Around the Yard

Last night I went to check on my peonies again, and noticed that there are now blooms of a different color that are open.  These are a deeper pink.  There are not nearly as many blooms in this darker color, so I don't think we'll get many of them, but they make such a beautiful contrast against the lighter pink blooms that we've been having!

 

Last year I decided I was tired of spending so much money each year on annuals, so I bought a bunch of different bulbs and perennials to see what I could grow that would return year after year.  One of the things I ordered were some dahlia bulbs (okay, apparently they're actually tubers, not bulbs).  The instructions said to pull the bulbs up once they stopped blooming and before the first frost.  Well, since I was still living in a little rental house at that point, with not a lot of garden space, I planted the bulbs in a large flower pot and enjoyed the blooms throughout the summer.  When autumn came I was in full swing with wedding planning, and I totally forgot to do anything with the pot before the first several frosts came.  

One day I pulled the whole pot into my garage and it sat there until February when we moved to the farm.  Then it sat in the garage at the farm for a couple of months too.  All the while it had not had any water, I had never cut off all the dead foliage from last year's blooms, and it had definitely been through several hard frosts.  

I figured I had killed the poor thing, but it was still sitting in the garage this spring.  The Farmer and I were working on cleaning out the garage so that we could actually park both vehicles in it, so I moved the pot outside and threw in a little water just to see what would happen.  The other day I poked around in all the dead foliage and look what I found!

 

Once I saw the little green shoots, I carefully cut away all the dead leaves and stems from last year.  I added a bit more water and they are growing like crazy now!  The same thing happened with my canna bulbs, although they are not rebounding quite as fast as the dahlias.  I figured they were long gone too, but there are several new green shoots coming up.  I love it when I can't kill plants! :)

 

 

Harlee Scouting Wheat

A few weeks ago, The Farmer took Harlee out with him to one of his fields.  She LOVES to run in the wheat, but at this point it was growing taller and she was having trouble seeing over the top of the wheat.  It's tall enough now that she would have to really jump to see over it, but at this point she just kind of bounded through it.  Enjoy the video of Harlee helping scout the wheat. :)

Flowers

There is more loveliness going on at the farm, despite the fact that we have had so much rainy weather lately.  The weeds in my garden are OUT OF CONTROL because it's been too muddy to get in there and pull them.  The Farmer and I tried to plant some corn the other night and when we tried to hoe a ditch to put the seeds in, the mud just caked up on the hoe.  We did get it planted, but I'm not sure if it will come up.

In the meantime, the peonies continue to flaunt their fancy selves.

They look like they're winding down, and I will be so sad when they're done.  I wish they'd bloom all summer long!

My first planting of corn came up.  See how it looks like I have a small patch of corn in the middle of a grassy spot?  Yeah, that's not grass, it's the crazy weeds.  At this point I've given up on pulling them (in the open spaces) and am just going to hoe the whole thing once it's not so soggy.  Over the weekend I spent a couple of hours weeding just around all the plants where it's too close to get at it with a hoe.  My poor cucumbers and watermelons haven't grown at all the past few weeks.  I think they are suffering from the serious lack of sun around here.

 One crop that seems not to mind the soggy, dreary weather is the potatoes.  They are growing like crazy!

No Words

I don't have much to say today, because words don't do these beauties justice.  Enjoy all these gorgeous pictures from around the farm!

We have had quite a bit of rain the last couple of weeks, but the peonies have been blooming like crazy anyway.  They are so big that they are drooping their stems over.  

I also noticed that the daylilies are about to start blooming.  I haven't seen any open yet, but it won't be long!

The rose bush has also started blooming, and I love the color!

And this happy little pot is sitting by our back door.

Finally!

Guess what finally happened at the farm?!

 I have been waiting for what seems like ages for our peonies to bloom.  About a week ago I noticed some blooming in a yard near the campus where I work, but my poor little plants just seemed content to keep their blooms closed.  Finally last night I went out to check on the garden and happened to notice these beauties had opened.  The plants are loaded with more blooms that haven't opened yet, so I'm hoping we'll have peonies for awhile.

I think they are the most gorgeous shade of pink I have ever seen!  If you're looking for me in the next few days, I'll just be sitting out in my back yard enjoying these lovelies.

Last week we had a bridal shower for one of the wonderful ladies I work with.  She's getting married in June and there are so many people on our campus that wanted to celebrate her before she takes off for this new adventure.

My boss and I each brought a Crock Pot of soup and then asked the rest of the ladies who were invited to bring a side dish or dessert.  The shower turned out really great, and we ate a lot of good food!

