Visitors

There are visitors here at the Puddle Pond this weekend.

Grand-dogs Kirby and Betty are here for a short stay.  Chance, our 21 year old cat, was forewarned but reality proved to be a big surprise to her.  She's been spending most of her time underneath the bed in the spare bedroom back in a corner.  Today, the baby gate was placed across the hallway in the hopes that Chance will feel confident enough to come out and get a bite to eat and use the litter box which are in their usual location in the bathroom.  She seems aware overnight that they are shut in our bedroom and can't get to her so she does some roaming and eating then.  She was waiting for me in the kitchen at 4:30AM this morning for her breakfast.  I put her on my lap for a brushing and some quiet time until 5AM when I fed her.  

The grand-dogs are OnlyDaughter and OnlySonInLaw's Corgi's.  They have made themselves at home here at the house.  At home, they have free run in a fenced in yard.  Here, they are taken out on a leash but they are very good leash walkers.  No pulling on their part or need for tugging on our part.  Having them here is nice and while I miss having a dog (our lab has been gone for three years next month), his loss remains fresh in my memory.  That and a 21 year old cat in residence have put the stoppers on having another dog at this time.

The harsh winter caused us to consume all of our stockpiled firewood.  There are 22 tons of logs at the side of the driveway waiting to be cut and split.  We were unable due to several reasons to work on the pile until now.  Today an entire wagon load (about 3/4 of a cord) that was already cut, was split and is awaiting stacking behind the shed.  That large pile of logs just never seems to get any smaller in my mind when we work on it but work on it we must and will.

Classic shortcake with strawberries and whipped cream was on the menu for dessert on Thursday evening after a dinner of knock off Panera Cheddar Broccoli soup from A Bountiful Kitchen and sandwiches made with homemade white bread.  

 Hope you are having a nice weekend wherever you are.  The weather is beautiful here.

Barefoot Farms

Mr P made a suggestion on Thursday evening to head out to a local farm to pick strawberries on Friday evening.  There is a farm near our home that offers pick-your-own strawberries and pumpkins, in season, called Barefoot Farms http://www.tracyheymanphotography.com/barefoot-

farm-strawberry-picking-dover-pa-photographer/

The farmhouse is an old stone farmhouse with an enclosed garden next to the house, a garage where they have seasonal vegetables, potted flowers and already picked strawberries for sale, as well as some gift items.  There is an ice cream shop next to the house too.

There are two large strawberries with holes cut out for your face but I couldn't convince Mr P to pose so I could take his picture as a strawberry.
 

The enclosed garden is in the foreground in front of the homestead.  The other pictures are of the flowers for sale at the garage/shed, another picture of the enclosed garden from a different angle, and the line at the ice cream shop.

The last picture is the bounty as a result of our picking.  Once we got to a spot and begin picking, it only took us about 1/2 hour to pick 8 quarts of strawberries.

After picking strawberries, we made a stop a Forry's Ice Cream Stand to get some burgers for dinner.  Because it was crowded at Forry's, we got our order to go and drove down to a boat slip at Pinchot State Park and ate while watching people out on the lake.  

A hot milk sponge cake was put in the oven when we got home and about a quart of berries capped, sliced and lightly sugared for on top.  

Saturday morning, I finished capping and cleaning the rest of the berries.  I froze two gallon containers of berries so that we will have some to eat with shortcake when OnlyDaughter and her family stop for a visit on the way to and home from Williamsburg, VA later this month. 

The weather over the weekend was gorgeous.  We were able to rototill the ground around the asparagus bed, plant 25 more plants (Jersey Knights) and install edging to try and keep the grass in the yard at bay.  There won't be any figs this year since this past winter was exceptionally tough on the tree.  It's not dead but it's growing from the ground up so we'll have to make sure to protect it before this winter.  

It's raining right now, a light steady rain.  I'm glad we got done planting the asparagus before the rain started.  We'll have to see if the rain has any impact on the water level at the pond.

Thanks for stopping by to visit and I hope you had a good weekend.

June 1st and birds

Gosh where has the month of May gone?

Between work, the usual stuff that needs done at home (inside and out now that the weather is warm) and just life in general, the month of May slipped by without stopping.

Here's the 1st of June picture of The Puddle Pond.

The lily pads are back and have been sprayed once already since this picture to keep them in check.  A walk down to the pond over the weekend caused surprise when we realized he water level had dropped about 1 foot within a day.  Several loads of top soil have been dropped at the outlet pipe in the hopes that any leak would be here but time will tell.  Mr P said that when he walked down to the pond this afternoon, the water level had risen some.  It's raining outside right now so that should help unless there is a leak that hasn't been identified.  

Below are pictures of some of the birds we are seeing around the house.

A tree swallow

 

Blue birds feeding their young.

 

Swallows that built a nest above the motion detector light again this year.  Boy does the nest look crowded!

 

One has fledged and the other two look ready to take flight.  

  

A hen out in the corn field behind the house.  She is a frequent visitor out there along with a gobbler.

Tonight was volunteer night at the local library. While the computers were busy most of the time I was there, otherwise, it was relatively quiet.  One of the jobs I did was using some type of contraption that punches holes in booklets and binds them with a plastic binder.  I put together small cookbooks that the library had published with recipes from the Chocolate Festival that is held every February.  It will be a small fund raiser for the library. 

It's raining outside right now.  The asparagus bed needs some weeding which may be easier to do tomorrow evening since the soil will be loose but hopefully not muddy.

Thanks for stopping to visit.