Garden

 This is the only time of year that I believe I could come close to being a vegetarian.  I love me some fresh veggies from the garden!  I will generally serve fresh, raw tomatoes and cukes at every meal also (even breakfast), but I think that's common in the South.  Or at least, it used to be, and still is amongst the older set, which I guess I'm in now.  Ha! 

 The second planting of corn is definitely kicking some butt and making up for the failure of the first planting.  In fact, today we saw where some of it is starting to tassle, so I'm well pleased with how this crop is doing.  I could eat hot, steamed corn on the cob until I just popped!

The tomatoes are still lagging way behind and being puny but virtually every other crop is well taking up the slack.  We should even get some good watermelons this year, something I've never been particularly successful growing.  I have about 6 good size melons on 2 hills now.  Won't be ready for the 4th by any means but they will come in while it's still mighty warm here.
This spring we added the entire contents of our large compost bin to the main garden and that has apparently been a boon for it.  Of course, that contained a large portion of composted chicken poo and that stuff is some great fertilizer.

And the grapes are doing great too!!  I MUST build a better, stronger arbor for them for next year.  What I have now is a true embarrassment, especially for a carpenter and welder. lol!  The dreaded Japanese beetles are hitting the leaves hard but we've been hitting back pretty good.  The chickens have learned to stand right on the other side of the fence as we pick and toss! The beetles that is, not the grapes!  The girls love those little crunchy monsters...kinda like chicken popcorn and I'm happy to fill 'em up!  I wish there was a way to just let the chickens come get them on their own but they could not reach them and they'd tear up the garden trying.

The new bean and pea trellises are working out great.  Not more bending over!  The peas are well on their way of making little pods but I've yet to see many beans yet.  They are blooming however, so it should not be much longer.  I've never grown this variety of beans before so I'm still learning it.  Seems like the Jade bush that I used to grow was a pretty early type.

You can see the blooms all over the peas here and they are much further along now.  It's interesting, in that the garden is growing so well, if I lollygag around about posting pics they are usually outdated within just a couple of days.  And I usually do lollygag.  The peas should be coming in just in time though as I think I only have one more jar of canned peas from last year. 

I've also already canned a dozen half-pints each of strawberry and blueberry jam and started a 2-quart jar of refrigerator pickles tonight.  Hopefully I'll be able to do better on the canning this summer than I did last year.

And the rest is just some gratuitous flower photos. .... Most of my daylilies have pooped out at this point although there are a few still here and there.  

And the Vitex shrub is growing like a weed this year.  It's well over my head and they say these things can get about 20 feet tall.  I love the blooms and it is also medicinal for women.  In fact, I need to gather a fresh batch of the seeds this fall.  I also like having these shrubs because all types of bees love it and anything that encourages those guys (or gals!) is great.
So how does your garden grow this year?

Batdance

Hopefully, the bat saga has now come to an end.  It finally got hot enough this year that the attic louver became too uncomfortable for the clan and they moved out to cooler sleeping quarters.  We set the BIG ladder up so I could reach the louver from the outside and I gritted my teeth to the heat and began the process of screening them out.  First I had to clean the louver because they had pooped all over it and down the side of the house even.  I washed all that, touched up the paint and redid a little of the caulking.  Of course, in the process I managed to poke a hole in the screen that is secured on the inside face of the louver so I had to go in there and patch that good.  I needed to clean up some in the attic anyway, under the louver so it was as good excuse as any to get it all done at once.  It was pretty freaking hot but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Regardless, I was soaked by the time I was finished. 

Today was kinda cloudy and I finally had all my materials together and ready so I checked to make sure there were no stragglers up there and started to screen off the front.  Well, of course, there were two bats that had come back so I had to go back into the attic and scare them out.  Wasn't too bad...I just blew on them and tapped the screen until they got mad and left.  So, back outside and up the ladder.  I stapled 1/2" hardware clothe over the face of the louver so nothing (but bugs) can now get into the slats.  Of course, you can't see anything from this crappy photo but it doesn't look bad.  I was afraid the hardware clothe would stick out like a sore thumb but you really don't notice it.  Now, I did spray paint it with a reddish primer so that helps greatly.

The photo above was taken a couple of months ago and I wanted to show ya'll because....if you click on it to enlarge it, you may be able to see the bat on the far right is in the process of having a baby!!    The others (there were more) all had babies under their wings.  Some of them had two!  One under each wing.  I know they were making a mess but this was SO cool!  So, we let the babies grow up and everybody get out before I put the screen up.

