Progress is Messy--An Honest Look at the Garden

We have approximately 50 people coming to our house in August.  They're staying in tents and RVs and in every available space in our home.  To accommodate the influx of family, there will be a large outdoor dining tent, hay bale seating, an outdoor shower, and of course, port-a-potties.  It will be an experience, to be sure.

Two years ago when we volunteered to be reunion hosts, we made a long list of things we'd like to have done by August of 2013.  We had all the time in the world.  Now it's only 3 months away and of necessity, our list has become more realistic--and mostly it involves finishing and cleaning up what we've already started.

But before I show you the messy, I'll show you the cool.  Three years ago Lyle built the wisteria walkway.  We bought two new large wisteria vines for the entry of the arbor, transplanted two that had been continually hacked back because we'd put them in too small an area--those went in the middle, and then planted a tiny wisp of a vine at the end.

The tiny wisp is slowly making its move, the transplanted vines are full of foliage but as yet have no flowers, and the two we'd put in the entry have had a few blink-and-you'll-miss-them flowers over the years.  But this year.....

oh be still my heart.

I never knew wisteria smelled so heavenly.  

Or could be so magical.

It will truly be something when the whole arbor is covered with blooms.  

I'm sure I'll get nothing done inside.

I love how from the front porch it's framed by the lattice window Lyle made.

And speaking of gardens in this hodge-podge of a post, do you see the not-so pretty hillside behind the arbor?  Well, it's been a bit of thorn in my side for the 9 years we've been in our house.  It's precarious to mow, it doesn't grow grass well anyway, and without irrigation, it's a brown weedy mess every summer.  But I've always thought that this negative could easily become a positive.  I've earmarked many photos of what I'm envisioning--a rock garden (using the huge rocks we already have on our property), and filled with drought tolerant plants that will cover the ground completely.

Something like this.

The problem is, our hillside runs the length of our property and fronts the road.  I've struggled with where I start and stop and how I can shield the road from the property without ruining a view we have to the west.

You see my dilemma?

Finally, after 9 years of pondering the options, I called a professional.  She immediately offered thoughts and suggestions and we've drawn out a plan.  In the plan, we've also included something Lyle's wanted from day one in our house--a waterfall cascading down the hill.  As much as he wanted it, I was against it.  Our landscape designer convinced me that I'd love the water feature, and so that's happening also, most likely at the end of the month.

And so now onto the messy.......

This will be seriously amazing, but right now, it's not quite family reunion ready.   Lyle's built the arbors and fencing and they'll weather to a silver-gray like our other arbors.  The raised planting beds are done, and potatoes, strawberries, herbs, corn, and tomatoes have been planted.

This is looking from the strawberry beds toward the barn.  The brick walkways may or may not happen before August.

Each arbor will have a gate--the large one will have two gates that meet in the center.  The gates will curve and mimic the curved arches in the upper corners.  This one leads to the compost bins.

And this one leads to the pasture.  The curved pieces on the left side show where Lyle will drop down the fencing.  I love the barn and didn't want the fencing to cover it, so we're making a plan modification.

And if I'm really going for honesty here, I'd step back and let you see that I have a sink sitting in my yard.  At least it's not a toilet.

Lyle plans to install the sink in the garden for washing off vegetables before they come in the house--a suggestion from the landscape designer.

And even though the sink was a great idea, one of the very best pieces of advice our designer gave us was that we should add irrigation directly into each one of Lyle's concrete forms.  She said it would be a shame to have hoses draped all over what will eventually be a really cool garden.  I'm so glad we followed that advice and we can now easily manage each individual bed and use our water more efficiently.

Something that IS done, which we've loved, is the pickle ball court.  Lyle finished the trellis and we've planted it with clematis armandii which will eventually shield the propane tank and cover the wire trellis.  We'd moved the basketball hoop last year and expanded the concrete and just finished painting the court.

I'm still peeling from the sunburn I got in the process.

The line of compact strawberry trees will eventually form a hedge to screen the court from the driveway.

And it will also be screened by our orchard, which is looking pretty spindly right now.  Lyle did finish the swing set and we installed the trampoline, both of which have been getting lots of use.

Because as cool as wisteria is, it can only hold a 5 year-old's interest for so long.

And I guess I can't say this area is completely done....

Do you see the pipe coming out of the ground on the ride side of the trellis?  And a slab of concrete with a circle in the middle?  Lyle's making a water fountain.

Great idea, but again, it's in progress.

