May is an exciting month here at The Elms. It's when the snakes mate and the turtles lay their eggs. May is when the cotton should be planted, with the hope that the rains will come only when needed and not before. May is when the farmers are in full swing doing everything they need to do to keep it all going.
Our vegetable garden will get planted this week at The Elms. We're a little behind schedule, but every time we got ready to plant, it would rain again. Now, the weeds must be treated before we can plant because enough time has gone by that the fresh ground has already grown weeds and grass. This is fairly typical , but now we must move on and plant our vegetables.
My crew has been working on several building projects here at The Elms. We have added a new extension to the carriage house. I located old rusty tin from my nearby barn that had just the right flair for my clubhouse ceiling, and I also added it the underside of my carriage house.
February's cold spell and the snow that came with it are still causing problems for us. We have lost many azalea bushes and evergreens. Two old heavy producing fig trees that date back to my ancestors are also among the casualties. Some of the bushes that froze are showing just a bit of greenery. It may not be much, but it might be enough to keep the entire bush. The frigid temperature for all of those days in February created problems for our land, too. When we turned the wells on for the first time this spring, we saw water shooting up in all the wrong places, a sure sign that the freeze ruptured several underground water pipes. We will be replacing those pipes and doing well maintenance that needs to be done every year .
As we focus on getting the land ready for the planting season, discussions of duckhunting are few and far between. But everyone I talk to has high hopes for a great productive waterfowl season, and so do I!
That's it for May's field report. Until next month, remember, I'm the Duck Diva and I call the shots!