The bats are not so easily deterred however.  Of course, they can't get back into the louver but they apparently really like my house, so they just went to the other end.  Now, it's cooler on that end too, so I suspect that's why they went down there, and there is no attic on that end, but they still managed to find a nook to cram into.  I was walking up to the door today and heard all this screeching and such and knew they were up to something.  Bats have a very distinct sound so I recognized it right away.  I looked up just in time to see a dozen bats or more come billowing out of the crack between the regular roof and where the clerestory roof joins it.  I have a (maybe) 16 inch soffit on the sides of the clerestory roof and where it joins the normal roof it makes a large bird's mouth.  They were stuffed in there and maybe even under the metal ridge cap (only about 16 inches of that too).  That side faces the rising sun and I think the metal roof had finally heated up enough to start burning their little furry buns so they came hauling ass out of there.  I kept hearing some others though and climbed up on the roof to see there were still three or four hanging on to the spot.  I don't know if they ever did leave.  That area is not so bad though.  They can't really get into anything there and their poop will just get washed off when it rains.  Besides, that being a pretty much open area, I don't know anyway I could stop them from roosting there anyway.  I am going to put up a large bat house, in a tree, and just hope they find that a more desirable place to sleep.  I really like having the bats around as they are great for pest control and of course, I'm a softie for them because they are often misunderstood.  But I don't want them messing up my house!  I'll build them two houses, or more!, of their own if they'll use them.

And the bats are not the only critters that really like my house!  The phoebes just love the outriggers that hold the verge rafters up.  Of course, I love the phoebes too.  They are really great pest control also, so I don't want to run them off.  I do want to remove their nests as they abandon them though and lay some copper flashing down on the tops of the outriggers so that future nests don't rot the wood.  I don't know that they would now but better safe than sorry.  A lot of people fuss about the looks and think it's nasty to have bird's nest around but I just love them.  I'm glad my house can provide a safe place for the babies and I hope many generations (of bats and birds) will call this valley their home.

Down With Disease

So, in keeping with the crappy crap going on around here I thought I'd post about the fact that my garden decided it needed to get in on the act.  I've always done pretty well garden-wise and have rarely been plagued with armies of pests or disease the way some other bloggers seem to be, or make out to be anyway.  So I guess my luck has run out.  Ha!  Oh, it's not awful but it can be discouraging.
The first thing I noticed were the tomato plants.  They looked kinda, sorta wilted, but I knew that could not be the case.  Then the leaves started curling up and twisting excessively towards the top of the plant.  The odd twisting is what really told me something was bad wrong.

Later, it was obvious that the plants were stunted and the leaves began to get a purplish color in the veins.  A little investigation turned up that this is, appropriately, "curly top disease."   Apparently, this little leafhopper spreads the virus by only briefly landing on the plant and biting it.  As far as I have been able to determine there is no treatment once the tomato plants are infected.  Fortunately, the little leafhopper does not hang around long, preferring to eat other weeds, so it's common that only a section of plants may be infected and it does not spread plant to plant.  Only the bug can spread it.
So, all of my tomatoes that we bought and planted are infected.  Thankfully, that was not a huge amount this year.  Some of them have still produced a few tomatoes but they say they will not taste very well.  the saving grace in all of this (hopefully) is that I had a LOT of tomato volunteers come up in the garden this spring, apparently after the bug passed through.  And thankfully, I did not rip them all out when weeding!  So...we have been transplanting all those starts to rows and hopefully we will still be able to get a decent tomato harvest.  Now, I only have a vague idea of what variety those starts may be but it will be good enough, as long as I get some home-grown tomatoes.  They are going to come in late...but better than not at all.

I think I also told ya'll about the squash volunteers too.  They are doing really well but I was wondering for a while if perhaps they were sterile hybrids that got in somehow.  I don't plant hybrids but we may have inadvertently bought some in the off season and threw the scraps in the compost.  They are now producing some type of squash vegetable, although it remains to be seen exactly what.    And I don't try to can or freeze it so no problem there either.  This picture is old btw, and all the plants there are HUGE now.  I'll try to get some more recent ones.

We've also been attacked by the potato beetles; first time for that too and most of my raspberries have died.  I got the cabbage in WAY too late and it's all gone to chicken feed.  One interesting fact in some of this is that I also noticed that this was the first year I did not plant oodles of marigolds in amongst my tomatoes and such at the same time the crops were planted.  Coincidence??  Maybe.  But I went and bought 2 big packs of marigolds yesterday.   I was trying to get those planted this morning and a thunderstorm came up but they need to go in soon!

And, it also seems my biggest forsythia has some type of gall?  About half the shrub is covered in this stuff with no leaves.  I haven't taken the time to investigate it yet; maybe some of you know what it is?  And if anything can be done?  I was going to prune the hell out of it and burn the prunings.

But all is not lost.  Most of my flowers are doing beautifully this year and we are going to have loads and loads of blueberries and possibly figs.  The second planting of corn is doing great and so are the peas and green beans.  Even my watermelon looks promising.  My cantaloupes did not come up that I planted (old seeds) so I bought enough for 2 hills, so hopefully we'll get a few melons.  The asparagus harvest was not too bad this year and it's spreading and growing.

