Blip.

I did, actually, have all good intentions to post yesterday.  I took some pictures.  I wandered around.  I wandered around a lot.  I wrote, rewrote, edited, deleted, wrote again.  Then I wandered around some more.  A thousand lashes with a damp linguine is what I deserve.

But, here it is a new day. Day four of my incredibly b.o.r.i.n.g. staycation.  I did go shopping and managed to force myself to buy three tops - all at incredibly reduced prices.  The highlight of the trip, however was not the torrential rain, the trying-on of clothes in the glare of gawd-awful lighting (I always forget how frightening it is to see oneself in a full-length mirror in full glare), or the shock of being charged a LOCAL tax on top of the state tax.  No, the highlight was finding a BIG salad spinner at a very small price!  Woot!

I didn't get much of anything done yesterday - a pot of lovely cream of asparagus soup.  A batch of PB Granola.  A kale salad.  I had a serious case of the blahs (see above).  This morning, however, I awoke with a full head of steam and whipped out an asparagus quiche for my mother.  My dear Aunt J is coming for an extended visit and is being dropped off by my cousin and his wife this coming Friday.  My mother - who tends to sit and stew - was in knots about what to fix for lunch.  So I volunteered a quiche.  They will have to suffer through the GF pastry, however.  There is no wheat in this household.

A few years ago, I had met a woman who moved here from New Mexico.  She was having a hard time adjusting and making friends.  I tried to make friends with her.  Really and truly I did.  But there are some people who just don't gel with you.  She did, inadvertently, make an indelible impression on me by introducing me to a nifty way to roll out pie pastry.  It's a plastic circle that zips all the way around.  Dough does not stick to it.  You can roll a perfect circle.  Your rolling pin never gets dirty.  It's easy to transfer the pastry to the pie plate. 

I am always amazed at the deep, rich color of my quiches, thanks to the big, orange yolks of the eggs my hens lay.  I'll wrap it well after it's cooled and my mother can freeze it.  Since the pastry mix I used made enough dough for two pies, I am forced to make a Rhubarb Coconut Custard Tart.  FORCED TO, I say!

More to come.

Bits and Bobs

Rain again today - I am forced to clean the house.  It seems so odd to do something that doesn't involve getting my hands in dirt.  Oh.  Wait.  Nevermind.

On the list today is to take the dogs (including the now miraculously improved Scrappy) over to M's farm so that they can run around like maniacs (under supervision) and pee on everything.  We are running into a problem with deer damage in the orchard.

Besides the aforementioned housecleaning, my 'staycation' plan is to go shopping.  My wardrobe is in desperate need of an infusion and, while I approached shopping without Sylvie with trepidation, it must be done.  Also, I am notoriously cheap and I am allergic to malls.  This presents quite a challenge.  We'll see if I am up to it.

As I replenished the Boyz' food dishes this morning (grain free rabbit/chicken kibble), it occurred to me that they should make cat food that makes more sense - chipmunk/carp; squirrel/mouse.  Let's face it, I could provide an endless supply of all of the above, with the exception of the carp.  I am sure they will never do it because our delicate sensitivities make us think we need to feed our cats/dogs the same food we eat.  Have you ever opened a can of cat food (or dog food) and recognized the contents as salmon au jus (other than the unnaturally nuclear glow pink)?  Let's get real, folks.

"I think that's a terrible idea."

Today I will harvest my first kale.  Thanks to a diligent application of crushed egg shells and DE, I am gaining on the slugs.  Just in case, I have a back-up container of Sluggo.  I intend to eat the fruits (and veges) of my labor this year.  I've ordered a giant amount of red pepper to insure that I will have strawberries.  While the apple trees look pretty sparse in the fruit area this year, berries are going to be bountiful.

Today I close with a remembrance.  A year ago today, my dear friend, Kay, was ripped out of our lives.  There is not a day that goes by that I am not reminded of her.  She was so tightly woven into my life that there is no way I will ever forget her.  She was one-of-a-kind.  I hope she is in a beautiful place, able to look down and feel all the love that her family and many friends send her way every day.  I miss you mightily.

Not that it came as a surprise...

I was almost giddy when I got home last night - I didn't even mind the snail's pace that evening traffic has now adopted.  I was going ON VACATION.  It's like having three Fridays!  Then I noticed, when I got out to retrieve my mail, that the mailbox was facing a new direction.  The town had mowed the side of the road and, apparently, the driver somehow missed a GIANT MAILBOX ON A LARGE, TALL 4X4 POST.  It had been ripped out of its cement foundation and hastily shoved back in the hole.  It was about four inches higher and listing in an easterly direction.  Note to self: call the town's highway department to lodge a complaint. Sigh.

