.
#1 Kitchen towels are not interchangeable with paper plates in a microwave.
#2 Potatoes make wrinkled, unattractive centers for burning kitchen cloths.
#3 Whenever you take a car to a shop, figure on your repair being twice what was expected.
#4 Father's are very nice to have. They give you free used lumber for greenhouse projects.
#5 Ban ginger from your morning juicing.
#6 Lysol kills ladybugs and stinkbugs.
#7 When car repair guys begin by calling your 'honey' you have lost about 20 years of respect. Only acceptable if you get a discount.
#8 Keep trying. You are bound to make a decent 100% whole wheat bread loaf eventually.
#9 Buy everything you will need in life before 2011. Inflation is going to kill you.
#10 Go to bed.
~Faith
.
Showing posts with label Bugs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bugs. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
A picure is worth a thousand dollars.
.
At least that's about how much a nice new camera costs. I'd been hoping to get mine repaired but, instead, any money we've been squeezing out has been going to things like vet bills for our lovable-yet-useless canine (do you have any idea how much time and money it takes to care for an aging and uncertainly diagnosed dog? I do now; $350.00 and I hope that's it, because that is his limit, sadly.) and feeding a hungry automobile a balanced diet of things like tires and bearings. However, the change to cool weather has been a blessing in the car department. We no longer are roasting in our A/C free and broken window environment. It's cold, and we have a heater that works. Life is good.
We have been blessed with really great weather, for the most part. So that I am able to work outside most days. I've been moving gooseberry bushes which were declining every year. They are now in a new and improved location and awaiting mulch, which I hope to obtain tomorrow - right after a visit to the car repair shop.
The man-child, Michael, is growing out of clothes faster than I can find them. I buy shoes two sizes too big, and he's outgrown them in 8 months. Every time I look at him, I swear he's taller. He'll outgrow me in a very short amount of time. We hit thrift stores again this week, hoping to find him a winter jacket. We found some working coats, but nothing for casual town wear.
However, he was absolutely thrilled to get a trench coat and two casual suit jackets today, tweed and corduroy. The thrift store was selling all their coats for half price, two dollars and fifty cents each, and these are classics that will not go out of style. We bought them big.... here's hoping they last.
It took a lot of straw, but all the veggie and herb beds are thoroughly mulched. We have some experimental winter crops growing out there; peas and Swiss chard. I want to see how long I can keep them growing by just covering them on cold nights. I dug up some of the pepper plants and potted them, bringing them indoors at night.
I am also growing lots of things in the house. It looks a bit like a greenhouse in here, but that's kind of fun. We hope to get the real greenhouse going soon. I've been saving up, here and there, and I think I have enough to do it, if I can find the time in between everything else.
We are getting some raspberry rootings this week, and I'm so excited that we'll have raspberries again. So I've got a 90 foot row to dig, fertilize, and mulch when they arrive. I found a great deal on some new strawberry plants on eBay to replace the ones that did not make it for some reason. I hope the soil is fine. But two of the varieties I had planted gave up the ghost very early. We got 50 strawberry plants for only 12 dollars. I'm so glad to have put them in the ground, so we have a better chance at a good berry harvest next year.
I found a place that I can order grapevines from next spring at only 3 dollars each. That's an amazing price. If I am able, I will rip out all 112 vines that are out there now, and replace them with only 28 Mars cultivars. Mars vines have the greatest resistance to black rot, so it would cut down significantly on the amount of slaving away in comparison to actual ingestion of grapes. Ratios. This is why I studied Algebra.
I'm rooting blackberries for sharing and replanting next spring. Having another go at rooting figs. Oh, that reminds me, I still need to cover them for winter. Yiketh already.
And lady bugs wars are on. With the warmer sunny days in the 60's, it's prime breeding weather. Today we finally succumbed and sprayed all around the doors with Raid - garden fresh scent, of course. So you can lie to yourself all the way to your death bed. It could not be helped. I was spending an hour a day, just trying to keep up on vacuuming them up.
OK, Lots more going on, but without photos, it's just no fun to write about them, and harder still to illustrate how we are doing things, so I'll leave it with this:
Thanksgiving - 17 days
Days begin to get longer - 41 days
Christmas - 47 days
Get out your seed catalogs - 57 days
Average daily temp begins to level and climb - 60
Order your seeds - 71 days
Not long at all until those crocus are pushing up.
~Faith
.
At least that's about how much a nice new camera costs. I'd been hoping to get mine repaired but, instead, any money we've been squeezing out has been going to things like vet bills for our lovable-yet-useless canine (do you have any idea how much time and money it takes to care for an aging and uncertainly diagnosed dog? I do now; $350.00 and I hope that's it, because that is his limit, sadly.) and feeding a hungry automobile a balanced diet of things like tires and bearings. However, the change to cool weather has been a blessing in the car department. We no longer are roasting in our A/C free and broken window environment. It's cold, and we have a heater that works. Life is good.
We have been blessed with really great weather, for the most part. So that I am able to work outside most days. I've been moving gooseberry bushes which were declining every year. They are now in a new and improved location and awaiting mulch, which I hope to obtain tomorrow - right after a visit to the car repair shop.
The man-child, Michael, is growing out of clothes faster than I can find them. I buy shoes two sizes too big, and he's outgrown them in 8 months. Every time I look at him, I swear he's taller. He'll outgrow me in a very short amount of time. We hit thrift stores again this week, hoping to find him a winter jacket. We found some working coats, but nothing for casual town wear.
However, he was absolutely thrilled to get a trench coat and two casual suit jackets today, tweed and corduroy. The thrift store was selling all their coats for half price, two dollars and fifty cents each, and these are classics that will not go out of style. We bought them big.... here's hoping they last.
It took a lot of straw, but all the veggie and herb beds are thoroughly mulched. We have some experimental winter crops growing out there; peas and Swiss chard. I want to see how long I can keep them growing by just covering them on cold nights. I dug up some of the pepper plants and potted them, bringing them indoors at night.
I am also growing lots of things in the house. It looks a bit like a greenhouse in here, but that's kind of fun. We hope to get the real greenhouse going soon. I've been saving up, here and there, and I think I have enough to do it, if I can find the time in between everything else.
We are getting some raspberry rootings this week, and I'm so excited that we'll have raspberries again. So I've got a 90 foot row to dig, fertilize, and mulch when they arrive. I found a great deal on some new strawberry plants on eBay to replace the ones that did not make it for some reason. I hope the soil is fine. But two of the varieties I had planted gave up the ghost very early. We got 50 strawberry plants for only 12 dollars. I'm so glad to have put them in the ground, so we have a better chance at a good berry harvest next year.
I found a place that I can order grapevines from next spring at only 3 dollars each. That's an amazing price. If I am able, I will rip out all 112 vines that are out there now, and replace them with only 28 Mars cultivars. Mars vines have the greatest resistance to black rot, so it would cut down significantly on the amount of slaving away in comparison to actual ingestion of grapes. Ratios. This is why I studied Algebra.
I'm rooting blackberries for sharing and replanting next spring. Having another go at rooting figs. Oh, that reminds me, I still need to cover them for winter. Yiketh already.