 

And over on the wisteria walkway, despite the gorgeous flowers, you'll also find various not-so-aesthetically-pleasing buckets of rocks.  This is Lucy's summer job--she's filling in cracks with rock mosaic.  It will look great--eventually--the operative word in all our projects.

But we are progressing, and at least for us, progress is always messy.

I look forward to the day when the pictures on the computer will match the pictures I have in my head!

Barn Cat Number 2

Apparently there's no shortage of available cats in the world.  Barn cat number two was not difficult to find.  In fact, the ad claiming, "Fantastic Barn Cat!" pretty much found us and he was installed in the barn the very next day.

At first, El Guapo was unsure of the newcomer and the newcomer spent most of his time in hiding, but a week later, they now seem happy barnmates.

And as a barnmate to El Guapo, killer of rats (hopefully), we decided that this guy needed an equally villainous name.

Despite his sweetness, we've heard that this cat has a deep and abiding interest in rodent pain.  

As a matter of fact, he's presently writing the definitive work on the subject.

  

He's even been known to throw a rat or two in the pit of despair.  

He has the most dexterous tail I've ever seen.  

It's like the belly dancer of tails.

He adores people and purrs like an engine.

He's also very keen on staying fit and healthy.

The minute he joined our family, he insisted on seeing the vet.

"If you haven't got your health," he purred,

 "then you haven't got anything." 

He likes to sit in the window and look out at the great wide world,

which makes life difficult for Franklin.  Do I look at this cat?

Or this cat?  A cat in each window.  Oh, it's hard to decide.

And in other barnyard news, there's been a major leap forward in Lyle's concrete raised beds.  

The beds are finished and arbors, gates, and fencing come next.

Followed by the laying of over 2000 bricks for the pathways.

Do you think El Guapo will be of any assistance?  He seems a little lazy for the job.

It's now all in the capable paws of Count Rugen,

paws which may or may not be sporting an extra digit.

Enter the Barn Cat

As you know, we've got goats and chickens.  

Well, I suppose I should have assumed this, but it was a news flash--

if you have goats and chickens, you'll also have rats.

That might make sense, but it's unacceptable to me.  

Goats?  Yes.  

Chickens?  Yes.  

Rodents?  No.

But any extermination methods I could think of might exterminate the wrong animal.  

What to do, what to do?

Enter the barn cat.  

  I did some research and called our local humane society.  They assured me that even in our predator-filled Northwest woods, certain cats make great outdoor/barn cats, as long as they have shelter to return to, are fed and given fresh water, and kept up-to-date on shots and deworming.  They even have a "Barn Cat Adoption Program".  

Well, the word adoption gets me every time and we quickly filled out an application and waited for our referral.   Actually two referrals because they prefer to place two cats per barn to form a mini-pack.

Now, these cats are in the barn cat adoption program rather than the lovey-dovey house cat adoption program for a reason.   They generally don't like people and are in the "feral" or "semi-feral" category.  I told the nice man at the humane society that we have a 2nd story loft in our barn and I didn't want to walk in every morning, fearing that a tasmanian devil cat would leap onto my head.  I wondered if we could possibly get a rat-killing machine that wasn't also possessed?

He assured me that he could find us "social" barn cats, which I took to mean, "just a little bit crazy".

I was hopeful that the wait for this referral would be less than the waits we've had for other referrals and would involve fewer governmental hoops.

And then, before we could be matched, we found cat #1 through Craigslist.  

The Humane Society is still looking for cat #2.

Our new barn cat was a stray, living outside, happy outside, 

but also happy to get a pat on the back and a rub behind his ears.  

He's not crazy at all, something I'd come to accept, at least in small measure, as an inevitable part of the barn cat package.

Since he's lived outside, hopefully he's a savvy fighter, 

but since he's been around people, he knows they're not the enemy. 

And he's active as all get-out, which will hopefully mean a decrease in the rat population.  

If I was a rat, I'd be scared right now.

The humane society suggested we keep him confined to the barn for 2 weeks, giving him food and lots of attention, so he knows this is home.

The night before we got him, we talked about names.  

Cholita came up with one that we all deemed perfect. 

We pictured one of our barn rats, standing on a hay bale, addressing his fellow rodents:

"In a way, all of us have an El Guapo to face.

For some rats, shyness may be their El Guapo.

For others, lack of education may be their El Guapo.

But for us, El Guapo is a big mean cat who wants to kill us."

So, El Guapo it is.

And he is rather handsome, don't you think?

Happy Easter

How I love these kids.

Although this is more representative of their true characters than the first photo.

