Wow, May! Things are blooming, the vegs are coming up, the suspense about what survived the winter is just about over–yeah! The chaste tree is leafing out though there was significant damage. The purple robe locust is flowering true to the graft.

All the fruit trees survived except the two granny smith apples, and one of the nectarines has four little fruits (which will almost certainly drop, but hey…). The jujubes look to be at least in the same shape as last fall–the grapes and berries have all come through. I think their poor roots have finally gotten established in our heavy clay. We’ve spent the last month planting, apricots, strawberries, plums, peaches, another cherry, all my veg starts. We finally brought all the blueberries up and got them planted against a rock wall that should offer them some protection from the wind, along with two Japanese maples, and two hazelnuts. Been wanting to get that wall started for ages. Now I know why Wink delayed. Thanks be for the tractor!

Our big family news is that Bel finished her masters in special ed from UNM. She was so giddy that she practically ran through the ceremony–yep she’s a blur. But graduation was great, and we got together for a family dinner after.

New on the farm–our chicks arrived. We got 10 white leghorns, 8 cuckoo marans, and 7 anconas. All good layers, multi-purpose birds. They’re growing fast, and starting to peck each other, so need to get their permanent quarters built. Brucie wants to hold them “in my little hand.”

Lots of little tasks–getting the tropicals out of the ABQ greenhouse, setting out the surviving water plants, putting up the fountain, cleaning up all the winter debris and revitalizing all the beds. We knocked together a squash bug cover (recycling old plywood from concrete forms and a couple of screens)–wanted to set out my squash before July, the commonly agreed upon date for beating squash bugs.

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