And lady bugs wars are on. With the warmer sunny days in the 60's, it's prime breeding weather. Today we finally succumbed and sprayed all around the doors with Raid - garden fresh scent, of course. So you can lie to yourself all the way to your death bed. It could not be helped. I was spending an hour a day, just trying to keep up on vacuuming them up.
OK, Lots more going on, but without photos, it's just no fun to write about them, and harder still to illustrate how we are doing things, so I'll leave it with this:
Thanksgiving - 17 days
Days begin to get longer - 41 days
Christmas - 47 days
Get out your seed catalogs - 57 days
Average daily temp begins to level and climb - 60
Order your seeds - 71 days
Not long at all until those crocus are pushing up.
~Faith
.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Plenty of Melons - August 11, 2010
.
Raising the beds did the trick for getting melons. They just don't need all the water you'd think, being desert-type plants.
So when this low spot began getting a lot of rain, only the lowest vines suffered a bit of stress.
We'd been a bit busy lately and not kept up on the weeding. But thanks to the mulch we'd laid down in the spring, getting it under control was not too daunting. We pulled the vines in from the paths, pulled a few scraggly weeds out of the beds, and then we just had to clear the paths.
We got a lot of melons over about a month-long period. We lost quite a few, simply because they all came ripe at once and eating more than two a day IS too daunting!
The squash bugs have begun to be a problem here. Not too much damage this year, but next year we'll have to stay on our toes.
They are all gone as of this posting, but we sure enjoyed them!
~Faith
.
Raising the beds did the trick for getting melons. They just don't need all the water you'd think, being desert-type plants.
So when this low spot began getting a lot of rain, only the lowest vines suffered a bit of stress.
We'd been a bit busy lately and not kept up on the weeding. But thanks to the mulch we'd laid down in the spring, getting it under control was not too daunting. We pulled the vines in from the paths, pulled a few scraggly weeds out of the beds, and then we just had to clear the paths.
We got a lot of melons over about a month-long period. We lost quite a few, simply because they all came ripe at once and eating more than two a day IS too daunting!
The squash bugs have begun to be a problem here. Not too much damage this year, but next year we'll have to stay on our toes.
They are all gone as of this posting, but we sure enjoyed them!
~Faith
.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Car Repair and... Tapeworms? ~~ May 27, 2010
.
As things tend to continually fall apart, we have been watching our little mini-van begin to struggle. Just like me, it's beginning to get old, tired, and things are going wrong. I try to get it serviced when the time comes, but sometimes we are a bit late.
A year ago, the hatch quit staying up. Gotta love the loading and unloading of groceries in the rain while one hand holds the door up, the foot hold the cart from running away, the other hand loads the bags, while rain runs down your arm.
The tires we continually have trouble with, and one has had a slow leak for well over a year. The A/C quit working two years ago, and with my window not working, that leaves us with one window to let airflow in during summer - (Gasp). And the remaining window is just now beginning to not work. THIS is going to be a challenge!
But it starts every time!!! YAY!
So when the tire was not holding air even for a couple of days, we took it for a hopeful repair, which worked! Can I hear another "YAY!"
We also splurged 60 bucks and felt it was worth fixing the hatch door to make our lives so much easier. Michael took charge of replacing the lift supports.
And he did a great job!
We moved on to working on the pool. We finished up getting the sand just right and began filling it, making sure to keep the liner as wrinkle-free as possible.
The best way to do this is to spread your liner out evenly and clip the edges up on the pool walls with heavy duty tool-shop clips. These work great. Put one about every two feet.
Then pull the liner tight, evenly all the way around, taking all the slack out of the liner, then actually pulling almost all of it off the ground except for the center. Leave about 6 feet touching the ground. Begin filling with water. As the water fills and begins moving out, it will pull the liner down, and you can let out the clips little by little as you walk around and around. Each time you loosen the clamp, the liner will slide down just a bit and there will be no wrinkles in the pool.
Conversely, you can use a wet/dry vac to suck air out from between the liner and the wall, avoiding the tedious walking and releasing of clips, but my vac is too small and this is how I'm familiar with doing it. Once your water actually reaches the wall, the liner will be done pulling down and you can affix the top coping and rails to finish the walls.
Michael got in, when the water was about knee high, to work the inside of the pool as we installed the top rail. He said there was something swimming at his feet, that looked like a snake.
I took one look at that and stopped in my tracks. All I could think was tapeworm, and WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
It went into a jar of water and I took a trip to the Great Storehouse of Modern Knowledge - Google Search.
Learn something new every day!
Remember all those stories you heard about horse hairs turning into worms in water troughs? Yeah, I didn't believe them either, but this is where those stories came from. These are Nematomorpha, otherwise known as hairworms.
They are ingested by insects, grow, then drive the insect to water where the parasite exits the body, killing it's host, looks for a girlfriend at the local pool, gets married and has little ones all over again.
How romantic!
Really cool, interesting and icky pictures!
And YouTube has some nifty videos too, if you have a young person who enjoys watching recreations of the scenes in "Alien" where a parasite exits the body of a victim.
Ours was about a foot long.
It's dead.
~Faith
.
As things tend to continually fall apart, we have been watching our little mini-van begin to struggle. Just like me, it's beginning to get old, tired, and things are going wrong. I try to get it serviced when the time comes, but sometimes we are a bit late.
A year ago, the hatch quit staying up. Gotta love the loading and unloading of groceries in the rain while one hand holds the door up, the foot hold the cart from running away, the other hand loads the bags, while rain runs down your arm.
The tires we continually have trouble with, and one has had a slow leak for well over a year. The A/C quit working two years ago, and with my window not working, that leaves us with one window to let airflow in during summer - (Gasp). And the remaining window is just now beginning to not work. THIS is going to be a challenge!
But it starts every time!!! YAY!
So when the tire was not holding air even for a couple of days, we took it for a hopeful repair, which worked! Can I hear another "YAY!"
We also splurged 60 bucks and felt it was worth fixing the hatch door to make our lives so much easier. Michael took charge of replacing the lift supports.
And he did a great job!
We moved on to working on the pool. We finished up getting the sand just right and began filling it, making sure to keep the liner as wrinkle-free as possible.
The best way to do this is to spread your liner out evenly and clip the edges up on the pool walls with heavy duty tool-shop clips. These work great. Put one about every two feet.
Then pull the liner tight, evenly all the way around, taking all the slack out of the liner, then actually pulling almost all of it off the ground except for the center. Leave about 6 feet touching the ground. Begin filling with water. As the water fills and begins moving out, it will pull the liner down, and you can let out the clips little by little as you walk around and around. Each time you loosen the clamp, the liner will slide down just a bit and there will be no wrinkles in the pool.
Conversely, you can use a wet/dry vac to suck air out from between the liner and the wall, avoiding the tedious walking and releasing of clips, but my vac is too small and this is how I'm familiar with doing it. Once your water actually reaches the wall, the liner will be done pulling down and you can affix the top coping and rails to finish the walls.
Michael got in, when the water was about knee high, to work the inside of the pool as we installed the top rail. He said there was something swimming at his feet, that looked like a snake.
