Diary 6/29/11

Bags went smoothly with a couple new stops this week.  Friday folks will have about the same things in their bags; asparagus, peas, green beans, lettuce and Napa cabbages.  Maybe they will receive cucumbers or broccoli or squash as their other item.  Rain will bring up lots of weeds in the fields.  Will till and then plant summer cover crop of Sudan grass.  Buckwheat that self sowed from the $30 of seed I bought last year is doing well.  Hope to let it go and not too many weeds come up with it.  Day off to go fishing!

Diary 6/30/11

Bushed from all day fishing trip.  Busy harvest day tomorrow.  The weeds are starting to grow quickly after rains of previous part of the week.  Now to stay up, the race is on.

Diary 6/28/11

Took two almost two year olds to the Kids Discovery Center downtown.  It was fun and they had good activities of all kinds for kids, even two year olds.  It was exhausting for me as grama.  You pretty much had to keep up with them as they played moving from place to place and around various other children.  Rained all day, so we chose to do this place after a short visit to the grower's market. All in all a good day, no farming, but grandkidding instead.  Harvest for 9 bags in the morning.  A couple people out of town, and I don't dare start anyone else until I have a little more stuff.

Diary 6/27/11

Clouds collecting this afternoon for rain storm's arrival tonight.  Worked hard to get everything watered yesterday, ha-ha.  Muggy afternoon with visiting children picking strawberries and playing in the water on the lawn.  Off to visit local grower's market in the morning.  I attended this market for 14 years as a vendor.  Haven't been in a couple years, funny I used to be there every Tuesday, now it takes me two years to stop by.  Will be fun to go as a customer, taking two almost two year olds and it is supposed to rain, hmmm, we will go with the flow.

Diary 6/26/11

PEAS!

Diary for 6/25/11

Wandering my garden alone.  Garden Dog is looking for friends.  I am getting back in the groove of responsibility.  Watch, weed, water, and wait are the main jobs now as things continue to grow. Perfect temperature day with an occasional cloud and perpetual breeze. Lots of action around the bird house; swallows are having another batch, laying eggs once again and mom and dad wren go back and forth to noisy babies.

Diary 6/24/11

I am a little melancholy this evening, as I have bid good-bye to the helpers I had for the month of June. They took a year off to do some taveling, wwoof at a few farms, and see the National Parks of the west. They were so wonderful here, I had come to rely on them.  Now it is back to the grind, but from a nice beginning, mostly weeded, all planted except a couple more successions of things, and ready to grow and produce~ thanks to the wwoofers extraordinaire from New Jersey. I will miss them greatly.

Diary 6/23/11

Cleaned the edges of our road, taking out bushes tht were narrowing the travel space.  Worked on removing scotch broom which is starting to spread in our yard.  Have another layer of it to remove or at least chop down.  There was some poison oak that we didn't mess with, hopefully no one gets a case of it.  We all came in and washed with Technu, here's hoping.  Lots of flowers starting to bloom including the dahlias and zinnias in the greenhouses.  This honeysuckle is really loaded and smells so good in the evenings. baby wrens getting noisy in the swallow house, must be time to fly.  Swallows already took off.

Diary 6/22/11

The first week of two bag delivery days.  Tricky because you have to think what you will have for Friday and not overpick for Wednesday.  More new things coming on and the continuation of the asparagus for another couple weeks and I will be able to get all my customers going.  It has been a weird weather year and it is continuing with a week of cooler weather ahead.  Mother Nature is getting us used to heat slowly, nice.

Diary 6/21/11

Summer solstice!  When I was 13, I spent this day at a small village at the tip of a fiiord in Norway, folk dancing into the night.  It was the land of the midnight sun and didn't ever get really dark that night.  We traveled south after that and the effect was less as we did so, but for me that night was invigorating enough to keep dancing forming a yearly visited memory! Another bright sunny day here in Oregon, something like this Coreopsis. Replanted corn which had another bad germination-so much for year old corn seed. I could mention GMO shelf-life gene, but I won't. We also worked on tomato frameworks.  My most excellent wwoofers are leaving Friday, so we are trying to wrap up a couple projects before they head off to see several of the western national parks~ lucky dogs!

Diary 6/19/11

Happy Father's Day to all the dads!

Diary 6/17/11

Fishing at Diamond Lake yesterday.  Motor didn't work, so we had to paddle out to where it was deep enough to fish.  Still caught three nice trout.  A beautiful day at a lovely spot.  Have put some fish away for winter this week with the salmon caught earlier in the week.  It is supposed to be 24 lbs, but it looks much bigger than that to me! 

Diary 6/15/11

Working on this and that.  The last few plants that needed transplanting are going out.  Things are popping up; melons, squash, latest beans.  Nice to see normal germination with the warmer weather.  Hopefully, the corn will do the same. Pancakes with strawberry sauce this morning: YUM!

