Cabin Crafted

Category: farm

  • Let me introduce you

    I want you to meet Ms. Houdini. She is a beautiful bird that was supposed to be an Olive egger, even has green legs with face puffs and a beautiful gold necklace. But she lays pink eggs and there is no enclosure that can keep her contained.

    For the most part, she is submissive to me and will squat when I approach and I can pick her up and return her to the enclosure. She is also, the leader of the pack, the head hen and always the first one out of the coop in the morning.

    Last Sunday, I found her, the two Olive eggers that lay green eggs and a New Hampshire Red on the north roofed porch, lounging on the chairs, table, and under the swing. They were unceremoniously chased off and a lemon juice spray generously sprayed around the deck perimeter as I read that chickens don’t like citrus and citrus smell. That didn’t even slow them down, so they were penned up while we went to meet Son 1 and family for our Mother’s Day picnic. When we arrived home, near dark, Ms. Houdini greeted us from under the cedars. I put window screens across the porch opening and they started coming under the rail on the east end which is a bit higher off the deck than the rest, so more screens were added.

    Unable to easily get on the porch, they began going under it. I don’t want eggs layed there to attract snakes, skunks, and rats, so I am in the process of moving bowling ball sized rocks to make the opening too small for a hen to enter, but larger enough for air flow.

    Since hens love to scratch and dig in soil and since their move to the Palace, several of the hens decided to forgo the nesting boxes in the coop and have begun making hidey holes in the soil in the flower gardens. I wouldn’t mind that if they weren’t tearing up the day lilies and digging up the Calendula and Zinneas, so fences have had to be erected everywhere.

    This slows some of them down, but i am still finding at least one egg in there each day. I can’t see if there are any under the porch, it is too dark even with my brightest flashlight. In total frustration with them last night, after dinner, I took two 25 foot long pieces of fencing, an armload of unused garden stakes, and made them a containment pen. This morning, they were turned loose into the new pen with a scoop of scratch and a clean bucket of water. It didn’t take Ms. Houdini any more time than I took to fix my coffee and yogurt before she was on the front porch which I hadn’t blocked off yet. She can get out, but has no incentive to get back in on her own and if I catch her and put her back, she will eat, drink, and get out again. Short of a 6 foot roofed cage, I just can’t keep her in. I wonder where I will find her egg today, if I ever do.

  • Another beautiful day and more work

    Night before last, we decided to go have dinner at our favorite Local restaurant which has a large outside patio shaded partially by a canopy, partially by trees, and nearby buildings. When we arrived, surprised that there was no one on the patio, we noticed a sign on the two doors stating that they were closed for two days for upgrades. There are two other nearby restaurants with patios, one of them a new micro brewery so we decided to try it instead, though neither of drinks anymore. It was a huge mistake as far as I was concerned. They had no shade, no umbrellas, and it was in the 80’s in the hot sun around 5 p.m. I didn’t care for their menu and ended up with a small spinach salad that was ok, but nothing special. Hubby got a burger that he liked, but thought there fries were just so so. At any rate, I ended up hot, headachy inspite of consuming two large glasses of ice water, and getting too much sun for my first day in short sleeves and a skirt.

    Yesterday, we met our daughter and granddaughter at the local nursery to pick out peppers for both of us, perennials for the walled garden, and flowers for the front of her house. They must have had a dozen varieties of pepper starts, some already in 4″ pots, some still in the 4 cell starters. They picked out their varieties, I added Seranos, Cayennes, and one of the Red Bells she bought, that came in a 4 pack and she only had room for 3. Daughter picked Tubrous Begonias and Impatiens for the front of her house. I got a Shasta Daisy, Sneezeweed, Yellow Sedum, and a purple Button Flower for the walled perennial garden. They will bloom at different times and are all perennials. After digging them in, the chicken challenge was faced again as I found them in there yesterday morning and daffodils dug up. There were 5 unused tall fake bamboo poles that were placed around the perimeter and the mesh cut in half lengthwise so it is about 3.5′ wide. The mesh was fastened at the upper edge with tomato tie tape and anchored at the bottom with rocks, and now surrounds the walled garden. The edge along the rocks in the lower left corner of the photo was fastened to a couple step in posts with one that I can lift out to get in the garden and to fill bird feeders. Though the poles are visible, the mesh you can barely see.