I took one look at that and stopped in my tracks. All I could think was tapeworm, and WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
It went into a jar of water and I took a trip to the Great Storehouse of Modern Knowledge - Google Search.
Learn something new every day!
Remember all those stories you heard about horse hairs turning into worms in water troughs? Yeah, I didn't believe them either, but this is where those stories came from. These are Nematomorpha, otherwise known as hairworms.
They are ingested by insects, grow, then drive the insect to water where the parasite exits the body, killing it's host, looks for a girlfriend at the local pool, gets married and has little ones all over again.
How romantic!
Really cool, interesting and icky pictures!
And YouTube has some nifty videos too, if you have a young person who enjoys watching recreations of the scenes in "Alien" where a parasite exits the body of a victim.
Ours was about a foot long.
It's dead.
~Faith
.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Geraniums intoxicate Japanese beetles.
.
Thanks to my fellow blogger at Going Yard, I found this article on the sad, sad situation of habitual narcotic use on the family lives of Japanese Beetles. They just never learn.
Hatred.... It's a strong word. But I feel it for these beetles. I like this article.
Geraniums intoxicate Japanese beetles.
Several bites of a garden-variety geranium geranium, common name for some members of the Geraniaceae, a family of herbs and small shrubs of temperate and subtropical regions. Their long, beak-shaped fruits give them the popular names crane's-bill (for species of the genus Geranium, , and a Japanese beetle falls to the ground in a stupor stupor that lasts some 8 hours. It's hardly a great way to avoid predators or get on with beetle business, like reproduction. Yet researchers now find that the beetles never learn. They choose geraniums over perfectly good linden leaves and get paralyzed day after day.
Researchers described the knockout effect on Japanese beetles in 1929, notes Daniel A. Potter. He and David W. Held, both of the University of Kentucky Coordinates: The University of Kentucky, also referred to as UK, is a public, co-educational university located in Lexington, Kentucky. in Lexington, have studied beetle learning and the sad effects of geranium intoxication intoxication, condition of body tissue affected by a poisonous substance. Poisonous materials, or toxins, are to be found in heavy metals such as lead and mercury, in drugs, in chemicals such as alcohol and carbon tetrachloride, in gases such as carbon monoxide, and on family life. Their results will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata.
In theory, insects with wide-ranging tastes are the most likely to learn to avoid noxious foods, according to the few studies that have tested this idea, Potter says. However, Japanese beetles eat nearly 300 U.S. plant species but don't avoid geraniums.
The flower petals, especially from plants in full sunlight, seem the most narcotic narcotic, any of a number of substances that have a depressant effect on the nervous system. The chief narcotic drugs are opium, its constituents morphine and codeine, and the morphine derivative heroin.
See also drug addiction and drug abuse. , Potter reports. His most extensive tests were of red geraniums, but flowers of white, coral, and other colors also slammed the beetles. So did a water-soluble leaf extract.
A geranium "is like candy to them," Potter says. Beetle pairs offered a choice picked geranium flowers so often that they laid just half as many eggs as pairs provided only with linden leaves. Intoxication is dangerous for the beetle, but is it fun? Potter won't speculate.
Geraniums intoxicate Japanese beetles.
I'll be shopping for White Geraniums.
~Faith
.
Thanks to my fellow blogger at Going Yard, I found this article on the sad, sad situation of habitual narcotic use on the family lives of Japanese Beetles. They just never learn.
Hatred.... It's a strong word. But I feel it for these beetles. I like this article.
Geraniums intoxicate Japanese beetles.
Several bites of a garden-variety geranium geranium, common name for some members of the Geraniaceae, a family of herbs and small shrubs of temperate and subtropical regions. Their long, beak-shaped fruits give them the popular names crane's-bill (for species of the genus Geranium, , and a Japanese beetle falls to the ground in a stupor stupor that lasts some 8 hours. It's hardly a great way to avoid predators or get on with beetle business, like reproduction. Yet researchers now find that the beetles never learn. They choose geraniums over perfectly good linden leaves and get paralyzed day after day.
Researchers described the knockout effect on Japanese beetles in 1929, notes Daniel A. Potter. He and David W. Held, both of the University of Kentucky Coordinates: The University of Kentucky, also referred to as UK, is a public, co-educational university located in Lexington, Kentucky. in Lexington, have studied beetle learning and the sad effects of geranium intoxication intoxication, condition of body tissue affected by a poisonous substance. Poisonous materials, or toxins, are to be found in heavy metals such as lead and mercury, in drugs, in chemicals such as alcohol and carbon tetrachloride, in gases such as carbon monoxide, and on family life. Their results will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata.
In theory, insects with wide-ranging tastes are the most likely to learn to avoid noxious foods, according to the few studies that have tested this idea, Potter says. However, Japanese beetles eat nearly 300 U.S. plant species but don't avoid geraniums.
The flower petals, especially from plants in full sunlight, seem the most narcotic narcotic, any of a number of substances that have a depressant effect on the nervous system. The chief narcotic drugs are opium, its constituents morphine and codeine, and the morphine derivative heroin.
See also drug addiction and drug abuse. , Potter reports. His most extensive tests were of red geraniums, but flowers of white, coral, and other colors also slammed the beetles. So did a water-soluble leaf extract.
A geranium "is like candy to them," Potter says. Beetle pairs offered a choice picked geranium flowers so often that they laid just half as many eggs as pairs provided only with linden leaves. Intoxication is dangerous for the beetle, but is it fun? Potter won't speculate.
Geraniums intoxicate Japanese beetles.
I'll be shopping for White Geraniums.
~Faith
.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Melon Beds and Eggplant
.
After a really nice Mother's Day with my parents on Sunday where I was finally able to give Mom that orchid we'd bought her, visited for a few hours, and ate a meal I cooked over there, Monday was another great work day.
It was nice and cool. Boy have I missed having cool spring days for working. Seems like we went straight from winter to summer.
We won't be able to have as many melon plants as last year but, seeing as we didn't get more than a couple of melons to eat due to the fusarium wilt, having even a few successful vines will be a big success.
We worked on the lowest two beds left at the bottom of the first side of the garden. We made them wider to accommodate larger plants. I suppose the are each about 5 feet wide.
I could not wait any longer to plant the eggplants. They were beginning to struggle in their little pots, and the flea beetles had found them on the front porch anyhow, so in they went, with lots of newspaper mulch and rocks to hold it down.
The smaller peppers are not really thriving. Maybe they need more water. I'm hoping for a local thunderstorm to hit us on Wednesday and eliminate the need to drag a hose, but we'll see.
And it's time to begin tying up tomatoes!
We left to visit friends for a little bit before Michael's gymnastics class. They gave us some scrap wood. But my plan to bring it home in the minivan was overridden by the fact that there was so much beautiful wood to bring home. They loaded it in their truck and brought it out to our place after his class.
I'm really excited about this, as now I have wood to build cold frames!
And Michael's class had a nice surprise. There were two other boys there. I hope they return.
~Faith
.
After a really nice Mother's Day with my parents on Sunday where I was finally able to give Mom that orchid we'd bought her, visited for a few hours, and ate a meal I cooked over there, Monday was another great work day.
