Surprise In the Garden

The title says it all I had a lovely surprise in my garden today, specifically 3 surprises. The grapes that I bought before we moved here and we planted last year that I thought had died have leaves on them!

It was a total shock when I was out back by where they were this morning and I noticed green by where I planted them. So I walked closed and there they were growing as if they never had any problems last year!

Nice and green even though the leaves are tiny they are growing!

This one seems to have leaves on one of the former branches and not complete new growth! I hope that means it will produce faster.

I know it might be another year before I get something out of these but to know they are growing is good enough for me right now. Considering I thought they were totally dead. My guess is they used that first year to grow tons of roots and acclimate to the local soil and climate, and now they will grow more up top. I am hoping in a month or 2, to get a wine kit and start learning the process for wine making as eventually I do plan on making my own wines. I really want to do a dandelion, a rose, and elderberry wines. We've got tons of wild roses all over the place here, later this summer when it's in bloom I'm gonna get a picture of the one white one we have. I have never seen a white while rose before so I am hoping to eventually get some cuttings and propagate it around a bit.

As for my grapes a little while ago I went out and cut all the dead off them and put a little straw around them and probably tomorrow or the next day I'm going to put more on them. Tomorrow we are suppose to make the chicken coop. The chickens seem to like their outdoor yard and the turkeys seem to be starting to loose their head feathers and I do think we have a pair as one appears to be much bigger than the other. Silver thinks we should name them "Christmas" and "Thanksgiving", it is an interesting idea as we are going to butcher these two. The plan is to buy some heritage turkey's next year.

So far my new batch of chickens seem to be doing well, and none have died; so I do hope they stay that healthy. The Jersey's are not cheap and they are the ones I really want to raise and breed into the Reds I have to get a very good multi-purpose bird. The reds for their egg production, the Jersey's for broodiness, weight and the fact they are a good winter layer. If it goes well I will be very happy.

On another note I think I am through with school fundraisers... this last one my girls had was a nightmare. First it took a long time for the items to come in, then it was missing one item. I find out from the school that a lot of the items were missing so they re-ordered the item we were missing. It came in yesterday and I was shocked.. Now it was chocolate covered raisins. What my daughter came home with was yes chocolate covered raisins, but they were in a plastic zip lock bag! ...who in their right minds would think my neighbor would be willing to accept that????? Well I told my neighbor about what happened and she said she'll look at them so I sent my daughter down to my neighbor's house with it.

About a half hour after my daughter got back and, no my neighbor wasn't going to take it(I can't blame her). My neighbor calls me and asks me, "do you expect me to believe that those candies came to you in that bag????" Then on top of that she says, "are you sure that the kids or dogs didn't eat my candies when they first came in? Well, I'm calling the school and if I find out you are lieing to me you own me $10."

Well, I told her to go right on ahead and call the damn school because that is what happened; I have a hard time believing that myself but it's what happened. I am afraid that this will be the "final straw" in dealing with this neighbor. We had considered them friends but due to this hassle with this fundraiser and the issues over the dogs I just can't deal with them any more.

Anyone know of an old usable bathtub near me so I can give these people their's back???? *sighs*

Hope your weekend is a good one!

Be Well and Blessed Be.....