Spring has sprung

We're getting some wonderfully warm weather around here! Last year our final snowfall was on June 12(!!). Not this year. We've been in the high 80's all week and most of us in northern Idaho are gasping from the heat.

Planting season is in full bloom for everyone. Here's a long-distance shot of our neighbors planting their garden. Two families are sharing this garden and this morning, before it got too warm, they pulled everyone together and got the seeds in the ground.



It's windy today. Here's the breeze snapping the clothes on the line. Why anyone uses a dryer in the summertime is beyond me - these were dry in half an hour.



You can see the way the prevailing wind blows by how skewed the branches of this young pear tree are:



I'm on a race against time - planting the garden vs. fencing it. I have to get the garden planted, but Don also needs to build a chicken coop because, frankly, the chicks STINK up the house and they're getting BIGGER. So he's been concentrating on the coop rather than the garden fences.



I'm taking my chances that we'll get the fencing up before the potatoes and corn (which I just finished planting this morning) start to sprout.

Here's Don carrying fence poles:





I've given up hope on my berry patch. When I planted it four years ago, I just chose the wrong spot - it's too weed-infested and I just can't keep the weeds at bay. Nothing is thriving. It's almost embarrassing to show these pics:







So what I'm doing is transplanting everything into the orchard (which will have the high fence around it to keep the deer out). You can't see much, but these are raspberries:






Raspberries are basically weeds and will grow just about anyplace. Blueberries are a bit fussier and I'll have to build blueberry beds before I can transplant them. I don't know if the blueberries will survive being transplanted this time of year, but frankly I don't know if they'll survive another year in that weed-infested berry patch either. We intend to turn the old berry patch into a pigpen next year - with better fencing, of course.

And look at this! I picked up a bunch of old wire closet shelves at the Habitat for Humanity store in Coeur d'Alene for $1 each, and Don installed them in the greenhouse this morning. At last everything is off the floor!



The little joys in life.