It was nice and cool. Boy have I missed having cool spring days for working. Seems like we went straight from winter to summer.
We won't be able to have as many melon plants as last year but, seeing as we didn't get more than a couple of melons to eat due to the fusarium wilt, having even a few successful vines will be a big success.
We worked on the lowest two beds left at the bottom of the first side of the garden. We made them wider to accommodate larger plants. I suppose the are each about 5 feet wide.
I could not wait any longer to plant the eggplants. They were beginning to struggle in their little pots, and the flea beetles had found them on the front porch anyhow, so in they went, with lots of newspaper mulch and rocks to hold it down.
The smaller peppers are not really thriving. Maybe they need more water. I'm hoping for a local thunderstorm to hit us on Wednesday and eliminate the need to drag a hose, but we'll see.
And it's time to begin tying up tomatoes!
We left to visit friends for a little bit before Michael's gymnastics class. They gave us some scrap wood. But my plan to bring it home in the minivan was overridden by the fact that there was so much beautiful wood to bring home. They loaded it in their truck and brought it out to our place after his class.
I'm really excited about this, as now I have wood to build cold frames!
And Michael's class had a nice surprise. There were two other boys there. I hope they return.
~Faith
.
Monday, March 29, 2010
SCREAM 3
.
I think this is a true life thriller marathon week.
So Michael and I are reclining next to each other on the couch working some math problems on a very large write on/wipe off board.
Michael says, "Look at that", and points to the near, upper corner of the board I've got propped up in my lap.
All I remember is seeing two long antennae. The next few seconds are a blur.
I seem to remember it suddenly leaping down onto the arm of the couch that I was also reclining on, and heading down, where I was also.
Michael, who lost a couple of hero points with me this morning, nimbly leapt up and off the couch, safely away from the creature.
I, in an effort to put some distance between me and IT, raised myself up off the couch in a bridge position, feet on the ottoman, shoulders on the back of the couch.
However, this put me in a dangerous position. Now, I could not get off the couch without dropping back down again. An even more horrifying predicament emerged, I realized my over sized shirt was dangling down beckoning to anything looking for a dark cavernous safety zone to hide in.
I have no idea how I got off that couch. I seem to remember yelling for Michael to help me (and watching him move WAY to slowly), flailing from side to side (I have no idea where the dry erase board was at this point) and frantically wondering where on earth that thing was.
Mind you this had to only be a couple of seconds but it felt like a good hour, life-and-death struggle to me. I finally ended up on my feet and standing next to Michael, both of us peering at the couch and seeing nothing.
Then, I feel it.
AAAAaaaaauuuuuuuugh!
You know bugs are ok. As long as they are in their own zone and out of mine. But there are certain times when they have crossed over the zone that I've had to utilize my God-given authority to squish them.
There have also been very few instances where I've had to strip naked, but this was one of them. Fortunately for Michael, the closet was within 10 feet of me because I ran in there and stripped, faster than a renegade sergeant loses his stripes.
Sure enough, shaking out my clothes, out drops a c.... c..... I can't say it.
Shoes! That's what God made them for!
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Just so you know, this entire episode from beginning to end was paralleled with a non-stop verbal haranguing of my poor non-existent hero. "I TOLD you it would get me! I TOLD you to help me up!!!!"
He said he doesn't like bugs.
Blood and death are OK, it's bugs he doesn't like.
sigh...
I'm going to have nightmares for weeks.
~Faith
.
I think this is a true life thriller marathon week.
So Michael and I are reclining next to each other on the couch working some math problems on a very large write on/wipe off board.
Michael says, "Look at that", and points to the near, upper corner of the board I've got propped up in my lap.
All I remember is seeing two long antennae. The next few seconds are a blur.
I seem to remember it suddenly leaping down onto the arm of the couch that I was also reclining on, and heading down, where I was also.
Michael, who lost a couple of hero points with me this morning, nimbly leapt up and off the couch, safely away from the creature.
I, in an effort to put some distance between me and IT, raised myself up off the couch in a bridge position, feet on the ottoman, shoulders on the back of the couch.
However, this put me in a dangerous position. Now, I could not get off the couch without dropping back down again. An even more horrifying predicament emerged, I realized my over sized shirt was dangling down beckoning to anything looking for a dark cavernous safety zone to hide in.
I have no idea how I got off that couch. I seem to remember yelling for Michael to help me (and watching him move WAY to slowly), flailing from side to side (I have no idea where the dry erase board was at this point) and frantically wondering where on earth that thing was.
Mind you this had to only be a couple of seconds but it felt like a good hour, life-and-death struggle to me. I finally ended up on my feet and standing next to Michael, both of us peering at the couch and seeing nothing.
Then, I feel it.
AAAAaaaaauuuuuuuugh!
You know bugs are ok. As long as they are in their own zone and out of mine. But there are certain times when they have crossed over the zone that I've had to utilize my God-given authority to squish them.
There have also been very few instances where I've had to strip naked, but this was one of them. Fortunately for Michael, the closet was within 10 feet of me because I ran in there and stripped, faster than a renegade sergeant loses his stripes.
Sure enough, shaking out my clothes, out drops a c.... c..... I can't say it.
Shoes! That's what God made them for!
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Just so you know, this entire episode from beginning to end was paralleled with a non-stop verbal haranguing of my poor non-existent hero. "I TOLD you it would get me! I TOLD you to help me up!!!!"
He said he doesn't like bugs.
Blood and death are OK, it's bugs he doesn't like.
sigh...
I'm going to have nightmares for weeks.
~Faith
.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
What Was.
.
I have been busy. Doing what?
I have no idea! All I know is I seem to have accomplished little, and still been as busy as a manicurist in a mall for millipedes.
I have heard from my long lost, dear departed husband. For the first time in a year. In leau of actually coming through with court ordered support, he offered me the wonderful opportunity of declaring joint bankruptcy with him.
Oh happy joy. Mmmmmmm...no. I don't think so..... No.
Next audacious question?
Ah yes, there was another. :) Would I settle with him out of court? Only for my sake, of course.
Let's see.... NO.
No, I don't think so. I tried that once and he went back on his word. Thank you for the thoughtful idea though,
He spoke to his son for the first time in a year. Michael said he wanted to talk to him. So he did so. He told me me later that he told his dad exactly what he thought of his dad's actions and choices, and telling Michael that it was my fault he left. My 13 year old son has more courage and integrity than many grown men. I'm very proud of him for standing up for what is right.
Well, it was good for a jolt to my morning, though. Michael and I were both shaking a bit afterwards, so we just spent some comfort time together before getting back to schoolwork and chores.
Lesson relearned that day. Answers should be very short and sweet. "You will have to discuss that with my lawyer."
All kidding aside - I was sad to hear him remain so cold and deceived. There was no yelling or anything, just futile conversation. He remains in our prayers each day.
Meanwhile I've been busy working on ETSY shop ideas. Also canning and a lot of running around!
Here are a few scenes of what was...
What was found on the inside of our screen door...
a good four inches long.
What was a futile attempt to locate the garlic for canning spaghetti sauce...
