the GOOD, BAD, and UGLY

I'll start with the GOOD, that is always a good place to start!

We finally have a fence along the front of our property line. I just love the classic 4-rail farm fencing. Hopefully now our visitors can actually find our entrance. Soon we will be painting the fence white since the sun is too ruthless and the fence would never stay looking this good in its natural state. So thrilled to have this part done. Eventually (I use this word ALOT), this same 4-rail fencing will be around most of our property. Except for our little path to the neighbors... I hope that will always stay wide open for kids to run back and forth with ease and of course, animals and 4wheelers too.


Here are some shots of plantings I have started near the entrance of the property. Everything seems to be coming back beautifully. This is a Bloodgood Japanese Maple.



In several locations around the land, there are wild dogwood trees. They are huge and I love how architectural they grow when they have to fend for themselves in the wild.

Do you remember the Coral Bark trees I planted last fall in the circular drive island? Only one survived. These can be real tricky for me to keep alive. So I decided to move this lone survivor to a different location and it seems real happy here. The bark is an amazing color and the leaves stay this chartreuse color.

And I'll finish with my Ginkgo trees I also planted in the fall. They seem to be adapting well. I love these for their leaf shape and their fall color... shocking yellow!!


Sadly, this brings me to the BAD part of the post. We were robbed! Thankfully it was just our old Barn and not our home. So far we have only noticed the chainsaw missing. We usually have everything locked inside the stalls but we got relaxed and we are now regretting it. I can't even tell you how much my sweetheart loved his chainsaw. We use if for everything!!!

And what makes the loss of the chainsaw so BAD... is the following UGLY. We had quite a bit of damage during the recent storms.




During a storm this winter, at this same location, we lost a huge cedar that almost took out our silo. These trees are very compromised as they have grown up around some old equipment. There were a total of 4 cedars in this location, one already gone, another fell, another going very crooked, and I think we will just go ahead and cut the remaining cedar before it falls onto something we would rather NOT be flattened. But for now, this work will have to wait until we can budget another chainsaw. The kids are getting very tired of me reminding them to stay away from the fallen trees EVERYTIME they exit the front door, but I worry.

I can't end a post on such a downer, so we have more good news. It seems one of our goats is due to have a baby/babies in less than 48 hours. We adore Amelia and pray all goes well for her and her little ones. Savannah is so nervous and excited, she has hoped for this since we lost our baby goat Madi this winter. I'll keep you posted. I am now officially stepping away from this novel of a post!