Wacky Weather and Other Stuff

Or What’s Been Going On The Last Couple of Months

The weather in May was quite crazy. We had a snow storm that started on the evening of the 21st and continued into the morning of the 22nd. That is the latest snow I can recall in a long time. Now if we lived in the mountains that would not seem so unusual, but I live in the ridges and grasslands of Nebraska.

Three days later we were back to normal May weather with temperatures back where they should be in the 75 to 80 degrees range. So I spent the day mowing the “back forty” and turning soil over by the shed. I also put the rocks back in place under the downspout of the gutter for the shed. The little johnny jump-up flower is still doing well.

: “Back Forty”

: Before turning soil.

: After turning soil.

: Rocks under spout.

May 26th was spent celebrating Connor’s 1st Birthday(my second grandson). I can hardly believe it has been that long. He is such a cute little fella. He has lots of personality with a bit of orneryness thrown in.

: Monster Cake and Cupcakes!

: Make A Wish!

The last day of May was just gorgeous. So Sully joined me outside, while I puttered around the yard doing things.

Just hanging on the step.

I transplanted my 4 sweet pepper plants in front of the shed by the steps. Last years flowers around the deck seeded well. I sprinkled a new box to fill in the bare spots. I decided to check choke cherry bushes in the backyard. I had been smelling the flowers on the breeze. I took these photos of said flowers. That done I called an end to my puttering.

: Transplanting sweet peppers.

: Two done, two to go.

: Choke cherries.

: Yellow flowers on a small bush.

June started out nice. I decided to give the grass around the water spout a trim this day. I can’t get the mower in close enough. So with scissors in hand I gave that grass a nice buzz cut.

: Before cutting.

: After cutting.

I also loosened the soil in the flower bed under the bedroom window. I sprinkled a box of wildflowers here. That is when I noticed that the stray irises were putting on canes this year. This is the first year they will bloom after they got left behind when I cleaned the rest of them out back in July of 2015.

Blooming yellow irises.

The weather continued to be wacky, out of the four sweet pepper plants only one survived to mid June. The green bell pepper plants were finally ready to go outside. I planted three in the old sweet pepper spots then two more beside those. I decided to put the only two wall o’ waters we had around the last sweet pepper and one of the green bell plants. At the end o f June we got lots of rain again. I lost the two plants in the wall ‘ o waters when they collapsed on the plants. So I will have no sweet peppers. I still have the four unprotected green peppers on this side of the shed. If you look in the left hand corner of this photo you see a bushy little plant. That is a stray carrot from last fall. I just left him to grow just to see what he would do.

Two wall o’ waters and four unprotected green bell peppers.

The rest of the green bells were planted on the east side of the shed. These seedlings were grown in cardboard egg crates. Each cup had two seeds in most of them both seeds sprouted. I cut them into individual cups and planted them that way. I found six old coffee cans to go around them.

Six coffee can peppers.

I also got more flowers seeds sprinkled during this time and got the gladiolus bulbs in the ground. Wouldn’t you know we started another wet spell. I was hoping that they would not get saturated and rot like last year.

We are now in mid July and every thing is growing nicely. Remember that carrot I mentioned earlier in the post?
This is what he is doing. He has several flower heads. I think I will have some carrot seeds pretty soon. Once he seeds out I will pull or dig him out to see what the bottom half did. The four remaining peppers are doing well in this area.

: Four unprotected green bell peppers and the carrot “bush”.

: Close up of the carrot flower head.

The peppers in the coffee cans are just starting to peek over the tops of the cans.

Peek a Boo! We see you!

The flowers have started blooming in the deck beds. The baby’s breath was first. A couple of small white cosmos and a pink centered white bachelor button. This purple button was in the middle of the bed. On the corner of the deck the gladiolus did not rot out. The west end has catnip, cosmos, and lots of petunias.

: Baby’s breath, cosmos, and button.

: Purple button.

: Catnip, Petunias, and Gladiolus.

The south window bed is not doing so well. Most of the wildflowers I sprinkled here were washed away by rain. A couple of marigolds from last year manage to sprout once the weather stayed warmer. There maybe one or two flowers from the wildflower mix on the west end. Next yardening day I need to weed it to find out for sure.

Weed Me, Arlene! Weed Me Now!

The west window bed is just getting started sprouting. I sprinkled a wildflower mix here too. This time I went ahead and lightly covered it with soil, so they didn’t get washed away. The Johnny jump-up in the south corner is just going wild this year.

: The west flower bed starting to sprout.

: Johnny Jump-up in south corner.

And finally in plant related news…
Our neighbor had the second tree on the south side of the driveway felled. I think this wacky weather took its toll on the poor thing. It may have got infested with something and the weather didn’t help matters. This was our Wednesday evening entertainment.

The kitties have been just doing kitty things. Sully likes to sleep. Little Kitty likes to sit and stare at me. When they weren’t doing those things they would both assist with crochet photo shoots.

: Yes, I am looking at you.

: Zzzzzzz!

: This is going to be one comfy rug.

: I will just hold this tape for you.

: Nicely joined at the back and front of this sweater.

: The sleeves look a bit short to me.

With all this rain this spring and early summer the shed roof has been leaking. David had Nick get on the roof to put sealant in the leaky spot. With that done David decided that the shed needed to be aired and dried out. So Milly the Shed Kitty got to come in so that the door could be left open to do just that.
She is now living up to the second meaning of Shed. Nick and I have been brushing her like crazy. She jumped on my tv tray by the kitchen table. I brushed for twenty minutes and removed the fur from the brush four times. I think there is a good sized tribble in the trash can now. 😀