Diary 6/14/11

Got those corn seeds in the ground and thanks to awesome wwoofers, the drip lines, too.  We planted King Kool, Jubilee, and How Sweet It Is.  Put in some large plantings since we have missed at least two successions.  Looking forward to an empty table where once there was so many baby plants in plastic waiting to go in the ground.  Now a bit of a waiting game while things grow...

Diary 6/13/11

Burning the last of dry debris

leaving a tidy forest floor.

Added bonus~ some mulch for the potatoes

With the unexpected rain came a chance to burn some brush piles we had not quite finished.  The area where we cleaned up by our pond got another layer back cleaned and burned.  Less fuel for a forest fire. Worked on tomato plant frameworks. Have one more area to frame.  Hopefully we can plant corn tomorrow.  I am anxious to get seed in the ground.

Diary 6/12/11

 A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

Diary 6/11/11

Strawberry harvest

wwoofer making bouquets

supervising Grampa

Nice harvest for 14 bags on Friday.  Not lots of products, but good snap and snow peas, asparagus, and strawberries for the bags. The strawberries are putting out their first crop and it is pretty good for the weather we have had.  Just wait, the summer crop of strawberries will be substantial.  Green beans and cucumbers soon.  Everything else growing nicely, coming out of the cold wet.  Lots of help yesterday from new wwoofers and granddaughter.  Tilling for corn planting tomorrow evening or Monday morning.  Hope the moon is good, I need to get seed in the ground!  A few more melons to go and then everything except future successions will be planted.

Doug Green's Blog

This guy has so much info!!! If you are just getting started on gardening, he has sooo much info.  Best of luck!garden blog

Diary 6/8/11

Fell asleep before blogging last night.  That tells you how busy it is here with the good weather.  Planted melons transplants and seeds to match in top greenhouse yesterday.  Worked on an additional outdoor bed for the big watermelons, Crimson Sweets, and honeydews. Also worked on fence around pond to keep range cows from favorite vacation spot.  Have to weed the asparagus again today.  It is coming up quickly now with warmth.  I expect the arrival of the asparagus beetles today, so good to keep the stalks cut back to eliminate habitat.  Still waiting for clay soil to dry for tilling and planting corn. Will do some harvest for tomorrow and
Take a child fishing and create a memory!  This guy is ready with a new life jacket from his parents and a new flashing Spiderman pole from his Grampa.

Diary 6/7/11

Transplanted pumpkins and Delicata winter squash in a long row today.  Worked on drip lines and getting everything watered after my being away for Antiques Roadshow.  The warm weather is going to make things hop to.  Hoping to till for corn.  First planting in tray had a sparse germination, and the second planting hasn't come up yet, so not sure.  Would like to get some seed in the ground, but it has to warm up at least another day to do so.  Will work on melons and flowers tomorrow.  I have some annuals to decorate the deck planters and yard with also.  Supposedly the range cows arrived today...

Diary 6/6/11

Antiques Roadshow was a lesson on patience when waiting in line.  We were there for 6 1/2 hours and in that time we saw appraisers for about 6 minutes.  The lines were two hours long and other than talking with those you were in line with, the whole thing was non-eventful.  If you were in line for an appraiser who didn't know your thing, you were pretty much out of luck.  I didn't learn much except that the bird is from Persia, and I will not go again...I think if you had a collection of local logging memorabilia that would have interested them. Ah well, it was an adventure I will not soon forget. In the morning we saw a bee swarm come over and land on a maple tree across the street.  Pretty cool.

Diary 6/3/11

I am off to Eugene to attend the Antique Roadshow filming.  Here is a picture of a couple things we are taking.  They are both metal, and so I am hoping I only have to wait in one line, lol.  I have researched these items and found nothing, so I think they are perfect candidates for appraisal. Oh boy!

Diary 6/2/11

Could it be true?  Except for Sunday, it looks like no rain in the forecast.  The middle of next week is looking really normal. I am soooo ready.  Hate to snivel because I know it is going to get hot, and I will wish for cool wetness, but I am so behind in the garden that it is starting to be a stress factor and that is never good!  13 bags tomorrow with snap and snow peas, broccoli, lettuce or salad mix, choi, carrots?, asparagus and strawberries. Tried to plant what I had left in little plastic planters here and there.  Gathered rotten log duff to make into potato mulch.  Off to an adventure over the weekend.  I'll tell you tomorrow...

Diary 6/1/11

June, huh?  Wouldn't know it.  Feels more like March.  The high was 48 today.  That is the lowest high for the date according to weather man.  New wwoofers are here to help.  Could really use some sun so I can get some corn, etc. into the ground.  Going to plant the last of greenhouse tomatoes tomorrow, and then maybe plant a few seeds somewhere.  I can get help organizing melon areas even if I can't plant the actual melons there yet.  Usually our rose bush blooms when the salmon arrive in the river, but not this year.  No roses, but there are salmon!