    The new flowers were well watered in while we went to the pond for our daily walk before dinner. After dinner, since the long range forecast looks mild, I planted the tomatoes and peppers, put a thin layer of straw around the tomatoes and ran the first row of string trellis. As they grow, more straw will be added and additional runs of the string trellis. The garden got a couple hours of water too, to soak the peas, potatoes, and newly planted tomatoes and peppers. The row cover over the lettuce and brassicas isn’t allowing enough water into that bed. And yet again, I got overheated and too much sun. Though not to sunburn level, it is time to get new sunscreen and move my gardening to early morning and after dinner.

    At the nursery today, I looked for a fig. That is where I got the one planted in the ground that doesn’t stay warm enough in the winter regardless of how I wrap it. They didn’t have any, so I will monitor the planted one, last year it put out leaves when I thought it was dead. If it does again, I will try to transplant it to the half barrel that can be moved into the garage during the winter months.

    This evening, I need to begin the string trellis for the peas which seem to be recovering from the freeze and will likely improve more now that they were well watered last evening. I’m not sure I have enough cotton string to make their trellis. That should go on my shopping list.

    The Tomatillos and Ground cherries are in peat starter pots, but not yet germinated. Soon I will start the cucumbers and the winter squash. The popcorn can’t be planted for at least a few weeks to a month, so I don’t want the winter squash to get too large as the corn needs some size before the squash starts it’s runners. They are a short runner variety, but I still don’t want them to crowd out the popcorn. Bush beans need to wait for another month before they go in the ground as well. The garden is coming along, though I still see no growth from the potatoes and the lettuce and brassica area needs to be uncovered and weeded, there is a lot of spinach coming up. A nice vegetable for baby spinach salad.

    I do love this time of year. We have another day in the 80’s but cloudy then tomorrow a return to the mid 60’s for a day or two but the nights stay mild, so the garden is good to grow.

  • A Walk and a Garden

    The beautiful day was not wasted. A walk along the river was enjoyed, followed by a trip to the Nursery and home with 2 Coral Bells for the front, a nice perennial so those pots will just need pruning and feeding for years to come. There was a smaller one in the back that got too much sun, and one in the daylily bed that got no sun, so they were put in the front in pots as well.

    They are shade lovers and should do quite well there. A matching set of pots is on the other side of the stoop.

    Two pots of red and candy cane petunias came home and since they were in nice pots, they didn’t get transplanted, just put in place to compliment the red Geraniums. This morning while enjoying my coffee and egg, the Hummingbird was checking out the red flowers.

    A six pack of full sun sedum and a Ruby Hen and chicks were added to the cart and they were planted in the terra cotta strawberry pot and added to the back steps as well.

    There is one pot on the bottom step on the right that I don’t know what was planted in it before and I’m waiting to see if anything emerges from the tuber in it before it is dumped and replanted with something else.

    As it appears that my fig either didn’t survive the winter or at least burned to the ground again, I will get a new one and plant it in a half barrel that can be brought into the garage or basement during the winter. Rather than buy another larger half barrel, a smaller one was purchased and the buried pots of mint and lemon balm were transferred to it and buried to their rims.

    I had wondered why the daily quota of eggs had been so low, thinking that the hens were just aging out, but when I went to remove the mint and lemon balm from the barrel, I noticed in the small space between it and the house, was a cache of 8 eggs. They can’t be more than a week old because the hens have only had free range for a week.

    The smaller half barrel is now in that spot but I left their depression, at least I know where to look now. Those eggs will be kept separate and cracked in a bowl one at a time, to make sure they are okay before using. The first one used this morning was fine. Silly hens, I don’t want daily egg hunts.

    The littles, not so little anymore, even though they are in the pen during the day and back in the coop at night, still come running for treats.

    This flock is so pretty with the variety. The eggs will be so interesting with 5 breeds. And two of the pretty all black Marans with black legs and beaks. Three have feathered legs, the other two do not.

    This morning, the bed for the tomatoes and peppers was remeasured and drawn out on graph paper to see if it will all fit and it looks like I’m in good shape. I need to go pound in the posts for the Florida trellis for the tomatoes. More volunteer raspberries have been dug and pulled, I guess that will be an on going challenge for a year of so, but if they are removed often enough, eventually they will give up.

