Diary 6/28/12

My brother is here and it is nice to visit with him.  More folks due Saturday and then eventually 28 relatives.  The weather has been cool and kind to the yard today after the attack of mowers and weedeaters yesterday. Now it is supposed to get warmer by the middle of next week or the 3rd and 4th.  That would be nice because now it is raining and I have convinced several of the relatives (with their children) to try tenting for the first time :). Hmmmm?

Diary 6/27/12

Battling aphids on the squash.  They are taking over and the ants are farming them, providing food and habitat.  Today, the army arrived, 1500 ladybugs.  We will release about 500 every few days until we see progress.  The ladybugs were not available until recently because it has been so cool that they failed to come out of dormancy.  I think most of the little red friends we use are from stumps in the Sierra Nevada Mts. in California.  I have seen a few out at the garden, but after releasing over a million through the years, there is little to show for it. They are off working elsewhere I hope.  The bugs will eat and eat, but as soon as the aphid population is under control they fly away to happier hunting grounds.  You can use glue or put a drop of soda pop on them so their wings stay shut and they cannot fly, but I have never done this, nor never shall! I will take pictures of them tomorrow.

Diary 6/26/12

Worked on a framework for the Roma tomatoes. They were starting to tumble out of their bed.  The bulk of the tomatoes are on the cattle panel arches.  I don't have to build as many frameworks as I used to, so there is plenty of spare parts to be found to build whatever is needed.  Did some weeding and enjoyed the fact that for the first time in days, the sun came out.  Not to complain because we had by far the best weather in the nation. My heart goes out to those dealing with floods and fires. 

Diary 6/25/12

Busy days, busy days, and none of it is gardening! I attended a luncheon, a wedding, and a surprise birthday on Saturday.  Then on Sunday, there were good old friends for dinner.  Then today a trip to town, lawyers, (don't ask), and a cemetery where we surveyed a gravestone my husband, myself, and a few others made 36 years ago.  We decided what was needed to repair it (not that much) and set it right. So, I am blogging just before bed and looking to the rest of the week for more accomplishments and then the arrival of 22 of my family for a get together over the holiday. Busy days, busy days.

Diary 6/22/12

Coriander(Cilantro) shrub

It is raining and although I know it means weeds will be coming up in the open tilled areas, it is a nice sound and feels cozy.  I am feeling better as I have been sick over the last couple weeks.  I had a toothache which needed a root canal, and I took antibiotics for the infection in the tooth.  Subsequently, unbeknownst to me, I got an infection in my colon when the first antibiotic killed or disabled all the good bacteria in my digestion.  Now I am taking an antibiotic to kill the infection caused by the first antibiotic.  Something is wrong with this picture.  Hope to be all well soon.

Diary 6/21/12

Always hard to mow down the meadow.  It is so pretty now, but if there were days of continued hot weather,it would be fire danger quickly.  As is, it was mowed, and now it is going to rain for two days. So, who knows, maybe the flowers will make a comeback. Weeding, watering, mowing and making pretty for the soon to be house guests.  An old friend is coming this weekend, he hasn't been here in a long time.  I think he will be surprised at the changes.  All is good.

Diary 6/20/12

The figs are coming!

Good-bye to Spring and hello to Summer.  89 degrees tomorrow and then boom,70 on Friday.  That is challenging for plants.  I hope the clouds expected with the cooler temps help keep it warmer at night.  Last night it was 42, 39 the night before. Not exactly tomato ripening or even growing nights.  Lots of produce coming "down the pike", but a bit of a lull, except for snow peas, so gonna take a couple weeks off of most of the bags and let things catch up.