And the baby chicks are doing really well.  Mama Hen takes them out every day and seems to so enjoy having her babies.  Our new little Silkies are also doing well although they still keep to themselves and are kinda hard to photograph.

So, I guess all things come and go in seasons and proves the old saying of "never put all your eggs in one basket!".

Bat Country

 I can't recall if I have ever mentioned my bat critters on the blog before but the whole deal has turned into a bit of a saga this summer.  Now, I love bats.  I think they are wonderful, beneficial creatures that have been wrongly maligned for centuries.  Can't say that I would want to snuggle with one but I would certainly never do one harm.  In fact, I want to help them if I can and I had hoped my place would be a refuge for bats and bees and any other creatures that are so helpful but hardly seen.
Well, a year or so after moving in down here I had noticed one bat living in the west end attic louver.  I have always had screen wire tacked to the inside of the vent so critters could not actually enter the attic but he (she?) seemed to like the louver part just fine.  Unfortunately, I had not tacked the wire down on the bottom such that the bat could not get on a flat area, which it did immediately and began, well,...pooping.  Apparently, bats like to lay flat as much as anything, rather than hanging upside down because this one was always laying flat out on it's stomach whenever I went up there.  Well, I didn't think much about it; it didn't seem to be doing any harm really, so I just let it be.
  Previous to this I rarely went up there, because I just didn't need to, and didn't think about the bat too much.  Well, after we were up there on and off I noticed there were now 3 bats living in the louver.  Hhmm.  I don't know if these were children grown up or other adults recruited or what but it seemed that the extras just kinda showed up rather suddenly and then one day there were 4!
I also began to notice about this time that there was a slight odor in the attic.  Okay, let's rephrase that.  There was a strong odor in the attic and a slight odor in the pantry, which is as you may remember the location of the attic access.   They were pooping so much on that flat part of the louver that the smell was becoming very unpleasant.  Bat guano may be a wonderful fertilizer but it is some hideous shit (literally) to be around.They could now only get into the slanted boards and their poop would, theoretically, just roll out into the yard below.  We also dusted the flat board and inside of the attic well with baking soda to help absorb the smell, which I think it did eventually.
Bats, however, must have a very sensitive smeller though, because the next day this little guy (gal?) came to visit me.  Apparently they were rather unhappy with the baking soda remodel and spent the day outside.

I was walking down to my studio in the basement and noticed some quick movement near the door but I couldn't quite make out what I was seeing.  As I went to open the door I found myself face to face with this!  It would open one eye just enough to peer at me, daring me to squawk at it's presence.  I felt kinda bad but I had no idea that they would find baking soda that upsetting.  It wasn't even on the areas they rested on.  But, I was also delighted at the opportunity to observe this one so closely and it stayed there all day.  I mean, look at that hair!!  It's the Elvis of bats!
We were also very careful not to disturb it, not to touch it and not to let any of the animals around it.
Now, there are several species of bats native to Alabama and naturally I concluded that this is one of the rarest and I am doing my part to help the struggling creatures.  Actually, I don't have a clue what type this is.  All the photos look the same to me.  But, rare or not, I want to help them and provide them a safe home.  I found THIS  interesting link on the benefits of having bats around.  The fact that just one Little Brown Bat can catch up to 600 mosquitoes in one hour is especially cool!

So, the bats eventually got over their distaste of the baking soda and a few days later we noticed Baxter and crew were back in their usual place.  Since they could no longer get on the flat board most of their poo actually seemed to be falling outside, the smell disappeared and we went about our business.  And they did also it seems.

I now have TEN bats living in the louver.  Maybe it's the red paint, I don't know, but they love this thing.  Well, a friend of mine gave me an official, never-before used bat house in a attempt to lure them into finer accommodations.  We hung it on the same end of the house at a similar height and then placed 2 bags of moth balls right on the inside of the louver as they are really supposed to not like that odor.  Ya right.  They left for 2 days I think and now are right back.  I really don't mind them being there; the vast majority of the poo is going outside and there's no smell, so far.  I guess a large enough group of them could possibly block the flow of air out of the attic, and they seem bent on becoming as large a tribe as possible, but I don't know if that would actually happen.

So, for now I'm not really sure what to do.  Except enjoy the fact that there are not very many deer fly or mosquitoes around.  lol!

Cry Me A River

 Well, nothing like talking to a real life friend to totally mash any delusions that your blog is enjoyable and entertaining for folks!  I'm just joking around really.  Sorta.  I talked to the infamous BFA today and he informed me that every time he had read my postings lately he went away with the desire to go stick his head in the oven.  I take it he felt my posts were kinda "downers".  Haha!   Well, it hasn't been my intention, to be posting depressing stuff, but I may have inadvertently gone that way a few times.  So....to make up for this gross transgression...I give you.....

Fuzzy, baby chicken butts!!!

They make all things right again and spread the warm fuzzies like nobody's bidness!!  Sorta like when George, the largest of the babies, gets on my shoulders and craps down my back.  I even have a feel-good, warm fuzzies story to go along with them.