What was a darn good example of accidental food art...
What was fun company for dinner...
What was found on the George Foreman grill...
What was delicious accompaniment...
At this very moment, I am reprocessing 14 pints of spaghetti sauce, of which I forgot to add the lemon juice in when I did them this morning. It's OK. I love to make sauce. Over and over again. Practice makes perfect, you know.
We have been blessed many times over this last week. I had a few rough days. It's not always easy to be cheerful when junk happens and, believe it or not, I have been known to occasionally dabble in the morose for a few moments or so.
I had couple of days like that, but refocusing on what I know to be truth helps me to see things in a proper perspective.
It was just after that, that help began to arrive in earnest! We were given a gift that not only bought us a replacement for our scary-bald front tire, but enough to even buy some other put off necessities. Yes, I admit it! I bought a lipstick. I'd been scraping bottom for a month now. I have no idea how there was ANY color left in that tube at all!
We were given an anonymous gift of cash from someone at church. When I shared with the elder's wife that we no longer needed to ask for help with our bills, she insisted that we do so anyway so that we can get ahead a bit. So we not only got bills paid, but had some money as well. We stopped at the store and bought some 1/2 price beef. It was SOOOO delicious!
I found out I had a cracked tooth. BUT - the dentist is going to fix it for me at cost. So the whole crowning achievement should be a hundred dollars or so, and my dad said he'd like to pay that for me. WOW! I'm so grateful to get this taken care of. It's been hurting a lot. We are hoping it will not need a root canal.
And we got a gift of leftover meat from the church BBQ. I love this church body. We truly are trying to live out what it means to love and serve. I have not much materially to give, which is difficult for me.
But Michael and I pray each day that we can find ways to bless, love and serve others in whatever way we can find. I hope we are doing so.
For now, I'm off to bed. I've got to be up early to go down and have my face drilled on.
WooHOOO!
~Faith
.
I have been busy. Doing what?
I have no idea! All I know is I seem to have accomplished little, and still been as busy as a manicurist in a mall for millipedes.
I have heard from my long lost, dear departed husband. For the first time in a year. In leau of actually coming through with court ordered support, he offered me the wonderful opportunity of declaring joint bankruptcy with him.
Oh happy joy. Mmmmmmm...no. I don't think so..... No.
Next audacious question?
Ah yes, there was another. :) Would I settle with him out of court? Only for my sake, of course.
Let's see.... NO.
No, I don't think so. I tried that once and he went back on his word. Thank you for the thoughtful idea though,
He spoke to his son for the first time in a year. Michael said he wanted to talk to him. So he did so. He told me me later that he told his dad exactly what he thought of his dad's actions and choices, and telling Michael that it was my fault he left. My 13 year old son has more courage and integrity than many grown men. I'm very proud of him for standing up for what is right.
Well, it was good for a jolt to my morning, though. Michael and I were both shaking a bit afterwards, so we just spent some comfort time together before getting back to schoolwork and chores.
Lesson relearned that day. Answers should be very short and sweet. "You will have to discuss that with my lawyer."
All kidding aside - I was sad to hear him remain so cold and deceived. There was no yelling or anything, just futile conversation. He remains in our prayers each day.
Meanwhile I've been busy working on ETSY shop ideas. Also canning and a lot of running around!
Here are a few scenes of what was...
What was found on the inside of our screen door...
a good four inches long.
What was a futile attempt to locate the garlic for canning spaghetti sauce...
What was a darn good example of accidental food art...
What was fun company for dinner...
What was found on the George Foreman grill...
What was delicious accompaniment...
At this very moment, I am reprocessing 14 pints of spaghetti sauce, of which I forgot to add the lemon juice in when I did them this morning. It's OK. I love to make sauce. Over and over again. Practice makes perfect, you know.
We have been blessed many times over this last week. I had a few rough days. It's not always easy to be cheerful when junk happens and, believe it or not, I have been known to occasionally dabble in the morose for a few moments or so.
I had couple of days like that, but refocusing on what I know to be truth helps me to see things in a proper perspective.
It was just after that, that help began to arrive in earnest! We were given a gift that not only bought us a replacement for our scary-bald front tire, but enough to even buy some other put off necessities. Yes, I admit it! I bought a lipstick. I'd been scraping bottom for a month now. I have no idea how there was ANY color left in that tube at all!
We were given an anonymous gift of cash from someone at church. When I shared with the elder's wife that we no longer needed to ask for help with our bills, she insisted that we do so anyway so that we can get ahead a bit. So we not only got bills paid, but had some money as well. We stopped at the store and bought some 1/2 price beef. It was SOOOO delicious!
I found out I had a cracked tooth. BUT - the dentist is going to fix it for me at cost. So the whole crowning achievement should be a hundred dollars or so, and my dad said he'd like to pay that for me. WOW! I'm so grateful to get this taken care of. It's been hurting a lot. We are hoping it will not need a root canal.
And we got a gift of leftover meat from the church BBQ. I love this church body. We truly are trying to live out what it means to love and serve. I have not much materially to give, which is difficult for me.
But Michael and I pray each day that we can find ways to bless, love and serve others in whatever way we can find. I hope we are doing so.
For now, I'm off to bed. I've got to be up early to go down and have my face drilled on.
WooHOOO!
~Faith
.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Saturday's Rest
.
Taking a day of rest on Saturday is a mixed blessing. It feels great, but I really have to battle my own desires to get out there and do all sorts of stuff. LOL
I let Michael sleep in til he woke up, which was 10:00 in the morning. He didn't like that, but he really needed it. He was really tired.
Then we had to go out and take care of the bugs that were raiding our garden and threatening to rob us of our work and food. I hate that we are leaving organic, but at this point, the larger goal is to be able to actually allow the garden to survive.
So Michael assembled the sprayer we'd purchased the night before.
And we pulled out the heavy artillery. AUGH! I can't believe I'm doing this! Not having steady income changes things.
And we unloaded the latest grass clippings into the compost bins. These bags heated up the interior of the van by 20 degrees warmer overnight.
Here are the latest boards for the potato bins. (They are still in the van, eh-hem.)
And we just relaxed a lot. We enjoyed a crock pot full of sausage and bean soup all day, with sourdough bread toast to go with it. We even watched a movie, the original Star Wars from 1976.
I still remember going to the theater and seeing that movie when I was in Jr. High. It was the first time I'd ever experienced standing in line to get a good seat, because it would be sold out. But we met friends there a couple of hours early. It was a big deal for us, as we lived rather simply in the country, so it made quite an impression.
In the evening we strolled around outside, me taking photos, Michael playing, and I took note of what needed to be done, what was going well, what was not.
The horses have just about lost all their winter coats.
Details:
The 15 melon hills we planted 3 weeks ago have been a big disappointment. Each hill got between 4 and 6 seeds each, so out of about 60 seeds... about 4 sprouted. We finally dug them up, I think it was Friday morning, and found the hulls - empty. I have no idea. No sign of bugs or critters, just looking like partially opened clam shells, completely empty. I am hoping this odd development is due to something simple like we just had a cooler spring than normal. But I cannot figure out why they are empty!
