Josie: I go pick peas now.
Me: The peas are gone now, sweetie.
Josie: Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!
Josie: MY peas…
*uncontrollable sobbing*
Josie: Go ‘way, Mommy!! Go ‘way!
Out with the peas, in with the beans. Better late than never, right? 80 row feet total of:
Warning: Awkward mirror self-portrait.
Severe Warning: Very scary, awkward mirror self-portrait. Proceed at your own peril.
I’ve been wearing my butt-length hair in braids since the warmer weather has hit. It helps to contain the madness that is my hair. Still, with the constant wind & humidity, the shorter bits find a way out. I mentioned my mad scientist hair on Facebook yesterday and wanted to make good on the threat of a pic so here ya go.
We got a bit more progress on the back half garden prep yesterday. Hopefully, we’ll be ready to put some tomatoes in the ground tonight!
The broccoli has started bolting/flowering/doing things I don’t want it to do so, this afternoon, I cut what heads I could and pulled the plants. The chickens are feasting on them and I’ll replant that row with okra today or tomorrow.
This is my first time with cauliflower but it sure doesn’t look like it’s doing anything.
The theme for this year is: Late, late late! It has taken us so long, starting from scratch here, that we’ve planted nearly everything late. Next year will be better. At least the cabbage is heading up.
And the kohlrabi is gorgeous.
Most of the onions are doing well.
The ground cherries and summer squash underplanted around them seem to be taking off now that the temps have warmed back up.
And someone’s starting to turn blonde from time spent swiping fresh veggies in the summer sun! (Ignore the bowl-cut bangs. I just trimmed them a couple of days ago and, with Josie being the Energizer Bunny, I have to do it quick & dirty in the two seconds I can get her to sit still.)
Grandpa Steve bought Nellie this pool for her birthday. Of course, she shares it with everyone because she’s cool like that.
Anyone know what this is? It keeps popping up everywhere.
Garden update: I’ve managed to get all of the peppers mulched, along with most of the tomatillos, with those new wood chips Steve & the boys have been getting. The tromboncino/zucchetta/rampicante (everyone calls it something different and I never know which one to say) and painted serpent I planted have not come up. As soon as I planted them, the weather turned cold & wet so 99% of them rotted. I’ve ordered replacement seeds and will replant. The lettuce harvest continues. I’ve just sprayed the brassicas with spinosyn again as the moths have been doing their thing. Potato hilling is never-ending.
And…. Steve’s finally managed to make some progress in garden bed prep! Yay! I’ll probably plant okra and cukes in this bed. On the far side of it are the chiles. On the near side will be the tomato beds which he says will be ready for planting on Monday. (He’s working lots of overtime so we’ll see if he really does have time to get it all done so quickly. The poor tomatoes have high hopes.)
Bees & chickens updates:
The latest boody hen hatched out a couple of chicks on Friday. Only two out of eight eggs. She abandoned the nest after the two hatched so, either she knew they were not viable or we screwed her up by moving her to the broody pen so late in the game. No worries since 129 chicks are due to be delivered in less than two weeks.
On the bee front, remember that we found the Carniolan hive not doing so well on our last inspection? A couple of days ago, Steve & Charlie swapped out a couple of frames. They took a frame full of brood out of the Italian hive and placed it in the Carniolan hive. We’re hoping that’ll give them a much-needed jump start. We’ve also started feeding them again, this time with a ziplock feeder within the hive so only they have access to it. For the wax moths mentioned last time, we’ve made DIY traps for them from here. Hopefully, that’ll take care of the problem.
It’s recently been brought to my attention that we are not like Most People. Apparently, Most People don’t constantly have constant projects. Apparently, Most People don’t continually build things. Apparently, Most People don’t have passersby nearly drive off the road, rubbernecking to see what we’re doing this week. Apparently, Most People are not the subjects of bets between neighbors, trying to guess the lastest mystery building project sitting in the yard.
I know this guy is not normal.
But he’s cute.
And you’d think Josie was a normal little girl if I were to tell you that she likes playing with dollies.
Until you found out that I meant the hand-cart type of dolly.
We really should start charging admission.
The weather sucks. Flat-out sucks. I don’t want to muck around in three feet of mud. So, instead, I mucked around in 4″ of wet grass and 6″ deep puddles taking pics. Did I mention it’s 50 degrees out there? I’m freaking cold, people. And bored to death. Please tell the sun to come back!
In the meantime, you will be subjected to far too many photos of green stuff. Shall we start with the back yard? I’ll save the front yard for tomorrow.
I put up a rain gauge a few weeks ago. About a 1/2″ last night. We got 2″ the previous night. Before that, we were actually drying out enough to work the garden some.
I built cages for each of the 47 sweet peppers planted this week. My hands are shredded. (I don’t need no steenkin’ gloves!)
Steve cemented in the gate post and attached the gate (he previously built) for the new chicken run. (We ran out of chicken wire or the run would already be done.)
Remember last fall when Steve found a bunch of discarded but perfectly fine pumpkins and other winter squash at the town yard waste dump? The ones that weren’t fine got tossed on a big pile of cornstalks and leaves that we were composting. We now have three billion winter squash sprouting. We’ll let them grow out and see what we get. (Anyone want some squash this fall??)
The tomatillos have happily settled into their permanent homes.
The wide row of psychadelic-green lettuce was harvested for the first time this week. Yum! It’s loose-leaf and cos types so cut & come again.
Glaskins rhubarb I started from seed this spring is finally putting on some size.
20-ish round, raised wheel beds in the back yard and several more in the front yard. Now, imagine mowing around all of these. I get so dizzy!!! I’m very relieved that the other raised beds we’re putting in will be square!
Josie loooooves picking and eating the wild green onions that grow all over the yard. She has the stinkiest breath of any toddler (or adult) I’ve ever known! She must have gotten the raw-onion-nut gene from my dad.
Sinister (and tall!) things lurk in the back yard…. (Poor Cody. I so rarely get to take his pic and then, when I do, he gives me this almost dark look so I just had to play with the color to exaggerate it.)