The baby you see pictured here is Tilly, the youngest and smallest of the four new bitties we got a couple weeks ago.  They all seemed quite healthy and active when we got them but I noticed a few days after they had been here that Tilly just didn't seem to be as active.  She stood in the corner a lot and always wanted in my lap when I would go visit them, where she would quickly fall asleep.  A heavy rain shower came through one afternoon and it turned unusually chilly afterwards, so I went out to check on the babies where I found Tilly huddled in the corner once again, shivering a little.  Now, for some reason she is kinda bald on her lower back, and baby chickens need a lot of warmth, so I scooped her up and brought her into the house.  I had also noticed that her crop never seemed to be anywhere near full and she didn't seem to like the chick starter meal we had gotten them.

 I pulled out a box and made Tilly a quick bed within it on an old heating pad.  A soft, stuffed dog took the place of Mama Hen and it wasn't long before Tilly was nice and warm and sound asleep.  I had gotten her to eat several raspberries beforehand but I knew it wasn't going to be enough to last.
The next morning we took her out with the others but she just didn't seem to be eating like they were.  I experimented a little and found that, alone with me in the yard, she would forage and gobble up stuff as well as any other chick though.  Now, Tilly must be about half the age of the other chicks she came with because they were SO much bigger than her.  They never attacked her or anything but if you have ever had chickens you know that they get very excited around food and Tilly was just getting knocked around every which way when she found a bug or whatever and was usually coming up empty handed, so to speak.  The lack of getting much down her gullet was making her weak and further unable to fend against the bigger chicks.

So,  I devised a plan.  We would take Tilly into the garden with us while we were working, so she could forage all she wanted to with no competition.  She loved it.  Finally, she could have all she wanted to eat without having to fight those others.  And, since she is so small, she is absolutely no harm to the garden.  We started letting one other chick (Pumpkin) go with her, so that she would have some company, and it's so much space they would not be competing. I am always with her too, because the garden is not covered and a hawk could, theoretically, swoop down and just haul her off.  It worked really well and soon Tilly was stuffed full of bugs and other goodies and even eating her chick starter meal again.  She regained her strength and now even takes bugs away from some of the others!  She's small but she's fast. 

After she regained enough strength and was running all over Pumpkin, we started bringing all four of the chicks into the garden with us while we're working.  It works really well actually.  They are small enough now that they don't damage any plants or the fruits.  Well, they will snatch a strawberry or blueberry if they can reach it but I will afford them a nutritious snack like that.  The strawberries are about gone anyway.  They run through the beans and tomatoes and squash like nobody's business, eating bugs and such and never hurt the plants or disturb things.  George, the biggest, does scratch a little but even he doesn't mess much up. 

Little Tilly's legs are so tiny that, even though she goes through the motions of scratching, she's not really moving anything.  I'll even sometimes move the mulch for her so she can look for bugs or worms and then move it back after she has scoured the area.
She loves the garden so much now that she runs like crazy to the gate anytime she sees us come around.  Unfortunately, we can't stay out there all day with her but she, and the others, do get a few hours a day and they have their regular outdoor run the rest of the time.  With this procedure Tilly has caught up enough that I don't really worry about her anymore.  Her crop is always about to pop at the end of every day now, so she's getting her fill! 

They were also very quick to learn that wherever we are digging there is liable to be worms and bugs to be found   A little later I'll finish the brick entryway and side beds that go in this area.  If nothing else, Tilly gave us the motivation to work in the garden weeding for longer than we probably would have otherwise, just to give her plenty of time to eat.  It paid off for all of us.

Rites Of Spring

Well, I keep telling ya'll I'm gonna change up this blog or add some stuff or blah, blah, blah and I haven't done crap!  I will one day.  There's just so much to distract me right now with this wonderfully warm weather and sunny days.  I'm soaking it up like an old, dried up sponge that got kicked under the sink and laid there for a year or so before somebody found it.  And then you throw it in some water and it poofs up!!! like a petrified blowfish!  That's me alright!  Poofed up and prickly. LOL!

And I took a good bit of this past Sunday to work on the flower bed (it's getting close) placing more stone, filling in with topsoil and moving a few plants around.  Anytime the shovel comes out ZuZu is right there beside me.  She knows what that means!  Lots of bugs and worms and she doesn't have to do the digging!  She inspects everything before I can fill any hole or place any root ball and talking up a storm the whole time.  I wonder what she says; whether she's complaining or expressing her pleasure as she must think I do this just for her.  She gets so enthusiastic I'm often afraid I'm going to chop off a toe or two (hers) when she jumps in a hole unexpectedly.  But we've been safe so far!

This is just more gratuitous blooming photos.  See how I layered the 2 blooming plants to get like, bloom overload.  The reddish blooms in the foreground are a decorative crabapple I think.  The past 2 springs have turned ugly with late frosts and got this tree before it could bloom properly but this year it made up for all that.  Just loaded with big, full blooms.  Maybe it will eventually get over 7 feet and actually be a noticeable part of the landscape.

