The garden is finally in!

Between work and the weather it seems that a lot of our plans were put on hold. It's not always a bad thing, there has been a lot of hail that did a number on other peoples gardens and yards. I suppose procrastination/detours saved us.
For now.
This year we opted for a smaller garden and just have lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. We still have a freezer full of zucchini and squash so we don't need more of that just to give it away at work.

Rock loves the garden, it absorbs the heat and he loves to lay down in the mulch. We don't have a sprinkler system so that flower pot with dirt holds the sprinkler head from hose A. Hose B runs the sprinkler for the yard. We are trying a battery powered 'automatic' faucet control to see if we can avoid having to water (just the garden) in the morning. If it works we will try it twice a day and if all goes well, the garden water will be on auto pilot.

We managed a couple of days at the cabin this weekend. I told work that I didn't have the energy, ability or desire to do some work things this weekend. Those who needed to step up, did, but it's odd  that I couldn't get anyone to help until everyone realized I wouldn't do it. Interesting but not a surprise.

The weather on Friday was snowy and stormy with hail. Saturday was amazing, Sunday was ever better. We got some great runs, the 4 wheel drive road to an upper trailhead was finally open so I had two days of bombing down the road. I enjoy running downhill, I'm not a great runner and will take every advantage I can get. Running down a rocky road with shadows, dust, loose rock, etc. That's my game right there.

Saturday afternoon storm heading down the mountains.

Rock didn't like the thunder but we were very brave.

 We spent a lot of time in the yard, reclaiming some of it from the tree's. This year looks about twice as green so we are trimming and cutting another 25-30 feet into the tree's. We are excited to not have sticker bushes and tall weeds and make it look more like a park. The roadside area will be left alone, it helps keep the dust and noise down from the little traffic there is.
We need to get the wood put away, the brown tarp will eventually fly away like a magic carpet if we don't. The project list is getting shorter but painting is coming up in a couple of weeks followed by some electrical work and tree trimming. Chores never end!

Beautiful!

Breakfast with a view

It's an amazingly beautiful and warm day, time to mow the grass.

now who owns the water

They finally are allowing rain barrels for property owners that don't have a well. The dispute has always been that the landowners don't own the water so they aren't able to store it in barrels.

Finally the side of logic and reason has prevailed by the government (amazing, yes). They realized that rain barrels aren't the devil so now people don't have to hide them as they collect. We've never hid our barrels because we really don't care.

This is probably a real thing

There are people who are worried about rain barrels being a breeding ground for mosquitoes, I suppose they never heard of screens.

The government still owns the water, but us citizens are now allowed to temporarily store it without fear of being killed. Now the raindrops can use whatever barrel they identify with, what a grand design.

The harder you work

the less you sleep? Not something new to me luckily but it's still not very exciting to lay around for hours on end.

The weather seemed to change every hour this weekend, creating some bizarre clothing patterns. This is the time of year that the heat is turned way down but there is a blanket on the couch. We had rain, snow, sleet, hail, wind, sun, fog and probably some other descriptive words I can't think of.

The way the storms roll in still amazes me. Looking out the window you suddenly can't see the mountains but you can look up and see the cloud bank edge as if it were having a battle with the sun. When you are out of the trees and into the plains you can watch it creep down the ridges as if it's going to be a white out. It was a battle like that all weekend and I had to deice the car windows on Monday morning but it was beautiful.

Looking back towards the house.

Looking Northwest.

Apparently I was sick last week. Somewhere between Monday and Thursday I picked up a nasty cold but I didn't even realize I was sick. I had put in about 10 hours at the gym in the first 4 days of the week so I assumed I had overdone it like usual. When Friday rolled around I could tell something else was wrong so I had a lot of NyQuil and finally managed some sleep that night.

I'm about 95% (that's probably not saying much in my life) and I only spent 2 hours at the gym last night. Jiu Jitsu is going well even if I don't have any idea of what I'm doing. Kickboxing is improving, I'm working hard on my flexibility but it's a slow process. MMA sparring didn't go so well last week but I'm hoping that was because of me being sick. I'm having a good time and working on defense with an occasional flurry of beating the tar out of my opponent.

The garden is ready to be planted this weekend but I've got some work stuff going on so it might wait until mid next week. Tomato, cucumber, hot peppers and zucchini. A very simple garden this year with a few dozen heads of lettuce already growing tall. At the cabin we will plant a lot more variety because it's still in experimental mode, trying to determine what grows well without much attention (and without getting eaten by the wildlife).

We need to get some jelly canned in the next few weeks so that means a trip to Costco for flats of berries and other goodies. Time to dig up a jar of money.

Charge!

Beautiful day in the mountains, a little windy but there are storm clouds over all the peaks.

Rock is always excited when it's time to head out of the city. Sure, there are less bicycles to bark at but he gets to go swimming!

We dug all of the holes for the berry bushes, 10 in all. Ok, I did all the work but it's hard being cute and goofy all at once. A combination of blueberry, blackberry and raspberry bushes are all going in the ground tomorrow. We have to devise a protective fencing for all of them that doesn't look like junk. If we don't, I'm afraid the deer will destroy them in a matter of days.

The water is flowing really well, the mountains are still packed with snow and as I type this it's snowing out on the east side and sunny on the west. Spring!

Work is still in turmoil, my boss decided not to replace the person who took over most of my old duties and decided that I would just do them. Now I have to cover all of those duties and that means my entire out of work life is screwed at least for the next 3 weeks. If I'm out of the office on weekend with work, I can't take extra days off during the week or else I'll fall behind with what I am supposed to be doing. Lately it's just getting ridiculous and my boss is out of town for the next 2 weeks so I can't even have a discussion about anything.

But, the best news of all... the brownies are done and out of the oven!