The pasty summer squash beds are perking up. It took about a week for the organic fish fertilizer, which only has a nitrogen rating of 5, to kick in and get them turning greener and growing. I guess even though this soil had turf composted in over the winter and a good bit of horse manure laying on the pasture, it still has not enough nitrogen. I'm really looking forward to planting green manures after the garden is done this autumn.
The brassicas are SUPREMELY happy here. They are doing well. I've only lost about 6 of them all together, to a vole I believe, so the harvest should be pretty good.
The eggplants... a wash. The seedlings all gone to flea beetles, the one large plant I bought, it's struggling a lot. I had tried an experiment as a last organic resort to save them, I made an oil spray with cayenne and garlic. It coated those beetles that got caught in it and I'm sure those died, but the plant is struggling from the oil, and the beetles who escaped hopped away to munch on my tomatoes.
Artichokes - a little slow in growth, but with fertilizer they should pick up. That will be today. No bug damage.
Peppers - again flea beetles. Some are doing better than others. We got them with fertilizer already so they should do better.
Tomatoes, seem to be pretty happy, but flea beetles going after them with almost all the energy they had for the eggplants. We fertilized them to give them a boost.
Sugar snap peas - doing great.
Giant pumpkins - they've sprouted about 4 I think.
My corn is giving me a pain. Again, we're waiting for our corn crop to be 4-6 inches high so we can plant beans. The Golden Bantam OP corn does fine,
but we only planted enough of that to have our own seed for reuse. The bulk is hybrid corn, Sensation, and the sprout rate on that is just sad!
Here is a close up comparison:
More rocks being hauled out, small goes to chicken fence, large set aside for landscaping:
This is the biggest rock we have to haul for the herb bed. Will probably have to split it somehow. I'm hoping it will break with a sledgehammer. That's my watch, set on the top of it to the right.
Some of what's left of the wild blackberries we have to continually mow down. This is an old attempt at a pond by the previous owners of the land. There are two of these on the place. Just a big hole, filled in with trees and bushes.
This may be a great wild blackberry year, if the rain keeps up.
This is a cool tunnel. It's cool temperature wise as well, when picking berries and eating them. You can hide from the gnats in here.
A pretty cardinal on the fence post.
Isn't Michael doing a great job clearing these back hills? Looks wonderful! That was his own idea, I'd not even have suggested it. I think he overheard me lamenting about them, and just decided to take care of the problem.
I love little surprise flowers. Especially since I have none planted of my own yet.
More blackberries. Michael hit more rocks mowing back here than we expected. We'll have to pick them up from here as well.
This needs to be sprayed to clear the overgrowth from covering the rocks, and the loose ones need to be picked up.
Mower blade killers....
And that's where strolling ended and work began. The filly came by and showed me some very naughty disrespect. I had no choice but to deal with her, in over-sized flip-flops and the dress I was wearing, and carrying my camera. I ran her, for a long time, until she changed her attitude and came to me, sides heaving, sweat pouring down, and hanging her head.
Then it was dark and we replanted the melon hills with no flashlights, in the rain. LOL
It was good to get in, have a bath and dinner, and go to bed!
Faith
.
Taking a day of rest on Saturday is a mixed blessing. It feels great, but I really have to battle my own desires to get out there and do all sorts of stuff. LOL
I let Michael sleep in til he woke up, which was 10:00 in the morning. He didn't like that, but he really needed it. He was really tired.
Then we had to go out and take care of the bugs that were raiding our garden and threatening to rob us of our work and food. I hate that we are leaving organic, but at this point, the larger goal is to be able to actually allow the garden to survive.
So Michael assembled the sprayer we'd purchased the night before.
And we pulled out the heavy artillery. AUGH! I can't believe I'm doing this! Not having steady income changes things.
And we unloaded the latest grass clippings into the compost bins. These bags heated up the interior of the van by 20 degrees warmer overnight.
Here are the latest boards for the potato bins. (They are still in the van, eh-hem.)
And we just relaxed a lot. We enjoyed a crock pot full of sausage and bean soup all day, with sourdough bread toast to go with it. We even watched a movie, the original Star Wars from 1976.
I still remember going to the theater and seeing that movie when I was in Jr. High. It was the first time I'd ever experienced standing in line to get a good seat, because it would be sold out. But we met friends there a couple of hours early. It was a big deal for us, as we lived rather simply in the country, so it made quite an impression.
In the evening we strolled around outside, me taking photos, Michael playing, and I took note of what needed to be done, what was going well, what was not.
The horses have just about lost all their winter coats.
Details:
The 15 melon hills we planted 3 weeks ago have been a big disappointment. Each hill got between 4 and 6 seeds each, so out of about 60 seeds... about 4 sprouted. We finally dug them up, I think it was Friday morning, and found the hulls - empty. I have no idea. No sign of bugs or critters, just looking like partially opened clam shells, completely empty. I am hoping this odd development is due to something simple like we just had a cooler spring than normal. But I cannot figure out why they are empty!
The pasty summer squash beds are perking up. It took about a week for the organic fish fertilizer, which only has a nitrogen rating of 5, to kick in and get them turning greener and growing. I guess even though this soil had turf composted in over the winter and a good bit of horse manure laying on the pasture, it still has not enough nitrogen. I'm really looking forward to planting green manures after the garden is done this autumn.
The brassicas are SUPREMELY happy here. They are doing well. I've only lost about 6 of them all together, to a vole I believe, so the harvest should be pretty good.
The eggplants... a wash. The seedlings all gone to flea beetles, the one large plant I bought, it's struggling a lot. I had tried an experiment as a last organic resort to save them, I made an oil spray with cayenne and garlic. It coated those beetles that got caught in it and I'm sure those died, but the plant is struggling from the oil, and the beetles who escaped hopped away to munch on my tomatoes.
Artichokes - a little slow in growth, but with fertilizer they should pick up. That will be today. No bug damage.
Peppers - again flea beetles. Some are doing better than others. We got them with fertilizer already so they should do better.
Tomatoes, seem to be pretty happy, but flea beetles going after them with almost all the energy they had for the eggplants. We fertilized them to give them a boost.
Sugar snap peas - doing great.
Giant pumpkins - they've sprouted about 4 I think.
My corn is giving me a pain. Again, we're waiting for our corn crop to be 4-6 inches high so we can plant beans. The Golden Bantam OP corn does fine,
but we only planted enough of that to have our own seed for reuse. The bulk is hybrid corn, Sensation, and the sprout rate on that is just sad!
Here is a close up comparison:
More rocks being hauled out, small goes to chicken fence, large set aside for landscaping:
This is the biggest rock we have to haul for the herb bed. Will probably have to split it somehow. I'm hoping it will break with a sledgehammer. That's my watch, set on the top of it to the right.
Some of what's left of the wild blackberries we have to continually mow down. This is an old attempt at a pond by the previous owners of the land. There are two of these on the place. Just a big hole, filled in with trees and bushes.
This may be a great wild blackberry year, if the rain keeps up.
This is a cool tunnel. It's cool temperature wise as well, when picking berries and eating them. You can hide from the gnats in here.