And lookeeee!!!   the asparagus are just starting to poke their little heads up!!  I don't think I've ever been so enthused over a plant.  Hhmm, maybe I need some more excitement in my life.  Oh well.  For some reason I thought the asparagus would sprout sometimes in early March or so but after reading a little I determined that April and actually May is normal.  I also read that you should pull the heavy winter mulch off the asparagus at the first sign of warm weather.  Does anybody else do this?  I pulled about half the layer of mulch off and as I did this I discovered the few shoots coming up.
I also read that most fruit should be mulched with pine straw, so I've been working on that.  I knew it was good for strawberries and blueberries, so they got a new top coating, and also went around the border of the garden mulching the grapes, raspberries and figs with it too.  Do any of you use pine straw on your fruit or something else?

Sooo, lots of stuff going on around here and I'll have more to show before too long.  I promise I am working on some stuff in the house too, so maybe a post about that soon.

Simple Sunday

Since I haven't posted anything lately about what has actually been going on around here, I thought I'd put up a number of photos that I have taken recently.  The mutt chicks and mamas are doing well and everybody is all still with us.  We did have a close call back about a week ago when either a dog or coyote came into the yard during a rain storm.  We looked and looked and had about given up hope but they all were apparently hiding in amongst the lawnmowers and such and came out after they felt everything was okay.  I'm glad they have such hiding instincts.  I like also that the mamas stick together as a group.  I was afraid each mama would try to go a separate way and the chicks wouldn't know who to go with but they stick together as their own little herd. 

The turban lily actually put out 2 blooms this year!!  Yay! I actually found two more of these plants down the valley a bit back in the spring but when I checked on them later the deer had eaten them.  Maybe next spring I can transplant them up near this one and keep the deer away.

The pure bred chicks are doing very well; growing like weeds!  They are constantly amusing.  On the far left is the Brown Leghorn, in the middle is the Partridge Rock and on the right is the Speckled Sussex.  The Sussex are very sweet but they Leghorn are extremely flighty and never get near you.

This little Partridge Rock is the funniest looking little thing!  It looks like she is wearing bloomers!  And none of them have tail feathers still!  I guess they grow some eventually.

This has been a great year for the garden even though some stuff was a little slow to get started.  I hate to say anything, considering the drought in some areas, but we have had plenty of rain this year.  The corn did not produce as big of ears as last year, so we haven't had much on the cob, but I did manage to cut a good bit off the cobs and freeze for creamed corn.  I've also had virtually no problem with squash bugs, potato beetles or even tomato hormworms; knock on wood.  I think the birds and dragonflies have been doing a superb job of patrolling things this year.

Now, my rhubarb has all bitten the dust, even the one designed to grow here.  I guess they just couldn't take the heat.  I may try again next year with one planted in complete shade.  The asparagus is doing excellent though.  At least in my opinion.  I guess this is good!  I've never seen it grow before so I'm not sure.  I can't wait until next spring when I get to cut just a little!
So, that's the update around here.  Still canning an drying and such.  I have a couple of recipes I want to put up for you soon too.  I hope everyone is having a good weekend too.

More Smell

I had a number of ya'll ask many questions about the bee repellent that I showed in the last post so I thought I'd put up the info from the website I bought the stuff from.  You can go HERE to read all about the stuff.  I think they do a good job explaining the product.  They are very clear that it is NOT an insecticide.  It will not kill the bees and if you already have an infestation you may need to use something else first.  This stuff is solely a repellent. 
I can tell you from my experience that the smell does fade somewhat so it's not like a strong overpowering odor all the time.  Because it's natural oils I think the faded odor smells kinda nice actually.  Also, it did not change the finish of the stain that I mixed it in.  I even touched up some spots on previously painted trim and I couldn't tell any difference in the sheen or anything when it dried.  I have not tried mixing it in water and spraying it on yet but I will tell you about that when I do.  I may actually mix it in water and spray the deck because it does really seem to repel ANY bug.  It seems that there are not as many flies and skeeters around the areas I have been working.

That Smell

With the recent painting renewal it also became time to deal with an issue that, over the past couple of years, has become a serious problem.  Carpenter bees have been eating select parts of my house, or trying to anyway.  Now really, they were only going after the few pieces of wood on the house that are pressure treated.  I don't understand that at all.  You would think they would avoid the chemically treated wood and go for the natural stuff but I guess these bees aren't interested in the 'green' movement.  When they first started coming around I didn't do much because it really hurts my soul to kill these creatures and they were just chewing on some boards that are probably going to be replaced anyway when I put up the real porch columns.  However, one thing I learned is that the offspring of these little piggies return each spring, somehow, to exactly the spot where they were hatched, even using the same holes sometimes.  Well, after enough generations these holes fill up faster and it's time for expansion!  Time to move to the suburbs!  When I noticed they were now crawling up under my roofing trim and flashing to get to the tops of my rafters, I said 'No more'.  I know you are a great pollinator.  I know you are a vital part of the ecosystem.  But I cannot let you eat my house.  I really, really, really hated it but we did kill a number of them to get them out of the rafters.  I do not want to continue such a thing though; neither the killing or the eating, so I did a little Google-fu and found this stuff.

