We woke up this morning to gray skies and didn't think we'd get much done outside. My Mister hurried out to mow the lawn before it rained, and I got back to work on the annuals in the front flowerbed, I bought them yesterday and got several planted (I also cleaned out the dead tulips), but had to stop because of the weather. This morning, I got them all planted, and only got rained on a little. Normally, I don't buy annuals, I like flowers that keep coming back every year, but there wasn't a lot in bloom right now, and I needed a little color. I think the flowerbed could really use a for more perennials, but hopefully the annuals fill out and suffice for this year. I pulled a couple of plants that I wasn't sure about- they could have been weeds or they could have been perennials. My neighbor thought they were weeds, so out they went. There's one other plant that is either a weed or a really big perennial. I'm leaving it because it doesn't look bad and hasn't gone to seed yet. It has a stake by it that says butterfly weed, so that's either what it is, or it's a weed that took over that perennial's spot.
I thought that would be the end of my work outside today, but after some minor hailing, the sky cleared up again. I headed back out and started pulling weeds from around the fruit trees (if the trees look close together, it's because they are- it's called
planting multiple trees in one hole). I should have taken a before picture. The weeds filled in the whole area around the fruit trees, and were nearly as tall. We nearly filled our huge garbage can, just with weeds from this one area. I had to use the shovel for some of the bigger weeds. It was crazy. We also pulled out the dead apricot tree, which wasn't very hard because it had no roots on it. All that's left to do here now is plant another apricot tree, build the second box, fill in around the edges to bring all the soil up to the proper level, and then mulch well to avoid the kind of weeds we pulled today.
I thought I'd take a break and watch my Mister work for awhile. He was loosening the soil in two of the raised beds. The far right one was full of wheat grass. The chickens used to be in that bed, and all winter, we've been feeding them scoops of wheat that had weevils in it, well this spring, all the wheat that they hadn't eaten, grew like crazy, with all that good fertilizer the chickens had left behind. My Mister weed whacked it, pulled out the big stuff, and worked the rest back into the soil. Hopefully it will be ready for some tomatoes and peppers on monday! The other bed will get filled with corn. The tiny space next to the chickens will be some kind of squash most likely, as will all the raised bed area around the perimeter of the yard that doesn't have something else planted already. (You can see all the weeding that still needs to be done, we really let things get out of control this year!)
Since I was sitting near a weedy area, and not doing anything, I started pulling weeds. I weeded around the lone black raspberry plant (which has actually multiplied quite a bit since last year, but is still kind of sad. Don't ever plant just one cane.), the asparagus, the strawberries (which are doing great this year, and are so thick that there were hardly any weeds), the raspberries, and one section of grapes. I also used some of the grass clippings to mulch around the asparagus. I need more to mulch around the raspberries, and the strawberries are thick enough that I'm not mulching around them, though in the fall when we whack them all down, it might be a good time to cover the area with straw.
As I was weeding, I noticed the strawberries have been usurping asparagus and raspberry land, so I dug what at first seemed like just a few plants, but ended up with enough to give a nice start to a new strawberry bed under half of the grape vines. The soil in that area is really wet, I'm not sure why, but hopefully the strawberries survive. They're looking a little sad at this point, but they did just get dug up and transplanted, so maybe they'll recover.
The yard looks great, I think it's time for a BBQ (pork chops on the grill anyone?).
The kids asked what we were having for dinner tonight, and for lack of a better name, I said, "rice and beans". If I had used white rice, the entire meal could have been ready to eat in 20 minutes. I used brown rice so it took a little longer.
We've been eating strawberries here and there for over a week now, but tonight was the first time that we've picked them and brought them inside. (The kids love to sit outside and eat them, so getting this many at once was unusual.) 
This section of the garden was also going to have the pvc pipe system, but we ran out of pvc pipe. Rather than go buy more, we made due with what we had, which was a length of old hose (the one we had been cutting up to attach the pvc pipe system to the faucets in the other raised beds). He again, drilled holes in the hose to correspond with each plant. It will be interesting to see how it holds up compared to the pvc pipe.
After planting the beans in the three sisters bed, we realized that our experiment wasn't going to yield us very many beans, so my Mister constructed this lovely trellis for more beans to grow up. We had a small section of raised bed with nothing growing in it, so it worked out well.
One morning I decided to break down and do some pruning. I have a hard time cutting healthy growth off of plants, but driving through all the vineyards in northern CA, I convinced myself that it needed to be done. I thinned out the grape vines so that there is one or two vines going to the lower wire, and one or two that we will continue to let grow so it can reach the top wire. It looks much better now.
The strawberries that I transplanted several weeks ago have perked up, and have started to send out new runners. By next year there ought to be another nicely established strawberry patch here. This picture also shows one of the other irrigation types we have. This one uses funny pipe and sprayers that direct the water exactly where you want them. A little more pricy than our other types, but really nice to use.
We've been researching flowers to plant to attract beneficial insects and deter harmful insects. We'd also like to attract hummingbirds. We planted alyssum, marigolds, salvia, nasturtiums, and a couple others I can't remember now. Most are spaced around the yard, but the extras were all planted under the hummingbird feeder. I haven't seen any yet, but I have seen a couple of big fat bumble bees. Usually we just see wasps, so I was excited to see more useful things.
At the nursery, while we were looking for flowers, I saw the basil, and instantly though of one of my late summer meals where we're trying to use up the prolific zucchini. It's zucchini, tomatoes and onions sauteed in olive oil with garlic and oregano. Fresh basil will be a really nice addition. 
I got to the nursery and took CP into the mini bathroom (the nursery room has it's own bathroom with a tiny sized sink and toilet. CP wanted to use the little toilet. I took his diaper off, which was only a little wet, and sat him on the toilet. He went! Then we put his slightly wet diaper back on him (the diaper bag was with dad) and washed his hands. I'm guessing he saw the little potty, and saw other kids going into the bathroom and decided he wanted to also. So, figuring that this week is better than any other weeks this summer, we're potty training. He's had two minor accidents, and lots of good trips to the toilet. I just wish we had a mini potty at home. He's loving his big boy underpants though!
The other site, Swag Bucks is a search engine where you earn "swag bucks" for searching online (there are a few other ways to earn swag bucks, but searching is the main one), and then you can trade in your swag bucks for prizes. I trade mine in for $5 Amazon gift cards. It takes me a month or two of normal searching, generally to earn enough swag bucks for a $5 gift card, then when I have $25 worth, I buy something I've been wanting on Amazon, and get the free shipping. Right now I'm saving up for some new bread pans. I've downloaded the swag bucks toolbar, which puts a search box at the top of any window I have open, so I don't have to go to their website to search.