This one is becoming such a young lady, I feel like humming a song from Fiddler on the Roof.

And I'd just keep humming it with this one.

Thank goodness this little sweetie is still little. 

She couldn't be torn away from the new barn cat for a formal Easter picture.

And bless his heart.

Can he stay a kindergartener forever?  

Please?

Because here's my oldest son on Easter Eve, looking like an Easter egg himself.  He was on a "roomie road trip", according to the text, to "The Festival of Colors", where apparently people throw colored chalk at each other.  

Yeah, kindergarteners are less stressful than college freshman.

And I'm so thankful this Easter Sunday for the amazing person I've spent the past 20+ years with.  

Most of all, I'm thankful for the promise of Easter.  

It was a beautiful Sunday.

What About..........THIS?!

If you'd asked me a few days ago if my young son XiXi had any clue how to record a video on my phone, I would have said no, certainly not.  He's five.  He's not allowed to use my phone.   He probably doesn't even know that my phone can record videos.

Then I saw something on my camera roll.  Something I hadn't put there.  And now I stand corrected.  Yes, my son does know how to record a video on my phone.    And I'm so very glad that he somehow gained this knowledge because his 20 second video is now my favorite.  Pretty much ever.

Hosting Prom Night Dinner

My husband is the president of the Young Men's organization at our church.  For prom, he made an offer to the boys.  If any of them got up the gumption to ask a girl to the dance, he'd make dinner.

As of a few days ago, we'd had no takers.  We weren't sure if that was because none of them were going or because they had other dinner plans.  Either way, it was fine.  Then on Wednesday, one of our seniors asked Lyle if the offer was still available.  Lyle said it absolutely was.  The young man wondered if a group of 14 would be too much.

Gulp.

But Lyle was undeterred.  He planned his menu and went shopping the next day.  Mercifully the group of 14 shrunk down to 6, which was perfect.

While Lyle handled the menu, I decorated.  I thought a vintage prom theme would be fun and easy.  I already had frames up in the room, I'd just swap out the ancestor pictures for prom pictures that I found on the internet.

 I quickly zeroed in on the 1950's photos as my favorites. 

They were the most glamorous,

the most elegant,

 the most romantic.

Although I'll be the first to admit that the 1960's made me smile.

This old window frame usually holds more ancestor photos but I traded those out for more prom pictures.  

Then I had a thought.

What if perhaps, I called some of the parents of the kids I knew would be at my house?

And what if they were to send me some of their own prom pictures?

And what if their kids had no idea?

My favorite part of the night was seeing our prom-goers look at the pictures when they first got here and they'd be pointing out cute dresses or hairstyles (the girls) or saying not much of anything (the boys) and then they each had a moment when their mouths fell open and they shrieked, "Is that my DAD?"  or "Is that my MOM?"  

For one young man, his parents were high school sweethearts and went to prom together.   

One girl said, "That's my Dad, but who's THAT?"

We spent many hours on the prep work, 

but in the end it was lovely.

We curtained off the kitchen and the three youngest were once again our valiant wait staff.

We were lucky that our sweet Lucy was part of the group eating at our house,

looking so beautiful on her first prom.

I felt for her date, who not only had to deal with the embarrassment of parents snapping pictures while he's trying to tie on that dang corsage,

 he also had to hear suggestions from the 5-7 year-old crowd.  

"Maybe tie it on the top," XiXi suggested.

"Just do a knot," said Cholita.

I promised to not be a presence during the dinner, but did want to get at least one group photo.

Don't they look so great?

And I might have snuck in once or twice to get photos of the little kids in action.  They decided that Cholita would take the girl's orders and XiXi would do the boys.   All of our dinner guests got the apple pecan salad with raspberry vinaigrette, and they all got the same side dishes of gingered carrots, sesame asparagus, and rosemary potatoes, but there were two different entree options.  If they picked the parmesan chicken, easy peasy.  But the filet mignon took some advanced waitressing.  Did they want it well-done, medium, or rare?  Did they want the mushroom caper sauce?  On the top or on the side?

But they'd practiced and they were ready.

Then one of the girls asked Cholita what she would recommend.

This threw her for a bit of a loop.

She blushed and said "The filet mignon is........very.......ummmm.......flavorful."

It made her sister giggle.

Not surprisingly, her recommendation was taken.

Make that one more order of filet mignon.

The group spent about two hours at our house.

I heard lots of laughter and conversation.

Now they're off at the dance, hopefully enjoying every minute of the exciting, awkward, unique rite of passage that is prom. 

Now I've got some cleaning to do.