    Today is another beautiful day in store, so I will go get to work and take a walk to enjoy it.

  • Olio since it isn’t Sunday for Musings

    Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

    The outlook forward is spring (with summer for the next few days.) In a week’s time we have had freezing nights, snow flurries, strong wind, chilly gray days, and 83 f expected for today, tomorrow, and Thursday.

    This morning, the Geraniums took up residence in their deck pots. Last summer, those pots would blow off the deck and down the steps in strong wind, and they are too deep for the root system of most decorative plants, so this year, I filled them 1/3 full of fist sized rocks before adding the soil and planting the bright red flowers.

    Geraniums and Petunias are my favorites to put in pots on the deck and steps. There are two empty pots on the top steps that will hold a pair of Petunia plants as soon as they are purchased. The two pots on the stoop on the north side of the house are always a conundrum. I want color, but it doesn’t have to be flowers, I have used Coleus in the past with some success but I think a variety of Begonias that was successful in the past might be what will go in those pots. The Spider plant babies that overwintered in the utility room need to be planted in the hanging pots and put out on the porch.

    The tomatoes are beginning to bloom, still in the 4″ starter pots on the deck. Mother’s Day is the magic date here to put them in the ground, but if the future forecast stays mild, I might sneak them in a week early. They are strong, healthy seedlings, the first successful tomatoes seedlings I have ever started. There are several purchased pepper plants also on the deck with some Thai basil. They live there unless the nights are going to drop below 45 f but that isn’t in the forecast for the next 10 days. Soon the tomatoes will be divided up with daughter for their garden and my 10 will get staked out in the garden. And a few more pepper plants, of different varieties, though I still have more than a half gallon of dried Thai peppers so I don’t think I will plant them this year. Maybe cayenne for crushed red pepper flakes that get used generously here and Serranos so Sriracha style sauce can be fermented in the fall.

    The Hummingbirds are becoming regular visitors again, though still no photos. I should make a fresh batch of nectar and clean the feeders for them. That is a weekly addition to the summer routine. Once the flowers and grasses are blooming and seeding, the other feeders will come down and be cleaned up until fall. I miss seeing the little flocks of small birds during the summer, but when they can forage on their own and the bears and raccoons are active, the feeders come down and are put away.

    The net on the walled garden has had little effect at keeping the chickens out, but at least they can’t scratch through it. There must be a solution short of an ugly fence around a flower and herb garden. Since the Baptisia either didn’t come up or was scratched up, I ordered a shrub already started. It is a perennial, so once it is established, I’m good. The Cilantro germination test showed that the seed was viable, so sprouted seed was planted and it looks like there may actually be some developing.

    A trip to the Nursery is in order to fill the remaining deck pots and decide on other additions to the walled garden. I garden full of blooms that will come back each year and spread to fill the area is my dream, a few plants at a time. There is a patch of Brown Eyed Susan that comes up on the edge of one of the fields they hay, I would love to transplant some of it before it gets cut down, but have had very little luck moving it. There is a clump by the garage door that has over the years established itself there inspite of the the chicken scratching in that area. Two of the clumps of daffodils I planted on the east side of the garage keep getting dug up by the hens. Once the daylilies and Iris in that bed begin to show, I fence off that area, but my fence isn’t long enough to go all the way around the daffodils too. I love having my chickens, but dislike the havoc they wreck doing what comes naturally.

    The two freeze nights last week burned the Peonies and somewhat the peas in the garden. I hope they recover as they are one of our favorite vegetables from the garden. The onions and the covered bed did fine. I fear the potatoes that were planted just before the freeze may or may not have survived. While weeding yesterday, one of the “weeds” I dug up was a potato I missed last year with healthy sprouts, so it was transplanted to the raised bed with the other potatoes. Time will tell if anything comes up. If not, they can be replanted until mid June and I’m sure a bag of organic potatoes left out in the light will produce sprouts in short order. The Peonies have never done very well where they are planted, they have been there for more than a dozen years and have produced fewer than half a dozen blooms. Perhaps they would be happier in the better soil of the walled garden. That is a move to consider.

    Enough musings for today. Enjoy the nice weather if you are having it and if not, I hope it comes your way soon.

