Cabin Crafted

Tag: garden

  • Wild life mini disasters

    One of the downsides of living on a rural farm is the wildlife seem to become less wild in the daily presence of humans.

    When our children were young and we lived in a coastal surburban area, we would travel to the mountains for a weekend vacation hoping to see deer and an occasional bear. Loved watching the chipmunks scurry under the stone stairs of the cabin. Seeing raccoons, sometimes with a brood in tow peeking over the stone retaining walls along the Parkway.

    Well, they all live here and are much less wary of humans than it seemed they were when we were actively trying to see them. The deer barely look up from eating when we drive down the gravel driveway. The chipmunks dig holes in the deck plants. Food scraps left in the compost pile disappears overnight. And the deer come right up on the patio to eat the sunflower volunteers under the bird feeder, knock over the flower pots on the deck steps looking for something on which to graze. The perenniel sunflowers and daylilies don’t stand a chance. They are planted right up against the house and I haven’t had daylily blooms in years. I don’t think to take before photos of the tipped over pots with potting soil spilled out on the steps. The one this morning is a huge pot up two steps that was sown with wildflower seed and was full of young plants a few inches tall. It has been righted, as much soil and seedlings as could be salvaged scraped up and as of this morning, those pots now have tomato cages with plastic mesh inside to discourage such behavior. The daylily bed has panels of old bent rusty fencing tunneled over the garage side bed to try to get a few blooms this year. It is discouraging to put in the work of planting and caring for beds and pots to have them destroyed within feet of where we live.

    The orchard is their feast, it is across the other side of the vegetable garden seen in the above photo. They are welcome to feasting in the orchard, there is too much fruit for us anyway. The vegetable garden has 4 foot fence with a solar charged electric wire around the top, so the deer stay out of it, but the rabbits flourish. Hopefully with the unused part mowed back, they will be less bold. To get in the garden, they have to go through the chicken tunnel except on the house side. That fence is in very poor shape, so perhaps that side should be refenced with rabbit fencing to block their ingress, however the gate still leaves bunny sized holes around it.

    We love seeing the wildlife that share our farm, but they have 30 acres of grass and woodlands in which to graze. Leave my flowers alone.

  • A slight respite

    Today dawned with a few clouds and a delightful 54 degrees f. The high today only aimed at 74. As I was up early, my garden jeans, an oversized worn out tee shirt, and garden boots were my early attire. The line trimmer fully charged and a pair of garden gloves were grabbed, and off to tackle the vegetable garden so it didn’t keep me in a funk. The paths were trimmed to bare earth where possible, the blueberry bed trimmed, some taller lambs quarters and amaranth pulled, the rest cut as close to the earth as the trimmer would cut. The burn barrel was going to be moved out of the way, but it has burned and rusted through the bottom, so the remaining ash in the bottom will have to be shovelled into big garbage bags and taken with the remains of the barrel to the dump. Maybe, once empty, it can be moved somewhere to continue using the vented sides on a bare spot until it totally gives up.

    After the work with the trimmer, a hoe and hand weeding got most of the beds back in order. And some of the peppers were in better shape than I thought yesterday. After cleaning up and putting the battery for the line trimmer back on the charger, we left to do our daily walk and some errands. The nursery did not have any Jalapenos, but did have Anaheims, so we purchased a small flat of 4 plants. The big box hardware store did have nice potted Jalapenos in 6 inch pots, so two of them were purchased and the bird netting to cover and protect the grapes from the deer. They got all the leaves and grapes last year, this year I want them and plan on winning this battle.

    Once back home, the garden clothes were put back on and the recharged line trimmer was used to beat down the stickweed about to overtake our mailbox and the grass around the culverts that we can’t get with the mower. A few other areas need trimming, but the battery only lasts about 30 minutes. Once it was back on the charger, the peppers we purchased were added to the garden. The two Jalapenos replaced two that were in the worst condition and the 4 Anaheims planted under the trellis that the peas are on. As the peas aren’t doing much, they will be pulled before the peppers need the vertical space. The rest of the hand weeding was done, and though the garden hasn’t proved very successful so far, it least I’m not still intimidated by the tasks that were needed and accomplished on this mild day.

