Life on the Farm.

I have acclimated to rural living: My dog had a raccoon up a tree for over an hour (said raccoon had a habit of crossing the yard at exactly 8:30am for several days straight until the tree incident-haven't seen it since). My chickens follow rabbits, lie in the dog bed, tap on my front door and window, and still run from me. I like to see snakes because I know they are getting grasshoppers the size of small birds. Pileated woodpeckers pound on the tin roof of my chicken coop. I am a pro at releasing opossums from the trap. I have a bat colony living in the Royal Palm 4 yards from my garage. And none of this bothers me. In fact, I love it. I have realized how much easier it is to be motivated to do work around the house when it is more rewarding...not just the mundane tasks of emptying the dishwasher and such. Don't get me wrong, I still hate cleaning, it's just different when that task is overshadowed by much bigger tasks that are more rewarding. Plus there is something about cleaning windows with a chicken eyeballing you on the other side. I'm liking this homesteading stuff...

Dead.

So my garden is basically dead. But the lessons I've learned are alive and growing. The first lesson is- nothing is like it is in Indiana. When they tell you to plant early spring...they are talking January, not March. Things were going great, but then it just got too hot for things to last. Then add to it the fact we are in a drought crisis and only allowed to water our yard once a week and things sizzle pretty fast. So, the cucumbers are dead. The beans are dead. The tomatoes are struggling to hold on. The green onions are dead. And the zucchini just keeps growing, but does not produce fruit. We have been able to cut some lettuce and enjoy it. We also dug a bit to see if carrots were growing and sure enough they were. We picked a little guy so Donovan could eat it. I have more basil than I know what to do with (of course that would grow). I am hoping the peppers will rally the troops, but with a three week trip up north and no rain in sight I am not crossing any fingers. It is still fun to watch though and hopefully when the heat starts to taper off I'll plant some more and we can try it again.