  • Thwarting Chickens

    Late yesterday afternoon, 4 or 5 of the hens who had remained penned until a stop scratching up my gardens solutions was decided, had Houdinied there way out of the small temporary pen. I grabbed the roll of bird netting and a fistful of fiberglass poles and headed to the walled garden to at least temporarily stop them. As I was covering part, a persistent Olive Egger was trying to dig up my parsley and oregano. She was chased off and more netting was spread over the edges near the stone wall where they were hopping in. I fully expected to find one or more of them tangled in the fine plastic mesh when it was time to secure them for the night. It is not a solution I care for. The mesh is nearly invisible, but as plants grow, they will get tangled in it which will damage the plants when I try to remove it and will leave bits of plastic in my garden, neither of which I want. I foiled the deer from eating my rose by putting a tomato cage tines up, but that is a hazard in itself and I don’t want tomato cages all over the garden either. Until the bed it full of plants and flowers, it will continue to be a problem as long as I raise chickens.

    Once they were secured for the night, it was the littles turn to be locked in. They had other ideas, most of them still exploring the pen and the under side of the coop. I sat in the hay and watched them for about 20 minutes as they explored their surroundings and me sitting in their midst.

    What, you want us to coop up? Not ready yet.

    I wish this was a better photo, with two of the black Marans with their black feathered legs. Such pretty birds and I can’t wait for their dark chocolate colored eggs.

    They are persistent, stubborn, and inovative about getting what they want and trying to put them in a pen or coop before they are ready is akin to herding cats. Maybe I should teach the German Shepherd to herd chickens.

  • The birds are still singing

    We had snow flurries off and on all day yesterday, no accumulation while the temperature fell to 31 f last night. We took our daily walk bundled against the chill and frigid gusty wind brought in by the front.

    The littles didn’t get to go outside yesterday. When it warms a bit more outside, I will let them out and add more straw to their coop. I tried to add some yesterday, but it just spooked them too much. It is going to stay chilled today, but no rain or snow, and another freezing night before the shift back to spring time.

    I haven’t seen any more hummingbirds. I am looking forward to the return of more as they flit in an out under the porch overhang, sipping the nectar from the feeders and chasing each other off.

    When we stopped at the grocer a couple days ago, they had geraniums in hanging pots, BOGO. Though I want to put them in pots on the deck and not hanging, I purchased two, but put them in the utility room until the freezing nights pass and the warmer weather returns. For years I have tried to get poppies growing from seed, always unsuccessfully, and there were pots of poppies at the grocer as well. One of them had to come home with me too and it was planted in the walled garden and covered with a flower pot last night to protect it from the frost. I have added 5 plantings of perennials to that garden so far this year. The Iris are beginning to show flags, I hope the cold didn’t destroy the first flowers. As the season goes on, more perennials will be added to that bed, I want it to be full of flowers. There is a patch where Calendula was planted and it usually self sows. If none comes up there, I saved seed from last year. The Zinneas, Marigolds, and Calendula along the south stone of the garage are up in that bed, but keeping the chickens out of it until the plants are large enough has become a challenge.

    The plants that overwinter in the house are ready to be back out in the sunshine and rain baths, but the nights have to be more consistently warm for that to happen. I don’t want to have to keep shifting them in and out.

    A new umbrella for the back deck table is on my wish list so I can sit out there once the sun is too hot to enjoy being there and as an outdoor eating spot in late spring, summer, and early fall.

    We will walk again today, bundled against the chill and look forward to the next few days as warmth returns.

  • Freedom

    These are the littles. Today was a nice day, so this afternoon, I did a few more minor adjustments to their pen and opened the pop door, got down so they could see me through it and started talking to them like I do when I have feed in my hand. I didn’t want to force any of them out, but wanted to see what would happen. Later, when several did leave the coop, I went over and sat on the ground with feed in my hand in their pen. More came out and a few seemed to get that the ramp was a way out and a way back in.

    At dusk when I was headed over to lock up the hens in the Palace, I realized that several of the chicks had found an escape from the pen. The ones outside the fence seemed more than willing for me to pick them up and place them in the coop, but there were 6 outside the coop in the pen that didn’t seem to get the ramp message from the others. I tried luring them with treats in hand and caught two more that way, but the other 4 are the ones who have been too wary to eat from my hand, and kept their distance. I called into the house for hubby assistance and with him manning the pop door, I cornered the last few and got them back in the coop.