    Tomorrow, we are forcast for another mild day, so maybe some fence work, hanging the netting over the grapes, and putting up a bunny barrier around the peppers can happen in the early part of the day.

    When the weather cooperates, it is a pleasure to get outdoors and work. Once it gets above 85, I don’t want to be outside, and have to force myself to get the daily walk in for my health.

  • The farm and a lack of energy/motivation

    It is hot! Mid July hot. The garden this year is a total disaster. Something has eaten all of the corn shoots that were about 6 inches tall, the peas blew over and it got too hot too soon for them to produce. All of the peppers, hot and sweet have been eaten to a stub and the weeds are winning. Every ripening blueberry is damaged. When the rain comes, it comes in torrents with wind. The Smartweed, Cheesehead weed, and Creeping Charlie may soon be a solid mat.

    I am hoping for green beans and tomatoes. We will check the nursery tomorrow for larger pepper plants and put mesh collars around them or a chicken wire fence inside the raised bed and hope that we get some peppers.

    At this rate, my best option is to try to mow back the paths and try to weed the beds with anything growing in them. Maybe next year, pull all the metal raised beds, lay a thick layer of corregated cardboard, reset and refill the beds and add one or two more. And move the fence in to make a much smaller garden with rabbit fencing around it or around the inside edge of each raised bed, and just mow the upper part. The asparagus bed needs to be reworked anyway and reseting the garden will allow some crowns to be moved.

    The pumpkins and gourds were planted out today as small plants, but there isn’t much hope for their success.

    The deer are decimating the flower beds. We see them right up almost to the porch and rabbits by the dozens this year. A chipmunk or two are living in the rocks around the deck area and come up on the deck to dig into the pots of flowers growing there.

    What used to be a pleasure, is now a chore. The herbs on the deck are doing well, even sharing them with the Black Swallowtail larvae that feasted there for a few days.

    And the young hens are very generous now, providing many dozen a week. Daughter’s family gets their share, a dozen travelled to eldest son’s for our weekend, I am eating my share and there are still too many. A neighbor or someone at spinning may soon benefit from some if I can get my hands on a few cardboard cartons.


    That is three day’s worth from our weekend away. Being young, the eggs are still on the small side and still getting a few with double yolks.

    We are currently sitting under a severe thunderstorm watch. The one on Friday evening caused ruts in our driveway and the gravel state road off which we live. We need a couple of dry days for our hay man to come mow and bale the hay. And a couple of cooler days for me to try to regain some order to the garden.

  • How does your garden grow

    Yesterday was a perfect day and the last Living History class group of the spring. They were a delightful group of about 50 second graders, well behaved, engaged, and even had some great questions. Summer time is hot to wear all of the frontier woman’s clothing, but I do miss doing the groups during the summer. Fall will bring fourth and sixth graders, and more of the surrounding counties are taking advantage of the offering of history as it applies to their SOL objectives.

    Today the temperature begins an uptick to a few days of mid summer type weather with it reaching near or achieving 90 f before it returns to normal spingtime. It seemed like a good day to take the next step in garden planting for the season. After our usual Saturday morning breakfast out, Farmer’s Market purchases, and walk along the Huckleberry Trail, a pointed hoe and packets of seeds were carried out to the garden. The green beans were planted, the peppers staked, and a box that wasn’t in the vegetable plan this year, planted with mixed sunflowers and tithonia, and the adjacent area with Sweet Annie and Calendula. Since they were newly planted and no rain forcast for a few days, the sprinkler is on it now.

    The blueberries need weeding, some paths week whacked and the three sister’s garden started. I also want some flax seed for the row of the flower box that isn’t planted yet.

