Life is without worry if you are a stoned house cat.
The stoned house cat comes later….
Here is the deal.
I made huge progress on the”rice paddy” this past weekend but had a couple of odds and ends around it to finish before I posted about it.
I was going to do this Monday evening but was reminded I had assured mrs cohutt that the old iron patio furniture would be cleaned an painted this week. So Monday I spent 1 1/2 hours cleaning the carburetor of my pressure washer before blowing all the loose paint off of the 3 pieces of furniture (and soaking myself in the chilly evening air).
Tuesday afternoon I was home for a late lunch and let Albert out for a minute to relieve himself. While out there I decided I would add some water to the frog pond, so I turned on the spigot and walked towards the pond. About that time a horrific noise of groaning and splitting wood (large wood) came out of nowhere behind me; I knew the wind was bringing down one of the large trees in my neighbor’s back yard. I followed Albert’s lead and tucked tail and ran for my life away from the noise without the slightest consideration of looking back; both of us were hoping that fate wasn’t sending a monstrous (and failing) tree our way.
It turned out to be falling the other way, or at least half of it was, so we handily escaped the previously imminent death of 30 seconds prior.
I snapped this shot when one of the trees was halfway down; within the hour it finished falling, ripping 1/3 of the oak off as it went. (Note how far away I was lol…)
Funny, last week my neighbor agreed to split the cost of removing these but the tree man called to cancel and say it would be another week. The clump of ivy covered trees is what we were going to have removed; it is on her property but she agreed that they were a hazard once I put some money into the equation.
The other half of the tree that split is now leaning into the oak branches over the back of my yard, well within reach of the rice paddy. So I am comfortable NOT tempting fate and stay mostly out out that portion of the garden. My (new) tree man is going to try and take the “leaner” out in the morning and come back Friday to do the whole deal.
So yesterday evening I pulled out the HVLP sprayer and primed the furniture (safely out of “the radius of death” of course). Progress, yes, photo worthy, no.
Tonight I was still keen on the idea of retaining my current “100% broken bone-free” status so I finished out the rough-in of the front half of the yard’s drip irrigation system.
OK, so as this narrative has run long and most of you seem to prefer pictures, I leave you with a series of pictures of my thoroughly stoned kitteh, who munched on a bunch of the catnip (see red arrows) and then decided to roll about in a stupor amidst the section of drip irrigation I was trying to tie in at that moment.
I rest my case: Life is without worry if you are a stoned house cat.
Labor Intensive
The weekend was.
I accomplished a lot but wore myself out and haven’t had the energy to put together any sort of descriptive update. Maybe tomorrow…
In the meantime, here is the water lily in the frog pond blooming again, with more buds waiting in the wings.
Garlic Gap, Garlic Ramblings
The 2011 garlic is history.
Actually it has been done for a little while now but I was experiencing withdrawals and didn’t want to talk about it…….
This brief period, the weeks or months between when last the previous harvest is consumed and this year’s harvest is ready, is the dreaded “Garlic Gap”.
We never knew it existed, as we were subsiding on the always available but second tier grocery store garlic for years. Who knew garlic has seasons eh?
While we have only grown a couple of relatively basic types of fresh garlic in this adventure, the taste difference between that grown fresh at home and the grocery staple garlic was sufficient to covert us.
Yes we are now garlic snobs, to go along with our recent conversion to substantially higher standards in lettuce, beans, tomatoes, and greens of all types.
It is like someone told me once- “If you can tolerate the cheap whiskey and think it is good enough, never ever try the good stuff. Because there IS a difference, and you will never ever be happy with the cheap stuff again
Recently however I have regained my garlic mojo and hope is rising that somehow I might survive this garlic void in my diet. I may have been saved by “spring” or “green” garlic, the early pulls with the immature bulbs just beginning to form.
From the intentionally crowded green garlic grid spaced on roughly 1.5″ centers:
The “normal” garlic beds have started the bulbing process as well; you can tell by the leaves. While the leaves are still fairly robust and busy pulling in all the energy the sun can provide, a slightly yellowish hue is becoming apparent along the edges of more of them. All the energy absorbed by the plant over the last 6 or 7 months is vacating the top in favor of the bottom, where some switch has been turned “on”. The bulbs are now forming rapidly and by June the these bulbs will have divided into cloves.
The plants look strong and tall but I know it won’t be long now before the browning and withering of the tops signals that garlic days are here again. 🙂 .
Hardneck in the front bed (with some potato onions on the left), softneck in the back bed, and a portion of the crowded green garlic patch leaning into the right side of the frame:
Ajo Rojo on the left side, California white on the right or back side (onions in the middle):
The rambling is now over, perhaps the garlic gap will close by early June.
Soil Cubes and Body Fat
If you don’t know what I’m referring to as a “soil cube” check out the “Soil Cube: Garden Tool of the Day” post from September 2010.
Why do I love the seedlings grown in soil cubes?
See #1 below
Why is this important?
See #2 below
Seriously, no root binding, minimal transplant shock, healthier transplants, earlier and more vigorous yields, healthier food, healthier body.
