Thursday, April 25, 2019

Lotsa Pictures

Today was my first day (well, half day) of the season working out in the garden.  Wanted to uncover the garlic and rhubarb and free the chives from their debris, and clean up the asparagus bed.  I got a good start on the asparagus bed, but that was it since I didn't get out there until afternoon after a morning of wood work.


This was the asparagus bed when I started.  All the old, dead stalks and ferns needed to come off.


I managed to get everything in one big garden cart load.  Now I need to take out all the weeds that have already started to grow, till between the rows and add some compost over the mounds where the asparagus spears will emerge.


We've had a bald eagle hanging around our place for about a week now.  I don't know why, but he/she hasn't bothered any of our poultry . . . yet anyway.  Don't know what we'll do if that happens.  The eagle seems mainly interested in a pile of old mulch I have at the end of the garden.  Flying down and landing on the pile, he/she gathers as much as possible in his/her talons and flies off with it.  It's no doubt for building a new nest in the area somewhere.  And I'm losing a lot of mulch!



Here I caught him/her high up in a tree breaking off branches and flying off with them.  The branches, presumably, are for the nest building also.


Sadness and woe, it looks as though we may have lost four or five of our newest fruit trees.  We've never had this happen before, but even though we had screening wrapped around the bottom of the trunks, we think it was mice or voles that stood on top of the snow and completely girdled the trees.  They do have buds on them, but girdling of this extent usually means the tree is done for.


A couple of days ago, Papa Pea spotted what he at first thought was an immature grouse in our chicken yard.  On closer inspection it seems to be a quail.  (Are you missing any of yours, Susan?)  He's been peacefully existing (and eating) with the rest of our poultry, moves like the Energizer Bunny and is extremely hard to capture in a picture.  Where did he come from?  Good question! 


With only five days left in the month, there's no way we're going to have all our year's wood cut, split and under cover.  Not by a long shot.


This pile already cut but not split is about twice as big as what you see.


Our weather has not been cooperative for our wood working month.  Lots of rain (and snow) which makes working on the wood not only a bit dangerous, but very messy.  There's still standing water that has run in a stream under the pile of logs.  We've done the best we could, so we'll have to settle for getting it done when we can.

We've had two days in the 60s now so we're thinking winter is actually over.  If we don't get any more rain, I'll be back in the garden tomorrow and might even get my handy-dandy tiller out to work up some of the raised beds!

8 comments:

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

We lost an apple tree last winter, and most likely no peaches this year due to the winter we had too. I may replant next year, just depends on what we finally get done this year. We may get snow this weekend. Oh joy for that. Grr.

Mama Pea said...

Kristina - SNOW this weekend?? I just told my hubby last night that you got your first asparagus spears! And now snow? Please don't send it northward to us . . .

Anonymous said...

Wonderful that you got to work some in the garden. The weather is such a tease here....or maybe a promise! Rain yesterday and today with water more than ankle deep in many places. Needing to get the woodburner going as the damp wind is making the house very chilly. Amazing about the eagle and the quail! --Lucy

wisps of words said...

And your summer-growing work begins.

Had any of those get-away-days...?????

🌱🌱💚🌱🌱

wisps of words said...

*That bald eagle, whom you are "helping" build.... well letting her take your stuff.... to build her nest, nearby.

*Where she will have babies.

*Who will need to be fed.

*And she will come back, and kill your chickens, to feed her babies....

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

🌱🌱💚🌱🌱

Elizabeth said...

More rain for us today, again. And I believe I hear thunder, which is weird, as it is only 52 degrees.

Very wet April here and it is going to continue into May. Lawns are beautiful everywhere but no one is cutting them because the grass is always so wet.

Hadley, Ma. is known for it's asparagus. There is an asparagus festival in late May.
There are fields and fields of it. So tasty and fresh as it is locally grown.

Lynne said...

Glad you got some work done in the garden. The weather is chilly and rainy with thunder and lighting thrown around here. I like seeing your eagle. I know he or she is a predictor, but to have one so close to look at that's a lesson in itself. The quail look to be a good size. Do you think she lost her family. they usually travel in a group. Hope your weather gets better soon! Take care

Mama Pea said...

Lucy - Ankle deep water from your rain? I won't complain about our remaining mud anymore. (Or shouldn't.)

wisps of words - That's exactly what my hubby said: When the eagle has hungry babies to feed, all of a sudden he/she won't ignore our chickens. :o(

Elizabeth - So much more rain than needed in a lot of spots of our country. Such a wet, wet spring. When we lived in Illinois there were a couple of asparagus farms near us where you could go and buy as much asparagus as you wanted. Not so up here in northern Minnesota. Darn.

Lynne - The picture I managed to get of the quail does make it look big but actually it's quite small. Quail aren't native up here and we're thinking it's from a batch that someone raised domestically . . . and this one made an escape.