So hot. So dry

This week’s post will be quick. Heck’s a-poppin’ here, and I have approximately one million things to do. My motivation is limited by the hot-as-hell, humid weather. It is like, as Bailey White has written, “air that has already been breathed.” I was out weed-whacking (or weed-whipping or string-trimming—whatever) this morning for an hour, with a break for reinstalling line. I was dripping with sweat after 10 minutes. After I come inside and dry off, my skin is covered in salt as if I have been swimming in the ocean. And it’s not even June yet.

Also, in spite of the humidity, it is dry, dry, dry. If we get measurable rainfall this afternoon, (the weather forecasters are hesitant to make promises), it will be the third driest May on record. If not, it will be second. I can’t complain too much. We have most of the garden on drip lines. I can almost feel all the prayers for rain rising from the neighboring farms. If we don’t get something soon, there’s going to be a lot of dead corn out there.

Spring continues apace. New blooms this week include irises,

Irises

Geranium,

Wild geranium around the trillium, which are fading

Columbine

The columbine is especially floriferous this year.

And shooting star, one of my favorites.

Shooting star

While I was out one morning taking pictures, I saw this lovely little fir cone, so intricately scalloped and delicate. I did not know they were so beautiful when first formed.

A delicate fir cone, about an inch tall.

The chicks are getting their feathers. We have quickly switched from keeping them warm to keeping them cool. Heat is hands-down more dangerous. The meat chickens are, as usual, rapidly outsizing the layers. Here’s one of the Ameraucana, which fits nicely in my hand,

A petite Ameraucana

As does a golden Wyandotte.

A similarly sized Golden Wyandotte

A Big Red Broiler can hardly be contained. Already the feet are impressively large.

Meat chicken with giant feet

The chicks scurry to the corner every time I peek in at them. This picture shows an Ameraucana (dark) side-by-side with several meat chickens (red-gold).

An Ameraucana, left, with a passel of meat birds for size comparison

Much of my time these past days has been taken up with getting rootbound seedlings in the ground before they die. One Project from Hell that I undertook this week was planting 38 wickedly expensive native rain garden plants. Since we’d had no rain, the ground was hard as a brick. My first task was to lay out a plot that had an area of 75 to 100 ft². Next, I took of the top layer of vegetation with a shovel.

Top layer of plants and soil removed from 92 ft²

Because the soil has so much clay, I spread sand and grass clippings over the top to lighten it up. Then I spaded it into the ground. I covered the ground with cardboard to act as a weed barrier and keep in whatever soil water was left.

Spading in soil amendments

Having learned my lesson about spacing the plants apart (the first garden assortment I planted is WAY too crowded, and I have lost several of the species), I made sure to spread the plants evenly throughout the recommended space, in this case, 4’ x 23’, or 92 ft².

Planting and watering

I planted, watered each plant thoroughly, and covered the cardboard with sand and the dried out turf I’d removed to weigh it down when the heavy rains come, and the area floods again. Hope springs eternal.

Baby pictures

 I say this every spring, but it bears repeating: nothing makes me feel like a farmer quite like driving to the post office at 6:10 a.m. to pick up a box of chicks. As I drive home, I remember how Hilda used to want to pry up a corner of the lid to peek at them, and I would caution her about letting a chick run loose in the car. All 22 chicks were alive and well.

Chicks-to-go: 15 meat chickens, 3 golden Wyandotts, 4 Americauna

It was a cool morning, which is good. It is way easier to keep chicks warm than to cool them off. I gave each one his/her first drink by dipping its little beak in the water. Then I put them in the coop under the heat lamp with the food and water. Here they are having more drinks.

Getting hydrated after their journey

I should have pre-heated the coop and the warming table. They were cold for more than an hour before I got the heat lamp low enough for them to be comfortable. Living and learning. This picture shows how the chicks should look, casually spread around, not plastered against the side to get away from the heat or clustered in a tight group to stay warm.

Warm at last

In addition to the usual Murray’s Big Red Broilers (straight run = random assortment of males and females). For layers, I am trying golden Wyandotts for the first time. Like the silver Wyandotts of last year, they have black-edged feathers, but the rest of the feathers are brown rather than white. I also got four Americaunas, which lay blue eggs. In this photo the Wyandott is black and the Americauna is not (hard to describe her). I ordered one extra of each of the alleged pullets because for the last two years, I have gotten a rooster by mistake. I have a friend who will take extra hens if I have them. Roosters will be eaten.