Check out Clayton’s site for more information on the advantages of soil cubes over plastic or peat pots: The Soil Cube Tool
Note: I now just use a commercial starting mix with a little sand added and they hold together very well.
Filed under “Vanity”
Instant Artichoke
Just add dirt, water and sunshine.
I previously posted about the 2011 artichoke scheme here in “Georgia Artichokes“. In summary I ordered a couple of young plants or crowns and remain hopeful that this will be the path to success.
One has been in the ground for a while in a dedicated bed up towards the raspberries and original raised bed plot of 2009.
So far so good, right? (zzzzzzzz…… yeah, right, zzzzzzz)
But wait, upon closer inspection something is going on deep in the folds of the central stalk:
A mini-choke. Cool.
I also noticed those bastard baby slugs have discovered this plant; the slug gauntlet must go up immediately.
(Mrs cohutt was pleased, my life is good for another 24 hours. 😉 )
Stuff o’ the Week
Earlier in the week I started disassembling the hoop house in earnest. (Of course, this was just in time to for a freeze warning to be issued shortly after the warmest March ever recorded here.)
The take down in progress (and remains in progress) adjacent to the new amphibian pond:
So to the inside marched the (mostly) tomato starts, after over a month of comfortably growing inside the poly tunnel.
The odd perennial flower mix that has taken hold adjacent to the patio has grown stronger again this year, another pleasant surprise to emerge from the neglect of certain areas of the yard:
And speaking of neglect, a nice volunteer of oak leaf type lettuce (“Bronze Arrowhead” originally purchased through Seed Savers Exchange) was growing between the poly and one of the bed’s side boards; it is a little floppy but seems to be on great shape:
Last weekend I did a 24 hr turnaround to the mountains, mainly to check out and de-winterize the cabin plumbing, and to mow a little and maybe wander in the woods a bit. I have no pictures of plumbing or mowing, but I did bring a few back of my woods wondering.
Down on the creek, a modest game trail has developed and decent tracks were left behind for identification. My amateur analysis suggests they are from deer and not from hogs as I originally suspected. The triangular shape of most along with the pointed hooves (and the points being oriented towards the inside) is typical of whitetail deer. However, the few prints where the hooves are spread out a bit could be hogs, although these are probably spread from the deer launching off of its rear hooves to jump up the steep creek bank on the opposite side. (Plus I saw deer on my walk haha).
I stopped and studied this interestingly decayed (pine or hemlock?) log still “on the stump” for a few minutes; this picture doesn’t do its visual interest justice.
The fiddlehead bog is alive growing wide open. A frond on this fern along the edge appears to have been stepped on by something or someone but has recovered, albeit a bit crooked in the tradition of a cheap lawn “pink flamingo”:
And the cabin from across the creek; the bog area starts just to the left of this picture and runs for a couple hundred feet downstream adjacent to the creek.
Lately I’ve been quite busy in the garden and therefore haven’t had much posting time; I’ve not taken many photos regardless.
Maybe this week I can make it up…..
Strawberry Varmints.
The “new” strawberry beds are the two smallish beds near the bell that were planted late last summer using runners from the initial pyramid. They have come along much faster than the original bed so far this spring, something I’ll attribute primarily to better winter sun (and the bonus of a mild winter).
In my experience strawberry season follows this sequence:
- Notice some small blooms
- A week or so later see that there were many more blooms than you originally noticed
- A week or so later notice there are a lot of tiny green berries, many more than the abundant blooms you noticed the week before.
- A couple of weeks later wonder if any of them will ever ripen completely as they seem to stall at the whitish/pink stage
- The next day find two ripe berries and eat them without telling your spouse (who has asked regularly when the berries will ripen)
- The next day pick maybe 8 or 9, eat half and bring the rest in to your spouse, because you are a berry martyr and selflessly saved the first ones for her….
- The next day another dozen have ripened, you only eat 1/4 of them and bring the rest in for your spouse
- The next day pick twice and still not keep up with the bright red avalanche of fresh strawberries. You confess to your spouse that you’ve been eating some of the earlier harvest only to learn she has been doing it for at least as long as you have….
- A few days and thousands of berries later it stops as quickly as it started.
- (You secretly are relieved but don’t admit this to anyone.)
We are currently around step 7 with the two back beds although our mutual confessions of strawberry infidelity took place this evening, perhaps ahead of schedule. 😉
At this point, it may dawn upon my beloved mrs cohutt that the title of the post might imply that she is in fact a strawberry varmint.
So, in order to deftly dodge any such misconceptions on her part, I offer the following picture as evidence to the contrary, a varmint conspicuously lurking among ripe strawberries.
Not to worry though, these perfectly ripened berries were subsequently saved from this marauding chipmunk:
The Easy Bake Seed Starting Oven
A while back I posted about the new scheme for seed starting I was implementing for 2012, the “Seed Box” of insulated & reflective material.
So how is it working out?
Perfectly, actually better than I expected by all counts. The original starts (tomatoes and peppers) have all long since been moved out to soak in the real sun.
