Our weekend.....

Okay every weekend Mike gets off is special, but this weekend was extra special because the 2nd was Mike's B-day!  Our family tradition is that the B-day person gets to pick a special meal and their dessert.

Mike's meal was homemade Lasagna( right down to the noodles, which Cortney made) and garlic bread. His B-day dessert request was apple crisp with vanilla ice cream, the ice cream was store bought*sigh* and not nearly as good as homemade vanilla ice cream.

Cortney and I racked our brains about what to get Mike for a gift, then a friend from Pioneer Living, Renegade posted photos of his hand forged knives and other goods;  Renegade Forge and we saw one we were sure Mike would love. So... back several months ago we contacted Renegade to get info on ordering one.  This knife is all hand forged and put together by hand, nothing machine done. Isn't it beautiful and Mike absolutely loves it! Since it is entirely handmade it means so much more to us, we appreciate the time, money and energy in creating such a custom gift. The arrowheads pictured with the knife were a blessed bonus from Renegade Forge, he made them as well, such talent! Cortney grabbed onto them and already has ideas of a necklace.*wink* 

Here is a close up of the elk horn handle, click the photo to enlarge for better viewing.

Here is a close up of the arrowheads and Renegade also did the copper wire wrapping, each one is different, again such talent.

The skin/ plastic is on the hoop house and let me tell you it was a challenge! We've been waiting for a day with little to no wind, and Sunday morning was calm, so Mike decided it was now or never, LOL!  Okay half way through rolling the plastic out on the top of the hoops the wind out of nowhere gusted and about ripped me off the ladder! Now I admit I was only on a 6ft ladder, but I dislike ladders! Once we unrolled it half way, there was no turning back as the wind grabbed the plastic and whipped it out of it's folded state.

Once we got the one end wire tied down and adjusted the plastic a bit from side to side and then got the other end wire ties down, it was only a matter of re- adjusting and tightening it up, which was easily done at each end. Then the drops side arms had to be installed( the long pipe sitting on top of the 2x6), these will have handles on each end for rolling up the sides for ventilation. We didn't install the handles, at this point we were concentrating on getting the plastic tied down and held in place. Next came the wind strapping( the black straps in between the hoops.) This is to help tighten the plastic  and keep it from blowing up and down creating places that may rub and eventually tear. This strapping also serves as a guide for the roll up sides. :o)

We still need to fasten the plastic down on the ends, but I need to paint it first. 

Rearing to go, and getting the raised beds built inside and transplanting the tomatoes, okra and watermelon. Our peppers are still germinating, so will most likely buy some pepper plants, to get an earlier start for Farmer's market, even though I dislike doing this, our peppers will come on later in the Summer and early Fall.

Some of our tomato plants ready to go into the hoop house, we've been hardening them off, when the wind isn't blowing 50+ mph*sigh*  You can see some of them suffered some damage, but are coming along fine and thriving. I can almost taste that first tomato*Ummmmm, Ummmm*

Here are the herbs, more late tomato starts and our slow germinating peppers. We'll be glad for the weather to straighten out enough to get them outdoors for hardening off and planting directly into the garden.

We got our raspberries all transplanted, a couple are looking shock, but I feel they'll pull through. Working on cutting out dead canes and cutting back the last seasons canes. We then have some grass to dig out and do some cleaning up of the original raspberry plot. Next is building a raised bed for strawberries and transplanting what wintered over and survived the bindweed last season. We'll most likely purchase 25 bare root plants from a nursery in the city to add to what we have here.

Then we'll be set to concentrate on the hoop house and getting the remainder of the garden planted when the soil is warm enough. :o)   We still have the root cellar to clean off and the front flowerbed we added last season, across the front of our yard, planted with windflowers. Boy is it full of weeds and invading grasses, that's going to take some work to get into shape.

Still waiting for Addy to freshen, when we took her to have her bred, we had the date she was to come into heat, but apparently the change/ move, upset her system. The people who own the bull had seen him breeding her a week later than we'd calculated, so her second due date is May 5-6th. She is bagging up nicely, just no other signs yet. I've been getting up and checking on her when I go to the restroom around 2 am. So far she just gives me the look, like " Oh! go back to bed!"  I'm praying she calves in the daytime, but you know how it usually happens*wink*  Praying all goes smoothly and the calf is healthy and thriving. We are however pretty well stuck, staying close to home until she calves ad we know all is well. :o)

Blessing to each of you this new week.