It is an all- natural carpenter bee repellent that you mix in paint or just water and apply to whatever you don't want them to eat.  I was a little skeptical but willing to try.  It is also supposed to be time released so it lasts for several years.  Today I mixed it in the paint that I use on the rafters and some other trim and got to work.  Let me first just say that the odor is.....STRONG.  I would use caution if you have a bad problem with strong odors.  Secondly, nothing came near me the whole day I was painting.  No bees, skeeters, bugs, Jack, gnats, nada.  Even the dreaded deer fly stayed away if I had that bucket near me.  One dirt dobber buzzed around my head a couple of times and then flew off screaming.  Finally, towards the end of the day a lone carpenter bee appeared after I had put the paint up to do some caulking.  I got the paint back out and eased over to the rafters he was scrutinizing.  I gently brushed on some paint in his general direction.  He eased on down the other way about 8 feet.  I followed.  Little more paint near him.  He quickly buzzed off and went up to check out the eaves.  I followed.  A few more slaps of paint and he said the heck with it, I'm leaving.  Now, I don't know that it was the smell but whenever I came near him with that paint he left and I was being real quiet about it to try not to spook him.

It says that it will also repel other bugs; ants, spiders and such so I think I'll mix some in some water and spray my foundation and bottom run of siding.  I don't have any problem with bugs coming in the house now but it never hurts to do a little preventative work.  I wonder if it would repel chickens??

Oh, one note: I realize the bees are not actually ingesting my house.  They are chewing it up and spitting it out.  Same thing.  Same problem.

Get It While You Can

I guess this is just a little photo update of what's going on around here now.  Whole different set of plants blooming now in the driveway flower bed.  The daisy-like flowers in the foreground is Feverfew.  I need to pick a good supply of the flowers to dry for tea.  It funny 'cause last summer these disappeared but I guess the seeds survived in the ground and came up this year.

I FINALLY got a clematis vine to bloom!  It's not very big but has lovely flowers on it.  I'm not sure why I have such trouble with these.

Most of the garden is doing quite well.  On the right you can see the first bits of the peas and green beans coming up.

The broccoli has done much better this year; larger heads and all.  I have harvested about 4 quarts of the stuff so far.  Ate two and froze two.  I still have about 6 plants that I have not touched.  I may pull up some of the ones I've cut and use the space to plant some more hot weather crops and leave a few broccoli to produce the occasional side crop, if it will.  I'll sow another crop towards fall to try to have some for the winter.

The raspberries are doing great!!  Fingers crossed!  The birds have been rough on my strawberries and I had to put netting over them; may have to do the same with these.  I'm not much on preserving raspberries so I'll probably just gorge myself on them fresh!  It's a fine trade-off to me.  Fresh, plump berries for a few weeks as opposed to mushy, mediocre berries all year round.

Good bug or bad bug??  He didn't seem to be eating my plant; just kinda hanging out.  Beautiful design work on 'em.  Maybe a warning symbol to birds not to eat?

Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird have raised one brood already this year and have started on their second!  I moved their nesting box into the fenced garden area after those damn raccoons ate their babies last year.  Now all those coons will get is a handful of hot wire if they try to get at them.  The bluebirds really seem to enjoy this area, even with us occasionally working in the garden.  And they patrol the garden regularly for bugs to feed their babies and themselves.  The garden is really starting to deliver the goods and all the critters like the birds and worms and such are very active in it.  I think I'm almost as proud of the garden as I am of the house.

