That is so cool!! Is it a problem that his poop is green? I have ten of these guys and there is some blackish and some green colored poo. Just wasn't sure if that meant I had some sick ones?

Sunday - Already having to water every day now. Lugging a hundred feet of hose around to water every day is a major drag. (ha ha). I enjoy watering, but dragging the water hose is no fun. The biggest tasks I did today (Sunday) were these: I pulled and dug grass and weeds and old plant debris out of one of the iris beds in the circular garden on the north side. Haven't been able to do that in several years, so it was in bad need of cleaning out. I let the water run and that made the weeds come out much easier and settled the dirt back down while watering them at the same time. There is still a third yet to do to finish that bed, but I had to stop for awhile. I got really hot and tired. When I am done, shredded wood chips mulch will go in there. It looks so much better already. BTW, my bearded irises have buds, so they will be blooming any time now. The minis irises are finished and the dwarfs have been blooming for a week. They a repeat bloomers. Later, I used my old-fashioned cultivator and prepared a twenty-foot bed in the vegetable garden. Then I set out ten of the broccoli plants there. There are probably 30 or more little plants yet to set out (somewhere). I only planted 20 seeds! How did 20 seeds grow 40+ plants? The rest went back into the greenhouse until I can till up a place for them. The soil is great in the vegetable garden this year because of all the manure-hay I put in there last year. I made one-inch collars by cutting paper towel tubes into 1-1/2 inch sections and placed them around each broccoli plant to deter cutworms from chewing through the tiny stems. I do that with tomatoes, cabbage, and peppers too. It works! I cultivated the potato beds - two 20 ft rows, to loosen the soil and then cultivated the path between one row of potatoes and the newly planted broccoli bed. The fern-leaf dill is up behind the broccoli where I sowed it earlier this month. Broccoli benefits from dill. I cleaned out the path along the asparagus bed where I planted the strawberries earlier this month too.(or did I do that in March??). Gotta keep the weeds down before they get away from me and drop seeds. Then I watered everything in there. I cut the lower limbs off the cedars on the east side next to the vegetable garden to allow more air and light into the yard and garden. I can't start the chainsaw (can't yank hard enough), so I had to use my bow saw. Ugh. The cedar branches like to et me up! I am allergic to them. Breaks out with an itchy rash and bumps like poison ivy, only the cedar's oil burns my skin too. Then DH came home and he came out and we hauled all the clippings up to the burn pile. He got out his chainsaw and cut down the big hackberry tree that was leaning over the garden. He cut all the smaller limbs off so I could throw them over the fence where he could drag them up to the burn pile too. Boy, do I hurt all over, but it looks great. Lots of sunshine now for growing tomatoes, okra, corn, beans, cukes and what-have-you. BTW, DH is going to buy me that little tiller so I can cultivate the rest of the garden. (he will probably use it too. He likes playing with gadgets and gizmos) :) Tomorrow, if I can walk, I am planting two rows of bush beans in between the two rows of potatoes. This is to confuse potato bugs when they fly over. It works. Marigolds will be transplanted on each end of the potato rows to help with repelling beetles. Garlic is growing along the other side of the potato rows. The radishes and beets are growing very well as are the onions. More onion sets will go into the garden in May to extend the green onions through summer. The strawberries are blooming and the asparagus are coming up. We will have to finish eating the rest of the strawberries I put up in the freezer last year to make room for this year's crop. Found more Morels today too. Yippee! Discovered that the Liatris bulbs I planted last week are up already. I never grew them before, so am thrilled. It was just such a beautiful day - I did not want to spend it in the house. I'd rather be in my garden. ~Annie

It has been so nice not to have to water every week, I've only used my soaker hose a few times this year and have hand watered the rest. We've had some nice rain the past few days and my plants were needing the rain. I've lost some plants from to much rain earlier in the summer and some have suffered from lack of sunshine not blooming or not growing at all.

The tree still has two huge sections, so as long as they maintain okay we should be able to get a graft. I hope so. I Googled King apples myself, and here's some of what I got: KING APPLE Many old New England orchardists considered this choice apple for dessert, cider and storage. Fruits are uniformly large and flattened round, yellow background overlaid heavily with a dark red striping. Crisp white-yellow flesh with a fine blend of sugars and acids which produce an excellent cider. Fruit is not prone to scab. TOMPKINS COUNTY KING . Brought from New Jersey to New York in 1804 by Jacob Wycoff. Grown in Tompkins County, New York, and called the King of apples, for size and flavor. Fourth most popular New York apple in early 1900's. Flesh sometimes translucent, said to sweeten the apple. Primarily for cooking, in sauce, pies, cakes. That was interesting, as I didn't know its whole name. There's a Hyde King, too, but the picture of that one didn't look like my King. They are larger than most apples. We grow seven varieties of apples here. Unfortunately, this year's May freeze killed off all the developing fruit. Here's a picture of the Tompkins County King: