End of June

We had an inch of rain Saturday night! There was much rejoicing. We are hoping for more later in the week, as we are still WAY below normal precipitation for the summer. Nevertheless, the plants in my new native rain garden really took off in the last couple days.

Many of the rain garden plants shot up following an inch of rain

I’ve also planted six species of native plants that I grew from seed out in what Terry calls “The Milkweed Forest.” He only mows this strip of field once at the beginning of summer and leaves it for the monarchs the rest of the season. 

The Milkweed "Forest"

The six species include four that I ordered from a native seed company (cup plant, wild senna, partridge pea, and joe pyeweed) and two that I collected from plants I already have (butterflyweed and swamp milkweed). All of them seem to be surviving, but I sure did pick a bad summer to start plants away from water. Terry, bless his heart, drops off filled watering cans at both new gardens every other day so I can water. I started watering every day but have now been able to cut back.

Native plants in the new garden among the milkweeds

It’s sort of a rule of thumb in nature that you can make up for no brains by having good instincts. This particular monarch caterpillar seemed to have neither. Terry found its chrysalis on a watering can by the garden in the milkweeds. Interestingly, we found no damaged milkweeds and have seen no adult monarchs. It’s a mystery where the caterpillar came from. Terry brought the chrysalis inside and put it in a plastic container with airholes and milkweeds. The chrysalis is lying on its side. I suspect it has to hang upright to develop properly, but Terry turned down my offer to hand it on a thread. We are doing an experiment.

Chrysalis on a watering can

chrysalis, up close

We checked our beehive this morning. To our delight, the super has honey in it! The bees looked vigorous and healthy. Terry saw the queen, but I did not.

Bees going in and out of the hive

The pollinator garden next to the hive is beginning to bloom. Right now it is mostly early sunflower and black-eyed susan.

The pollinator garden

Two red admirals were busy on the early sunflowers.

Red Admiral on an early sunflower

Some butterflyweed I planted a year or two ago is blooming. I’m excited about that. It is such a vivid orange.

Butterflyweed

Try as I might, I was unable to see a single bee on any flower in the pollinator garden. Maybe if I put up a sign? However, when I was out in the Milkweed Forest, I heard a lot of buzzing. I tracked it down to a large population of clover.

A bee with pollen in its leg baskets on clover

Lots of clover

The vegetable garden is loving the rain as well. We harvested about 150 bulbs of garlic on Saturday. It is washed, bundled, and hanging to dry.

150 bulbs of garlic--is that enough?

The pea harvest started Saturday also. Here is the first half-cup of peas. It wasn’t enough for a side dish, so I mixed it with the couscous that we had with Greek chicken.

The first peas

I can’t believe June is nearly over already. It will be time to butcher the meat chickens soon. Before you know it, the tomatoes will be ripe! Summer is the best.

Another trip around the sun

 Why yes, I did skip last week’s post. I’ve been busy as a bee in a bucket of tar. During gardening season, weekly posts are more of a guideline than a rule.

I was in the study this morning trying to catch up on my long-neglected email when I was presented with a story problem: if there are two cat trees, two cats, and one desk in a room, where will the cats be? Hint: not in the cat trees that were purchased for their accommodation.

Two cats, two cat trees, one desk

After three years of trying to figure out how to grow strawberries, we have succeeded. Here is one of the first special breakfasts of summer. 

First special summer breakfast: strawberries and mini-wheats

We are also having strawberries with ice cream and with scones in the evening for dessert. I have started freezing pulp for jam. In previous, strawberry-free years, I was weeding at this time. There simply are not enough hours in the day.

We have been having a little ant problem. Let me clarify that “little” modifies “ant,” not “problem.” The problem is not huge but is persistently annoying. We can’t figure out what they want. If we knew what they were after we could clean it up and/or put ant traps where they were congregating. But no. They seem to be doing random walks, one or two tiny ants at a time, all over the house. One evening last week, the ants were having a party on the coffee table between our recliners in the living room. It occurred to me that the edge around the glass top was likely full of all manner of crumbs from the last 20 years, if not more. We commenced cleaning. We unloaded the crap from the shelf below the glass. I removed the glass to the kitchen to wash it with soap and water while Terry got a putty knife to scrape out the notch where the glass sat. By the time Terry returned with the putty knife, Bingo had concluded that all the commotion was obviously to make a space for him to play.

Wow! A new place to play!

There have been no more ants on the coffee table. I won’t see any for a day or two and think the problem is solved. And then there will be one. Or two. Or five. What do they want from me??

I saw a first-year male orchard oriole at the bird feeder. The juveniles are so different from the adults that I always have to look them up. I can’t remember if the yellow with the black throat is the juvenile male or the female. The juvenile had the misfortune of showing up when two Baltimore orioles were fighting for the jelly. There was an altercation.

Two Baltimore orioles, left; orchard oriole juvenile, top

The orchard oriole waited on top of the feeder

Orchard oriole first-year male

And eventually got a turn at the jelly.

Hope it was worth the weight

The chicks seem to be growing exponentially. Both the pullets and the meat chickens still have some down around their heads and necks, making them look like they have bed-head. So cute.

Still having bad hair days

These two pictures show the size comparison of the pullets and the meat birds. I can’t get over how big the meat chickens’ feet are!

Golden Wyandott standing behind a meat chicken

Ameraucana and three meat chickens

As I watch the meat chickens wander around the run on a sunny afternoon, I remember why I raise meat chickens. Their life may be brief, but it’s happy. They eat grass and bugs,

Foraging

And hang around the water cooler. They have all their little chicken hearts desire.

Gossiping by the water cooler

I turned 64 last Sunday. Friends came over to help celebrate. This is what a party looks like when the photographer doesn’t give the heads up to smile.

Roughly half of the assembled multitude

After eating and drinking, Jane put candles on the cake she baked for me.

Jane puts on the candles

We both worked on lighting them.

Jane and I light the candles; Diane laughs and Nancy takes a picture

Happy birthday to me!

Happy birthday

I blew out the candles. It’s lovely to be at an age where I really don’t have anything to wish for. I have all my heart desires, too.

Blowing out the candles

Thanks to Nancy and Kate for taking pictures!

 

 

 

Free at last

The days continue to be long and HOT. It would be nice to retreat to the house in the afternoon, but there is simply too much to do. I keep thinking of the old Noel Coward song, “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.” Unfortunately, those are the only lyrics I know of the whole song, so that just goes around and around in my melting brain. I have good intentions of coming in at regular intervals to drink water or iced tea. Once I get busy, though, by tendency is to tell myself I will go in right after I finish one more thing, but that one thing leads to another and another, and before I know it, it’s 4:00, I’m sweat-soaked, dizzy, and suffering from headache and heat cramps. Still I tell myself I’ll quit right after this one last thing.

Life is easier for the cats. Their only concession to the heat, apparently, is to lounge on bare surfaces rather than upholstery or carpet. I have given up trying to keep Bingo off my desk.

Are you supposed to be on my desk? I don't think so.

I had to take a day off today to catch up on some writing tasks, this blog being the first of them. With most of the plants are in the ground, I planned to write yesterday. Then I remembered it was time to put up the chick fence. The chicks are three weeks old now. Once their feathers are mostly in, they can maintain their body heat in cool temperatures. The meat chickens are nearly halfway through their brief lives. Time for them to get out and enjoy themselves.

Chicks getting feathers. Brown are (large) meat chickens. Other colors will be laying hens.

They have also started perching. Terry built this low “practice perch” for them. The male meat chickens can now be distinguished from the females by their larger combs. The two chicks in the middle are males. The ones in the upper right and lower left are, I think, females.

Practice perching: birds with large combs in center are males, birds with less conspicuous combs, upper right and lower left, are probably females.

I hoped we would have rain to soften the ground before we put the chick fence up, but nope, still dry like bone. Terry graciously offered to wield the post slammer, as my elbows were worn out with weed whacking.  Once the fence was up and secured, I took the screen off the door. No one ventured out, probably because it was too bright and hot in the afternoon sun.

This morning, a few brave souls had ventured out.

Early explorers

I shooed everyone out so I could, at last, give the coop a good cleaning and replace the wood chips. Short of rounding all the chicks up and putting them in a bin, there is no way of cleaning the coop. I just let it go until they can go outside. Needless to say, the coop is a big mess by then.

The chicks were mostly traumatized by their sudden eviction. They hovered by the door, which was blocked on the inside.

OMG--what do we do now? Our food and water are in there!

I took out the heat table and put practice perch where the table had been. The coop briefly looked nice with the clean wood chips and clear water.

A clean coop, for a few minutes.

After I opened the door, a few chicks gathered outside to look in. One entered and exited just as fast. Overall, though, they started dispersing little by little. They seemed less anxious when the door was open. 

With access to food and water secured, the chicks begin to roam

The golden laced Wyandottes are beginning to show the brown inside the black edges of their feathers. I am always impressed by the size of their feet!

A Golden Wyandotte with big feet

By the time I got done with about ten “just one more things”, the chicks were lounging comfortably or pecking at the grass. Shortly after I took this picture, they all went in the coop again.

The chicks lounge and forage at leisure.

I’m about done picking asparagus. Bok choy is ready now. I made chicken wonton soup with it last night. Delicious!

Asparagus gives way to bok choy

Terry helped me build Fort Knox around the strawberry beds.

A fortress of bird netting over the strawberries

I checked the strawberries yesterday, but only one was ripe. There were others that looked ripe, until you turned them over. They were all still green on the underside. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Deceptively red strawberries

Last week, I posted pictures of domestic iris, selectively bred for large showy flowers. This week, my wild iris, a.k.a. blue flag is blooming. The flower is simpler with smaller petals. If I were a bee, I think I’d be able to find my way in and out of this one more easily.

Blue flag/wild iris

Penstemon has also started blooming. I’m glad to see these flowers opening. More food for our bees close at hand.

Penstemon