The soup I brought was actually a recipe that the bride-to-be had given me, which she had gotten from another friend of ours.  It is the easiest soup ever, and soooo good!  Here's the recipe:

Creamy Chicken Chili

1 can black beans

1 can corn, undrained

1 can Rotel, undrained

1 package Ranch dressing mix

1 tsp. cumin

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1 8oz block light cream cheese

2 large chicken breasts

Drain and rinse the black beans and set aside.  Place chicken breasts on the bottom of the Crock Pot.  Dump beans, corn (undrained), and Rotel (undrained) on top of chicken.  Sprinkle spices and Ranch mix over everything.  Top with block of cream cheese (don't stir it in) and cook on high 4 hours or low 6 to 8 hours.  Before serving, remove chicken and shred with 2 forks (or use your Kitchen Aid mixer if you've got one handy).  Stir cream cheese into soup mixture; return chicken to Crock Pot and stir thoroughly.

One of the reasons I love this recipe so much is that you don't have to cook the chicken before you put it in.  Crock Pots lose some of their convenience factor (in my opinion) when you have to brown or cook the meat separately before making a recipe.

I should really post a recipe that actually takes some time & effort to make or people are going to think my cooking skills are about at a kindergarten level.  Oh well.

Sprucing Things Up

It was a busy weekend on the Rolfs farm.  Last night we had 12 of my coworkers out to the house for a party.  Four of my wonderful coworkers are leaving after this school year (insert crying emoji here), and we wanted to get everybody together one last time before they launch out into the world to do amazing things.

Because I knew they were coming on Monday, I had several little projects I wanted to get done over the weekend to spruce up the house before they all came to see it for the first time.  One project was pretty easy; a couple of weeks ago The Farmer asked me to help him by guiding him as he backed a large piece of machinery into one of the sheds.  Not sure how much help I was, but we did get the machinery backed in without hitting anything so I'm calling it a victory. Anyways, I hadn't been in that particular shed until that day, and over in the corner I noticed these two old metal patio chairs covered in a thick layer of dust.  This weekend I decided to get them out and clean them up.  After learning how to use the power washer (I may now be slightly obsessed with power washing things), I think they are amazing!  I love how vintage-y they are.

 These beauties are sitting by the shed until I decide where to put them.  The porch?  The back door?  Who knows!

Another project I wanted to finish was some fabric bunting I had started a couple of weeks ago.  I had sewed all the fabric triangles and pinned them to the double fold bias tape, but then I got distracted and the whole thing had been laying in my sewing room just waiting for me to finish it.  It only took me a few minutes to sew all the triangles to the bias tape and hang the whole thing up.  I think it looks alright, considering my serious lack of sewing skills!  I had thought about making paper bunting instead of fabric, because it wouldn't involve any sewing, but I'm glad I went with the fabric because I'm sure it will get dusty (we have fields of dirt on all 4 sides of our house + Melissa is not the most dedicated duster...sorry Mom you tried to teach me) and this way I can throw the whole thing in the wash to freshen it up once in a while.

 Now that I know how easy it is to make these babies, I just might whip up a hundred of them.  This particular one has fabrics that look very spring-like, but I'm envisioning a red, white & blue one for July, maybe an orange, yellow, & red one for autumn, and of course a Christmas themed one! 

And of course, my trusty sidekick Harlee was close by to help me all weekend.  I tried to take a picture of her the other day and all she wanted to do was sniff my phone.  So I got a pic of one eye.  I like to think it's artsy, haha!

We did a couple of other projects too, but I'll have to save those for tomorrow!

First, something that smells amazing.  

I wish that the internet had a scratch and sniff button that you could click and your computer would release a designated smell.  Because the best part of this beautiful bundle of Lily of the Valley is the way it smells!

This amazingness is growing just outside our back door, which is the perfect spot because it's cool and shady, and protected from the crazy Kansas wind.  But there's no patio or anything back there, so we're never back there except to turn a garden hose on and off.  I decided that not enjoying this goodness to the max would be totally unacceptable, so I cut all the blooming stems and brought them inside to sit on our dining room table.

And now, for something that does not smell good at all (and is headed towards a bath this weekend).

Harlee helped me garden.  And by helped, I mean ran around the yard at breakneck speed, then collapsed on the grass in the shade.  This was followed by a good amount of rolling around in the grass and panting.  All this hard gardening work has worn her out, so she's catching up on her beauty sleep while her mama blogs, cooks supper, does laundry, and sews.  Really wish she'd start pulling her weight around here. 

Hope your weekend is as relaxed as Harlee looks here! :)