Catching up with summer...
My last post was Rodeo Weekend? Yikes, it has been a long time between posts. I suppose that is a direct result of crazy end-of-the-school-year goings-on. In the last several weeks there have been finals schedules, promotion ceremonies, graduation, testing schedules, local/primary elections, the beginning of summer school, council and worship team meetings at church, and somewhere in between - working in the garden. There has been much progress in that regard, which has brought me considerable satisfaction and peace in the midst of all the other chaos that has been anything but satisfying or peaceful.
When our local bond measure for our schools did not pass, the district had to begin the toughest spending cuts of all, even though much fat has been trimmed in each of the last few years. Little remains to be cut, so now all district employees will be receiving a 7% paycut this fall, anticipated to last for the next 5 years. Ouch. I was finally getting to the point at which "month-to-month" was beginning to change into "having a little for a rainy day". Not yet, it seems. The day after I heard the first rumor of this, I went out and spoke to the owner of a local small business about evening and weekend work. Things are not looking good right now, so any solace I find in the garden, with the dog, horse, chickens, and critters is most welcome. Beginning in the fall, there will be little time for anything but work, so my plan for the next 4 weeks this summer is to get many projects finished and hyper-organized so that I can take advantage of the wee hours of the morning (my favorite time of day) and my few evenings at home to spend with Sailor, Jericho, and the farm projects that make me happy.
One of the things that makes me happy is my hilarious "Hillbilly" garden gate. It is constructed of scrap fence boards, broken garden stakes, small poultry screen, and a couple of hinges. It is place awkwardly, but effectively, as it keeps the chickens out of my veggies (which was the point, of course)!
My pumpkin, melon, patty-pan, and cucumber seeds took FOREVER to sprout, but now everything I planted is coming up and it won't be long before I need to start canning like a mad-woman. The Tollhouse blackberries should be ready soon, and I won't make the same mistake I did last year: only bought one flat! This time I will buy as many flats as they will let one person buy, and freeze what I cannot turn into jelly right away. That is, of course, if they make it home from the stand (mmmmm.... purple mouth). They are, technically, boysenberries, and they are the most amazing berry I have ever eaten. These berries are wild, but a few local farmers have managed to cultivate them in order to harvest small crops each year. It is my hope to someday be blessed enough to have a small farm with some of these berries growing like crazy. Boysenberry jelly from Tollhouse berries, strawberries from the valley, corn from Fresno State, peaches and nectarines from Dad's trees, plus all the crops from my tiny little 8'x 8' garden should keep me PLENTY busy canning in the next few weeks! Whoo hoo!
I made a funky rain-gutter garden on the east side of the dog kennel as an experiment. It began with a panel of fencing left from the church fence that blew down at Christmas time - thank you Judy and Ron Aylward for helping me load the panel! I knocked out a few boards to allow breezes and a view for Sailor (those were recycled for use in the rest of the garden), zip-tied the structure to the chain-link, screwed the rain gutter brackets to the fence, put up the gutters, and filled with soil and seed! Recall, please, that I said "experiment". Umm, yeah. The gutters are a bit too shallow for even basil and baby lettuce (much of which birds got when seeds). I have now planted dianthus in the top, and think that I will transplant some thyme there and further research useful herbs that can tolerate a shallow root base. I had to try!!!
Well, this post was largely about the mundane, but tomorrow I will post about the WONDERFUL visit I had with Aunt Jean and Uncle Mac up at the cabin on Father's Day. That lovely evening provided much more interesting chat about family history that is far more provocative than scrap gates and radishes (oh, yeah - my radishes are deeeee-lish)!
G'nite!
When our local bond measure for our schools did not pass, the district had to begin the toughest spending cuts of all, even though much fat has been trimmed in each of the last few years. Little remains to be cut, so now all district employees will be receiving a 7% paycut this fall, anticipated to last for the next 5 years. Ouch. I was finally getting to the point at which "month-to-month" was beginning to change into "having a little for a rainy day". Not yet, it seems. The day after I heard the first rumor of this, I went out and spoke to the owner of a local small business about evening and weekend work. Things are not looking good right now, so any solace I find in the garden, with the dog, horse, chickens, and critters is most welcome. Beginning in the fall, there will be little time for anything but work, so my plan for the next 4 weeks this summer is to get many projects finished and hyper-organized so that I can take advantage of the wee hours of the morning (my favorite time of day) and my few evenings at home to spend with Sailor, Jericho, and the farm projects that make me happy.
One of the things that makes me happy is my hilarious "Hillbilly" garden gate. It is constructed of scrap fence boards, broken garden stakes, small poultry screen, and a couple of hinges. It is place awkwardly, but effectively, as it keeps the chickens out of my veggies (which was the point, of course)!
My pumpkin, melon, patty-pan, and cucumber seeds took FOREVER to sprout, but now everything I planted is coming up and it won't be long before I need to start canning like a mad-woman. The Tollhouse blackberries should be ready soon, and I won't make the same mistake I did last year: only bought one flat! This time I will buy as many flats as they will let one person buy, and freeze what I cannot turn into jelly right away. That is, of course, if they make it home from the stand (mmmmm.... purple mouth). They are, technically, boysenberries, and they are the most amazing berry I have ever eaten. These berries are wild, but a few local farmers have managed to cultivate them in order to harvest small crops each year. It is my hope to someday be blessed enough to have a small farm with some of these berries growing like crazy. Boysenberry jelly from Tollhouse berries, strawberries from the valley, corn from Fresno State, peaches and nectarines from Dad's trees, plus all the crops from my tiny little 8'x 8' garden should keep me PLENTY busy canning in the next few weeks! Whoo hoo!
I made a funky rain-gutter garden on the east side of the dog kennel as an experiment. It began with a panel of fencing left from the church fence that blew down at Christmas time - thank you Judy and Ron Aylward for helping me load the panel! I knocked out a few boards to allow breezes and a view for Sailor (those were recycled for use in the rest of the garden), zip-tied the structure to the chain-link, screwed the rain gutter brackets to the fence, put up the gutters, and filled with soil and seed! Recall, please, that I said "experiment". Umm, yeah. The gutters are a bit too shallow for even basil and baby lettuce (much of which birds got when seeds). I have now planted dianthus in the top, and think that I will transplant some thyme there and further research useful herbs that can tolerate a shallow root base. I had to try!!!
I am very pleased with an impulse purchase, and if the photo ever loads from my phone you will get to see it! I bought one each of a green-blossomed and hot pink blossomed tobacco plant (nicotiana "perfume") and put them in the planter I had reserved for lemon verbena. I still would love a good place for the lemon verbena, but am not sorry about the impulse buy. They are beautiful, hardy, and smell quite lovely. In fact, next spring I intend to plant more of them in with the scatter mix for the bees.
Well, this post was largely about the mundane, but tomorrow I will post about the WONDERFUL visit I had with Aunt Jean and Uncle Mac up at the cabin on Father's Day. That lovely evening provided much more interesting chat about family history that is far more provocative than scrap gates and radishes (oh, yeah - my radishes are deeeee-lish)!
G'nite!
Jericho - my sweet boy!
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