I am a REALLY crappy blogger!

So...where is that October 7, 2009 blog post? It never happened. Shocked? I'm not.

A lot did happen last summer around the house and in the garden and here are some highlights:

• tomato blight - it hit us and we lost all 24 tomato plants...it was awful...and frustrating...and disappointing
• Chris' giant pumpkin - it just grew and grew and grew and when it was all said and done, it weighed 319.5 lbs! There are pictures on Chris' blog at http://www.cablebandit.net/tag/pumpkin/
• green beans, broccoli, and zucchini were awesome in the garden last year - hoping for a repeat this year
• corn was a bust and we've decided to discontinue it for 2010
• hummingbird activity was fantastic - I got a second feeder as a birthday present and will have three feeders this year - two out back and one in the front (it's a window feeder)
  
• bird activity in general was awesome - man I love birds!!!
• the push mower died so we bought a John Deere garden tractor and it rules!

Over the winter, we had a ton of deer coming through (as evidenced by the deer track superhighway through and across the yard) so we started buying "deer apples" by the bushel ($5) from the local orchard and leaving 10-12 out per night. That was a huge hit with the deer population and it seemed to save my bird feeder from getting hit as hard (at times, they'd empty the entire thing in one night!).

Here's what's already happening in 2010:

• bird activity continues to deliver - goldfinches are finally coming into their colors and are all over the place; blue jays continue to think they have us trained to feed them peanuts on command (because they do!); I had my very first cedar waxwing sighting ever on March 20th - there were three of them and they were incredible; our two bird boxes are filled with tons of crap (sticks, grass, feathers, fur) and if there are no eggs tonight, they are getting cleaned out - they've been that way for two weeks now.
• the perennial (hummingbird/butterfly) garden is sprouting to life and it just thrills me to no end!
• strawberries are coming up in the big garden and looking very healthy - we got those from our friends Nanette and Roy and are very excited about them!
• we are tearing out all of the plants along our privacy fence and planting two raspberry and two blueberry bushes and looking forward to reaping the benefits of them!
• Chris has begun hoeing the big garden, getting it ready for a major tilling and then planting next month
• we've casually discussed what we will plant in the big garden, but we need to have a serious discussion about it soon - one thing we know...NO CORN!

I took some pictures around the homestead last weekend and will try to post them this week.

Until next time, keep your eyes open for wild wonders...