State of Emergency declared in the garden

Mom says there's never been a year like it. The garden is a write off.

- Record rain fall has turned half of it into a rice paddy...too bad we forgot to seed
- The brand new rototiller remains idol...would just get stuck
- Weeds are rubbing their pollen-laden leaves together in glee
- Potato bugs have infested the few brave potatoes that are struggling forth
- Peter powered the bugs last night
- It rained and washed the powder away
- New potatoes were planted today...trying again
- Bulls have trampled the carrot patch

The only hope remains with the cluster of raised beds across the road. It's looking promising and Chris and I did some seeding yesterday. A little sun would be appreciated.

Looks like we'll join the masses in the checkout line at Superstore this year...

Time to go fishing.

Break in the weather

To celebrate the third day of no rain (apart from brief overnight showers), TWO mowers are going full steam ahead today.  

That's Mom in her jaunty pink camp and Dad working the backfield.

Take that, you crazy-growing-lawn.  Take that!

Blub blub...

Record-setting rainfall here this year.  The most in a million years or something like that.

The house is now waterfront property with the appearance of a pond in the front yard and our little highway is awash in flood waters by the bridge to the 'big' highway.

Mom can be heard muttering "this is stupid" as she crams the bedding plants into any non-mud dirt she can find and laments the yellowing of leaves as she careens around the yard in the golf cart (she just sped by the window inspecting the north-east corner of the yard).

She tries to find Chris to help push her out when she takes the lawn mower into too-soggy land - she's trying to avoid Dad's stink-eye for not having heeded warnings to stay away.  But "goll darn it" the grass is like hay already!

Meanwhile Dad is doing a "told you so" to the local watershed committee from which he resigned in protest several years ago.   He was ignored in his insistence that the local lake's water level was being kept way too high...lining everything up for a big mess if wet weather continued. 

Well guess what?   There are reports of sandbagging underway to try to protect waterfront cabins and the do-hickey to drain the lake into the channels is WIDE open, but nowhere close to keeping pace with the water rising.   A lot of eye-rolling going on.  Never mind the long-disappeared beaches, now the potential for uncontrolled general flooding is very real.  

Four more days of rain expected.  Strap on the water wings.

At least one segment of the population is very pleased...the mosquitoes.

Getting things done before the rain...

May long weekend ensures it will be rainy.  And so it is...

Before it hit though, the farm gang took full advantage of the beautiful morning.

I headed out to check the chicks (I had forgotten the other morning and had to redeem myself) while my boys were still in bed.  All was well...no squished chicks to report.  Just thirsty.

On the way back I was invited to go on the morning cattle check with Peter and Dad.  Sure...why not?  So we drove around...confirmed there were cows in the fields, a few people teeing off on the golf course, the water level is too high in the lake, the ducks' nest is no more (whether due to hatching or attack is unclear), the juice is flowing on the electric fence (Peter gets to test that) and three carloads of people had arrived to fish in the channel going through our sections.  Oh...and witnessed the first few minutes of a new calf wobbling to his/her feet.  Awww....  All this by 9:30 in the morning.

Returned to find Auntie Nicole and the boys had surfaced...they headed out as I headed in to eat.  After tidying up, I pulled on my coveralls (hugely attractive) and went out again.

Chris and Dexter took a ride on the quad to check out the fishing action, came back and fired up the rider mower.  They were set for the morning.

I was issued some pruning shears and took care of a maple stump that was getting right out of control...didn't stand a chance. 

Next on the list was flipping the hay in the chick corral.  They've gone from ardorable fluffy cute chicks to molting toddlers with a dirty hay issue.  After a panicked few minutes on their part, the poop was flipped and out of sight.  Tick that off the list.

Dad was planting in the greenhouse (former, really...as the recent windstorms ripped the plastic siding off of it, it's now a raised bed garden).  I pitched in with watering it to the point of looking like a rice paddy.   Apparently that is just perfect.

As the rain arrived, I hustled over to the main garden to gather some of the prolific rhubarb already taking over part of the big garden.  A request for crisp had been made...must do something with all the growth. (Add "Search for other rhubarb recipes" to my list).

In the meantime, Peter was weed whacking the yard, Nicole was doing her random junk-hauling and Julia was puttering in her corner of the garden.

And then...the deluge began...and that was the end of outside time.

Now crisps have been made, Dexter's nap has been had, blogging ensues and surfing for acceptable cartoons is underway.

Happy Soggy Long Weekend Everyone!

Growing like crazy!

With scorching almost 30C days, the garden seeding is well ahead of schedule.

This is sure to be tormenting Mom as she is city-locked with her grandson Andrew in Calgary as his mom Karen and new step-dad Mac are off on their honeymoon.  Everyone makes sacrifices for mom.

The peas have already poked their tender shoots forth, the rhubarb is borderline monstrous and we had our first feed of asparagus today...yum!

The seedling plants have been released from their basement dungeon and installed into the lap of luxury in the back of the red pickup truck to acclimatize to the great outdoors.  No need to move them in and out...just drive the truck into the garage if need be.  Genius idea by Dad.

Peter's been rototilling like a crazy man, Nicole mowed for 8 straight hours today (yes, on a rider lawn mower), and there was a potato planting fest this afternoon.

Even got some mushroom huntin' in...Dad 1, Michele 0, Peter 12.  He's like a truffle pig...very skilled in finding the morels. I found mosquitos and I think I grabbed a stinging nettle.  Not so skilled...