Bug Bytes

I know, amongst the circle of folks that consider themselves to be environmentally conscious, that the subject of pest control in our gardens can be a very touchy one and I certainly try my best to avoid the use of even natural sprays. However, sometimes there are instances when just good garden hygiene, organic compost and our best intentions don't always work. So, I wanted to show a few of my methods for not only controlling pest but encouraging my garden to flourish naturally. Now, I am by NO means an expert but this is some stuff that has worked for me and I welcome any other suggestions too.
The spray pictured above is one of my last resort tools. It is a certified organic spray made from canola oil and pyrethrins, thus the name Pyola. You mix it with water and spray on your plants. It is very effective against a variety of caterpillars, hornworms, Japanese beetles etc. I apply it late in the day after most of the pollinators have gone to sleep and even many of the plants blossoms have closed, so the bees won't be rubbing against the spray the next day. It does not affect bees and such in the same way as soft bodied insects but you don't want to spray it right on them. I order the stuff from Garden's Alive, an organic gardening company that sells a variety of products that I think are very effective. I buy very little stuff like this but when I do need it I usually go to them. They offer some great discounts on their products for first time buyers too. I also buy their Kelp meal for the garden. Now, like I said, I only use this if I seem to be having an unusual problem with insects, like squash bugs. My chickens won't eat the bugs; I think they must taste really bad because Little Bea grabbed one up one day and immediately spit it out and started wiping her beak on the ground!
The label says it is not effective against fire ants but I beg to differ. You just have to apply it differently. Now, for those of you that don't have fire ants, count your many blessings. They are a hideous curse here and will wreck a garden if left to it. They are one of the most destructive things I have ever seen and incredibly vicious. Alabama has had a significant drop in our quail population over the past couple of decades, due in part, to attacks from fire ants. Quail nest on the ground and fire ants will attack and eat the quail babies. There has also been documented incidences of fire ants attacking and destroying wild honey bee hives. They are not native to this area, or even the US if I remember correctly, so I don't want to hear any shit about my inclination to destroy a fire ant mound. I don't go around looking for them but I will not allow them to reside in my yard or around my animals. It is very difficult to find a natural product that will kill or at least repel fire ants and let me tell you, I have tried most everything; borax, cornmeal, salt, diamatious earth, you name it. This spring they got in my coldframe and were destroying the contents so, on a whim, I put a few drops of Pyola, undiluted, right on top of their mound. By the next day they had moved out. I was elated. I don't think it killed them but if it just repelled them that was enough. I finally found something I could use against them around my food crops!
I am also trying an organic copper spray, like Ron mentioned, on my wilty tomato plants. I gave them some Epsom Salts water, which seemed to help a little but didn't quite do it. Like Ron said, it's very hard to sit and watch your crops, that we depend on so much, die or get eaten right in front of you, without trying something. If people are going to criticize me for trying to salvage my labor and food, well, they can buy my groceries for the next year too.

I do however, try to make the most of natural methods. I haven't had a lot of luck with companion planting but one thing I believe does work is marigolds. I always buy a large flat or two of the stinkingest marigolds I can find to plant throughout my garden, especially around the tomatoes. Not all marigolds stink though, only the true French ones do, so you have to watch what you get. When I deadhead them I take the spent flower and tear it up and throw it over the plants. This helps distribute the smell and lets me get some volunteers! This actually seems to work and it does make some sense because marigolds are one of the plants that they extract pyrethrins from.

Now, these are my best pest control but like I said, they don't always eat everything and after a while they will tear up more than they help. I let them in before the plants start ripening much and before I do any spraying. If the chooks are in there I do not use any sprays, even natural ones. When they are out for the season, due to my tomatoes ripening!, I will then spray if needed. Then, when the season is over and sprayed plants pulled up, they can come back in.

I also plant other flowers throughout my garden, where I have a little room, to encourage birds and any pollinators. I place a couple of shallow dishes with water around the garden also to encourage frogs and I have noticed a big increase in my frog population this year. However, I have to be careful to help keep the frogs out of the chicken run as Henny thinks they are a great treat. She caught one one day and was slinging that poor thing every which way, trying to beat it apart. I ran and grabbed it from her, much to her displeasure, and took it into the garden. I was afraid she had killed it because it was stiff as a board but when I sat it down it relaxed and hopped off under my blueberry bushes.

I also let large patches of wild flowers grow in the yard. This encourages the birds, which in turn, also check out the garden while they are there and also butterflies and bees. I know this is a crappy photo of only the male but his mate was there too, on another flower.
So, the natural methods take time to work but this year I have seen a marked improvement in beneficial insect/ critter population and health of my garden. I also keep several bird bathes and feeders out. I have noticed that the honey bees enjoy the bird bathes as much or more than the birds. I often see half a dozen or more of them stopping for a cool drink during any part of the day.

Dig It!!

"Heyyyy, braaaawkk.....uh, hey, ya'll, I don't think we're supposed to go near those vine thingies!! Braaaaaawwwk! I got in trouble for ransacking that one on the other end of the garden! Hey!! get out of there before she comes out h......!! Oh crap! here she comes! Braaaaawk! Henny!! Henny! get your head outta there!! you two are on your own!! I'm going to stay back here in the oats and mind my own business!! Braaaaaawkkk!! don't say I didn't warn you!


I let the gals out into the main garden today since things have grown fairly stout in size. I thought they might enjoy the much wider range and variety of bugs, and they seemed to. They were a little hesitant to go in there at first but soon overcame their fear, once they discovered the apparent lotto of bugs under mulch! They really didn't do much damage but I did have to put a little wire cage around my cantaloupes. They got a little over enthusiastic with the scratching around them due to the heaving mulching. They seemed to really like the outing and ran up and down the rows of corn and potatoes especially, pecking and talking. Bertha even forged her way through the giant zucchini forest. I hope she found the squash bugs! I haven't seen but a few of them this year though; thank goodness. After a while they took a break under the largest fig tree to rest and dig a small dust bath. I tried to dig them a few grubs but it has become so dry here I couldn't find any. They were disappointed at that.
We are hearing thunder in the distance and it rained a little a few minutes ago. Hopefully we will get a heavier downpour later. We really need it. I have been watering regularly but there is just nothing like actual rain.

