Well as I have said in other posts we have had one extremely busy year! I have seriously been nonstop since March and still going...
We headed to the Dominican Republic on June 3 to see our very dear and close friends the Weltins whom are missionaries there. We left for Orlando June 2 to spend the day at Sea World with my mother in law and my husbands great aunt. We had a wonderful day, beautiful weather and lots of fun! We flew out the very next morning out of Orlando to the DR. We spent 11 days there but were gone a total of 14 days! Everyone had such a great time, praise God it all went so well and never had one problem. It was definitely an experience we shall never forget filled with many wonderful memories! It was very hard to say goodbye to our friends but it was very good to be back home on American soil! So many things we take for granted here. Anyway, I will try to share some pictures from our trip.
Meanwhile I had my sister staying at my house to stay with my dog and chickens. I had asked her if she would please please water my plants while I was gone. She said yes, and for me not to worry but have a good time. Soooo we get home and I survey the yard.
Now before I tell you what I saw I would like to say a couple things on her behalf. One we have had NO rain since the end of March. None other then maybe one very small light shower that didn't amount to anything. Everything has been extremely dry, brown grass everywhere....I mean bone dry! Before I left I would have to water all my potted plants twice a day and the raised beds every other day then the rest of the garden and yard once a week and heavily soak it just to keep everything alive and looking decent. I also had and still have jp's really bad and doing quite a number on my roses and crepe myrtles. Ok now the second thing about my sister is she is NOT a plant person.
Now with all that said I came back took one look around and wanted to cry! Plants so wilted, many brown and dead, my knockouts even looked horrible. 4 out of 5 were almost leafless and yellowing from lack of water and heat (we have had triple digits for weeks now) so stress had really gotten the best of them! 2 of them were really over grown. She says she watered them and I am sure she did but what she did was not enough.
So we had gotten back on a Tuesday and on Sat. morning early (like I said triple digits though I am sure many of you are feeling it) I grab my pruners to try to bring my poor garden back to life. I started with the knockouts in the very front of the house. I get to the last one and was barely leaning forward when I get this excruciating pain in my back and drop to the ground! No one was home at the time, hubby and oldest child were at the Y and youngest was sleeping over my moms. I could not even get to my knees! Somehow with pain through the roof I get inside the house, grab my cell, fall to the floor, and call my husband to come help me. So I have spent the past week in bed barley able to move for 5 of those days! I have only just these past 2 days been able to get up and walk around carefully and boy does it feel good!
So I was not even back a week after being gone 14 days, garden in terrible shape, chicken coop had not been cleaned out since right before I left and here I was down again for another week! I had my son go out and at least water the lawn with the sprinkler as it was so browned and crispified and water the potted trees and roses. If I hadn't they would be dead for sure! So this morning I was feeling good enough to be able to walk around without much pain or help from anyone. So I went outside to see how much worse the yard looked. I really did cry this time! I know it is silly to cry over such trivial things but when you work so hard and take such time doing and caring for something you love and then have to see it looking as I did it was just heartbreaking! The garden is covered in weeds, dead plants, overgrown grass. The entire garden is going to take a heap load of work to bring it back to anything close to what it looked like before. I so badly wanted to get out there and weed and prune but right now there is no way! So I will not have any pictures to share of my garden for awhile till I have something presentable sad to say. I don't even know how long it will be till I can really do some gardening. My husband has been waiting on me hand and foot taking good care of me and gave me strict orders not to do anything even laundry! lol He said he will mow the yard (which has really greened up with a couple deep waterings) and clean out the coop which normally only I do because I feel they are my responsibility, my girls and I enjoy taking care of them. Poor girls I feel bad for them. Never has the coop and run been so filthy! So I will have to remain on the side lines for a little while till I recover fully.
ok with before taking on my own flock.
On a positive note I have yet another trip to look forward too Lord willing! My husband won a trip to Puerto Rico, just the two of us!! Woohoo! I am sooo very excited! We are leaving July 21 for 5 days to San Juan! This is such a wonderful surprise blessing and I'm very thankful for the opportunity!
So for now I will not be on hear much most likely but I will not stop blogging. In fact I am looking forward to getting things back to normal, getting back out in my garden and my chickens, and blogging about it all. I long for it in fact! After my little San Juan getaway of course! I still have trees and roses to plant and that lasagna bed I told you about. I have lots of work that I would like to try to get done this fall so lots to blog about here soon I hope! In the mean time I will pray for rain and for some relief from the heat...to get myself back in tip top gardening shape and get my garden back to a healthy and hopefully beautiful garden once again! God bless you all! ~Meghan