    The box with the flower seed in it is deteriorating and will removed at the end of the season, probably replaced with another metal box next spring. The very long one to the left of the peppers, peas, and newly planted beans if rotted so badly that it has become dangerous and local grandson is going to come over and help me cut it up, remove it from the garden and haul it to the dump. Under one of the apple trees is the remnant of a small chicken tractor that blew over about 4 or 5 years ago and he is also going to help finish deconstructing that to haul away so that mowing near the apple trees and chicken coop and pen is easier. Sure is nice having older teens/young adults that are willing to work for tuition money (or to just help grandmom out, but will be paid.)

  • Time to grow

    The tomatoes and peppers have moved out to the deck during the day, watered and brought back in to the floor in front of the south facing doors for the evenings. The herbs started in the Aerogarden, except for the basil were transplanted into a large pot on the back deck a few days ago with a cover ready if needed at night, but it hasn’t been necessary. The future weather forcast for here looks stable with a couple of rainy days, so this evening, the tomatoes were pruned of all of their lower leaves, only the top pair left and planted on their sides next to the A-frame trellis purchased last year. They are deep enough to create strong new roots along the buried stem and if necessary in the next few nights, small enough to cover with medium sized terra cotta pots or gallon jars. The 8 pepper plants, 4 hot, 4 not were planted in another bed and the sides of that bed are high enough that it can be covered with plastic if necessary. All of that was watered in well along with a soaking of the bed with peas, lettuce, and spinach. Tomorrow is to be a rainy day which will help.

    Also the end of last week, 3 large pots were sown with mixed flower seed. Tonight, I rescued my False Indigo from the mountain mint, planted it in a half barrel half buried in a ring in the back of the house that helps us locate the septic cleanout door. Around the half barrel, more mixed flower seed was planted, then all of the deck and back yard pots given a good soak.

    A few Christmases ago, a friend gave me a wax covered Amaryllis bulb that sprouted a gorgeous stalk of vivid red trumpet shaped flowers. When the flowers were spent, the wax was removed and the bulb planted in a pot and it grew leaves. Each summer it goes outdoors, each autumn it comes back in and when the leaves die back, it goes dormant. The following year, the blooms were about a month later, last year another month later, this year it waited until the very end of April to grace us with 4 lovely blooms and leaves already.

    On a recent walk, we found a native Flame Azalea. It wasn’t very large, but the golden blooms are so pretty tucked in the edge of the woods.

    Recently, the hummingbirds have been at the feeder regularly and an Eastern Phoebe keep landing on the back of the porch swing on the covered front porch, then flying off toward the protected breezeway and upon investigation, found this nest.

    Her chicks have hatched as she is now in and out constantly feeding the brood. It is too high for me to peek in and see how many. Once they fledge, the nest will be hosed down and the logs scrubbed off to prevent rot. At least one of the birdhouses in the vegetable garden is hosting Bluebirds. They were most unhappy with me working in the garden this evening, so work was done as quickly as possible to get away and leave them alone. I could peek there to see how many babies, but didn’t.

    The beans probably won’t go in the ground for another week or so and toward the end of May, the popcorn, gourds, and pumpkins, but that end of the garden needs some work first. The asparagus are amazing at how quickly they go from barely breaking the soil until almost too big to eat. I have to admit to having to compost a few as they didn’t get cut until the tops started opening. Fortunately, daughter’s family likes them as does a friend I see every week or two and they have definitely been my green vegetable of choice for a couple of weeks.

    The mountains are now green almost to the top and fully leafed at our elevation about halfway down. It is such a pretty time of the year here.

  • Return to normal

    Spring typical weather returns tonight for a few days of 50’s during the day and upper 30’s/low 40’s at night before the warmer weather returns midweek. By Friday when again, many layers of Colonial style clothes will be donned to greet more school kiddos at the museum, it will be back up in the 80’s. For the next few days, the two hanging plants that were put on the porch will hang in the utility room to prevent the cold burning the leaves.

