Today is the day that I resolve to attack this blog with a new fervor! A new dedication to keeping you updated on the fascinating detals of my life. I've been busy, you know. We had calving season. There are 8 cows left to pop a baby out and the excitement has worn off. Every year, I pester Danish Cowboy about when the first calf will arrive. And every year, after about 75% of the way through, the newness wears off. The calving smells start to linger in the house and I try to feign a mild interest so that Danish Cowboy and I can report our days to one another.
And that underground sprinkling system I told you about last year: it, along with the sewer line replacement and months of ice settling on the lawn, have left us some nasty scars in the form of bare spots which have required raking, shoveling, tamping, and leveling. God forbid the lawn is uneven and large clumps of dirt remain behind! This is a ranch, for pete's sake. Manicured lawns required.
At some point I got tired of leveling underground sprinkler trenches and just threw down some weed fabric and made a new flower bed. 
It also takes more time now than it ever did to get the kids dressed and ready to go out. They insist on helping, which, while cute, can make one scream as they put shirts on their legs and yank the socks off that you have just wrestled onto them. The thing that has sucked the most life out of me over the past three weeks, however, has been illness of the family. I can't chalk it up to swine flu, but I want to.
I also managed to plant the cold season portion of my garden: potatoes, onions, peas and shallots. Danish Cowboy, if I tell you that I put shallots in the supper rather than onions, would you eat it then? And the mini-sprinkler system shown above? We should have an ecology chat on the virtues of microirrigation. It fascinates me.
Okra!
Marigolds!
Weirdly angled photos of my tall and lanky seedlings! (Note to non-gardeners: tall and lanky is not good in this situation. Shine on, sun! Shine on, because you haven't been doing that for the past two weeks.)
I've also created a new rubber mulch walkway where there used to exist a wheelchair ramp. A few stairs, a new rain barrel and some better planning on my part and we shall be good to go. The moral of this story: when thine Wal-Mart with thou rubber mulch existeth over 100 miles away, buy enough of it to completeth your project.
Does it ever end? Seriously. Does it?
Wish I would have thought to plant shallots--I guess there's always next year. Are you growing beets? I have a recipe for a yummy roasted beet, shallot and feta salad.
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