    A head count showed one missing and it was getting dark. Hubby finally spotted her very quietly crouched in a bare ground spot and she is a brown Easter Egger and blended right in. He encouraged her out of the fencing pile with a pole and I managed quick hands to catch her. Now that the tractor is home, I should relocate that fencing to the barn.

    I see where some of them may have escaped. There is a spot where the fence is a couple inches from the ground. I will put a few grapefruit sizes rocks along that area tomorrow. There is another area under the coop where one of the cinder blocks that line the two edges away from the run is tipped, maybe from the hens digging under there in spite of the rocks I put there to prevent such activity. That will have to be remedied as well.

    I expect it will take a couple of days before they all get the idea to go back in to the coop at dusk and even longer until I am comfortable letting them out in the grass with no cover over them. They are getting bigger, but they are still much too small to fend for themselves in the yard.

    Oh the joys of young animals, it is a good thing they are cute and will be productive by mid summer. The big girls provided 7 eggs today, that is the most I have gotten in quite a while.

  • Sunday musings 4/18/2021

    Another week has flown by. In the past 14 days, hubby and I have taken walks 13 of them. Our daily walk is always between 2.4 and 2.8 miles depending on which trail/path we walk and our walks are getting stronger and faster. My path to better health has stayed on track. I didn’t go on a diet, not following Keto, Whole 30, or whatever the fad of the week is called, I just cleaned up my act, cut out unnecessary snacks, switched from sandwiches to salads at lunch, and quit taking seconds on anything except green veggies. By eliminating bread, I’ve noticed less discomfort. I am not gluten intolerant, but maybe age is playing a part. Our walks this week were done on 4 different trails, well three, but two different sections of one of them. I am sleeping better. My body seems to react to the solar cycles. In winter when it is dark early and stays dark late, I sleep more. As the days lengthen, I am awakening earlier each day and find I am staying up later at night as well.

    The unwell hen, spent two days in isolation and recovered from whatever ailed her. Her comb is vertical and red again, she is out and about with the other hens instead of hiding in a coop corner (until I isolated her in the garage in a crate). She hasn’t started laying again, I don’t think, though I caught her sitting on one of the nests yesterday. She just didn’t produce, though several days this week, the flock of 8 produced 5 eggs each day. It will be another few months before the littles start laying. Unlike the hens, when I open their coop door they come running toward me instead of hanging back or moving away. We have a couple of cold, rainy days this week, near freezing at night, so I think I will wait until after those days to turn them into the pen for the first time. It will be curious to see how the hens react on the other side of the fence when they are out.

    Taking the kitchen scraps to the compost during dinner prep, I noticed that there were 5 asparagus up. Only 3 large enough to cut, but they were lightly steamed during the last minute of cooking a couple ears of corn tonight and I enjoyed them as I always do the first ones of the season. I never tire of them and daughter and granddaughter anxiously await enough growing for me to cut bunches for them as well.

    The warm days are bringing the carpenter bees out by the dozens. Some have been caught in the bee traps, but their holes are so high up behind the gutters that treating the holes is nearly impossible. The woodpeckers have begun causing some damage to the facia boards going into their burrows to get the larvae. I suspect we will have to replace some facia boards in the next couple of years. You can’t stop them except with thick paint or clad facias. They seem to stick to the first floor facia boards only.

    My fiber journey began about 57-58 years ago when an adult friend on vacation taught me to crochet. At some point, maybe 40 years ago, I learned Tunisian crochet, but hadn’t done much crocheting in years. For some reason, I got a bug about relearning that skill, especially Tunisian crochet. It goes pretty quickly compared to knitting and after half a dozen false starts, several Youtube videos, and finally a recommendation of a particular video by a friend, I think I have the hang of it again. Since shawls take so long to knit that they are usually too pricey for craft shows, I plan to continue knitting fingerless mitts and cowls, but making more woven and crochet bags and scarves that when made with my handspun can still be sold at a marketable price.

