Lake of the Arbuckle's (Picture Heavy)

Here are a few pictures of our trip down to Lake of the Arbuckle’s.  We went down to check out the lake for fishing, and the park for tent camping.  Bulldog Man, Beans, and I had a great day scouting out the park, making notation on where we will fish and camp the next visit.  

  

A Dog's Best Friend!

Join, Welcome, Thank You, Straw Bale Update, Garden

I would like to start my post today by welcoming a new Blogger friend to my blog.   Welcome Judy!

Thank you for joining my blog, please sit back and enjoy the ride.  

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Update Straw Bale Gardening
On day 11, check the temperature of the straw bales.  The temperature needs to be 99 degrees or lower.  Continue to water the bale as normal daily (if you’re not familiar with the entire process go here to read it in my blog post).
I checked the temperature of my straw bales, it was below 99 degrees.  My bales registered at or close to 86 degrees each.

Bulldog Man and I placed T-Posts on the ends of the straw bales.  We ran wire from one T-Post to another.  The first wire was about 12 inches from the top of the straw bale.  The next wire was set 12 inches from the first, and the final 12 additional inches from the second wire.  This wire was setup from two purposes.  The first, as a line to run a piece of plastic to cover the entire straw bale to act as a protector from the cold, and to provide the atmosphere of a green house.  The second, as each plant grows it can be used as a potential trellis for the plants to climb on.

Put T-Posts In

Next, I piled up soil between the drip lines and packed down the soil to prevent it from falling down.  I then gently watered the soil until it formed a nice hill.  
 

Packed Dirt and Ran Wire

 

Add Plastic Over Wire, Move to One Side Like Curtain

Then it was time to plant my seeds. I planted peas in these two straw bales.  After planting the seeds, I again watered the soil hill gently, and then pulled the plastic curtain across the two straw bales securing the ends and sides to make sure to protect the soil hill from the wind.

Planted Seeds and Pulled Plastic Curtain Across Bales, and Secured Ends

 I have my drip lines setup on a timer, to water twice a day for twenty minutes.  Now I can leave this plastic on in the morning, or I can slide the plastic across the wire and tie the plastic up on one end of the straw bales (like a curtain) until later in the evening.

The other straw bales will be planted with actual seedlings over the weekend. 

Today, I also planted some tomatoes and broccoli in a garden box.  I made sure to add tomato towers and bird netting to keep the birds out of the garden box.   As you can see, the bird netting was just balled up and tied temporarily.  Over the weekend, this will be cut back and tied down properly.  

Tomato Plant From Farmers Market (Lemon Boy)

Tomato Plant From Farmers Market (Pineapple)

Broccoli Planted and Bird Netting Need Fixing

I also added a string trellis to one of the large garden beds for something for the green beans to climb on when they pop out of the soil.

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A blogger friend of mine, Micheale over at Sprout ‘n’ Wings Farm asked me about being able to cut my grass now.  I will say this; I’ve cut the grass a total of 3 times since spring came into season.  With the snow gone and the rain here, our grass is growing like weeds.  And our weeds are growing like grass!!!

Update Straw Bales, Asparagus, Beans

Update on Straw Bales

We installed a drip system on top of the straw bales.  The next steps will be to install the t-posts, plastic, wire, and plant the seeds and seedlings on top of the bales.  We’ve slightly delayed that process a day or two, due to weather.  The weatherman has us targeted for high winds, thunderstorms, and hail. We didn’t want to install everything and have the winds tear up all of our work.

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Look at this, asparagus popping out of the ground.  We planted the asparagus roots last year, several stems popped up.  We didn’t harvest the asparagus then.  This year we plan on harvesting the asparagus and eating them as part of a meal.

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Finally, Beans….our dog kept watching Bulldog Man and me while we ate our meal.  He wanted to chew on the corn cob while I held it.  He’s such a sweet little piglet.