Thursday, May 27, 2010

My Indian Name

If I did have an Indian name, it would have to be "Too Many Irons In Fire". I never seem to learn to set realistic goals. At age 54, that probably won't change via my own free will. Feeling my age is doing it for me these days. Ok, so it just takes me longer now - What-Ever.



May is always so busy for us because of it being our calving season. Nuthin' doin', I had to pile more on ... like a landscaping project, a gardening project and we're re-siding the house and building an addition. It'll all look great when it is done. I surrendered landscaping as an impossible mission many years ago due to our mate, the wind and heavy clay soil. I got tired of being a landscape loser though and this set my sights on changing all that. 50 plants, trees and shrubs later, I feel better about it. Now things just need to grow. I made my enclosed garden 'court' from 100% recycled "junktiques". The picket fence panels serve as a windbreak fortress.




I'll spare you the words and just post some photos taken over the last month...





I also went on a junkin' safari a few times this month. The mission was to find and bring home some fun old goodies to re-purpose. I have a few gal-pals that enjoy this kind of outing also and we had a grand time hunting for rusty treasures at neighboring ranches...with permission of course! I used the hydraulic bale-feeder's arms and chains to lift the tangled mess of 'iron spaghetti' so that we could free up the things we wanted. Here are a few pics...


Old iron beds make a great trellis for climbing roses, morning glories, clematis etc.



I've since planted trailing flowers in my shabby chair planter. They'll be pretty spilling over the edge by mid-summer.


I love old loopy wire fence. Don't know where I'm gonna use it yet.


And here are the little darlings...my hens at their present age: wee lassies. What kind you might ask? Welsummers, Barred Marans, Blue Wyandottes, Brahmas...all 'heirloom' breeds. I'm having a friend build a chicken coop on wheels. It'll be tricked out with all kinds of vintage goodies. The plan is to move it regularly down the driveway so the birds will have fresh greens to eat and they'll be far enough away to leave my garden alone! Everything works in theory ya know. We'll see about that.


This old hub-cap serves nicely as an open-air nesting spot.



I'm so stoked to ride my coming three-year old filly this weekend. My girlfriend started her for me. Arthritis changed my mind about doing this one myself. I'm blessed to have a friend who is a good hand at staring colts. The plan is for me to ride her for the first time at their branding this weekend. My girlfriend says she's a glide-ride, exceedingly smooth and very laid-back. That's how I bred her and I'm so tickled that she turned out to be my kind of hoss.


Now for summertime to get into full swing. The wildflowers are coming on and I'll post some photos soonish. I've replanted a few in my xeriscape garden. Thank you kindly for stopping by for a lookyloo. Happy Trails until we meet again.

6 comments:

cre8tivecowgirl@gmail.com said...

I think we must be from the same tribe! Way tooooo many things on my to do list and not enough time to get them all done in!

Joy Tilton said...

Shery, I am SO glad you stopped by GrannyMountain this morning! You are living my fantasy...ranch in Wyoming, chickens and a love of old cherished things! I am so loving your blog and can't wait to read more. Please come and visit again soon, I blog about everything and it is my therapy:-) free too!
joycee

Linda said...

That could be my Indian name these days too.....thanks for stopping in and commenting. I'm a junk junkie too. Those old head boards make great gates for rake wheel arbors ;)

Brenda said...

Shery,
I love the start of your garden "beds". Cannot wait to see how they fill in. I have to say looking at the other beautiful photos you posted that if I could not grow a single flower but could look at your view everyday I would be happy. And chicks! Yeah. Are you holding them like you suggested I should do? I have 3 out of the 14, when I open the door to the hen house or the run that always come first. And one of the Barred Rock's always jumps up on my knee when I squat down to talk to them. But the only Black Jersey Giant I have, and the only one I have named, Esther, will have nothing to do with me. She is just a stinker. Have a great holiday weekend!

Unknown said...

Howdy Too Many Irons in the Fire!
Great pix and projects! I can relate to trying to garden in the hight desert! The sun, wind and hard soil will try and beat you at every attempt to grow anything. You've come up with some creative solutions in your raised beds made from your junkin' trips...
Love it all,
Deb~

The W.O.W. factor! said...

Ooooo...can I be your neighbor?? You're having wayyy too much of my kind of fun!!!
Thx for the visit so I could come visit you!!