Really Random June Wrapup

This was Liam chatting to PaPa on Father's Day. In my imagination, I'm seeing him on the phone with friends at 15 and with girls when he's 20. Ha!

While that all was happening, when what to my wondering eyes should appear out back:

"What the thunder...?"

Yes, that would be a Chris George and a Pap helping Dada unload the wood that he bought at an auction.

For those of you who aren't local, Dada's been bitten hard by the auctioning bug. Lots of Stuff has been coming home to stay with us besides wood. Some things have already proved their weight in gold, like the rototiller that got our garden ready. Others? Well, just don't ask me about the drafting table.

Anyway, good thing we have a handy dandy shed with a loft for the wood that was bought with projects in mind.

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And then out front, what in the world is going on out here!?

Looks to me like Darth Vader and the Shrike from Hyperion put in an appearance... check out Vader using the Force!

Watch out, Vader, or the Shrike is gonna getcha!

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Mind you, these were all taken in June, so we've had progress which I don't have pictures of yet. Shocking, I know. 

We had green caterpillars all over the Brussels Sprouts so we had to spray them down after feeding the frogs in the pond and squishing bunches of extra caterpillars. Blech. I did save a handful of them in a jar for the kids to watch, and sure enough, we released our first butterfly yesterday!

So then here are other random greenery things happening around here. We're particularly fond of the butterfly bushes or tickle plants. Don't they just look like the bees would be giggling and jiggling all through them because of the fine hairlike thingies on them?

Last year these guys were blooming around the Golden Oldie party and the hummingbird visited them. They're all done now, so the hummingbird zips by out front in the random flowers that sprang up under the birdseed feeders.

Liam's job this summer, well, one of them, is to keep the birdfeeder filled for our feathered friends, like these nuthatches:

Another fun visitor:

He's not related to the aforementioned green caterpillars, by the way. I'm not sure where he came from.

And then these guys are Downy Woodpeckers who visit often. There were three on the suet feeder, and the one on the left couldn't reach it. His buddy leaned way over several times and helped him out. Carrie and I were enchanted!

Here's up close, cropped versions.

And that was June! Sorry, Mommee, that it took so long. 

A new toy for Dada

Dada and Carrie headed to a Saturday auction and came home with a fancy pirate kite, some wooden boards, and a Rototiller. They had help getting it home. (Thanks again, Jeff and Cindy!)

So he had to test it out. Hey, it just so happens we needed to get the gardens going. How 'bout that!?

Worked like a charm and we're all delighted. The tiny garden behind the house is planted; the big garden by the creek is tilled and ready to go. Carrie and I spent a lot of yesterday pulling weeds and inadvertently severing worms, sending spiders scurrying and dandelion seeds floating. It was truly sunny for the first time, and I enjoyed every single second of pinkening my skin. That's the word I'm coining. I was afraid my feet were burning in my sandals, so I did what generations of bacon have done. I headed into the creek to apply mud and, whaddaya know, it actually worked! I should have done my back... 

Fancy Big Sucker at work

 

Well, our resident Big Thing got busy and churned up enough dirt for a garden. These were taken the last week of May. Dada put our Fancy Big Sucker to work and still had to rent a rototiller to finish the job. But now we have a garden plot:

 

 

And now we have a moat:

 

 

Haha! Okay, this was taken today- June 28. You see tomatoes, a pepper plant, a watermelon plant, and a canteloupe plant. We'll see who likes having a lot to drink, that's for sure!

 

The apples are coming along and some are blushing rosily. It'll be a fun fall of applesauce and apple chips in the dehydrator, methinks.

 

This is the moat creek behind our house. I don't remember the name of it- I'll have to hunt it down. The cattails in the middle of the picture are usually in the middle of the creek and the vegetation you see on this side of them is where the creek bed starts. This is almost a whole day after it's stopped raining. Every time I glanced out the window yesterday to watch it rise higher I thought of Anne of Green Gables and her "Lake of Shining Waters."

 

We're supposed to have rain again tomorrow and much of the week, but as you can tell from the last photo, it's a gorgeous and sunny day here today. We'll take it!