Golden Wyandott, left; Americauna, right

Yesterday was Day 3. I had almost no trouble with pasty butt this time (praise be), so it was time to put out the wood chips and give the chicks full run of the coop. After they ran around exploring, they settled by the heat table and took a little nap. Just like the babies they are.

Rest break

I got a nice picture of the orchard oriole this week. I had to get it in the morning so the light was shining on him. In the afternoon, he looks all black in silhouette.

Orchard oriole male

Busy as I have been, I managed to get back to the creek to check on my introductions. While the first jack-in-the-pulpit got frost damage, the second was find.

Jack in the pulpit

The maidenhair fern looks good, although I need to do some weeding. It’s on the list. I also need to get back there with the weed-whacker, or weed-whipper, which Kate tells me they call it in Wisconsin, or string-trimmer, which is its actual official name, although I have never heard anyone say, “I’m going to go do some string trimming.”

Maidenhair fern among the weeds

I came upon this area of crushed dandelion stems which I can only infer is a deer bed. I never saw one of these that wasn’t in snow.

Putative deer bed

Jacob’s ladder is blooming under the fifth oak, as is the wood phlox. The Jacob’s ladder is spreading nicely. It makes me so happy when I get a plant in the right spot.

Thriving Jacob's ladder

Not-so-thriving wood phlox

I finally caved to my weeks-long craving for cinnamon rolls yesterday. It was Sunday, after all. Doesn’t that deserve a better breakfast? The extra bonus, as well as a motivating factor, was that I used up a little bit of cream cheese frosting that had been languishing since I made a batch of pumpkin bars quite some time ago.

The cinnamon rolls of my dreams

 

So many seedlings!

Terry and I began the week with a two-night trip to Galena to celebrate our 25^th anniversary. A kind stranger took a picture of us sitting next to Ulysses S. Grant.

Ulysses, me, and Terry

The weather was similar to the drizzly day in Buffalo when we were married at the courthouse. Hilda took this picture of us in front of the nearby McKinley Monument, with the sad lions showing how sorry the city was that he was assassinated there.

My favorite wedding picture

It made sense at the time to be married on May 8, the Friday between the end of classes and the start of finals week. Not so much now, when we have a million things to do to get the garden started. I swear for every one tasks that gets crossed off my list, I have to add two more. I had a busy week.

While it seemed like I had all the time in the world to clean Coop 1 when we moved the hens to Coop 2 in the orchard, I realized with a start that the chicks are coming next week, and I’d better get to it. I miss my mom. She cheerfully volunteered to take on that nasty, dusty chore and did a much more thorough job than I have the patience for. I did it, however, and it is just going to have to be good enough. Even my half-assed cleaning took the whole day.

I devoted another entire day to potting up the seedlings from the tray I started inside.

Plum tomatoes

Many hot and sweet peppers

Oh, so many Brussels sprouts and cabbages

By the end of the day, only the basil seedlings remained. They are on the list for tomorrow.

Basil seedlings in the now-otherwise-empty tray

When, oh when, will I have time to pot up all the native plants that sprouted from the seeds that I started? And where will I plant them when it is time for them to be out in the Big World?

Lettuce seedlings (left) in front of native plant seedlings 
such as Joe Pyeweed, cup plant, and wild senna.

The migratory birds continue to return. We have many orioles now as well as pairs of rose-breasted grosbeaks.

Mr. Grosbeak

Mrs. Grosbeak

I have seen at least two white-crowned sparrows.

White-crowned sparrow

The hummingbirds are back, too, but they are quick, and I haven’t had time to stake out the feeders to get a picture of them.

Often our magnolia tree starts blooming too early, gets frost damaged, and never fully opens. We had more success this year.

Magnolia

Here’s a close-up of a flower, which remains dear to my heart since taking Plant Evolution as an undergraduate. At the time, we learned that the magnolia is probably similar to the first flowering plant, I think because it has numerous, large, relatively unspecialized reproductive structures. 

Magnolia flower

I’m pleased with how well the trillium are spreading. They are my favorite souvenir of Camp Pokonokah Hills.

Trillium grandiflorum

The cucumbers are blooming in the high tunnel, and cute little cucumbers are forming. It won’t be long!

Tiny cucumbers underneath the yellow flowers

We have lots of strawberry blossoms and will have lots of strawberries if I get the bird netting put over them before they turn red. It’s on my list.

Strawberries in bloom

There will be no outside work today. It’s a rain day, which I sorely need to do indoor work such as paying bills and writing blog posts. What I would really like to do is make cinnamon rolls, but I don’t have the time or need the calories. Barring that, it would be nice to settle in somewhere cozy and take a nap, like these two little boys. How sweet that Banjo has his paw on Bingo’s back.

