The Season of the Elusive Balance in Life

Well, bunkerpoo!  Why even strive for a balance in life this time of year when most everything revolves around gardening and accomplishing those outside tasks that can be done only in good weather.  You've heard of making hay while the sun shines.  Not that we're making hay, but we do have a darn good-sized list of projects that need to be done during our precious spring/summer/fall seasons.

As far as the balance of life concept goes, we can plan our days to the extent of what we realistically can and can't do.  (And every now and then that even works!)  However, we have less control over Mother Nature who has been throwing us curve balls so far this spring/summer.

Little to no moisture since our last snowfall way-back-when has created the very real threat of forest fire danger in our area.  Everything is d-r-y.

A couple of days ago, my daughter planted a bunch of summer bulbs and corms in one of my raised beds for me.  She was frustrated because the soil was so totally dry that when she tried to dig a hole of the proper depth, the dirt just kept collapsing in on the hole.  At the same time, I was finding I was actually raising dust making furrows in which to plant seeds.  Plus, I've been having to water daily which is almost unheard of this early in the season.

Then the rains came.  The fire danger went way, way down which is absolutely great.  

Now I've been standing inside looking at my raised beds quickly taking on the appearance of small rectangular swimming pools.  Yikes, I had just planted out three beds with Swiss chard, spinach, beets and dill seeds.  Another bed was allotted to miscellaneous salad greens such as mizuna mustard, scarlet frill, kale, arugula, Osaka purple mustard, wasabina and radishes.  And the bed of California Poppy seeds which want to be barely covered with soil . . . well, I don't have much hope for them.  Should I replant all these seeds or wait a couple of weeks to see if any of them survived the copious quantities of rain we've received in the last 36 hours?

My 4-5" tall lacy cosmos plants I transplanted after starting them inside got knocked flat by the heavy rains.  Today I had to carefully pry their ferny stalks out of the mud and tie the stems back upright to thin wooden dowels.  

I fully intended to harvest a nice crop of asparagus spears the day before the rain started.  Didn't get to it (yeah, too unbalanced again) until this morning when I put on my mud boots and ventured into the patch.  (Slip, slosh, squish, slide, sloosh.)

Some of the stalks were a full two feet high and 'bout big around as telephone poles.  Unfortunately, the lower several inches of these stalks were too tough to save.

This huge bowl of throw-a-ways weighed a smidge over three pounds.  Organically grown asparagus at our co-op in town is now selling for $3.99 a pound.  That means I lost about $12 worth of it.  Ugh.  Well, the poultry will get some nutrition from the tough stalks anyway and unless I had gone out during the last couple days of constant deluges, there was nothing I could have done about it.

This morning, in between sprinkles (yep, it's still fairly wet out there), I harvested our first greens of the season.  Those of you who have been readers for a while know how much we celebrate this every season. 

Luscious leaves of spinach, chard and a variety of lettuces.  So, so much better than anything one can buy.  (To start with, how much fresher could it be?)

Back talking about the balance.  Perhaps that means simply surviving from one day to the next just now.  Oh, posh and paddidily, we're enjoying ourselves and doing what we want to do in our good lives so there's no real complaint about our balance being a little lopsided these days.  I just wish when I sit down at night to relax before bedtime, the yawns that overtake me wouldn't be so big that my jaw cracks and my eyes water so that I can't see to read or knit.  The fact that my whole body has the tendency to tip over sideways on the couch indicates it's time to seek out the balance (!) of getting into my comfy bed.

Wounds and Injuries

No, nothing serious, I'm glad to report.  Just a couple of clutzy owies sustained by my husband and daughter.

Papa Pea was doing some tree clearing today while I was working in the garden.  When we came in at dinner time I noticed a large bandaid on his right hand.  I asked what happened and he replied it was nothing serious,  just that the pointy end of a branch had landed on his hand.

As I was trying to coerce him into taking off the bandaid and letting me see the wound, Chicken Mama stopped in on her way home from work and she was exiting the bathroom when I heard a loud THUNK and her distressed, "Ow!"  She had walked smack into the end side of the bathroom door that apparently jumped out right in front of her.

She hit the door right on her cheekbone, and it started to swell immediately so I got some ice for her to put on it.  Looks like she did a bad job of applying too much blush, doesn't it?  I think she'll have some colorful bruising tomorrow.

"Okay," I said.  "Now we're gonna see what Dad's wound really looks like."

We made him take the bandaid off and show us.

He promised us both that when it happened, he came in and washed it thoroughly before applying Tea Tree Oil and the bandaid.

Good thing he was wearing gloves, eh?

When I told Papa Pea I wanted to take pictures so I could go blog about their two injuries, he said, "Don't you have anything better to blog about?"