    Today being Saturday, we supported the local Farmer’s Market, coming home with some pasture raised, grass finished meats; some veggies; and 4 tomato plants that will live in a plastic bin by the back door in the sunshine, on the porch on warmer days, and inside at night, until it is safe to add them to the garden. I still need to get or start some peppers.

    The bearded Iris are glorious right now, at least the purple ones. Two vases cut and brought in the house and dozens more blooms in the garden beds. The Amaryllis that was gifted me in bloom several Christmases ago has bloomed later each year. It is just about to have this year’s blooms open. When it is done blooming and the weather stabilizes, it will move outdoors for the summer.

    And today, finally a Ruby throated Hummingbird visited the feeder that was hung about 10 days ago. It has been dumped and refilled once to keep the sugar syrup fresh. Soon they will be fighting for it as more appear and a second feeder will be hung.

    The young rooster, so far, hasn’t been too vocal and his fate is still undecided. If the pullets reach a free ranging state, his presence will be helpful, but as long as they are restricted to the pen and tunnels, he is a nuisance.

    Spring brings the Tom turkeys puffing up, fanning their tails to attract the females. They call back and forth across the fields. It always amuses me that Thanksgiving turkeys are depicted in the fall like the spring Toms.

    Another month or so, we will start seeing fawns with their Mom’s. So far, the does haven’t sent last year’s fawns off alone. By fall, they will rejoin Mom with her new young. Though not a hard rule, usually, first time Mom’s have only one, and older does will have two or occassionally even three, though that is rare.

    Spring with the flowers, returning migrating birds, young animals, greening trees is always an anticipated time of the year.

  • Still here

    The garden is cleaned up, the peas, lettuce, and spinach planted and awaiting more stable weather without fear of frost to plant beans, tomatoes, peppers, popcorn, and gourds. The asparagus are providing more than I can eat now, so some freshness from the garden. Both of my Asian pears are failing, both with large areas of dead branches. They produced nicely for a few years, then basically stopped production, and now seem to be dying. It is too early to tell it the freeze that happened a few days after the plum bloomed will prevent fruit. The peaches and apples waited to bloom until later, and the blueberries have lots of blooms.

    This week is summer type weather with three nights of near freezing later this weekend into early next week. One day it is shorts, tees, and sandals, then a few days later, jeans, long sleeve shirts, socks, and sweaters.

    It is only mid April and the lawn has had to be mowed twice already. Not my favorite job, but if it doesn’t get done, even the riding mower struggles to cut it down.

    The young chickens are now about 16 weeks old and a few weeks ago, I noted that one of the Buff Orpingtons was larger than the rest and already developing a vivid red comb. This morning, my suspicions that she was a he was confirmed with crowing. Now I have to decide if I want to keep a rooster with the remaining 9 pullets or find a new place for him to live.

    One of the all black Mystics is pure evil, not toward me, but very aggressive and dominant toward some of the other pullets. They will have to settle their own “pecking order,” without my intervention. We are about 6 or 7 weeks from starting to see eggs.

    One of my fellow re-enactors is a published author of historical novels, Carol Amorosi. She has a 3 book Celtic series, and a 5 book series that begins with the surveying of the Mason Dixon line and the most recent, I just finished reading, brings it up to the brink of the American Revolution. If you are a lover of historical fiction, her books can be found on Amazon in paperback or e-book formats.

    And it is school visit time at the museum, several Friday’s in a row with varying age groups and group sizes. This week are 6th graders, about 100 of them. They will be broken into 8 groups and rotated through 8 stations to visit and learn about life on the frontier about 250 years ago. This week, the slip, petticoat, short gown, long socks, and cap will be quite warm to wear with the 80+ degree heat.

    With these sessions, I generally spin on a Dealghan spindle or a wooden drop spindle as they would be more historically correct, and demonstrate the Lucet for making braided cords. These skills would be ones that young people would have been taught to help contribute to the family’s cord and yarn needs for tying bags, carrying tools, and for weaving the homespun that was a necessity away from the larger town ports after the Wool Act.

