Here is the table you saw a corner of in the picture of my plant stand. I think these come from Mexico, it has a pepsi logo on it. When I was in Marathon Texas last month I saw one of these for about $150 in one of the little antique stores. It had a beer logo on it. They wanted about $150 for it . I got this one along with the little white table in the background with a tin top and red trim for $45 each at the same used place that I got the deep sink for $5. I pick the chairs up at a local thrift store yard for .50 cents.

Behind the outdoor kitchen sink is this potting stand. I got this at the strawberry festival in San Luis Obispo County, California. Thre were two gals who were making them. I have had it a couple years and think I paid about $120 for it. I like to buy things used or something a local has made. At that time that was local. This sits right off my back porch behind the pump house.

Aloe blooming. I love their long stems and red flowers.They mulitply very quickly. Iris haven't bloomed this year yet. I see other peoples iris's blooming and wonder if I'll have flowers this year. I see a few of the leaves thickening so that is a good sign. Maybe they need dividing already. Century plant putting out babies as well, I'm going to dig them and plant them in other places. I've found they make good nurse plants for starting seedlings. I have one that has nursed desert marigolds and a desert bird of paradise, where I scattered seeds. A bathtub getting ready to plant and the brown frig in back is where the hen was hatching her chicks. I think my cherry tree died , in the background. This has been an exceptionally windy year. Very hard on trees. I'm planning on trying shade/wind breaks around the trees I plant this year.

Here is the work I'm doing around the trees. According to the rainharvesting book trenches filled with mulch will catch more rain and hold the water for the trees . Less water will run off . These trenches should be at the outer edges of where the tree drip line would be then you bring it in to a couple feet of the tree making a depression full of mulch. This is a fruitless mulberry. I have one mulberry that has the fruiting kind coming up from the roots. It is both fruitless and fruiting. The white pipe thing you see in the background is where I used to haul my water and put it in the underground storage tank. The pump would pull it up whenever I turned the water on. I'm thinking about digging it up and putting in a swimming pool. Just thinking. Manna heading for the shade and chickens busy as always. Not much growing of late. Seems like everytime we have rain we have hard winds for days after. Very drying to the soil.

It's difficult to see the little chicks as mom is trying to hide them but they are peeping out in front of her. These chicks were hatched the first day of Spring. Chicken house looks a little messy, a project for today. Will put the debri in the new trenches I building around the trees. Hope it won't be too hot.

Last year my son in law took two months off work and did some work for me, paid of course. I think he does nice work. I had him build an outdoor kitchen with a sink for me off the back porch. The old deep sink I got from a little second hand shop for $5. I want to install a little frig under the counter too but first I have to get an electrician out to do some electrical hook ups. The little back shed has the water pump in it so electric is very close, just needs outlets. Now that I'm hooked up to community water I will use the pump house for a tool shed.

Spring blossoms on a young fruit tree. Lots of bees busy polinating