My goodness, a whole day and I haven't posted yet?

Yesterday Cliff mowed hay, since the chances of rain for today were 30% and no rain was forecast for Sunday.

As soon as the hay was cut, the forecast changed; there's rain in the forecast for every day now, and the chances went up. It's raining hard enough right now to probably ruin the hay, but thank the Lord, we have enough hay for the winter. We're about due to lose a cutting; we've had great success for the past three years getting our hay safely in the barn.

This morning Cliff and I had breakfast at Denny's, and I asked him to take me to Colonial Nursery because there's a certain tree I'd love to have in my yard, the leaves of which stay a deep, dark reddish color all summer long; the man we talked to thought it was probably a Crimson King Maple. The ones they had looked pretty ratty, and they were way out of our price range.

About two miles from our house, there's a tree we've been admiring in somebody's yard, and we had no idea what it was. As luck would have it, there was a man working in that yard today; we stopped and asked him what it was: it's a Golden Rain Tree; that will likely be the next one I'll be searching for... if I can find a spot in my yard for it.

So we went to Home Depot, and I found some Crepe Myrtle trees marked down to $65. Usually Crepe Myrtle trees are not cold-hardy enough for this zone, but supposedly these are a new variety that can survive right up the the southern Iowa line. The good news was the the trees were about ten feet tall; that is also the bad news, since we were in the car. You can't get a tree that size into a Mercury Grand Marquis.

We came home, switched to the old gas-guzzling pickup, and went back to Blue Springs. Brought the Crepe Myrtle home, and after an iced-tea break, Cliff dug the hole and we planted and staked our tree.

Then I took a lawn chair and positioned it in such a way that I was in the shade of my new tree; yes, I had to move my chair after about five minutes in order to stay in the shade. But by george, I had some shade!

Bonnie, my Jersey cow, notified me this morning that she was ready to be bred. The AI technician came this evening. Hopefully, everything works out better with this cow than it did with my last one.

So that's how my day went; how was yours?

grow, little trees

Cliff and I planted twenty-five Norway Spruce trees last month. It was a hard job, since most of the holes had to be dug at least two feet deep. Poor Cliff. Thank goodness we'd had a lot of rain, so the ground wasn't rock-hard.

Up until four days ago, I honestly thought all the trees had died. Then I saw little green buds on a couple of the trees.

Can you see them?

In a couple more days, a few of the trees looked like this. So I figured we had at least half-a-dozen out of twenty-five that would survive.

But today I'm seeing green buds here and there on other apparently dead trees. I have hope!

We have another twenty-five trees on their way... and it hasn't been raining so much lately. Wish poor Cliff luck; I can help him with a lot of the task, but I'm no good at digging. I have no knee power to push down on the spade.

Mulching our Spruce trees

Several days ago, Cliff and I planted some Norway Spruce trees near the property line in hopes of getting a bit of privacy; you know, get out of sight of the neighbors. We have twenty-five more of these trees ordered.

That shed yonder is where Secret and Meatloaf went for shelter and shade in the first months of their lives. We had to remove the fence around the pen to make a way for our mobile home to get through. (If it ever arrives.)

On the floor of the shed lie the remains of a big hay bale, soggy from rain and the calves' waste. I decided to use it for mulch around the Spruce trees; they're pretty small, and I don't want them to have to compete with grass for nutrients and sunlight.

Because the spoiled hay is wet, it made for a pretty heavy load.

The mulch also makes it easier to see the trees, so they won't be so likely to get mowed when we mow the grass.

With our twenty-five Norway Spruce trees, we received five free White Spruce seedlings; since they grow at a different rate, we didn't want to put them in line with the others. Besides, these are first-year seedlings. The others are four years old. They just wouldn't have fit in.

They appear to be healthy little fellows.

Grow, little white pines, grow! Hurry and cover up Marvin's junk, please!