It’s time to get caught up with my creative writing. People have been asking "how’s your farm doing?" It’s easy to get tangled up in interesting projects and put it off till "tomorrow.

The weather right now is wonderful, not too hot or cold. The hills are lush and green from the abundant moisture and dew than falls on the greenery at night. The rain still happens pretty often so watering the garden is never a need.

I love wildflower and used to get a package of seed and sow them here and yonder. The problem is that I never seem to have a patch of flowers. This year I decided to do something different. I took the seed and planted them in a seedling flat to see what would happen.

As you can see them came up just fine. I am now waiting till just before it rains then planting them outside along the driveway. It should be a pretty sight. There are about 15 varieties show should put on a good show.

I have many colors of iris and appreciate all of you that sent me unusual colors like the pretty one above. They smell great too!
I love getting boxes with plants and bulbs and a personal note.

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Many of my neighbors are having a awful time with marauding deer and critters. I read a book Findhorn Garden when the folks started with a hopeless piece of rock and sand and in talking to the creatures where told how to make it work. The place is now a lush showplace.
I tried talking to the creatures, nature, plants, fairies, the bugs and now have no problems with deer and such. I told them if they can respect my garden areas they can have all the rest and will be protected from hunters. It worked! It seems you will get much better results by working with them, than against them.

I have honey bee hives and the bees regularly let me know if they need me. Once a bunch of grass was growing in front of their hive entrance making it hard for them to glide in. A bee came up and was very insistent in front of me. He followed me back down to the hive and with scissors I cut the grass down and put a wide board so it wouldn’t happen again. The bee was happy. They will also come by when it get's dry and they want me to bring a little water tray with a sponge in it for them. No, I never get stung. In a week or two I will be harvesting a bunch of warm honey comb. It’s nice to have your food be produced for free.

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I have a local raccoon, Clarence that likes to visit about 10:30 pm. The only problem he does is get into the bird feeder. He used to get into the hummingbird feeder with old fermented syrup and get drunk. What a silly sight.

I just had a problem. I put water and sugar to make some more syrup, then forgot about it. I then went 800 feet down to the mailbox, took some pictures in the garden then coming back I smelled something burning. "Probably just the neighbors burning trash, dang them, smelling up the air. Then going inside I noticed a pan with a glob of burnt stuff in the bottom. I just took it outside and dare not to look again inside. I really liked that pan. Well, I have to see if it cleans up. Right now it’s still a little "cough, cough," smoky in here. And you though I was soo sharp. The hummingbirds will not be happy to wait.

The update: I let the pan cool down and turned it upside down. The burnt part just fell out and the pan was fine. I am so surprised and relieved. I got the pans on QVC (?) on TV and they have been most resilient to my cooking.

The greenhouse this year grew many seedlings of many varieties. I like shopping the colorful catalog on cold winter days dreaming of what they will look like in their peak during the summer days. I usually order too many packages, then plant too much, then have to figure out what to do with the extras.

I find the styro cups (50 for 77c) at Walmart make for a very inexpensive reusable pot. I get the trays underneath from nurseries. I cut a plastic liner so I don’t have to water as much.

Inside the greenhouse

It causes me some wonderment seeing the many perennials coming back from their snow covered winter sleep. You plant them once and they bloom for years to come. This is one of the flowerbed mounds by the greenhouse. I pile lots of old hay between the plants to improve the soil.

The flowers change from week to week.

This is the $100 koi pond with fish, frogs, flowers and waterfall. I still can't believe this was only rough bare land 4 years ago.

So how is the house coming they say...

We have been working on the basement for a while. We had to tear down the wood floor above as the workers didn’t do a very good job, then disappeared. It’s disappointing to start over but life moves forward if you do.

If you have a dream there will always be obstacles and setbacks. This is not a sign to quit but a test to see how bad you want it. You have to have persistence and faith even with only $2 in your pocket, and nobody that cares. Miracles happen to those that don’t give up.

I still have to figure out where the heck the electric wires are- somewhere in the block walls, the markers were painted over. Oops! Any ideas on how to find electrical wires through block walls?

We can’t put in the door yet as a wren is sitting on four eggs inside a little box on the side table inside the basement.

We will start looking for funding to build up the rest of the unique house. Look how far we have gotten so far!

We want to build an inexpensive, comfortable and FUN house that creates it’s own electricity with only FOUR solar panels not 28, doesn’t need a septic or sewer system. Is self contained and doesn’t make a mess for others to handle. It will heat and cools itself using natural principals. Fire, earthquake and termite proof. Fast and cheap to build. Has an all year attractive indoor producing garden. You can let peppers and tomatoes get big over the years. Have sliding doors that open up to garden patios. See electronics work by low cost, individual voice command. Have a bathroom suite, lots of plants, tub, candles and music. Comfort and inexpensive luxury. Have it be a very simple house so less can go wrong and so you can easily fix it yourself. Have it be low cost to build so more families can have a mortgage free home. Estimate amount needed NOT $250,000, but $25,000. Watch the house grow over the months. We hope to have weekly tours when it is done.

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Fried Justin?
Two days ago, I was down in the garden carefully placing seedlings from the greenhouse. As I was planting I could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. The clouds started to swirl and gather into big cotton puffs. It’s getting late in the day and frequent sounds like a giant stomach rumbling. Will we get rain? Maybe, maybe not. We have been fooled a lot lately. I am trying to get a few more plants in.

Have you ever grown licorice? Me neither and I had three plants in hand that I coaxed into plants from seeds to get into the ground. I couldn’t let them down. Swirls of wind swept by. It’s kind of exciting to be in the middle of all this. The clouds are getting darker. I just need 5 more minutes! A few light drops of rain come down. I am going as fast as I can remembering to bless each plant as it goes in. Laugh all you want but remember your stuff is getting eaten up by bugs and mine isn’t. I finally get the last plant in and it is looking serious weatherwise. The clouds are boiling. I can hear the rain start down the north hill in front. When you hear the rain it is time to hotfoot it to a safe dry place.

Only fifty feet to dry safety and I can feel the sprinkles on my arms. Lightning is flittering in the background. I stop and look in awe at the hills, the sky and the world. Such beauty in it. I notice it isn’t really coming down hard. Maybe it will pass on by. My stomach starts talking - wouldn’t a rhubarb pudding be nice? I take a quick look, brave the lightning and run 600 feet to the closest rhubarb plant. I really don’t want to die in a rhubarb patch so crouching low I quickly cut off some nice branches. Lighting flashing and much too shortly thunder shakes the ground. I start running back with crazy legs. The wind suddenly changes direction and the dark clouds come back overhead and it starts to rain hard, drops pelting down, as I make it to the RV home and close the door securely.

As I wash and cut up the rhubarb I hear the comforting splatter of rain and thunder while being in my safe abode. Over the years I have perfected a sweet and easy Rhubarb pudding that can be eaten by itself, made into a pie or poured over vanilla ice cream. It stores for days in the refrigerator if not too many people know about it. Write if you would like a copy of it.