The Gate Camellia.  The whitest of the white camellias.

The company gave us Friday off in preparation for driving to Marble Falls for our 2 day marathon Christmas party.  Bert and I drove to the farm to spend the night on Thursday.  Bert took the dogs in to Brenham for boarding on Friday morning.  We drove to Horseshoe Bay on Friday afternoon and returned to the farm on Sunday morning.

• Friday morning I watered in the Rose Garden.  I have all the water turned off at the source because in cold weather sometimes the timers will pop off and the water will just run until we discover the problem.
• I cut several castor bean plants down to the ground level that had flopped over due to the cold.
• Bert spotted some horse droppings on the trail that the neighbors' horses had left behind.  We drove around, and I collected them and mulched the roses in the Orchard.
• I plucked lots of seed heads off my Fireworks Gomphrena and spread them around in the Orchard and Star Garden.
• Cut the drying, seed-loaded branches off my Swamp Sunflower in the Orchard and threw them in the soggy part of the meadow.  Maybe some seed will take root. 
• Bathed poor Buddy before Bert took them to the vet to board them.
• Cleaned toilets and sinks.
• On Sunday when we returned, the first thing I did was drive around the farm and dig up grasses.  I planted 10 grass plugs in my meadow, and I also planted 4 plugs of the wild perennial verbena that grows on the far side of our property.  If that would take off here in the meadow, I would be very pleased.
• I spent an hour or so raking up pine needles in various places on the property where pine trees grow, loading them on the cadet (two big truckloads) and mulching the Bulb Bed.  The Bulb Bed backs up to the shed.  My Pearlbush and a Spicebush grow in that bed , the rest of the bed is covered in pink rain lilies, a few amaryllis, some iris, and those little red flowered bulbs that I can never remember the name of.  It can get a little weedy.  I didn't bother to weave the pine needles through the green growth of the bulbs, I just piled it on top.
• Made a stew to contribute to the Christmas family gatherings.
• Drove in to work on Monday morning.