Diary 6/19/12

Skunk.  That is what the Fish and Wildlife said.  You can see the padded foot in the middle towards the bottom.  It is a picture of the south end of a northbound skunk.  I think maybe he was going to spray the camera about the time that it went off with a flash again, thank goodness. Anyway, I had to add two more bricks under the inner door as the digger has given up on the outer one.  I am pretty sure it is a mama skunk just trying to save some time by shopping where she knows there are eggs.  I hope as soon as the young ones are old enough, she will give up and move on. If not, I will have a real Fort Know by then. Garden made some good strides growth wise this last few days.  90 degrees tomorrow, and that is sure to sprout the other seeds and really get some leaves on the new babies.  I have still been planting successions, but soon will hold off a bit as we get closer to time to plant fall garden.  Hard to think we are at the longest days and soon to start back down the other side.

More Wedding Flowers

The latest:

Diary6/18/12

Something has been trying to dig under the chicken house door.  I think it was successful and got some eggs once or else just frightened the chickens enough there were no eggs for days.  Anyway, this has been going on for a week. Every night I add more protection in the form of new boards, a few rocks, then bricks set in firmly which it dug to the side of.  Then more rocks and a half brick there which stopped it for that night.  Then it started working on the side of the fence to enter the edge of the pen door which I also shut every night ever since a chicken massacre 4 years ago.  So, I tighten that down and added another board.  Then a couple nights ago, I set up a game camera that takes a picture when the motion detector senses something moving in front of it.  Actually it takes a succession of three pictures.  I got pictures of humans, and three blanks and me setting the camera up.  Then last night or rather 4 AM(camera is not set on correct time), it came and this time I got this mystic picture.  I called the Fish and Wildlife to ask if I could email the picture for them to guess what it was, and so I did.  They let me know for sure what it was and I guess I will agree. Can you tell what it is? It is the thing in the lower right hand corner.  I will give you a BIG clue.  It is not a wombat.

Diary 6/17/12

Happy Father's Day to dads everywhere.  We did not have the traditional BBQ today, and my husband didn't even get to go fishing.  Instead we spent the day cleaning up around the farm house for a reunion in a couple weeks. It seemed more like Mother's Day as I was the one who hates the piles. Thank you to those who helped.  I really really appreciate it for the reunion and in general for the view.  Hooray!! I raised a family of gardeners!  Here's a third generation one now, so proud of his first zucchinis.

Diary 6/14/12

It has been busy as usual.  Took the wwoofers to Crater Lake on Tuesday after a short session of gardening in the morning and the first of many loads of rock arrived for the area where the old cabin went down and the new shop will go up.  Crater Lake was not as impressive as sometimes because there was so much snow you could not walk around very much and it was overcast, so the water surface was steel grey and matte unlike the great blues it usually shows off.  The drive was nice. Lunch at Beckie's had the local feeling for the out-of-towners.  A walk along the river on the Rogue River Trail was too much for me after a mile and a half, so I sat out the the other mile to Takelma Gorge, letting the younger legs go on. I watched a mama woodpecker feeding babies in a cavity of a half dead tree.  Just where I was sitting there was 7 different kinds of trees; Yew, Douglas Fir, Hemlock, Maple, Alder, and Chinquapin. Whoops, that's six, can't think of the seventh! Anyway, I had a nice view while I waited. Yesterday we harvested, packed and delivered 8 bags and had Schnitzel for dinner. Today we cleaned the yard.  Allen also pitched in, whacking away blackberries and unwanted weeds.  I worked on the rim around the pond.  Michael weed eatered and mowed, and the girls sanded and painted the peeling red chairs their new bright yellow. Then we cleaned the raft for a voyage on the Rogue tomorrow.

Wedding flowers

These are flowers we have in the garden right now in the peachy and purple realm.  Some dahlias, but they are just getting started. 

Diary 6/11/12

Yesterday we went as far as the snow would let us go up on the mountain. Both directions we were impeded by snow.  At the first place I was thinking, hmmm, snow just leaving, trilliums blooming... seems almost like there would be morel mushrooms here. Then when we went to the second place, my husband found one and the hunt began.  The visiting helpers had so much fun looking and finding some wild mushrooms, we didn't get home from our drive until late.

