New chicks this week.

3 white rock
2 New Hampshire red
2 yellow sexlinks
2 white barr

Garden

My sprout with one of the squash sprouts we planted in the garden. Both soooo young, green, and full of promise and potential.

Garden

Just liked the way this pic turned out!

Garden

A little "rain shower" to water the garden and cool off after the hard work!

Garden

While we were spreading the hay on the hugelkultur garden mound, the donkeys were braying for a snack. The hay was of nice quality and I think the aroma carried on the breeze. So Serenity shared some of it with them. :-)

Garden

We had fun doing this together today and it really didn't take too long once we got a method in motion.

Garden

Now for some water...

Garden

We covered the seedlings with a thin layer of hay to retain soil moisture. We hope the sun penetrates the hay to the palnts.

Garden

We planted our seedlings in the hugelkultur today. We planted 3 types of squash, cucumbers, eggplant, spinach, 3 types of tomatoes, beets corn and peas.

Garden 2013. Starting seeds.

Garden 2013. Huglekulture. More soil....

More topsoil.  Pear tree.

Garden 2013. Huglekulture. Topsoil.

Spring break-clubhouse

More walls going up on the clubhouse today.

Spring break-clubhouse

Framing front wall

Spring break-clubhouse

So after lunch we got started on serenity's club house.

Spring break 2013-sago

All her help only cost her daddy a kiss!

Spring break 2013-sago

And now for some water on the newly relocated sago...

Spring break 2013-sago

As I said in earlier post..."if only ALL the help could be as cute and happy as baby girl! ;-)

Spring break 2013-sago palm

And the palm is in!

Spring break 2013

After replanting the sago this morn we all worked up an appetite...making some yummy healthy grilled veggie sandwiches.

spring break 2013-sago palm

If only ALL the help was this cute and happy!

Spring break 2013-sago palm

We had some beautiful help to replant this palm!

Spring break 2013-sago tree

So we removed this palm that was planted against the front of the house (you can see where it was in previous recent posts where we planted agaves and did a new rock fountain). We wanted to salvage this palm and decided adding to the far side of the front palm would be a good area. It will add to the tropical look--since we have fan palms on one corner of pond already--IF we ever get rain to fill pond again. If not, then we'll try a desert oasis look! ;-)

Spring Break 2013-water

Earth, air, fire and water...this is a very balanced area!

Spring Break 2013-water feature

Today we replaced our old very colorful but very "dated" water fountain with a more natural feature. We have beautiful outcroppings of rocks around the front pond, so we thought we'd do the same at the fountain that's close to the house. We dragged a large rock from the property and situated it with some other smaller ones to create a trickling water feature. I love this and the sound is serene!

Spring break 2013-Acorns

On Tuesday, Serenity and I (mom) picked up acorns. Why?, you ask. Because in,reading a book that identifies edible native plants and trees of Texas, we learned that native Indians used acorns to dye their clothing and to make flour that they could store and later make breads and sweet foods on which they could survive a winter. Acorns and mesquite beans (more on that later) were a staple of their diet. So if the natives could do it, Serenity and I thought we'd try our hand at it too. We found a recipe for Acorn Waffles, so we'll update on our progress with that later.

Sago Palm before during after.

Rear tank completely dry.