A pretty cardinal on the fence post.
Isn't Michael doing a great job clearing these back hills? Looks wonderful! That was his own idea, I'd not even have suggested it. I think he overheard me lamenting about them, and just decided to take care of the problem.
I love little surprise flowers. Especially since I have none planted of my own yet.
More blackberries. Michael hit more rocks mowing back here than we expected. We'll have to pick them up from here as well.
This needs to be sprayed to clear the overgrowth from covering the rocks, and the loose ones need to be picked up.
Mower blade killers....
And that's where strolling ended and work began. The filly came by and showed me some very naughty disrespect. I had no choice but to deal with her, in over-sized flip-flops and the dress I was wearing, and carrying my camera. I ran her, for a long time, until she changed her attitude and came to me, sides heaving, sweat pouring down, and hanging her head.
Then it was dark and we replanted the melon hills with no flashlights, in the rain. LOL
It was good to get in, have a bath and dinner, and go to bed!
Faith
.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
A Day in the Spring-Rush Life
.
Every spring is a bit of a rush, everything begins happening at once. This spring has been especially busy. In addition to starting the garden, we've had so many things in need of repair due to years of neglect, we also do not know what the future is going to bring for us, so we are trying to get some bigger projects done, such as building a greenhouse, to help us with our food production.
You might think this is normal for us, but we usually have more time. The key to not slaving your life away on a farm is to plan well, and do your projects in such a way as to eliminate maintenance as much as possible. I happened to marry someone who believed in just getting a job done as quickly as you can, and hang what happens later. So a lot of careful planning went kaput!
So we are scrambling trying to get things done. But as soon as the garden is completely in, the work will slow to a manageable level and we can relax a bit more, have quiet evenings and grill our dinner as we watch the sunset, and relax a lot more, especially in the heat of the day.
Until that time, we are grateful for the cooler weather we've been having. Very mild. Yesterday was mostly cloudy and in the 70's. Perfect for outdoor work. Here are some scenes...
How old is this stuff anyway? I'm trying to frugally use what we have from years ago when I was really working the land here.
Here are the T-posts we finally had time to remove for re-use in the garden. The horses are now officially OUT of the crop area. Since I was not allowed to spend money on the crops, I had moved the fence up there so at least the grass could be eaten. The place was essentially one big horse pasture. LOL
This is the one garden box we put in last year. It was intended to be short term, so we just bought some very inexpensive wood and filled it with half sawdust and half cow manure from the neighbor's barn and sawmill. It was too rich for planting last year, but has broken down nicely. We still need to plant lettuce there.
We used some leftover mix from the pile near that box, added some red clay from right next to the house. (It will not grow anything, but I figure must have GREAT mineral content.)...
I dug up a few shovels full of forest topsoil, while Michael gathered a few forks of grass cuttings and we mixed this unique concoction up for our potato boxes.
We are way behind on this project. The plants are growing very quickly and we still need to gather more wood for the sides. Finding soil is a challenge to me. It needs good soil, but good topsoil is hard to come by on this property and if I take it from somewhere, I am just robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Before:
And After. With the mix being nice and light, we were able to just sprinkle shovels full over the tops, working it around the stems with our fingers. I forgot, I need to water them. They need to be good and wet.
My goal has always been to grow organically. But it can take a lot of work. Once a pest finds you, you have to use all your wiles and all kinds of tricks to combat them. Starting from scratch in this spot, having it be such a large garden and being unprepared for them as I would have liked, I may use sprays if I can't keep them from devouring my produce. I was, at one time, going to go for organic certification of my land. But now, it's all about feeding us, not knowing what could happen.
So, I am still trying to foil the flea beetles. They have found and are beginning to eat the large eggplant after eating all 10 of my seedlings. The jar kept most of them off, one or two had gotten in there from the soil, but you can't keep your plants under glass, it was mostly just a learning experience for me on how the beetles find your plants. They are supposed to be attracted to white. These are cut up milk cartons smeared with petroleum jelly.
And the only ones you see on here are the ones I purposefully flicked there when finding the plant covered with them.
The vanishing brussel sprouts. A vole, I think. It's gotten quite a few of my plants. I was hoping the fishy smell from my fertilizer might make it go away. This is the kind of stuff that keeps you busy when you think you are going to be doing something else...
On the right, the carefully planted row of carrot seeds Michael worked on. See them? Yeah, there's a couple. LOL On the left, the packet that got knocked over.
Radish babies!
Getting shoes on for more work. We are doing a block schedule of horticulture for this semester. And math. LOL You can never stop doing math.
Michael, collecting rocks we've picked out of the garden soil to go line the chicken yard fence.
We also spent most of the morning mowing. All the area around the house, the crops, and then any areas those horses don't eat down. If we don't, the scrub trees come up and later we have to go down and chop them. It's just easier to mow everything down when it's small.
We went to plant more of our herb seedlings, but the ground was getting too hard again, so we watered and are going to plant in the morning.
We did a lot of weeding as we mowed. The blackberry row is looking OK. It still needs more manure. They are really heavy feeders. These blackberries were expensive and have not had much care over the last 5 years. One of these, properly cared for can give you 20 gallons of the biggest, sweetest blackberries you ever ate. I'm going to beat those Japanese beetles this year if it kills me.
Here are some coming up in the row. I should probably take them out.
And this one is a little spindly because it's also sharing with another heavy feeder, an asparagus plant. The birds love the bright red asparagus seeds from our bed and we find new plants at many fence posts and tree branches.
We planted over 100 grape vines, about 35 different varieties. The whole thing is a long story that I won't drag out. But they were going to be intensively pruned as I'd read about in one type of grape culturing book. So they are planted quite closely. Because of neglect, quite a few have died. That's OK because at this point I don't have the luxury of spending all that time intensively pruning. Here is one end of the vineyard...
And the other end...
Looking uphill, the vineyard sits low. We did a lot of weeding, mowing and tying up here as well. Much left to do.
Our hardy kiwi arbor. The fruits are remarkable. I hope to get some one day. LOL
It's looking a bit saggy though. I built it out of red cedar trunks harvested from this land, and purchased vinyl lath with a 2x4 top.
Blooms! But is it male or female? Only one produces fruit and needs another. I suspect another fruitless year. I need to replace the ones that died on the other side of the arbor before I get fruit, I'm guessing.
Uh-oh. Need to root out some poison ivy that has found a spot under the arbor.
Our bush cherries are filled out.
Evidence! We will get some cherries this year! As the bushes were planted in a frost pocket, we don't often get them.
Now we are just enjoying the perfect evening. It feels so great to have accomplished things that needed doing, and then enjoy the beauty we live in.
Hunting rabbits at the sinkholes...
Playing in the water...
Some of the gooseberries. Will be time to make gooseberry pie soon.
These strawberry plants only went in a couple of months ago, so they are a little small, but they are still trying to contribute to the season. Mostly everbearers, and a few June bearers.
OK - this one is going to kill itself trying!
This will be the first strawberry to eat. :)
Time for well-deserved play. It was deliciously windy all day and, as everyone knows, jumping is way more fun in the wind.
Fat and sleek horses.
