Mango Mania and More

     I have been busy splitting mango seed pods this morning. I have 60 Mango trees planted, and for now they will be four to a pot. It won’t be long till I have them all coming up. They all got put in organic soil too. Mangoes are so very easy to start from seeds. Getting then scraped down enough to get the seed pods split is a chore though.  Once you have split them you can plant them directly in the pot with just enough dirt to cover them over. Just remember that the seed is planted long ways and not sideways for faster start. This is also the same way I do Avocado seeds, skipping the water start all together. 

     Yesterday we bought several Hibiscus trees, some white some red and some the tag did not give a color just showed multi-color.  There are two to a pot with those. I also bought some Asiatic Jasmine to use as ground cover in a few places in the yard. I am also getting my square foot gardens ready to go too today. We will be digging up, separating and potting blue berry bushes this fall. We have several varieties of these too along with Forsythia bushes. 

Down Came the Rain and did not Wash Us out!

     What a night we had. My hubby looked at the weather as we were going to bed last night on his phone. All day he claimed we were not going to have any rain because they had been predicting it over the last several day and nothing came. Well not the case, even as he said it looked like much of the storms were breaking up before they got to us. I knew how Lady was not going into the barn with her babies. I didn’t want them to be left in the rain just in case. He went to the barn to see if she had gone in and she had not. I had already climbed into bed too. I got a call from him to say it was sprinkling and that Jacob was out of his pen again. I told him to put him in the pen with the male pigs. I got dressed to go help. He gathered the dogs in and we went to see how and with what we could keep her and her babies in the barn and make sure the other girls also had a place to get out of the rain. We had lost the little piglet with the punctures over the night before and I cannot lose any more. Needless to say by the time it was all said and done, I ended up soaked to the bone in the process and it was lightening and thundering like crazy too and everyone knows I am scared to death of storms.

      I have the greatest love for all my babies and I don’t know how many times in the middle of the night I have gone to the barn to check on everyone in the middle of a storm by myself. I guess that is my motherly instinct coming out in me. After all they are all my children now that we are empty-nesters. I got up early this morning to make sure all were alright. Oh yes, Jacob is now rooming in with the male pigs and he told me he hated it, but since he keeps wriggling his little self out of the goat pen with Chloe, he gets what he gets. I am so glad that everyone stayed safe and dry last night. 

     I was thankful this was not on a school night. Even though I was exhausted anyways I knew it would work out and I could rest up today. I don’t know what I would do without my farm. Even when crazy things happen, I feel a sense of relief and gratitude when I am caring for my babies.

What an Anniversary this Year

       Now here is an anniversary I will not soon forget. My Hubby went to see his dad at the hospital while I was at work. My daughter picked me up and brought me home. I knew I would have to tend to the animals when I got home, because he would not have been here at feeding time. First thing we see is Jacob the goat in the yard waiting for us.  Now how in the world did he get out of the pen this time? He followed me up to the house, so I had to let him in  and fed him. I hurried up and gathered the buckets of food and went on down to feed everyone. When I got to the pig pen I found my surprise, four baby pigs from Lady Cersei. I found one more that had got out of the pen and had wandered to the boy’s pen and had got caught in the fence. She had a few puncture wounds in her side. I brought her up to the house to clean her up and put her in a container for Pooh to look at her. Back to the chores I went. Fed and watered the rabbits. Watered all the animals at the barn. Rewired the fence and put the goat back in his pen. I did all of this before Pooh came home.

       We went to the barn and got the baby pen set up and Lady in with her babies, in the meantime two of the other girls escaped out the gate. Thankfully they love to eat and more food brought them right back in. The baby is being treated with red oil and put back with her momma. We have three girls and two boys.

I am exhausted now. Too tire to worry about an anniversary. After 27 years some times  farming happens.