Weeds Be Gone pt. 2

The orchard is officially finished!I love the view when standing at the back looking up towards the house.
Now that all the weeds are under control I can begin focusing on the fence which needs some work.

Weeds Be Gone

The orchard has been in a very sad state this spring, but thankfully I have been able to slowly mow down the weeds.It's amazing how nice an area looks when you spend time working it.

I love how the trees really stand out when the weeds are short.

The job can be overwhelming so I like to cut out paths and small areas when I first begin.

It feels like I am accomplishing a lot when I focus on mowing just small areas.

When I finally past the half way mark the orchard once again began looking like a park.

I still lack two small areas;

But it's almost all finish; mowing dried weeds is hard work.

As I have been doing all this mowing I began thinking about the deer family we purchase sometime back; they turned out to be a disappointment.

They were cheaply made and have been steadily breaking. We only have one left from the bunch.

Oh well, next time I'll know better than to buy yard art from a man selling on the side of the road.

Ham Steaks

Each year, during Easter, the stores run ham on sale at a really good price. This year the lowest price I found was 87-cents per pound.
Compared to the regular price of $2.37 per pound; I got a great deal. The day I went to get a ham the store was sold out. But this was okay since I was able to get a rain check. My family loves to eat bacon and eggs; but with prices on the rise bacon is getting a little too high. So, this year I had my ham cut into steaks. (The meat department will do this for free).
These ham steaks freeze well.

I like to separate them with sheets of wax paper;
And place them in a gallon size zip lock bag.
The very end of the ham is also placed in the freezer for when I want to make a pot of beans.

Locally a prepackaged ham steak sells for well over 2-dollars per pound and I have seen it over 3-per pound. The cheapest bacon I can buy, when not on sale, is $2.50 for a 12-ounce package. So stocking up on ham steaks will save a lot of money over the next several months. And, fried ham steak with eggs is out of this world!

Garden Prep

Spring is very dry for us this year. My garden area from last year is covered in dry weeds and sand.Some of the onions I planted last year came up again this year and are slowly getting buried in all the sand.

Since my old garden area was too depressing to work in I decided I needed a change. This year my garden will be in the orchard; which has its share of weeds too.

My first task was to water a small area to soften up the dirt. It was almost impossible to hoe weeds with the ground being so hard and dry.

Once all the tall dry weeds were cleared out things began looking better. I ended up with two piles of dry weeds awaiting to be burned.

After several days of watering the ground was finally soft enough for me to begin hoeing the green weeds and making rows for planing.

I now have onions planted along with carrots, green beans, peas, cauliflower and broccoli.

There is still much to be done, hoeing weeds and planting more seeds, but now when I walk out to the orchard and look over the garden I can really see the progress I have made.

Cool Weather Days

Some unexpected cool weather has made it possible to bake without heating up the house. First on the list...lemon cake. The actual cake is a mix but the icing is homemade. I did a search, collected ideas, and then made up a recipe.

Melt some margarine in a pan; pour in a dab of vanilla; a couple squirts of lemon juice and some powder sugar. Stir until smooth; adding milk and more powdered sugar until it looks and taste right. Yummy, the icing was so incredible!

Second on the list was bread. I began with bread sticks;And ended with a giant loaf of bread. I truly love cool weather days!

Playing at the Park

Have you noticed most parks no longer have merry-go-rounds? After Elizabeth read, sometime back, a story about a little girl playing on a merry-go-round I went looking for one at our local parks. Sadly I could not find one.Then one day, while visiting a small town not too far from us, we stumbled upon a park, on the older part of town, which had a wonderful merry-go-round.

The playground even had an old metal slide.

Such memories this park brought back! I used to get so sick on the merry-go-round and I would always burn my skin playing on a metal slide during hot summer days!

Summer Planning

Camping is in our plans for summer so I have been looking at small bumper pull trailers, conversion vans and tents.When you buy a used tent there is always the chance something will be missing.

Something like the rain guard. But with no rain guard we will have a clear view of the stars.

The shape is a bit odd. It's narrow on the back end;

And normal on the front.

But the whole tent cost me 10-bucks; which I thought was a good price.