yard stuff good, work stuff bad

I think I mentioned previously that I got my two ! raised beds planted at the very end of February and maybe the beginning of March. The tomatoes were definitely in in February, the earliest I have ever got them in and even so, it may not have been early enough. It's an early spring, yes, but it is also getting hotter fast. Tomatoes stop blooming and setting once the nights and days get too warm. My tomatoes are just now starting to bloom and I'm already worried that I won't get much fruit off them.

I have beans coming up though.

Things have sort of gone to hell in a hand basket work-wise. I've been putting off starting my new work in the cast glass waiting for this big job to come through, expecting to be funded at any time which hasn't, so far, happened and now might not. Apparently there was a lack of communication between the art consultant, the client, and the architect. The change in the structure of the wall that was supposed to be made to accommodate the glass as we proposed it and was approved by the client, wasn't made and on top of that, the manner of installation which I had requested details of early on and never received until last Wednesday also put the kibosh on what we proposed, all of which I found out last Wednesday. My installer met with the architect last Friday to see if they could come up with a solution but I haven't heard the result of that meeting yet. We haven't even started this job yet and it has already become a nightmare. I've wasted months of time waiting on a job that may not happen now.

I was thinking about all this last night after spending all day working in the yard yesterday and didn't get even a third of the things accomplished that still needs to be done out there before it gets too hot, already the june bugs have hatched en mass. Thinking I should just get out my model making stuff and start in ernest on some new pieces. But while, normally I would have until about mid-June to be able to work outside, this year with such an early spring and early really warm days I may only have a month so I decided to keep working out in the yard. For today anyway, which I'm already late in starting because we slept til the sun woke us up at the usual time which turned out to be an hour later. I like DST but I hate the transition.

So, I mentioned it's spring here. The wrens built a nest in the birdhouse I put up on the outside of the barn and yesterday I saw a fledgling in the barn. I could hear the little cheeper and it's parent all day.

I discovered this little guy

 

hiding in a plastic pot when I was rummaging through them to pot up some cuttings I had taken for the garden club's plant show and sale next month. Also got my zinnia seeds planted in starter trays.

I dug some stuff up and moved it and put some other stuff in the ground. I had four huge fire ant beds to get rid of and several smaller ones. I use a Dawn dish detergent and orange oil solution, both biodegradable and it kills the shit out of fire ants. I weeded part of the old vegetable garden and need to reclaim it. I cleaned the filter for the turtle pond which is really murky right now as I guess I inadvertently killed the bacteria in the filter. It will recover but it may take up to six weeks to get the water clear again. I dug up sprouted pecan trees.

I got the little water plants back in the filter to the water lily pond which those wild dogs had torn up.

Saw this bee buzzing around the bluebonnets which are coming into bloom.

All the rain early last week has got the frogs all jazzed up and laying eggs. Saw this cluster caught on the chicken wire to keep the wild dogs out.

Another day planned for out in the yard today.