Turning Japanese

We bought a Bloodgood Japanese maple online. Along with a willow, flowering cherry and Chicago figs. They seedlings are small and have some growing to do. The plan is to remove my flower bed and install a rock garden. Rocks are something the Ozarks have a ton.

These are not my photos but ideas we are using for our small flower garden.

This is a closer photo of our set up, few boulders, flowers and rocks. I am taking out the soil, putting down fabric and putting rocks in the bed. I will plant the Japanese maple and small plot of iris and rocks to fill the bed. My flower bed has become a lot weedier this year. And I can't keep it looking nice. It is the first thing we see out the window and it needs to be pretty again. And I love rocks and rock collecting. Our cats enjoy climbing the rocks and hiding in the larger rocks. Plus it is nice to sit on a boulder in the shade of a small tree that changes color though the seasons. The willow will go by our pond and the figs will go somewhere, not sure yet. Figs do grow here in the Ozarks. I am looking forward to more fig trees.

Some weeks are stones

I have not posted in a while as we had been busy putting in landscape fabric, veggies, and irrigation. I got all the spring summer veg in and now it is project time.

But as we have stayed at home for 2 months going on 3 we did have to go outside and provision up. It was neat in that WalMart has a phone app where you can order your grocery and they will give you a time for pick up slot. You go in your car at the time, park, tell them you are there and a worker comes out with your order and loads it in your car, done. We did that, it was wonderful. We hate to shop and this works out great for a time saver. We put in an order over a few weeks here and there for one single provision pick up. As we waited in the allocated parking for pick up we noticed no one wearing masks. Walmart employees had mask on but none of the shoppers did. And here we were in our car waiting with masks on. With the virus in our area being very low people were acting like life was normal. I felt like I was on the wrong planet. But we got our order and came home. We washed up, sanitized our grocery and put everything away and washed up again.

Life on the farm is always happening and sometimes death comes for a visit. Our older German Shepard is getting slower and eating less. She sleeps a lot and hardly gets up. Our eldest indoor cat who is around 18 years old stopped eating and drinking last week. She gets up from her heating pad to walk about then sleeps all the time. And then our donkey in all the weeks of raining developed a horrible hoof infection. There is nothing for the farrier to can do. The hooves are in a bad way. But donkey gets up and eats and keeps moving. So I give her meds and treat her feet daily. She might pull back from this and she might not. We need drier weather for her feet. Since none of these senior animals is in pain we let them live until they decide. It is hard when it is one animals, very hard with three at once. But I am happy we can take care of them. They have all their needs met and can enjoy their life. 

It is stressful to watch news and deal with the virus and farm all at once. So I stopped reading the news and focus on projects. I take care of the animals and the veggies and life goes on. Our church reopened and mask are optional. We stay away for the time being. Too risky as the virus is just now happening here in the Ozarks. I am looking forward to summer but worried about how the citizens of the US are so full of anger. The riots, destruction and anger in the cities makes me grateful we live in a farm in the middle of nowhere. I am hoping the coming weeks become diamonds instead of stones.