Then Scrappy did not finish his dinner.  First time in the five years he has been with me.

Then I was awoken at 3:11A by the unmistaken sounds of barfing.  I leaped out of bed and groped my way into the living room to find Scrappy retching.  Out we went (and none too soon, as the other end followed suit).  Sigh.  We repeated this twice more until things finally seemed to settle down.  I waited until a more reasonable hour and called my vet.  An early appointment was made and he was checked over.  Besides an overly dramatic demeanor (laid his head on the vet's lap and gave him his best cow-eyed look with full tremble), he seems to be okay.  But he's on a bland diet and I am to keep my eye on him (and his sister).  So my much-heralded vacation weekend to Maine is now a staycation.  All in all, I figure it's better to have it happen now, than when they are kenneled and I am four hours away.

Sigh.

I was able to keep my hair appointment and I picked up much-needed feed.  I get my feed locally - everything in it is from Massachusetts, except for the oats, which are from Canada.  The feed facility is part of a large horse farm, so there is much beauty around.  I love to look at the horses while they are loading the feed itno my car.  I caught sight of these beauties of the feathered persuasion as I was leaving.

These babies were big!

When I got home, I found this:

I was amazed at the speed at which they acted.  Now I have to paint it and transfer my LLF sign to the new post.  I have vowed to do something non-work/non-farm every day.  For the rest of my staycation?  There is always The List.

Scrappy recovered enough to eat his oatmeal.

Sheepies.

I figured it was time to give the sheepies (and llama by default) some 'air time'.  We have all been enjoying the quiet mornings - if I'm spotted by the sheep, there is only an occasional deep baaaaa.  No more incessant screaming.  No more sidling around the woodpile.  I am a free woman - free to stride out on my deck to greet the morning!  Or, as happened this morning, free to fix my screen door, as Lovey was in a hurry and bashed it off its track.

My property is a series of ups, downs, hills, gullies; all rock-filled.  This makes keeping the grass maintained a real challenge.  Enter the sheepies.  I have a couple of lengths of electronet, a good-sized charger and a plan or two.  Not having to negotiate the goats AND the sheep has been very helpful, as the grid on the netting is large enough for the little Nigerians to think they can shove their bodies through.  The last time I put Sage and Chickie (who is flourishing with all of his wether buddies) in the electronet, it was a disaster - Sage got all tangled up and, thank God, I was outside and able disconnect the juice. 

I set the fencing up to have the gang clean up a troublesome slope.  As happens every spring when I first set it up, I wonder if the power is getting through the fencing.  But I am a coward and will not touch it to find out.  I know it won't knock me dead, but I have an intense dislike of shocks.  Which is why my carpal tunnel persists - the test involves putting electrodes on your hand and arm to measure the blockage.  Not happening.  I digress.

OMG!  Stay away from that white thing!

Lots and lots of luscious vegetation.

What did you say about the size of my hiney???

Apria, Linden and Juno are familiar with the fencing.  Norman is not.  Norman was elected by default to be the 'tester' and obliged by putting his nose on it.  ZAP!  He now avoids it like the plague.  What I hadn't figured is that Lovey would stick her head through the cattle panel gate on their Romper Room enclosure and put her very wet nose on it.  All I heard was a loud yelp and high pitched yipping and saw her tear-ass as far from the gate as possible.  Poor baby.  It's tough being a puppy.

Recovering.

I have a feeling this might end badly...

I shamelessly bullied my neighbor into planting my broccoli and cabbage plants in HIS garden.  So now, if I calculate correctly, I have enough planted to feed a family of 15.  The last time I checked, there is one of me.  I am blaming my compulsive planting on the long, bitter winter.   And I promise (cross my heart, hope to die) that  - after the sunflowers, tomatoes, dwarf sweet pea, St. John's wort, and a few other plants that I only vaguely recollect - I won't plant anything else.  Until Fall.

My neighbor's neat-as-a-pin
garden.  You'll find no tire planters
in THIS garden.

I think my neighbor is getting wise to me, though.  I happened to run into him this weekend and casually dropped the hint that I was STILL out of room and here I was with my poor tomato/pepper plants...poor me.  I noticed he started edging down the driveway.  When I turned my hopeful look in his direction, the poor man almost ran to his truck.  After all, he had taken on the foster care of six cabbage plants, six broccoli plants, and who knows what else (I tend to lose track).  I think the idea of having to take care of more of my plants was too much for him.



Herb bed - lovage, chives, tarragon, mint,
thyme, teeny oregano - cilantro and parsley
below.

