They grow quickly......

     It's hard to believe that our son is just about to finish kindergarten. It seems like yesterday I was stressing over getting him into the right school, agonizing over whether we'd have to commute 30 miles or 65, and wondering if he was ready. As this year draws to a close I can't express how happy I am with our son's school. This year has been such a growing time for our whole family.

     It's amazing to me how much children learn in just the first year of school. Little Rural reads, writes (like a future doctor?), takes math and spelling tests and has found an appreciation for school. Even though his favorite subject is recess I can see all of the positive changes in him influenced by his amazing teacher and aide. I can't wait to see and hear what he learns next year as he  corrects me and schools me  tells me about his day!

All the single ladies.....

     Every time I walk out to the chicken coop I start singing All the Single Ladies in my head. Why? I guess it's because we don't have a rooster or maybe because I'm a little nutty. The girls are all doing great though they are all molting. Our eggs are down to about two to four a day.


     Tonight I was quite surprised to find a regular egg and our first miniature egg. Nope, we don't have Silkies (miniature chickens). These have the horrible nickname of "fart eggs." Yep, horrible nickname I know. They are a normal occurrence in chickens, nothing to be concerned about. The big question was though...... did the egg have a yolk? Yep, teeny tiny but still had a yolk. Pretty neat how chickens surprise you on a regular basis.

Things that make me happy- Memorial Day Weekend

     The great thing about a holiday weekend is that so many families are home, and getting to spend more time together. This weekend our little family stayed around the house with no off the mountain excursions (a pretty unusual things for us). A few things that made me smile this weekend....

Our first raspberry

This handsome guy in his interesting outfit

A sea of pink blooms

So, what has put a smile on your face this weekend?

Backyard sign.....

found wood

     It's been busy here as we wrap up the school year. We've been stagnated on projects. However, I did have time to make a super cute sign for our backyard. Recently, when reading a decorating magazine I saw a picture of a seed company sign on someone's mantle. Knowing I'd never have the luck to find a seed company sign AND have my last name on it I decided to make my own.

binding strips

     So, what does any self respecting, budget minded gal do when she needs wood for a project? She starts checking out her neighbors backyard foraging. I happened to spot a ten foot long piece of redwood on the side of my neighbors house. After I texted him pleading asking for it I went and dragged it home. Handy Mr. Rural cut two pieces, each 36", from it. I then used binding strips to put the two boards together.

first coat of paint

     After treating the wood with a little vinegar to give it just a bit more age I cut some letters out of card stock. Then I traced the letters onto the sign and painted them in a kelley green color. I didn't want the sign to look new so I roughed up the letters a bit which brought out the wood below. Next up, a coat of stain and voila, an oldish looking seed company sign for our backyard.

Finished sign

closeup of texture

     Sometimes it's fun to go out and find things but other times I just look around the house and hunt down materials. This is one of those projects. Found wood, leftover paint and stain. The garage can be a great place to scrounge!

     Tonight we have company coming for dinner. I often wonder why having people over turns me into a nervous wreck. I've been running around all morning cleaning, organizing and purging in hopes that the house looks presentable. The truth is, our house is rarely super messy as I'm a bit of a neat freak. However, tell me guests are coming and nothing seems clean enough.

     This afternoon we are planting our newest tree baby; a Bing cherry. I'm so excited to see this tree grow! This is our first cherry tree and we'll need a second which I hope to find soon. Our front yard remains at a stand still as we consider which edging we want to use around the pathways and investigate where we'll be foraging purchasing rock.

     I hope everyone is off to a fantastic weekend. Anyone doing something particularly exciting?

Happy Mother's Day

     What a beautiful day to celebrate Mother's Day. I woke up to bright shining sun and blue skies. Our family gathered at my husband's aunt and uncles house for a delicious brunch. Fresh berries, delicious Kodiak Pancakes, juice and all sorts of other delicious breakfast items were served. We enjoyed the sunshine with multiple generations of the family.

     On the way back home we happened upon a pretty amazing nursery. Thankfully my mother in law encouraged us to stop. Wow, what a find! This nursery has sprawling grounds of terraced land with section after section of flowers, fruit trees and garden accessories. A beautiful gift shop sits inside the nursery's original greenhouse. If you are anywhere in SoCal you must check out Sperling Nursery and Gift Shop!

     My mother in law purchased this darling arbor for me. I added it to the fairy garden when I got home. I should have plants in the fairy garden next weekend. I apologize that the pictures aren't that great. I was too busy oohing and aahing over everything this nursery had to offer. We will definitely be going back VERY soon!




Happy Mother's Day to all of my readers, friends and family. I hope you had a wonderful day!

Saturday

     When you think of Saturday morning what comes to mind? Sleeping in? The glory of watching the sun rise through your window while you snuggle in the soft comfort of your bed? Oh no, not in our house. Saturday morning is much like school mornings only with slightly more chaos.

     In our house we are lucky to see 7am on the bedside clock. Usually we are looking at 6:30 am on the kitchen clock as we groggily gather dog bowls and feed the panting, prancing, spinning and almost manic Golden Retriever. Chickens, by this point, are squawking in their coops because they've seen the sun darn it, and they are ready to get this day started. Our five year old is making sighing sounds (who knew a kid could sigh so loud) that can be heard throughout the whole house because A. he's hungry and B. he's missing his Saturday morning cartoons. Yes, sleeping in must be a thing for parents of high schoolers.