    It still makes an interesting fabric. Don’t look too closely, there is an error near the beginning of this swatch. And there are different Tunisian crochet stitches still to learn. In the past few days, I tried using the tri loom again, I sold the large one last fall because I just wasn’t using it and really never got the hang of it. The smaller one is still here, but for sale. I just don’t seem to be able to do it without making an error that because of the nature of the weave, can’t be repaired. I guess that type of weaving just isn’t for me. I can use a square pin loom and the rigid heddle loom.

    The wool for my third breed for the blanket is spun, it still needs to be plied and knit. It isn’t a new third breed, one of the earlier months, I only had enough of the fiber to do one square, so more was purchased. It will be a second square of that breed.

    A bit more time has been spent on one of my wheels this week as I finished up some remnants of roving, spun, plied, and bathed, to use for bags for the shop. Pictures of them when I get farther along with this direction I’m trying. My body care products and soap will be made for family and friends that request it, there are just too many people selling those items at the Holiday markets and craft shows for it to work anymore. I enjoy making them and will continue to do so, but not in the quantity and variety I was.

  • First Hummer

    I finally spotted my first Hummingbird of the season on the feeder this morning and didn’t have my camera and it would have been taken through a screen anyway.

    It was spotted as I cracked windows and doors to turn on the self clean feature of the oven. I don’t need a house full of smoke and that was what was happening every time I used the oven above 350f. I can get it clean and the first thing I cook in it will spill over and the problem begins again.

    After dinner last night, I decided to try the hens loose in the yard again, hoping they would all return to the Palace by dark. Without taking down the fencing, I just made a 3 foot wide opening and let them go. Again, they ran straight to the old coop and run area and peck around outside it, but by dusk, they had all returned to the safety of the Palace. Seven perched on the ladders and one still exploring the food and water options. This morning, I removed the wire roll and reconfigured the poultry mesh to give them a pen with an opening and let them out. The opening is large enough for the hens to come and go but will deter our dogs, though I don’t think they will bother the hens as the hens are used to seeing them and don’t run from them.

    The chicks now all come running toward the open door with me standing in it when I go over to give them treats or refresh their food and water. All but a few will peck treats from my hands. I am hopeful that they are seeing me as the giver of good, not evil so they will come to the shaken treat cup when they are big enough to let out in the yard. All 15 still seem hale and hearty and I find them perched on coop frame as well as perches when I go over. The two smaller Buff Orpingtons are catching up in size, but one of the Marans is still appreciably smaller than the rest.

    The treat giver cometh.
    The small Maran is at about 11 o’clock in this picture, between the the cluster of browss and the three larger Marans.

    They are beginning to look like small chickens with pretty feathers, not the gawky adolescents they were just a week or so ago. The big girl feeder and water dispenser suit them well. I wish the couple that are still shy would come around before I start letting them into the pen. Late this week, we have a couple of cooler nights, not freezing, but I’m glad to see rich feathers on these gals.

    While I was putzing around in the kitchen, I spotted this shoot. It looks like one of my succulents is blooming.

    A few days ago, I spotted a very alien looking sprout in the succulent nursery, it wasn’t a succulent. I pulled it out and there was as much under soil as above and attached to the bottom was an almond shell. The holiday nut bowl had been on the counter behind them. I guess one dropped and sprouted several months later. I didn’t bother to keep it or pot it, but it was curious to see. When the dishwasher installer came, I found 3 almonds and a pecan still in their shells under the old dishwasher. That was even more curious as the dishwasher had a kickplate on the bottom that was so close to the floor, it was difficult to remove.

    When Daughter and her kiddos came for Easter dinner and the egg hunt, they brought me a bouquet of flowers. On Saturday, I bought a small bouquet of tulips from Stonecrop Farm at the Farmer’s Market. Today, what was still thriving from the Easter bouquet were added to the tulips to decorate the dining table.

    I haven’t wanted to cut the daffodils that I just planted this spring from prestarted bulbs, so it is nice to have some cut flowers in the house. Two of the stems from the Easter bouquet are dried or ones that will dry, so they were removed to a small pottery jug without water on the mantel to look pretty next winter as well. As other ones come in the house that can be dried, they will be added. I am hopeful that the Baptisia will germinate and grow enough to produce the pods that can be used to dye fiber blue like indigo, those pods are pretty dried as well.