The Hike

"We want to climb that mountain and look back at the farm."

"That one over there?"

"Yes!"

About that hike my wwoofers took; they pointed at the mountain across from us and asked to climb it.  It is not the first time this has happened and they were not the first successful ascent, but still an impressive feat.  They went straight up the ridge which begins across the creek and far to the right.

Diary 6/11/12

So much going on here, I drop in bed at night, forgetting to blog.  Good food, new friends, a visit from our great niece, nephew, and great, great nephew, a passionate vegetable eater(even the greens of the carrot), and a hike.  More soon...

Diary 6/8/12

Garden Girl must leave us tomorrow. I am sad to see her go, of course, but ready for the rest of my life to get its full attention.  She has had a fun time with all the wwoofers who have come in the last little while and I know she misses her mommy, but less this last week.  So now for more changes and the crew to reduce down to the three of us who will be here all summer.  A few more days with the couple from Germany.  It has been so interesting comparing cultural notes.  Then, looking forward to the family reunion at the end of the month and a few more projects associated with that.  Bathroom remodel?  Who knows if that is going to happen...Meanwhile, the garden will like the upcoming warm days.

Diary 6/7/12

Swallow penthouse

I had such a group of helpers yesterday!  We planted melons, squash, and cabbages.  Tomatoes were tied up and asparagus was totally, I mean totally, weeded.  Impressive.  Delivered bags and toured the Butte Creek Mill. Rainy today, so most of the action for the garden was inside the greenhouses.  The fire from cleaning up the cabin continues and some of the old vehicles around the edges here were moved.  This having a reunion is a good thing to accomplish these sort of things.

Diary 6/5/12

Lots of progress today with so  much good help.  Unfortunately, one member of the impressive crew had to go, but we have a couple who have added a good element of hard work ethics to the group.  Today, we performed a demolition on our old cabin.  By nightfall, most of the debris was cleaned up.  We mulched all three rows of potatoes and harvested and prepared produce for 8 bags!  Tired, very tired.

Home from Bend and a wonderful break with good old friends and some newly made.  There is a changing of the guard going on around here.  Katie, who has been here for almost a month, is leaving us for another farm in California. In the meantime, two visitors from Munich, Germany are arriving in the morning to help for two or three weeks.  On Friday, Megan came to stay for a longer term of the entire season.  So, I will keep planting and hoping for successful crops as I seem to have a great crew helping with maintaining them.  Best wishes for Katie to find a farm even more fun than ours(not bloody likely, ha-ha).  At least she takes away with her the sighting of a cougar one day and an elk the next!

Diary 6/2/12

We are off to Bend for a friend's retirement party.  My husband was her first physical therapy patient and now she is retiring!  He was much improved by her exercises and kind ways, and we in turn gained  lifelong friends. Amazing how things go.  Out of a bad situation some really good things can arrive sometimes. These folks have an amazing view of Three Ssisters mountains from their home.  I'll take pictures...Cucumbers are just about ready and they are the next headliners.  The strawberries are really producing also, so the bags have some new items in the next weeks.  The tomatoes are all blooming and I have been so busy, I haven't checked for tomatoes set on the plants, yet.  I am sure their are some there to see. Have a great weekend.  I will!

Diary 6/1/12

The other day I had a spare moment to visit a friend and neighbor on the day she received her bag of goodies.  She had them laid out on their table in what looked to me to be a pleased examination of that week's bag contents.  We sat and talked for a bit and her two young dogs waited patiently for a treat.  She casually reached into the bag of snow peas I had delivered, and they came to immediate attention.  She took the string off the peas as they watched carefully. She snapped it in two, giving each dog a half a pea.  They crunched it down like it was the best bit of jerky in the world.  They do the same for carrots.  I can hardly wait for the bulk of carrots to come in.  I now have a home for any seconds!