Nope.  I'll do anything to avoid the sink full of dishes in the kitchen.

Bug Season Has Arrived (Oh, Joy.)

We've all been hoping for a delayed and perhaps even less bothersome bug season.  We got the delayed part (because of our extreme dryness, I'm sure) but I can attest to the fact that the first ones that arrived today are not looking to be less bothersome.

To back up a little bit, some folks stopped by this afternoon to say hello to the little bantam rooster that now lives in our flock that the daughter (currently eighteen years old) raised as a newly hatched chick when she was ten years old.

Long story short, as so often happens in a sparsely populated community such as ours . . . years ago, this family had to move to a house in town where they knew they couldn't keep the rooster.  Friends of ours who lived out in the boonies near our fist piece of property in this area took the rooster and integrated him with their flock.  Unfortunately, shortly thereafter this second family had to get rid of all their chickens, so they called us asking if we would be willing to give the rooster a "forever" home.  We were glad to do so, and he's been with us going on two or three years now.

Aaaanyway, as we were all standing out in the poultry yard admiring how good Shivers, the rooster, still looks at the ripe old age of eight years, we all noticed little bugs circling our heads.  Huh, where did they come from?

They were apparently the scouts checking out the territory for the season's first batch of biting insects getting ready to make their presence known.

I can now confidently declare the bug season has begun.  

You see, Papa Pea volunteers to do dishes for me on weekends (yes, he is a dear) so when he attacked the huge pile of them (he prefers to let them stack up all day . . . ugh) after dinner tonight, I went back out into the garden to finish weeding the asparagus.  

If there is a biting insect within a hundred miles of me, I get chewed upon.  I think these tonight must have been those dastardly no-see-'ums because before I knew it, I had two bites on my left forearm, three on my right forearm and one in a very bad spot down the front of my shirt.

After the last bite, I had to quit with only about two feet of weeding left to do and ran into the house as fast as my short little legs would take me.

Now I'm slathered with calamine lotion but can hardly wait to get into the shower hoping that will make the itching abate a bit.

(No, I'm not going to show the last bite about which I spoke.)

Papa Pea has been suggesting recently that I don't push myself quite as much as I have been getting the garden all planted, but I've been telling him I have to keep working away because when bug season starts, I simply can't stand to be out there while they're in a feeding frenzy.  I may be getting certain periods (during said bug feeding frenzies) now when I will not be outside.

Gettin' The Garden In

It's not all done yet, but I'm gaining on it.  Makes me feel much better to go from "I'll never get it done!" to "I'm gaining on it."

I took some random pictures late yesterday thinking I'd get a post up last night, but it didn't happen.  Now it's 3 p.m. the next day and I'm in for a short break before going back out to get a little more done.

I'm trying a new trellising method for the snap peas this year.  In the past, they've grown so tall that they over-shoot the top of their trellis and end up flopping over making it very hard to find and pick the pods.  Don't know if you can see it clearly in the above picture, but Papa Pea helped me bend a 16' cattle panel over the eight foot length of one of our raised beds.  I planted a four foot row alongside each trellis end and am hoping the pea plants will climb up and over the hoop.  Stay tuned to see if this is a hit . . . or a miss.

Yesterday I set out a long row of cosmos plants I started inside.  This is along one end of the field garden and, with luck, they should put on quite a show of colorful blossoms.  Our weather is still a bit cool for them so I put a not-so-classy distilled water jug "cloche" over each one until our weather warms up a bit more. 

Lo and behold, two days ago I discovered some blossoms on my strawberry plants.  This means we should have ripe berries about two weeks early this year.  And this despite our unusually cooler weather.  Go figure!

If you look closely, you will see a chicken in each of the above two pictures.  She's a renegade hen that has been managing to sneak out of the poultry pasture with regularity lately.  One day Papa Pea finally saw her squeeze through a fence post and gate.  He promptly remedied that situation, and she didn't get out for a few days.  Yesterday, there she was, scratching away in the strawberries where she shouldn't be.  Now the search is on once again to find out how she's getting out.

One variety of my garlic (Siberian) is doing well.  The other (Blanak) is not.  Very poor germination on it.  I think I'm going to write to the company I got it from because when it arrive it looked a smidge bit "shriveled" and not in the best of shape.  Dang.

The broccoli I started inside and then set out isn't looking as robust as I'd like.  Still hoping it will shape up.  It was in a cold frame until today.  Now it's out in the elements and on its own.

The cauliflower also had its cold frame taken away today.  It looks better than the broccoli.

