I am in the Dog House!!

Hello My Friends, So sorry to be absent for so long. Another week has come and gone and
my stress level is slowly going back to normal ranges. This past week was the Men's Association and the Woman's Association meetings and dinners. We came through alright, the worst comment I have heard back is that the beans were too bland for the men. I can live with that, I was being cautious and trying not to put too much stuff in. Now I know I can do more and be alright. Lots of lovely people and I am looking more and more forward to the season, I am thinking that what I want to do will work fine. So now will only be the normal every day type stress stuff, will deliveries arrive? help show up? weather cooperate ? This Wednesday I have a new waitress coming in to apply and work for a while so I can see how she does, also a person applying for bar tending. The more applications I have the more I relax, I keep hearing horror stories of not being able to get enough help.

Mother Nature is pulling an April Fools joke early!! We had been doing so well with warm, actually up into the 40's weather, snow melting and a little green in the lawn. Now I wake up this morning and there is two new inches of snow, not fair. We are also under a winter advisory for tomorrow and someone told me the Farmer's Almanac predicts a blizzard for Easter. I was even out in the yard yesterday looking to see if any thing was peeking it's lil head up, thank goodness they were not, cause they would be frozen now. As well, I soothed my disappointment by going on line and shopping in Lands' Ends overstocks, such deals!! I found one of my favorite cashmere tees for about half off and there were pretty colors left, hooray!!! I am so easily please, so sad.

I mentioned meeting one of my friends from Pogo Land and did not take into account that there might be some who have no idea who or what Pogo is. I go to waste time and chat and relax on the website Pogo.com, all kinds of games. You can drive yourself bonkers in dozens of different ways,lol. All types of solitaire games, puzzle games, word games, you name it. I usually play Payday Freecell, Poppit, Spider Solitaire, Word Jong and more. I pay for a membership because it eliminates the ads and intermissions, I figure I am worth $5.00 per month.

I finally have together a pretty good order for plants, I think I have scoped out where I want to plant poplar trees. The poplar is supposed to grow very fast and their limbs start near the ground so think they will help block the wind and snow pretty well. I have also picked out several different types of hedge plants. I decided against just doing all one kind and am hoping that a variety will look nice and give a casual look and still block the elements. Trying to narrow things down has been the biggest dilemma , for the basic color I am doing Privet and then in between roses, Rose of Shannon and a few others. There is also a variegated Wigela ? that I think will be pretty. With Iowa being so flat where I live the wind just howls across it at times, so fast growing and tall work, lol. I am also adding more Lilac which are apparently incredibly hardy . I did a tour around part of the yard yesterday and was amazed at how much snow the evergreens and the lilacs had stopped. Even with all the melt the drifts were waist and shoulder high in places. If I have this planned out, next winter will be a tad easier especially when it comes to clearing the drive way. Over the years these plants and more should help with the heat and cooling. I also like to believe my little bit of prevention with the global warming.

Jim and I are also brainstorming on how best to fence in areas for the goats. Their main purpose in life will be to eat weeds for us. My green weed eaters! I have been going online and trying to find what will be the best and most cost effective, all this new stuff I am learning.
Problem is none of our land is fenced, there were fences but they have been torn down, so we are starting from scratch. I want to do the nice wood fences, but that will cost a bundle. So we may do wire for part of it and then there is the electric you can do very inexpensively. I imagine a combination of the two will work and then we can gradually do the wood fencing for pretty. I also found a hedge plant the they say is good for unfenced areas as it grows very densely and also has thorns. My concern is that I do not want people or stray dogs or anything bothering the girls while they are out.

Best to you all, enjoy and I hope all the nasty weather stays away. Barbara