I missed the gorgeous light this morning on those wildflowers. Drat!
Why is it that the volunteers spring up quickly, deep green, healthy and strong...
And the squash I labored intensely over for two months and spent money on seeds and pots for, look like they have malaria?
But don't the sugar snap peas looks amazing? They are covered with blooms. Can't wait to stand in the field and eat my veggies.
I'm going in. It's almost chore time.
Our list is getting shorter. At least until we add to it. ;) Michael came up with some ideas yesterday he wants to do as well.
Faith
.
Every spring is a bit of a rush, everything begins happening at once. This spring has been especially busy. In addition to starting the garden, we've had so many things in need of repair due to years of neglect, we also do not know what the future is going to bring for us, so we are trying to get some bigger projects done, such as building a greenhouse, to help us with our food production.
You might think this is normal for us, but we usually have more time. The key to not slaving your life away on a farm is to plan well, and do your projects in such a way as to eliminate maintenance as much as possible. I happened to marry someone who believed in just getting a job done as quickly as you can, and hang what happens later. So a lot of careful planning went kaput!
So we are scrambling trying to get things done. But as soon as the garden is completely in, the work will slow to a manageable level and we can relax a bit more, have quiet evenings and grill our dinner as we watch the sunset, and relax a lot more, especially in the heat of the day.
Until that time, we are grateful for the cooler weather we've been having. Very mild. Yesterday was mostly cloudy and in the 70's. Perfect for outdoor work. Here are some scenes...
How old is this stuff anyway? I'm trying to frugally use what we have from years ago when I was really working the land here.
Here are the T-posts we finally had time to remove for re-use in the garden. The horses are now officially OUT of the crop area. Since I was not allowed to spend money on the crops, I had moved the fence up there so at least the grass could be eaten. The place was essentially one big horse pasture. LOL
This is the one garden box we put in last year. It was intended to be short term, so we just bought some very inexpensive wood and filled it with half sawdust and half cow manure from the neighbor's barn and sawmill. It was too rich for planting last year, but has broken down nicely. We still need to plant lettuce there.
We used some leftover mix from the pile near that box, added some red clay from right next to the house. (It will not grow anything, but I figure must have GREAT mineral content.)...
I dug up a few shovels full of forest topsoil, while Michael gathered a few forks of grass cuttings and we mixed this unique concoction up for our potato boxes.
We are way behind on this project. The plants are growing very quickly and we still need to gather more wood for the sides. Finding soil is a challenge to me. It needs good soil, but good topsoil is hard to come by on this property and if I take it from somewhere, I am just robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Before:
And After. With the mix being nice and light, we were able to just sprinkle shovels full over the tops, working it around the stems with our fingers. I forgot, I need to water them. They need to be good and wet.
My goal has always been to grow organically. But it can take a lot of work. Once a pest finds you, you have to use all your wiles and all kinds of tricks to combat them. Starting from scratch in this spot, having it be such a large garden and being unprepared for them as I would have liked, I may use sprays if I can't keep them from devouring my produce. I was, at one time, going to go for organic certification of my land. But now, it's all about feeding us, not knowing what could happen.
So, I am still trying to foil the flea beetles. They have found and are beginning to eat the large eggplant after eating all 10 of my seedlings. The jar kept most of them off, one or two had gotten in there from the soil, but you can't keep your plants under glass, it was mostly just a learning experience for me on how the beetles find your plants. They are supposed to be attracted to white. These are cut up milk cartons smeared with petroleum jelly.
And the only ones you see on here are the ones I purposefully flicked there when finding the plant covered with them.
The vanishing brussel sprouts. A vole, I think. It's gotten quite a few of my plants. I was hoping the fishy smell from my fertilizer might make it go away. This is the kind of stuff that keeps you busy when you think you are going to be doing something else...
On the right, the carefully planted row of carrot seeds Michael worked on. See them? Yeah, there's a couple. LOL On the left, the packet that got knocked over.
Radish babies!
Getting shoes on for more work. We are doing a block schedule of horticulture for this semester. And math. LOL You can never stop doing math.
Michael, collecting rocks we've picked out of the garden soil to go line the chicken yard fence.
We also spent most of the morning mowing. All the area around the house, the crops, and then any areas those horses don't eat down. If we don't, the scrub trees come up and later we have to go down and chop them. It's just easier to mow everything down when it's small.
We went to plant more of our herb seedlings, but the ground was getting too hard again, so we watered and are going to plant in the morning.
We did a lot of weeding as we mowed. The blackberry row is looking OK. It still needs more manure. They are really heavy feeders. These blackberries were expensive and have not had much care over the last 5 years. One of these, properly cared for can give you 20 gallons of the biggest, sweetest blackberries you ever ate. I'm going to beat those Japanese beetles this year if it kills me.
Here are some coming up in the row. I should probably take them out.
And this one is a little spindly because it's also sharing with another heavy feeder, an asparagus plant. The birds love the bright red asparagus seeds from our bed and we find new plants at many fence posts and tree branches.
We planted over 100 grape vines, about 35 different varieties. The whole thing is a long story that I won't drag out. But they were going to be intensively pruned as I'd read about in one type of grape culturing book. So they are planted quite closely. Because of neglect, quite a few have died. That's OK because at this point I don't have the luxury of spending all that time intensively pruning. Here is one end of the vineyard...
And the other end...
Looking uphill, the vineyard sits low. We did a lot of weeding, mowing and tying up here as well. Much left to do.
Our hardy kiwi arbor. The fruits are remarkable. I hope to get some one day. LOL
It's looking a bit saggy though. I built it out of red cedar trunks harvested from this land, and purchased vinyl lath with a 2x4 top.
Blooms! But is it male or female? Only one produces fruit and needs another. I suspect another fruitless year. I need to replace the ones that died on the other side of the arbor before I get fruit, I'm guessing.
Uh-oh. Need to root out some poison ivy that has found a spot under the arbor.
Our bush cherries are filled out.
Evidence! We will get some cherries this year! As the bushes were planted in a frost pocket, we don't often get them.
Now we are just enjoying the perfect evening. It feels so great to have accomplished things that needed doing, and then enjoy the beauty we live in.
Hunting rabbits at the sinkholes...
Playing in the water...
Some of the gooseberries. Will be time to make gooseberry pie soon.
These strawberry plants only went in a couple of months ago, so they are a little small, but they are still trying to contribute to the season. Mostly everbearers, and a few June bearers.
OK - this one is going to kill itself trying!
This will be the first strawberry to eat. :)
Time for well-deserved play. It was deliciously windy all day and, as everyone knows, jumping is way more fun in the wind.
Fat and sleek horses.
I missed the gorgeous light this morning on those wildflowers. Drat!
Why is it that the volunteers spring up quickly, deep green, healthy and strong...
And the squash I labored intensely over for two months and spent money on seeds and pots for, look like they have malaria?
But don't the sugar snap peas looks amazing? They are covered with blooms. Can't wait to stand in the field and eat my veggies.
I'm going in. It's almost chore time.
Our list is getting shorter. At least until we add to it. ;) Michael came up with some ideas yesterday he wants to do as well.
Faith
.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)