     In all the chaos and craziness of morning I have to smile. Though my husband might be a walking grump I find happiness in the new day. Yes, sleeping in can have it's joy too. However, waking up early in the stillness and quiet of the new day is pretty great. I try to take a deep breath when I go outside to free the chickens. I try to think of five things about today that I'm looking forward to or I'm thankful for (my garden, a sunny day, our family's health, I get to spend the day at home) instead of focusing on the fact that I'd rather be in bed. Then I slip back inside, avoid the grump and begin another day. As my son says, "today is the best day ever!"

     Progress isn't always pretty. It can be messy, chaotic and things usually get worse before they get better. Though for the purpose of this post I'm speaking of our front yard, this can pretty much sum up progress of any sort. Our front yard, well, it's coming along I suppose. Truthfully it's a giant heap of construction debris and pink tape, but I can see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

     This weekend (our weekend ends today) we raked back the rock from the areas we plan to plant as well as the area where we'd like to add a dry creek bed. Raking rock is just about as exciting as it sounds. We staked out the areas for the garden path which will wander either to our front steps or to an archway with a bench.

     Today, after finishing our rock raking for the week (say that five times fast), we headed around the neighborhood to gather landscaping ideas. I would have liked to take photos of some of our favorites but I feel a little weird snapping photos outside of someone else's house. I'll have to settle with showing you the photo of my front yard and my magic marker makeover. The path with the round dots will be the dry creek. The divided path will be our front entry path and will also go to the archway. You'll have to just trust me on this, much as Mr. Rural is forced to do, because the direction we're going is mostly in my head.

Front right

     My front yard is a casualty of a busy life. While the backyard says, "hey there, come and take a walk and sip some wine," the front yard screams, "holy abandoned house!" Yep, it's quite a tragedy when we've spent so much time sprucing up the interior and the backyard to suit our tastes. The front yard, at one time, looked clean and minimalist. It's now overgrown with weeds and just blah.

Taping off for pathways

     So, while the backyard projects continue I've also begun sketching plans for the front yard makeover. After driving around our neighborhood I knew a few things. First, I had to have a dry creek bed. Second, I wanted a California Native landscape with drought tolerant plants as opposed to our original idea of having a lawn. Third, I want lots of rocks and a bit of wildness about the place.


     I thought I'd share a few of these before photos now and hopefully I'll have a few afters for later.

Community Cleanup

     Today was our community wide cleanup in the mountains of Frazier Park. It was the perfect weather for trash pick up and there was a terrific turnout (160 plus people). Mr. Rural, our son and I were up early to arrive by the 7:30 deadline. Each group was assigned a 1 mile stretch of roadway.

our park

     After the cleanup was finished everyone gathered for pizza and prizes. Sadly, we didn't win any of the fabulous gifts, but we did come away full of pride for our town. We wrapped up the day with a visit to our local nursery and then we planted some more trees. Overall a pretty great way to spend a Saturday!

More garden progress.....

     I'm pretty certain that Mr. Rural is sick to death of visiting nurseries, but he loves me so he doesn't complain. Between yesterday and today I visited five different nurseries/garden centers searching out plant ideas and searching for plants I'd already researched.

Japanese Barberry

     I knew I needed to find a nectarine tree as our original nectarine tree needed a mate for pollination. Some fruit trees are self pollinating, while others are best grown in pairs. Usually a plant tag will give you this information. In addition to the nectarine we were ready for one more tree in our second stage landscape redo. I decided on on D'anjou Pear which will need another pear, probably a Bartlett, to produce.

     Other plants we've added this weekend are:

                      Rose Glow Japanese Barberry (green, red and purple leaves)
                      Climbing Don Juan Rose (a rescue plant the nursery was clearancing)
                      Blackberry bush
                      Nigh Shade Potato Bush (purple flowers)
                      Snow in Summer
                      Santa Barbara Sage
                      Spanish Lavender

My awesome deal

     The biggest deal of the day however was at Lowes where I found two copper trellises that were originally $45 marked down to $5. I will remove the bottoms, spray paint these black and they will be perfect for our beans in our back two raised beds. They are super heavy and the base boxes will be great for planters on our steps. SCORE!
                     
     Tomorrow is a big community cleanup party and then it's back to gardening! Here's to good weather.

What's new in the garden.....

Intermountain Nursery

     The weather has been maintaining some warmer temperatures and I've been able to plant a few things. This weekend I'll be mixing up soil and getting all the new beds ready for planting but in the meantime it's been fun to do a little plant shopping! So much more fun that soil shopping.

     While we were on our way back from our Shaver Lake trip we stopped by a really wonderful high altitude nursery in Prather called Intermountain Nursery. If you haven't been here but are anywhere near Fresno, etc. you really should make the trip. This small, independently owned nursery has a great list of classes, an excellent selection of both plants and garden accessories and a very knowledgable staff!

     We picked up Cerastium Tomentosa (Snow in Summer) which has really beautiful little white flowers. I love this plant because of it's soft green color which is a nice contrast to more of the dark green leaves present in our garden. This bush will grow about 3' high and wide. I also picked up this sweet pine cone hanging piece. Also new to the garden from our trip is a beautiful butterfly sculpture from the Shaver Lake Art Gallery and some delicious Chocolate Mint which is amazing in ice cubes!




     What's new in your garden? Any favorite new plant discoveries this spring?