The New Farm Cat!

ok - we lost our fabulous and much-loved Crazy last year...and we've held off on getting a new cat because the timing has to be just right to introduce a new critter into the fold. But one of our sons asked for a kitty from Santa Claus (he is 27 by the way) so Santa did  in fact go to Cat Haven (a rescue center) and get one for him...but apparently Santa could not resist a new orange cat for the farm.

May we introduce you to Pretty Boy! yes, he's cute, and he is surely pretty - but he is hell on wheels with the other cats. He has decided that the house is his, as is the yard and everything else. The fighting will abate at some point, but we know now that he's not running off and no other cat is going to run him off either!

Here he is practicing his 'cat-ness'..he doesn't have the sneaking up thing quite down yet with birds - but he has most definitely honed it for jumping the other cats!

The Farm in January

Just this and that...things are blooming at an alarming rate...not sure what this is all about, except it is very very early for some things, like the narcissus...and if you pull back the weeds, you can see the mint ready to go...

the camellias, usually burned from frost, are beautiful this month...and here is the state of the greenhouse which currently has strawberries, broccoli, artichokes, and lettuce - pretty nice for winter!

We also added a couple of navel oranges and a pink grapefruit to sit alongside the satsumas and meyer lemons...hope they take inspiration from their giant friends....

As for projects, we're preparing to dig trenches and put in water lines to the bees and the field...but that is the near-future...in the meantime, this is how you drag concrete steps away from the house in order to put railings on them...

that's all there is for this moment...seeds have been ordered, and one new company we used got the seeds to us in NOTHING FLAT! I mean, two days or so...but now we have the precious Shishito Pepper Seeds!
Time to pull out the seed flats and get to work. Really, the tomatoes need to be seeded right this minute. Well, the seeds aren't here yet, but they will be this week, so you know what we'll be doing this weekend.
It seems like we just put the farm to bed for winter and here we are gearing up for spring. I do wonder when and if we'll have more freezes. It doesn't seem possible that the answer is no and never again this season.We shall see.

Sunday Project

pretty simple - few words are needed!...messy overgrown flowerbed...several freezes so far this winter, so we know there will be no very bad wasp surprises. Some hoeing and weed pulling and help from Will (digging out two little trees) and this one is ready to sit until spring. Of course, the way things are going, it may already BE spring! The Robins came through last week and the yellow ditch weeds that come late March are already doin' their thing in the ditch down the road - I guess we'll have to wait and see. Yes and the paper whites are blooming also. This the 8th of January.

The 'Under The House' Rose

no kidding...this rosebush lives under the house. We didn't plant it there - maybe somebody threw a piece of it under the house years ago before we moved in. Every year, we spy it behind the camellia bush (which we did plant), crawling up from under there and blooming. We just leave it alone. It's kind of nice. But the other day I was in my studio and looked up at the tops of the windows and what on earth is THAT? I guess it wanted to give one final burst before the winter really set in. You have to admit, this is kind of amazing.