Mole In A Hole

You may have to click on this photo to enlarge it enough to see what I have done here. I've mentioned in the past that I have quite the population of moles here on my property. I don't want to kill them as they eat grubs that later turn into all sorts of nasty things such as Japanese beetles. I don't have much of an issue at all with Japanese beetles because, I believe, I let the moles do their thing. However, they have sometimes posed a little problem in some areas of the garden. This past year they rooted so much in the strawberry patch that they killed a few of my plants. Ever mindful of their benefits however I do not want to use force against them. While I was contemplating what to do I happened across an article in a self-sufficiency book that showed this method of mole deterrence. Now, usually, I just walk on their tunnels, as you can see the little mounds easily, and this causes the mole to dig deeper and as a result, doesn't come near the roots of your plants or upset the plants. Moles do not generally eat roots as many people suspect. They are just rooting after grubs and if they expose the plants roots to air (like in their tunnels) it can dry the plant out and kill it. However, I really didn't want to walk on my strawberries so I was greatly relieved to see that this solution you see in the photo seems to have worked. You simply take a glass soda bottle, after you enjoy the contents, and bury it up to the top in the bed where your plants are. Leave about 1 inch or so sticking up. You have to bury them about every 6 to 8 feet to cover a large area. I put 3 in my strawberry bed. Now, the theory is that the wind blowing across the top of the empty bottles produces a vibration within the bottle that the moles do not enjoy and they leave the area. You know how you can blow across the mouth of a bottle and it makes that noise? If standing near the bottles I can't hear anything myself but it seems to have worked. No mole tunnels as far as I can see and if I press on the soil I don't feel any hollow spots. It beats buying traps or those whirly-gigs that are supposed to do the same thing. Or killing the moles!

Also, I have redone my pottery page on the blog here. Ya'll look at it and tell me what you think. And be honest; I can take it! Seriously, if you see something that might could be improved, let me know.

One Step Closer

So, all of the siding for the clerestory area is finished! Now, I just have a little bit left to install on the east end gable and it will all be done! Yay! Of course, I still have to get up there and finished painting everything but that's not too big a deal. I do have a little roof trim to finish up there actually. That's embarrassing that I have let that go so long but....whadya gonna do? Just the best you can I guess. And I have a couple of little decorative touches I want to install but that shouldn't take too much. At any rate, I am getting closer to finished overall and that is the main thing. You just have to keep plugging away at all the little things.

After I finished caulking the newly installed siding I took a break from that to split some firewood. The caulking would need time to cure anyway before I can paint it so I went on to something else that is much needed. Capt. Jack has been chomping at the bit to split some wood on a large scale so we broke out all the mauls and axes and such and worked until evening on that project. This stack is probably 10 feet long and is barely even a decent start to how much wood I need, but you got to start somewhere. I've got plenty of trees that were felled last year or so that are ready for splitting, so it is just a matter of summoning the gumption to do it. It looks like I will be laid off for a while anyway so I should have plenty of time. I still think a mechanical splitter will be a good idea for the future. My back is just not what it used to be.

Oh, for an update! Capt. Jack finally prevailed over the mice. He had used peanut butter, as a couple of you suggested, but these wily mice were able to lick the traps clean (twice even!) without springing them. I could tell Capt. Jack was becoming a little frustrated. How embarrassing for a former Marine to be outsmarted by two little mice! Ever determined though, he resorted to more drastic measures. He finally wired an almond to each trigger of the traps. The mice would have to really to some serious maneuvering to get the prize off this time and sure enough, they tripped them. Capt. Jack was gracious in his victory however, giving the mice warriors their due praise for a good battle. He saluted their courage and ingenuity. He has however, now proclaimed himself Capt. Jack the Great White Mouser so I don't know how long I'm going to have to suffer through that.

Well, I know I have not had any interesting house posts in some time and I hope to remedy that soon. Ya'll bear with me. I have so many projects going on it's hard to concentrate on one but I am trying to finally knock some stuff out completely. I have taken some time lately, as ya'll know to get out and have some fun and enjoy life a little, and I really have enjoyed myself. It has been really nice but I really need to buckle down now and finish some things. I have really been putting some serious thought into work too. Do I really want to go back to construction? Can my back take it really? So, we'll see. I have so enjoyed the past few weeks and am really feeling it is time to just work for me, instead of 'the man', as it were. I really need to get things together here at home. Get the garden really producing, some animals and my art going again. I mean, with everything paid for and not really having any bills, I should be able to work at what I want. That was the whole point in doing this anyway! Or at least that's what I thought.