Current Projects

Grapevines.


Meet my little friend. This is Cabernet Sauvignon. He's a happy boy, popping out of his little growing tube, isn't he cute? We now have 25 vines in full bloom. This is project #1.



Fruit.


We are now starting to harvest some fruit from our tree grove. These are sugar plums...tiny and sweet. Next we will start picking nectarines and peaches...yumm-o!



Un-flower garden.



This is my first finished un-flower bed. The mulch is great, it helps keep the moisture in the ground, loosen the soil and discourage weeds from growing. I am growing garlic, cat tails and fescue.

Owl Box.

Yesterday we raised our owl box. It is a beautiful thing. I am so proud of my husband, (and grateful to our friend Roger) for putting this together. Getting this thing off the ground was NO EASY TASK. The box itsself weighs about 50 pounds. The first post we tried to raise broke in half, so we decided to put it on a metal pole. It was a treacherous hour and a half trying to get this thing vertical. I can't believe we did it. Now we wait for an owl to come and move in...very exciting.

So, needless to say, we feel quite accomplished. Most of the weeds have been mowed down, and we are starting to beautify the property here and there. There are times when we feel overwhelmed by the enormity of it all, but this week we are patting ourselves on the back.

Now...its time for a vacation! HA!

Outta The Tube, Baby!

This is perhaps one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in a long time. Just look at those glossy baby leaves! DiLong Ranch's first grape vines...wow.

Today is my birthday, I have decided to spend most of it blogging. I love to blog, but life has gotten so busy for us that I just don't have time to do it. So, this is my present to myself. I get to write.

In other ranch news, we are finally getting control over the weed situation, but the rabbits and squirrels still continue to run amok. I have not yet found the squirrel bait, Home Depot was out of stock last week, so I will make another run shortly to see if they got any more in. The rabbits are getting so desperate they are eating the garlic and the dead leaves off of our purple palms. This is NOT good. The men have started joking that they are gonna sit up at night with a pistol, a case of beer and a flood light. Aiy yai.

I am also, slowly but surely, starting to see my ground cover take hold...and I have decided to mostly landscape with garlics, since that is the last plant the rabbits are interested in eating. I also need to go out and look for the little white flowers that stink...I don't know what they are called, but the rabbits DEFINITELY don't eat them.

I have also been working on decorating the kids' bedrooms. Julian's room had NO paint at all, just the white the house came with, so his room has been the first one I tackled. It now has a warm feel, alternate walls painted brown and light blue...today perhaps I will get to the trim. But no promises...IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!