    We continue taking a daily walk, sometimes about 2 1/4 miles, other times we extend it to more than 3. As it gets hot, we often shift our walk time to late evening to avoid being in the hot sun during peak hours, and start making sure we have a bottle of water to stay hydrated.

    Stay well my friends.

  • Virginia Springtime

    We again have had a series of near early summer type weather, but hang on, it is Virginia in the springtime. Yesterday 78 and warm at night. Today 81 and 39 at night. Thursday 43 and 28 at night. Then we have several days of typical spring weather followed by a couple days of deep freeze with nights in the teens. If you don’t like the weather, stick around for 24 hours, it will flip flop.

    The Forsythia is beginning to bloom, if it freezes, we will lose the pretty yellow blooms but no harm done. The plum is in full white bloom and a freeze will mean no plums this early summer. I may take a sheet out to cover it Thursday and next week when it is again cold and hope to salvage some fruit.

    The pullets have finally figured out the outdoors and going back in by themselves at night. I only had one night of catching all ten and one night of catching one. Yesterday, the cover of the tunnel was refastened. The end needs some work, but it should only take me an hour or so to finish the work and another few minutes to secure some areas that don’t quite reach the soil line, then they will be given access to more space.

    On our daily walk, we saw two woodchucks, aka ground hogs, aka whistle pigs that have burrows on the edge of the trail. Both were out sunning, of course darting back into the burrow as we approached.

    It is the season where a few flowers from the yard can be brought in to adorn the table. Now there are daffodils and forsythia. The bearded iris and daylilies are showing and the autumn joy is showing green. It needs to warm up a bit more before the wildflower, zinnea, marigold, and bachelor button seed can be sown.

  • Olio

    A miscellaneous collection of things.

    Most of my blog/journal postings fit that description anyway, but that title hasn’t been used in a while.

    Two of the pullets were getting braver and leaving the coop. Unfortunately, the other 8 aren’t following and peer pressure hits and the two go back inside. A couple days ago, now that we have a series of spring days, they were forced out, with some scratch and some water in the pen so they get accustomed to being outdoors. This resulted in having to catch all 10 and walk them back up the ramp to the popdoor at dusk. Yesterday, only one appeared and never left the ramp. Today was coop cleaning day as they had made quite a mess of it in the few weeks they have been in it and my efforts with the snow shovel chased them all out into the pen. The coop is clean, they have a container full of food and another of water, however, as dusk approaches, not a single one has gone back into the coop. When it gets a bit darker, if they still haven’t figured it out on their own, another catch and up the ramp session will occur.

    And with the warmer dryer days ahead, planning on getting the tunnel around the garden secured so they can expand their territory if they ever start coming out on their own.

    If it was up to me, the television would rarely be turned on. Hubby knows that and generally only turns it on late in the evening or after I have gone to bed. However, there is a series in it’s second season that does interest me. The series is “Doc.” As we don’t watch series shows for the most part, a characteristic of this show bothers me and I don’t know if it is typical of series in general or if this is an anomaly. The show is an hour. The content is probably only 15-20 minutes of that hour and the remaining 40-45 minutes is commercials, often repeated. This is not an exageration. For every 4-5 minutes of content, there are 8-10 minutes of ads. It has become so irritating that I may stop watching it entirely. It is bad enough with movies, even in theaters now, you get the commercials seen on TV at the beginning. At least they don’t interrupt the flow of the movie in a theater with inserted ads. When you pay an arm and a leg to have TV in your home through satellite or cable (we live in the mountains and antennas are basically useless), it is annoying to have that much of the show time not actually the show.

    The itch to start seeds for the garden is strong. The average last frost date here is around Mother’s Day, so 6 weeks prior wouldn’t be until near April 1, a long 3 weeks away. The seed is ready, the LED lighted starting boxes clean, but the date is too early. In the past, I have succumbed to the temptation then struggled to keep the seedlings from getting too leggy or outgrowing the starting pots. This often results in then purchasing starter plants at the nursery closer to planting time. Maybe the urge can be tamped down by preparing beds and repairing fences. And peas can probably be started in the ground now.