Bromance

I can cross the blog post off my list now. What shall I do next?

 

 

Orioles!

 I know, I know. I’m late with my weekly blog post. I have been crazy busy, which is not how I envisioned my retirement. It is my own fault. I forget that “No” is a complete sentence. I like to do some volunteering so I don’t sit at home festering in isolation. The trouble is that one “Yes” often splinters into subcommittees and associated groups, and before you know it, you have a week where you have a meeting every single night! I am seriously too old for that.

During the day, I’m trying to get the gardening done. We are finally (fingers crossed) headed for warmer weather. I planted the rest of the cucumbers but took the extra step of covering them with row cover, since I have no more extras.

Cukes under row cover

Having plenty of tomatoes, I planted six and left them uncovered. If they freeze, I can replace them. So far, so good.

Six tomatoes in the high tunnel

Our potatoes kept better than usual over the winter. The Red Norland sprouted all over and got to shriveled to eat, but the Burbank Russets and Kennebecs are still considered food. I didn’t bother with buying any seed potatoes this year. Terry used the rototiller to make furrows. I put the potatoes in and raked the soil back over. I should have removed the sprouts from the Norland as they just dried up anyway. I always hope they will turn green and start growing. I can’t remember the outcome of the experiment from one year to the next. Those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it.

Potatoes ready to be covered (left to right, Burbank Russet, Kennebec, Red Norland

I am also doing experiments on germinating native plants this year, with variable success. Cup plant is germinating well; Joe Pyeweed, not so much.

Native seeds sprouting, or not

An enterprising robin has found a prime nesting spot in the lichen-covered fiberglass greenhouse, which we now use entirely for storage. The next is on top of a push broom. The object behind it is an expensive and completely useless poultry net. It is too long and heavy to actually catch any chickens. Now that we have it, however, we can’t figure out what to do with it. It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing one should take to Goodwill.

Robin nest on top of a broom in the lichen house

The nest has three lovely blue eggs. I wish there were chickens that laid such blue eggs. Forget Round-Up Ready Soybeans—someone should be working on GMO chickens that lay eggs the color of robin eggs. It can’t be more than a couple of genes, can it?

Very blue robin's eggs

There are advantages and disadvantages to nesting in the lichen house. On the plus side, it is warm and sheltered from the wind. On the minus side, it’s going to get really hot in there when the sun beats down in the afternoon, and the bipeds are in and out of there multiple times a day getting tools and other stuff. The disturbances cause the robin to sound the warning chirps and fly out the back window.

Robin making her escape

The minus on the biped side is that everything in the lichen house will be covered in bird poo by the time the babies fledge. Did you know the species name of robin is Turdus migratorius?

After several days’ absence, I made it back to the creek again. The mayapples have opened up.

Mayapples

They long-awaited bluebells are blooming. As with so many things, I wish Hilda were here to see them. Blue was her favorite color.

Virginia bluebells

The jack-in-the-pulpit is up but looking worse for wear, presumably from frost.

Deformed jack-in-the-pulpit, maybe from Jack Frost

Better late than never, the asparagus is finally poking out of the soil. We each had 5 spears for supper last night. It was amazing, so sweet and delicious. I started weeding it yesterday. I try to do it once at the beginning of each season, but I didn’t do it last year. I wish now that I had, but the should-haves don’t count.

Long-awaited asparagus

The Baltimore orioles are back! It is so fun to see streaks of bright orange and black flying by.

Welcome back, Mr. Oriole!

The females are here as well. I think the bird on the post as well as the one on the railing are female orioles.

And Mrs. Orioles

We have been seeing the turkeys often. The usual group has seven individuals.

Our usual flock of seven turkeys--I think 3 hens and 4 toms

An enlarged view of that last picture shows that the tom by the fifth oak is displaying for a hen who is not very interested in him. He looks ridiculous strutting around like that. I can imagine the hen giving him an eye-roll.

"Hey, baby! Hey, baby!"

Eventually, he gave it up and wandered off with his buddy. The two turkeys in front are toms, witnessed by their “beards”, which is what the tuft of feathers sticking out of their chests are called. No idea why. The turkey in the back seems beardless, and therefore a female. She is as uninterested as ever.

Off to more romantic locales

I have no idea if I will have time to post or not next week. I have much to do before the chicks arrive the week of May 15. Once the outside work gets rolling, I feel like I won’t catch my breath before October!