In my herb bed - off the back deck - the cilantro keeps reseeding itself, which is wonderful.  I use a lot of it and it goes to seed so fast.  I've just let it carry on at its own pace for a few years now, and I have plenty to use during the summer.  My poor oregano is limping along (its that pitiful little yellowy patch in the upperish left of the bottom picture), while my thyme - which, by the way, I do NOT need to cultivate, as about a third of my lawn is comprised of wild thyme -  tarragon, chives and lovage are flourishing.  I love having access to fresh herbs right outside of my door.

I end this post with Tater Tires.  These are bintjes - my most favorite potato ever!  I had eaten more than my share in the Netherlands (their country of origin) but had never found them here.  That is until my Fedco catalogue arrived this winter!  I've only planted two types of potatoes this year (since asking my neighbor to plant a whole row of mine, hilling and weeding them all summer was a little much - don't you think?) - the bintjes and Kennebecs, another fav.

I promise that my next post will have nothing whatsoever to do with gardening.

Someone hand me my cane!

I limped off to bed last night, slept like a boulder and then took 15 minutes to get out of bed.  Geezloueeze.  I would like to think that the worst is over, but I'd be lying out of my nose.  After all that planting, I still have three tomato plants needing pots, two pepper starts (of the 'surprise' variety, since the labels fell off) and eight sunflowers that I couldn't turn down.  And that's after giving away two dozen tomato plants and another half-dozen pepper plants!  Would someone please come down/over/up here and intervene?  I need an intervention!

Even with all the whining and moaning and groaning, I still felt pretty good this morning when I surveyed the garden.  I felt even better when I awoke to the sound of rain.  It was a light shower, but I'll take it.  The forecast for the rest of the week is chance of rain/thunderstorm/showers every day and night.  My lettuce will be happy.

The previous owners of my house apparently were into collecting tires of all sizes and sorts (among other flotsam and jetsam that I am still unearthing).  I have adapted the old adage - "When handed tires, make planters".  The Hillbilly Garden Grows!  Since my original 'tires' for flowers are now filled with potatoes, I built on another section (read: less lawn) and planted Cosmos, Zinnias and the empty planter is now filled with sunflowers, as of this morning.  And, since I was on a roll, I seeded Nasturtiums and more Cosmos around the plants.

 

New in the greens bed this year is a beautiful, peppery mustard green.  Since the snails, slugs and creepy-crawlies seem to have a leg(less) up on me this spring, I have dusted the bed liberally with DE.  I hope to eat more of my greens than they do.

 

My horseradish flourishes - and I discovered that the leaves smell faintly of horseradish, too.

 

The weekend wasn't all planting.  I also hauled out my treasured tobacco cloth and draped it over my currants - there is plenty of fruit, but the goshdarn birds are even eating the green ones this spring!  A PVC frame is in the works to hold the cloth further off the bushes and to incorporate the blueberries to the right.

I had a delightful visit with a new-to-me nursery on Saturday.  I had passed it many times, but it's one of those - Whoosh!  You're by it before you can focus on it.  This time I was focusing, as I wanted to supplement my lettuce bed with plants because I am too impatient to wait for the seeds to grow.  I pulled in - I was the only car - opened my door, and was greeted by three large, moist noses attached to three beautiful, friendly (thank God) German Shepherds!  Needless to say, it is now my favorite nursery.  The woman who owns it is a retired nurse with a passion for plants and a penchant for rescuing senior GSDs.  And she has TONS of highly unusual ones.  Ergo, the Amethyst Basil.  And many, many more.  I am such a sucker.  She has a whole rack of Chinese medicinal herbs and I'm planning on setting up a separate medicinal herb garden.  Because I NEED another garden bed.  Right?

Minions! Where the heck are my minions?!

So many tough choices this weekend - plant garden or vacuum house.  Shovel mulch or do laundry.  Fertilize tomatoes or dust.  Lie motionless on the unvacuumed rug or go bar-hopping.  I threw the last one in just to make sure you were paying attention.  Obviously, I chose the former.

My guess is that I will have no trouble sleeping tonight, providing I can drag my sorry carcass from the living room into the bedroom.  I planted, planted, planted this weekend.  And then planted some more.  This, after swearing that I would cut back on my garden.  I wish I would listen to me.  BUT, I did get tons done, so it was all worth it.  But my house is in desperate need of a once over.  If only those darn minions would appear - I'd settle for the housework fairy.

Amethyst basil.  I bought it because
I didn't have enough plants in my
garden.  It was so beautiful I couldn't
'turn it down,  Or its brother
or sister...

Buckets o' beans.  To plant the
remaining 10 tomato plants.

Electronet finally went up, and the
sheep went out.

Hops vine.  It's scary.

Thank goodness I worked my hiney off - I have tons of blog fodder...and, as you can see from the pics, with all the planting and planting and planting, I am still not done.  Because I cannot ignore a seedling.  Or an amazing nursery.