The chives are growing like weeds and even have some blossom buds on them.  I've been trying to cut and process for the freezer a good sized cutting of them each night at the kitchen table while watching episodes of "The Golden Girls" I recorded from the Hallmark Channel.  (Yes, my life is exciting, isn't it?)

Here's a shot looking down a row of blueberry bushes with the haskap bushes in front.  I finished weeding the area today and have all but four of the blueberry bushes pruned.

When we first put in the haskaps three years ago, we read they would bear mature fruit before the blueberries.  But they've ripened the same time as our blueberries . . . at least up until now.  

Perhaps the haskap bushes just had to reach a certain age because this year they are currently LOADED with blossoms and the blueberry bushes barely have buds forming.  Looks to be a bumper crop of the haskaps this year.  Good thing we've discovered they make great alcoholic beverages, huh?  Hey, maybe this year the fruit will start tasting sweet right off the bushes.  (Nah, no chance.)

We're still in a drought period.  Have had only 1/2" of rain since our last snowfall.  I'm having to water almost daily.  Today the forecast was for a 70% chance of rain mid-afternoon, but although it's been gray all day, no moisture has materialized.  We're keeping our fingers crossed for a good soaking . . . soon.  If you're in an area that has any extra rain, please send it our way!

Good Gardening Progress and More Computer Trouble

How's that title for covering the good, the bad, and the ugly?

Ah yes, more computer problems.  This time I'm unable to send out any e-mails.  Computer guru daughter took a quick look tonight on her way home from work and says it will take more time than she could immediately give as she'll have to go "deep within the bowels" to straighten it out.  Pretty sure it has to do with having to switch over to Google as a main server which we did recently.  Sigh.  It is what it is, and I'm actually taking this latest glitch quite well.  (I'm probably just too busy right now to care.)  Please know that I'm not ignoring any of you who have been expecting to receive an e-mail from me.  I'll be back at it as soon as I can.

Spent a fantastically profitable day in the garden today.  The weather was blustery and cool, but the positive is that there are no bugs out yet, and I certainly didn't get over-heated.

No pictures yet, sorry to say, but so far I have all the broccoli in, half of the cauliflower (going to experiment with the other half), three raised beds of onions, snow peas planted with a new overhead trellis which I'm hoping will make picking a lot easier this year, three cherry tomato plants protected by Wall O' Waters, and a raised bed of transplanted salad greens and lettuce I started inside.

Papa Pea helped me put up three sixteen foot long shell pea trellises which I hope to get planted out tomorrow.

I'm tempted to set out my teeny-tiny pepper plants (under a cold frame) tomorrow, too.  Did I tell you about the first peppers I started inside?  One day the leaves looked a little shriveled and I thought perhaps they weren't getting enough water.  So I gave them a good drink.  Next day, the leaves started falling off.  One by one sad leaf, they just dropped off.  I have no idea what made this happen, but I had to start some seeds all over again.  Hence, the smaller than usual size of the peppers now.

And, oh yes, we ate the very first harvest of the year of asparagus for our lunch today.  A big plate for each of us with butter and salt.  Was it good?  You bet!

Anybody Else Feeling the Way I Am?

Yep, I'm feeling right up-to-the-gills overwhelmed, I am.

For me, it happens this way every year.  I'm all set and ready early on to get outside and get a jump start on the garden.  But Mother Nature won't allow it.  Both air and soil are way too cold to do anything.  Any seeds put into the ground would rot (death by hypothermia) and started seedlings set out would be frozen solid.  I can only watch the days on the calendar zip by without doing any garden work.

The, over night it seems, the temp sails up to 70 degrees and all things "garden" need to be done at once.  Right now.  Immediately.  Ugh.  Looking at it all makes me feel I'll never be able to accomplish it before the 4th of July.  By which date, obviously, it would be too late for crops to mature.  Ugh. 

So what have I done the past two days since our fickle weather has now turned summer-like?

I've spent it cutting, splitting and stacking wood.  We had help from Chicken Mama and Gilligan so the four of us really hit the wood working area with a vengeance.  It's a little mind-blowing to see what four people can accomplish working together as compared to two people (that would be me and Papa Pea) doing the same work.  It's not just double the amount that gets accomplished, but exponentially much greater than that.  We still have to get most of it under cover but having it all cut and split goes a far piece to having it done.

But tomorrow!  Tomorrow I am spending the whole day in the garden.  The.  Whole.  Day.  I must to assuage this feeling I have that I'm so, so, so behind right now.  Oh, it will take more than one day (that's an understatement) to get it all done.  More like a couple of weeks, but if I put concentrated effort on the task it will get done, and then I can breathe easier.  And stop acting like a very crazy lady who doesn't know which end is up.

I promise to have some pictures to illustrate my efforts by next post.  Hold me to it, please.