Over in that there creekbed I found a shoshone arrahead

While working in the garden I found these partial arrow heads. Our area was the last camp of the local Indian tribe before they were forced onto a reservation. Lots of neat stuff to find.

Beach-ball Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe is my favorite melon. The way I see it, the bigger the better, so I got some seeds for 10 lb cantaloupe. They start out looking like a football and then inflate with sweet goodness until they reach the size of a beach-ball.

Ornothologists

Well, since moving to Leander we have become quite interested in all the birds in our yard. We have the typical birds like Cardinals, Blue Jays, Sparrows and Chickadees. We even have a woodpecker of some sort but it is not Woody. And yes, we have hummingbirds. Jared knows which kind.
We have placed a feeder right outside one of the living room windows. The cats go bonkers over them.
The best time of the year to spot new birds is in the spring when it has barely started to warm up. Robins, surprising enough, are not common here. They come in the early spring and stick around for a very short time. Last year, however, we eyed a Painted Bunting. My oh my, it is one of the most beautiful, exotic-looking birds I have ever seen with my mortal eyes! I did not get a picture of that, but I did get another type of bunting along with his mate this year. It is called the Indigo Bunting. He is still quite a beauty. The picture isn't the greatest so you will have to click on it to enlarge. It is very difficult to get a picture of these birds because they scare quite easily.

Spring Garden 2009

This year I wanted to get an early start on my garden. Last year our garden got cooked by the summer sun before we got much out of it. I carefully started everything I could in-doors planning to plant everything outside around the second week of March.

From my experience last year I knew I needed to work on the layout of the garden and Improve the type of mulch. I tilled in about a ton of rotted manure after shoveling it into the garden by hand. Then through inspiration I decided to pile the tilled dirt from the isles onto the rows where it would actually be used forming raised rows. These were covered with plastic and dirt on top of that.

The miracle came when I could not find the time to get this fancy design done until after Easter. Work and church callings kept me just busy enough to keep my plants out of the garden. Then came a nasty hail storm that would have pulverized everything in my garden. So that which was so frustrating was a blessing. I even had my garden plants in the flats laid out in the garden, but moved them the night before so I could spray bug killer. My garden was spared because of faithfully fulfilling my calling.

Now my garden is in and growing thanks to the help of the in-laws. The list of garden plants this year is quite long. But for fun I will include it anyway: Peppers, okra, pinto beans, green beans, beets, blackberries, potatoes, sunflowers, cabbage, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkin, zucchini, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, corn.

Note: The cantaloupes are supposed to get to 10 lbs. Watermelons and pumpkins over 100lbs.

Raining hail... Ah hail

The end of March we had a severe thunderstorm warning that turned into a tornado watch along with an expected hailstorm. We just got the hailstorm.
It downpoured rain and then it suddenly began throwing down small ice chunks which within minutes turned into marble sized hail. You could hear it hitting the roof and the windows and I became rather worried that it might break a window. Fortunately, it didn't.
Many places around reported golf ball and softball size hail! We were very blessed not to have our windshields damaged or any dents put in our cars. Many cars around had smashed windshields and we saw many "mobile" places or stands where you could file your insurance claim if you were one of the unlucky ones. A co-worker of Jared's had a "totaled" car due to all the hail.
It looks like it snowed here and we are so glad that we had been so busy that our garden was NOT in! We would have nothing to show for all of our hard work.

April showers bring May flowers...

...Well, not quite so here. It warms up all too fast before May. We had a high of 92 the beginning of the month (April 9th) but it has been relatively mild since. I think some of the much needed showers have helped keep temps down but humidity up.
I said I would post a picture once the tulips came up but they did not turn out as spectacular as I had hoped. Apart from that though, I have been wanting a hibiscus plant for some time now (since we moved to Texas actually) so Jared got me one that I had picked out.
I think it is so great that we can grow so many amazing things here. If it were a bit warmer during the winter we could grow my mango and his citrus trees but for now we will settle for peaches, figs, and whatever else will bloom for us.

Emerging of Moo and Our New Family Time

We had Moo evaluated around the middle of last month and he is officially a Heeler a.k.a. Australian Cattle Dog (not a Catahoula like we thought). He has all the markings of one. Sometimes he lightly nudges me in the calves so that is another tell-tale sign. We also wanted to find out if there was hope of a better future for this dog. He is slowing emerging from his shell...
He is FULL of energy! We have let him outside under our supervision and just loves running around. He loves to smell and sniff things.
Moo has gained a lot more confidence because he used to be leary of the chickens and now he loves watching them...we are still trying to correct this instinct. Eventually we hope to teach him some more commands like sit, lay down, etc.
Our new family favorite is at night right before we go to bed. We do our family scripture/Ensign study time on the living room rug and we sit near each other and one of us will toss a treat/doggie cookie to Moo without making any eye contact whatsoever. Of course he will only come so close to Jared, but it is progress. And if he ignores the treat, one of the cats comes to gobble it up. They like the treats too, especially Kitty, the Queen Bee who rules the roost.
The picture is of Moo in one of his "hiding/security places".