Farmer Gordon's back 40.

Took a stroll around the backyard to check out some produce. Things are coming along just nicely. The squirrels managed to snag all but one peach, but there are plenty of apples to be had.

The lone surviving peach:

Granny Smith:




Yellow Delicious:

Cascade hops:

More bloomage

Ahhh....NC springtime. The crabapple tree in the front yard is a-bloomin' now. Enjoy your cold weather wherever you may be.

The beauty of living in North Carolina

As some of our Ohio friends email us pictures of their snowy homes in March, just yesterday Chris serviced the mower (air filter, oil change, spark plug, the works) and mowed the lawn for the first time in 2008. Afterwards, he took these snaps to share with those in the cold snowy climes of the north. Enjoy.


Our Bradford Pear tree:


Our peach tree:

Rain. Rain. My kingdom for some rain.

Lawn-mowing season runs long in Greensboro, usually early March through late November and sometimes into December. This year however, has been especially hard on the lawn. We've never seen a drier season in the 11 years we've been living here. Ever. Lakes are way down. Water restrictions run rampant. With little rain and no growth, Chris has mowed the lawn exactly three times since the beginning of August.

Three.

August 5
October 31
November 29

Insane.

And really, the only reason the lawn got mowed today was because it was time for Christmas lights to be put into the trees and spotlights staked into the ground; and there are yards and yards of extension cords to be strewn about the lawn. So why not just mow it and be done with it for the Christmas season?

Here's a look at the drought conditions in North Carolina. Guilford County (where we live) is a mix between D3 (extreme) and D4 (exceptional) on the drought scale. The House of Gordon is well within the D4 region:

The national drought monitor.
http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

North Carolina's drought monitor.
http://drought.unl.edu/dm/DM_state.htm?NC,SE