Currently, it holds a flat of this year’s first basil plants and they are doing well (the only issue was with some 3+ year old seeds that I tried to germinate anyway):
Note that there is no Thai Basil in this initial run; there won’t ever be, as I will select from the hundreds of volunteers already up outside….
Also, I started this fall’s leek crop in vermiculite and transplanted the tiny seedlings to an intermediate “window box” type pot. Once they perk up in this, I’ll move them out into the sun for a while and let them get long and leggy before dropping them up to their necks in 6″ deep dibbled holes in their growing ultimate locations.
The final proof to me that this system works well is the flat of Tarragon and Thyme that sprouted 100% (as far as could tell) in only 3 days vs the label’s estimated 10 to 14 days. Yesterday evening I moved clusters to pots and they haven’t missed a beat:
Bottom line, this set up is highly recommended if you are serious about starting your own seeds with minimal attention.
The parts:
A light source ( I use two Hydrofarm fluorescent greenhouse lights)
A warming mat (I use a large 24″x48″ warming mat that covers the entire floor of the box)
1 thermostat for the mat (not mandatory but recommended)
1 timer for the lights
Foil faced Styrofoam insulation board for the walls, floor & ceiling of the box
The process:
Keep soil temperature at 80 degrees until germination then turn off the mat and develop the seedlings using light only (my lights run 16 of the 24 hours each day). In my basement, the box needs to be ventilated some to keep from getting a little too warm when the mat is on; less so when just the lights are on.
Mr. Reliable & The Biscuit Boys
Two or three weeks ago, I posted about the collapsing old metal building on the commercial lot behind me.
Well, a few days ago a couple of very focused hard working men started tearing down the building by hand. Now personally, I can’t think of anything much worse that dismembering a wobbly mess of very old wood and sharp rusty sheet metal one piece at a time. Most of the rest of the developed world agrees, which is why we usually see a massive beast of diesel and hydraulics pull these down in great chunks and the whole mass removed by tandem dump trucks in a couple of hours.
Obviously someone had rights to salvage the old wood and metal, and I needed some weathered metal roofing for the second shed I have half way constructed. I needed to find the person who controlled the bounty.
Saturday I noticed a third man who had the look of that steady reliable rural handy man/contractor type who are valuable contacts when in a jam. He was assisting mainly by supervising consumption by the other two of a hefty bag of sausage biscuits. As I approached, the biscuit boys looked up, gave a slight nod of acknowledgment then went back to devouring their heart-attack-in-bag (they both just slightly missed having “normal” body proportions and projected the odd combination of malnourishment and super human strength. Visualize claymation type animation using beef jerky and you have it pictured about right.)
Based on the “at ease” body language of the three it seemed I might have some credibility with them if I didn’t blow it. I think it was mostly based on my appearance; my double front canvas Carhartt pants have worn through above the knees, plus I had been mud-wrestling some of the last boxwoods to be moved and therefore was hands down at least 50% filthier than even the two biscuit eaters. A bonus was that my hair was in the style of Nick Nolte’s mug shot albeit slightly shorter and grayer. (By comparison most dads would let their teenage daughter drive away with either one of the Biscuit boys while calling the police if I were within 500 yards of them.)
I sealed the deal when I announced that I had diligently protected their salvage project by running two boys out of the rubble the evening before; they all shook their heads in disapproval when I told them of the boys’ mother just sitting in her SUV next door talking on her cell phone. One biscuit eater paused to interject that “his ma would have whupped him if he done that” and I was in like flint.
It seems the third man had salvage rights and they were stacking the materials up and hauling them to his barn. It turns out we have a mutual friend who he thinks quite a lot of and eventually the time was right to inquire about a striking a deal for maybe a half dozen pieces of the metal roofing. He sized me up a little then asked how many I thought I needed and said he’d be back Monday and maybe we could work something out.
As Biscuit I handed another beam out of the rubble to Biscuit II on the truck, Mr Reliable and I chatted for while on weather, gardens and old houses. I led him to the critter hole (the LARGE critter hole) that had been dug out into the foundation of the remaining metal building; we speculated what could be coming and going through the dark hole a few yards behind my back fence. Gophers? Groundhogs? Honey Badgers? We decided we’d let whatever it was remain a mystery and then each of us got back to work. Mr Reliable really was a nice guy, a salt of the earth friendly type.
Well, I missed him Monday and Tuesday evenings (god forbid I come home at lunch at let him and the biscuit boys see me in a starched white shirt and tie) and tonight the place was fenced and by comparison pretty impressively cleaned up. (This picture is from the same vantage point as before)
Disappointed I went on to my project for the moment which was to remove the poly from each end of the hoop house, itself a pretty anticlimactic end to the winter that wasn’t:
As I went to remove the back poly, I found that I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me, a stack of seasoned roofing that had been quietly slipped over the back gate in my absence today:
All the time I was expecting to pay him something for this, a few dollars for the lot (vs $140 or so for new metal), and he just gave it to me. I’ll track him down through our mutual friend to thank him and make sure he knew I was intending to pay him (I’m pretty sure he won’t take any money for it and would be insulted if I press too hard.)
And that’s the story of Mr Reliable and the Biscuit boys.
Behind cohutt's fence 