I am loving the weather here in Oklahoma.  Since my arrival on June 6th it has rained 12 days or a portion of those 12 days.  I have been here nearly a month, and have recorded a total of 11 inches of rain! Everything is so green!  Quite the change for this transplant from the western desert areas of Texas.  It has rained more here, and accumulated three times the rain I ever say living in Kermit for 2 and 1/2 years!  Today is very overcast and I am all for some more rain! 

When I bought my little cabin from Derksen Buildings back in March, I was very pleased.  I knew it came with a warranty, but had no idea how good they were about it.  After a very hard rain the other morning, I woke to find a puddle of water on the floor next to my bed.   Yes, the cabin has developed a couple small leaks, BUT one call to Dustin with Derksen Buildings, and I have a repair man scheduled to come fix that and a few other things they need to fix (small cracks developing in the sidewalls). 

I have put out 5 gallon buckets to catch rainfall ( captured 35 gallons so far!) I am wanting to get a rain barrel.  I am looking for one that has the spigot on the front where I can attach a hose and use it to water the garden.  Currently I trek up to the pond with buckets tied to rope, throw it in, and pull to shore.  Slightly messy, but still gets the job done.  Still a trip to Lowes is in order....Shawnee here I come!

 

Grasshoppers are eating my garden nearly as fast as I plant!  I started 12 squash from seed, the grasshoppers waited patiently for the first true leaves before eating all but two of my plants! I know it is illegal to murder, but I surely wish for the grasshoppers demise! 

Wet feet and gardening

What a return trip from Michigan!  Apparently while I was away, the middle Midwest was inundated with rain.  I plotted my trip, and set off towards home...normally only a 17 hour trip (ex truck driver-17 hours is a short trip).  The rain had flooded areas, and it had closed major parts of my route.  The problem with enjoying XM radio, and a GPS is they don't tell you ahead of time that parts of your road are closed.  In the old days of FM radio, yes you had to keep searching for a new station, but you always had the local stations which gave you local information-road closures and weather.  The trip home ended up being a 20 hour ordeal.  The rain also caused havoc with my internet signal, the last two hours I had none, which meant no GPS!  I found several back roads in Oklahoma I did not know existed.  ;-)  Even with a slightly flooded road in front of the house, and a slip and slide up the drive, I was never so glad to see home! 

Gardening is my life at this point.  Every morning before it gets too hot, I am up and out digging up long overgrown parts to become more garden space.  I had worried that I was not seeing earthworms I dug. Earthworms tell me my soil is not totally dead. Finally I hit a section today that was chock full of earthworms.  I scooped up a handful, and placed them in the middle of the garden where I had earlier cultivated so the soil is nice and loose.  They quickly disappeared into the soil, and I hope they are happy there. 

 

While I was gone there was some bug damage.  One of the old-timers in my area tells me I waited too long to get a good garden this year and will be fighting bugs and bug damage all summer now.  That may be true, but those bugs don't know I am a quality opponent! 

After nearly a week off visiting my Daughter and granddaughter in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,  I will head home tomorrow to Oklahoma.  It has been fun trip away  from hauling water, cutting grass, and  other work.  I need to begin pulling wires, and working on the house.  Winter is not far   away though we are having a lot of rain and heat, and I need to begin cutting and stacking wood to make ready for the wood stove I will use for heat this winter.  There is so much to do, and my  new job begins on 7 August!  It will be here all too soon.

One other quick post then off to work on more mowing!  I have so many plants, some I know, and some I have no idea what they are.  Any one want to help identify?  Part of my learning curve is recognizing that not all weeds are harmful and need pulling out...some are really great for other things...teas, medicinals, etc. 

It has been an interesting week.  I am learning about wells, bullet buckets thanks to a new friend and fellow homesteader, and how to move water easier from the pond down to the garden.  I am so happy that the pond has refilled itself due to all the rain here recently.  I was worried back in May because the pond was getting pretty low (see pics) and looks so much better now full.

 

The other quick lesson I learned was roads can and will wash out here with the rain.  I have begun searching for a 4 wheel drive vehicle as part of my driveway washed out and had to be repaired.  A pipe run through a few sturdy concrete blocks and then back filled with sand and clay makes a nice temporary fix til I can rent a backhoe and do this properly. 

The garden is going well, a little sevin dust to keep the bugs from eating all my pepper plants, but otherwise doing well considering the late start my garden got. 



 

Cv

Welcome to Silver Moon Homestead.  A small bit of acreage with a pond, a crazy school teacher and a desire to homestead.  I bought my property in Sept 2013.  There was an abandoned trailer ( free for the hauling!) on the property when I first saw the property in November.  Since then I have begun to craft and build and make it home.  I arrived full time to live on the land June 6th after months of driving up on weekends to whack at the ever present weeds, and to fish in my pond.  I accepted a position to teach in Shawnee for the coming year this week, and now that income is secure, I will really begin,  In March I put a DERKSEN cabin in 12x32.  It is a nice space for one, and now just needs finishing.  As I progress in my dreams, please follow along.  I have found five other school teachers, and ex school teachers, all women who have moved here to Oklahoma following the same dream-own our own place, and make a home from it!   pictures soon!