I guess it's been awhile since I've written one of these...
It's been a slow time, and a busy time.
Lockdowns and quarantines haven't affected me very much here in Wyoming - both because it's Wyoming and because my daily movements can't really change a whole lot. My husband is an essential worker, so didn't have any extra time off. I was caring for our chickens - not on site - and taking care of other household things. The girls have continued homeschooling throughout. The only thing that did change was not being able to take the girls into one of my favorite home improvement stores because they closed it to under 16s for the duration of the pandemic.
The only other thing that was affected for me was the lack of garage sales at the beginning of the season. Fortunately, that's now really taken off with gusto, and the girls and I have enjoyed rehoming articles that belonged to lovely, elderly ladies who passed on (in their 90s) and other people with interesting collections amassed over the years.
Pretty Stone
Friday's prize find was a beautiful piece of celestite (supposedly). Honestly, looking it up online, I'm not convinced. Celestite gives a smoother appearance than this stone, which has an almost soft look about it. I'd love some thoughts as to what it is. Once it's relatively certain, I will do a post on what kind of healing qualities it has.
Regardless of its identity, it's a beauty! Amazing aura on it. It's about the size of a quart jar on its side... just for reference.
Gardening
I will share more in a future post, but I've discovered that we're battling another menace in the garden. Cheatgrass! Officially known as Bromus tectorum, this stuff is everywhere at my in-laws' house. I wish it was "just a weed" but instead it's an invasive enemy. The way it takes over? It steals all the water from the plants around it, starving them... then it takes over. It has an effect more than two FEET around it.
Apparently, tilling it in has no desirable effect, because everything I've planted in that garden is dying. Well, everything that went directly into the ground - even when I added compost and manure around it to give it a nutrient boost.
So, my efforts at expanding the garden have come to a screeching halt. The places where I built on top of the soil are doing very well - for now. The areas where I didn't are doing horrendously. It remains to be seen whether the beds on top will survive long enough to do something better.
The solutions?
Apparently, nasty chemicals will help for about two years.
Another (greener) solution is to bury it by four inches! (Hence, why my beds might do okay.)
Come fall, we will cover everything we want to grow on with some sort of barrier (cardboard boxes are likely if we get moved by then), then four inches of topsoil, followed by manure, leaf mulch or whatever...
It's important to fix this problem in the fall as that's when the seeds germinate.
Letting the chickens eat the grass will probably help.
Other ideas would include raising pigs (once we're moved) on top of the cheatgrass - one area at a time. They'll dig up the roots, eat them, and leave behind a very hot manure. The following year, it should be very good for a garden!
House Hunting
I've located an area that I really like and has had a few places come onto the market recently. The latest piece was viewed last week and will be viewed again this week, hoping that the answers to some of our questions will be answered shortly. I hope that we may be placing an offer on it after the second viewing, but we'll have to see...
This is what the view was like from another (sadly overpriced) house on these hills:
This area will be perfect for things like storm watching and a ham radio antenna. I think it's beautiful! But we'll have more cheatgrass to contend with for sure as this area is covered with it!
In the cottonwoods at the house I just looked at, we saw this beautiful bird:
This appears to be a yellow-breasted chat - another new bird for my book! It was making quite a fuss, but held remarkably still for me to capture a picture. No resizing necessary in this picture, this was what was left of my crop... My camera takes pictures at 24MP (4000 x 6000) and this was the 1600 x 1200 crop that I got! I am very impressed with the shot.
I think he will make a very nice neighbor if we're able to move there. I also loved hearing the neighbor's peacocks - and have now even made contact with her on Facebook - quite by accident!
Fingers crossed!
Photos taken in 2020 with my Nikon D7200.
Past issues...
Feb 2, 2020 - Flu Sucks!
Feb 9, 2020 - Planning 2020
Feb 16, 2020 - Skating and Eating and Writing, Oh My!
Feb 23, 2020 - Chicken Scratchings and Graphics
Mar 1, 2020 - Inspections R Us
Mar 8, 2020 - New Chicks
Mar 15, 2020 - Pandemic Hits Writing
Apr 5, 2020 - Fools in April?
Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
(Buy my work at RedBubble, TeePublic, PicFair and DeviantArt.)
verified author on Goodreads
(Buy my books at Books2Read and at LBRY)
find me on Twitter
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