There are times when it feels like absolutely nothing has been accomplished, or we’re even moving backwards. For instance, I planted lettuces and basils. They came up nicely. And now they are just simply gone. Slugs. Backward momentum. I spent months pre-starting various seeds. Had to replant most of them. They were doing well….now, they’re dead. It got dry for 2 days when I was unable to tend them. All that time, gone. Frustrating.

However, some things do get done, a bit at a time.

I finally got the landscape fabric mats down around some of my orchard trees. Not terribly many, yet, but some is better than none. I need to get more cut and ready for nice-weather days. I already cut down one of the new Nanking Cherry shrubs by accident the other week, because a thick clover had grown up around it and swallowed up the flag. Having the mats down will prevent more losses in that way.

The second winecap bed is finally down, also. Mom gave me a hand with that last week. Ever so much faster with extra hands. Hopefully. I’ll see some mushrooms before fall.

The mowing has gotten away on me, as usual. The whole orchard is knee-high. I need to start doing a good half-hour with the mower every day, get it back under control. But first, the mats.

We had made a larger pen for the hatchlings a week or so ago, from a piece of plastic lattice we borrowed from mom. It worked fairly well as a temporary measure, but we finally managed to hand off NastyRooster last night, and so let the chicks and their mama out into general population this morning. They are doing fairly well. We have one hen, Goldie, who keeps trying to steal the chicks for her own self, so we get uproar in the coop from time to time, but I must say, it was nice not to have SkyFalling crowing in our ears at 430 as he usually did.

The goat hut is likewise finished, except for a proper door. The new goat, Wendy, has joined the herd and after a week of fighting out the new herd order has finally integrated and everyone is coexisting peacefully now. The fence isnt done, yet, but it’s coming along, too.