    Earlier this week, I got my new hearing aids. Because my right ear canal is not straight, or even close to straight, the audiologist suggested trying a custom mold so the aid stays in place. In numerous tries, she could only insert it correctly twice and I have yet to be able to accomplish it. Another appointment has been scheduled for Monday to discuss this with her and other options. If I am going to constantly have to be adjusting it, the dome like I had before and on my left aid may be the only option. At least that doesn’t make my ear canal sore while trying to insert it.

    We have 5 more days of spring like weather before we return to seasonable March weather. At least there is no snow in the two week forecast, that is a win in my book.

  • The Blog

    Blogs are developed for several reasons. Mine is basically a journal. I have tried paper journalling, however, writing is much slower than I think or type, so the blog evolved. If my thought are deeper than I wish to share, there is a private typed journal that occassionally I use.

    This week has been full of life. After our Anniversary dinner last weekend, we have had a busy but usual week. With the chick teenagers now in the coop, daily trips over to check on them and carrying a plastic cup with a handful of dried mealworms as a treat. The cup is shaken from the garage to the coop and as the door is opened and the treat poured into a small dish. The idea, to train them that the noise, the yellow cup, and me mean a treat so that when they begin to free range, they will come when called with the treat cup. It is about time to let them into the run, so most of a bale of hay has been spread in the run, areas of the fence that either had a broken wire or not tight to the ground were reinforced, and the battery operated pop door reset for times, but still wedged shut. We have two days of winter wet starting tonight with rain, turning to snow tomorrow into Monday night, so the door will remain closed for a couple more days. I don’t want to have to be out there in snow and cold to encourage any of them that don’t find their way back inside the coop as night falls. They are looking like small chickens now, less awkward.

    The two black ones are Mystic Onyx breed, one I had never seen before. They are a cross of Silkies and meat birds, medium sized, gentle nature, black legs, beaks, combs, and feathers. One of these has feathered feet and a head tuft more like a Silkie.

    We had several beautiful days this week where we could take our daily walk outdoors on the rails to trails trail. The mid section still hasn’t reopened from bridge repair, but is supposed to reopen in the next couple of weeks. Getting outdoors encourages a longer walk than when we walk indoors in the mall. We have managed a couple of 3 mile walks this week. When the weather warms a bit more and the spring flowers are showing more, we will extend the walk to the Hahn Garden on campus.

    With the nice day today, we made it back to our routine with breakfast followed by the local Saturday Farmer’s Market for the first time in several weeks. Being able to get some fresh greens, radishes, bread, and a small roast is wonderful.

    The new spindle has been the spindle of choice this week. It is Koa wood, hubby selected as a reminder of our trip last November to Kaua’i.

    I love the smaller spindles, this one is a bit larger than 3 of mine, but still small enough for travel and tucking in my daily bag, but large enough to hold more spun fiber.

    The hydroponic garden has 6 young herb plants sprouted. Soon they will be large enough to begin to enjoy some fresh herbs in cooking and salads. Our favorite garden center reopens next weekend and seeds needed for this year ‘s garden can be purchased. There are some left over seeds from last year, but not enough peas or beans, and after the raccoons got all of the sweet corn, I will go back to planting popcorn instead. The brightly colored popcorn can be used for fall decorating and popping and the raccoons don’t seem to like it as well. Last year I tried to cover the unplanted areas with pumpkins and failed. I don’t want to deal with the weed load this year, so a plan needs to be developed. Maybe gourds that can be used also for fall decorating and shared with daughter. If that fails, the line trimmer will have to be used more frequently as the garden fencing hasn’t been moved.

    Spring can’t come soon enough, we are tired of the cold and the ridiculously high energy bills.