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.
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 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.
Not to anything dire, just not wanting to keep posting the same routine.
It has been a hot, wet summer and the garden has suffered. Raccoons got every ear of corn and started on the tomatoes as they ripened. Green beans have been very prolific as were the cucumbers. The cucumber vines have now died off and were pulled from their trellis yesterday afternoon and the first planting of green beans also pulled as I had been away for 5 days and most of the ones on the plants were too large and soft to be desirable as we don’t like the “southern” way of cooking them with fat back until they are practically mush. The second planting has just begun to provide.
We set about on Monday to get the lawn mowed after lunch. I sent DH out to get gas for a fill up, thinking there was enough to start while he was gone, but I backed the riding mower out of the garage and it sputtered to a stop. Instead of sitting idly by, the bed of flowers by the east side of the garage was a weedy mess and the grass was hanging over into it, so much bending, stooping, and sitting on a step stool that sent me into an unplanned hard landing on the grass, and all the grass and lambs quarters were pulled, a new edge dug. He began to mow while I was doing that so the line trimmer was used to go around the house and over to the vegetable garden that had lambs quarters, wild amaranth, and horse nettles as tall as me that the line trimmer couldn’t handle. This is the result of hand weeding all of it and the orchard grass growing in the paths.
That pile is about 2.5 feet tall, what you see behind it is the same mess that is in the closed off chicken run that I can’t access until the fence is removed. I don’t know if it will compost as I had no means of chopping it up, so it is a stack of 5 to 6 feet long stalks mixed with mats of Creeping Charlie, Bermuda grass, Smart weed, and other unwanted greenery that had taken over the end of the garden not in use this summer. I’m thinking about trying to move the inner fence to cross just above the part of the garden in use and letting the chicken have at the rest. It will leave them unprotected from the hawks but that is a chance I am willing to take.
Yesterday a very early venture over to the garden to harvest beans and tomatoes and finish weeding a small section I never got to Monday, found all of the Tithonia and Sunflowers full of sleeping wild bees.
Yesterday afternoon, after a trip to the nursery, flats of spinach and Romaine lettuce seedling, a row of Little Gems lettuce seed, and three rows of turnips were planted in one of the empty raised beds. The one the first green beans were in will be reserved to plant garlic when it cools more.
The reason for my 5 day absence was to travel to Black Mountain, North Carolina for my favorite Art and Fiber Retreat. We meet at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly. It was rejuvenating and a bit heartbreaking. The group is a wonderful mix of ladies that spin, knit, crochet, weave, and do other paper arts. The heartbreak was to see the damage caused by Helene and know that though they have worked hard to recover, only 40% occupancy is available still as they lost a couple of buildings and had damage to many others. The motel style lodge where we stay and where meals are prepared and served by the staff was the first to be repaired and reopened. Helene took out every power pole leading up to the buildings except for 3. It took them 4 weeks to get any power back. The creek that became a river down the west side, that damaged the old gym so badly it had to be torn down is now a gully 16 feet deep and washed through the woods taking out trees and rhododendron to now look like a dry river bed.
This is an area above the retreat that is up the mountain. All of their hiking trails in that area are impassable still and a lower priority than restoring the rest of the buildings.
Part of the repair is placing 14 foot arches where roads were to divert the flow, instead of smaller culverts that had always handled the creeks in the past. Also where two landslides sent mud into buildings, have new reinforced walls at the top and the slides seeded as they are now open meadows.
In addition to visiting with friends I see seldom, I finished a skein of yarn I had been spindle spinning, took a needle felting class and made two little pumpkins, and started wheel spinning 8 ounces of Coopworth and Alpaca roving purchased from a friend that raises the animals and dyes the wool before the mill processes it into roving. Also some knitting on a pair of fingerless mitts was done with the wool I purchased in Alaska in May, spun on spindles and plyed on spindles.
Now back home, my food consumption is focusing on smaller portions and healthier choices as we always have a snack table with too much sugar and fat on it, and though I did take a walk up as far as I could go up hill above the retreat one day, I consumed too much not so healthy snacks in addition to the three meals a day they provide. Now home, I have resumed my daily walks with DH of 2-2.5 miles. It has been so humid though, it feels like you are breathing fog.
We have a cooler week of so ahead, it should help make the walks more enjoyable. We see early Autumn in the air as the early turning leaves are coloring and some are already falling. Until I have something new, stay safe.
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It is that time of the year when I dress up and present to local elementary and middle schoolers what it was like to have to make everything you needed to live on the frontier and to trade and barter with neighbors, provide your extras to the community store for the wagons moving farther west into what is now Kentucky and Ohio. The cabin was originally built in 1769 on Peak Creek and moved to the Wilderness Road in Newbern in 1830. When it was moved, a loft was added, you can see the stairs in the background. The footprint of the cabins in the “planned” community were 10′ X 10′ some with a loft. A fireplace for heat and cooking. The barn loom behind me, similar to the one that was in this cabin for an enslaved woman who was the village weaver. The walking wheel also behind me is one I made functional at the museum and demonstrate it and the drop spindle for making yarn to be used for the fabric needs. Last Wednesday when this photo was taken, it was dreary and chilly, about 47f and the 100 kiddos moving between the 8 stations every 15 minutes had to hustle and pack in tight for some of the stations. They huddled in every porch and building that had space to eat their lunch. I thought I was going to freeze and it took several hours once home to thaw out.
That sent me on a quest to make or find a historically accurate cape because this week’s groups begin on another chilly but dry day. My quest turned up a navy blue wool reenactment cape with hood used, on ebay, for a very good price and quick shipping. It arrived today and I won’t be cold again when the weather does not cooperate.
The cold night last week was hard on the new flower starts I put out, I guess a day too early. Today we bought marigolds and petunias as well as some flower seed that mostly will go in a ground bed once I get it cleaned up from winter and the hardier starts were put in the spots in the pots on the deck that were hit the hardest by the 25f night. Also some zinnia and nasturtium seed were interspersed with the small plants, so hopefully the pots will fill in with color as the spring moves on. There are no near freezing nights for the next 10 days and I will cover the pots with row cover if we get threatened.
The vegetable, herb, and flower seed under the grow lights haven’t sprouted yet, but they aren’t due to go in the ground for at least a month, maybe 6 weeks.
Cabin Crafted 