    I want to plant a Pussy Willow in the yard. I love when the catkins come out in the early spring and then turn to white flowers that look almost like small Magnolia flowers. I didn’t get any branches with catkins this year, just watched them develop along the Huckleberry Trail during our walks. I also want to add a second Hazelnut so maybe we will get nuts. Though they are a native shrub here, there must not be another anywhere nearby as the one we planted has never produced nuts.

    Only a couple more hours of the nasty oven cleaning smell, though not as bad as chemical cleaners, then the noise of the vents and fans can cease, the oven cool down so it can be wiped clean.

    Soon I will plant potatoes. The Virginia Extension site says they can go in soon. There are sprouted Kennebecks left from the fall purchases at the Farmer’s Market and about 10 sprouting chunks of Russets from a bag of organic potatoes I purchased at the grocer. I must pull out the spacing instructions and we will have to purchase more soil. They are going in the bed that is built on cardboard over the hardpack part of the garden where I couldn’t get corn to grow. It is filled deep enough to get them started with bagged soil and compost from the bin, but as the potatoes grow, I will continue to fill that box side dressing them until there is a good layer of soil in it. I think that box may be my winter crops as it has the deepest sides and I can make a mini hoophouse out of it in late fall.

  • Sunday Musings

    The trek to better health kicked off with a bang on Monday when I hiked with Daughter and her two kiddos. It was a great morning that reminded me what a sluggard I had been all winter. Over the past couple of years, I have let a few pounds settle around my middle. My BMI is still normal, but the pictures of me on Monday and the many stops to catch my breath on the ascent caused me to pause and re evaluate. Every weekday this past week and today, there was a good walk taken, my diet again cleaned up of bad habits I was slipping into such as grabbing a few Wheat Thins or a graham cracker a couple times a day, going out for ice cream or making popcorn too many nights a week, not drinking enough water. I don’t need those snacks, I’m not hungry when I get them. If I get hungry, I will eat an ounce of Pistachio nuts that I have to crack from the shell and wash them down with a HydroFlask of water. I’ve started carrying that bottle with me all the time now. In less than a week, progress is being seen. I can again walk up the hill to the mailbox without stopping part way to catch my breath. I have seen a few pounds slide back off my frame. There are a few more to go.

    Yesterday was Market day and though I didn’t need much, we enjoy the change in routine on Saturday’s. I had preordered some more garden starts and to reach the minimum sale order, added a bag of lettuce mix and a bunch of salad turnips. The starts were my cabbage plants and some leaf lettuce from which you can repeatedly cut for salads or sandwiches. They were tucked in the bed that will eventually have the popcorn and winter squash at the other end, the longest of the new beds, and covered with the floating row cover over the new poles. They get light, water, and a barrier to the cabbage moth that lays her eggs to produce the little green cabbage worms that make lace from the brassicas. The row cover protected the other lettuce, spinach, and kale from a hail storm on Friday. Last night they were well watered in with heavy rain storms. While I was tucking the new plants in, I noticed at least a dozen raspberry canes coming up in and around the blueberry bed which is next to where the failed barrels that had contained the raspberries had been sitting. They were all dug out and I will have to be vigilant to continue to remove them until the runners all die off.

    It took the hens less than a day to remove every blade of grass in the temporary pen. This morning, I took one of the rolls of fencing that I have yet to remove to storage, mostly because the tractor still hasn’t been returned, and enlarged their temporary pen. I’m sure by nightfall, it will be barren too. I may try again tomorrow to open it and see if they will return to that coop by nightfall. I can’t keep them penned in there forever. I really should purchase a 100 foot roll of electric mesh and just move them around each day or two to protect them from domestic and wild predators. That way they are in grass each day but safe.

    I finished spinning two breeds for the Breed Blanket Project. The official one for the month was North Ronaldsay, a sheep breed from Scotland and the Orkney Islands. They roam the coast, will eat seaweed, and get sand and other material in their wool. Much of it is processed in a small mill in the Orkney Islands. It wasn’t too bad to spin, and it knit up nicely, but I sure wouldn’t want to wear it next to my skin nor knit it on the edge of the blanket.

    The second breed is Finn, dyed in dark colors. It is spun and plied and I just began my first square of it last night. The smaller blanket above the squares is using up the scraps, each breed marked with a deer antler button on which the breed is written. It will be for display use when done and probably will not contain all the breeds in the big blanket.