Bad Blogger

I have been a bad blogger this week!  Lots of things going on coupled with the fact that they don't really have anything to do with the garden have had me skipping out the past few days, but I will give you a little update - however boring it may be!


Loch has over an hour bus ride now.  I don't even know what to say about that other than we might as well live out in the sticks!  I had longer than that when I was a kid but we actually DID live in the country, not a city with half a million people as we do now.  I can't say much though, since it IS worth it that he is going to the gifted program and the district does provide transportation, so although I can get a little peeved that I had to reschedule after-school activities for later in the evenings, I really don't have anything to complain about and will just accept it.


The chores here the past week have consisted of maintenance type gardening and general sprucing up, rather than fall planting.  Here is Finn, using my little pruners for the first time, snipping off dead hosta flower stalks:

poor guy had me saying every 10 seconds "watch where your finger is!"

Our big Master Gardener Fall Community Festival is this weekend, so I've had meetings and baking to do for a bake sale.  Here's yesterday's start to a "15 pumpkin bread loaf" day!  Kitchen was HOT last night.

Speaking of hot, it's just gross here again this week.  Rain, high humidity and temps in the high 80's again all week, heat indexes higher, yuck - I want fall to come back!

For everyone following Mama Dove's Hurricane Irene adventures, you can now rejoice!  The babies are here!  I can't believe they (or rather Mama Dove) made it through all that, as well as being relocated in a dog crate in driving rain - doves are amazing parents.  Every other bird flew to greener spaces that weekend but Mama, she would not leave.  Even though Mr. Dove wouldn't go into the covered and lashed down dog crate, we saw him huddled below the deck where she was throughout the storm, unbelievable.  

So that's the news, or lack of anyways!   :)

Let freedom ring!

I've been doing my best to avoid the garden lately, I know I'm not alone in this!  It's so hot and humid... but lots of you are dealing with the same, so I won't complain, this time :)  I will however, admit that my threats to throw in the towel are starting to become less threat and more action (or inaction in my case).  I have officially ceased watering and bug collecting out there.  Things are drooping, burning, ugly, being eaten by insects and I. don't. care.!  I feel a little badly about it, but I really have been doing my best up until a couple of weeks ago, and I've already started to resent the time I've spent out there dealing with it all and neglecting the more fun things in life.  I am now only collecting my basket of a.m. goodies while they last...

Speaking of "more funner" things... we are starting to "get our life back" a little after years of toddler-dom.  The other night, the kids rode their bikes from our house, up over a relatively steep inlet bridge, and down to the oceanfront and down the boardwalk without stopping or complaining!  It was about 10 miles round trip that we did, I'm very proud of them.  I can't tell you how free this makes me feel - and for the first time we can enjoy bike riding, ice cream on the boardwalk and people-watching without paying for parking!  This is something I REFUSE to do, since I live in this city I am always fuming over the fact that we can't get near the beach and they charge $10-20 to park your vehicle, that's always been my main issue with going down there.  But now we are rockin' the bikes, having fun, and not paying a thing!

But first, nervous mom here spent the first night barking out instructions on how to ride in traffic over the din of speeding tourists, this mom gig is not for the faint of heart, but they have to start learning somehow.

Here is Finn riding up and over the inlet bridge that is the final stretch before the boardwalk.  Very busy road, but a nice shared use path separated from the traffic lanes.  I was pretty nervous here, and made him walk his bike down the hill, since all this separation ends smack dab in a busy tourist intersection down on "the Strip".  I wasn't thoroughly convinced he could brake well if he got rolling too fast downhill!

The destination:  Kids loving being able to ride on the "real bike highway" on the boardwalk.  They are learning to listen for the bells that mean someone is passing them and other courtesies, so much to learn when you're little.  We have these horrible Thai-style rickshaws that ride down here and take up the whole path and the tourists that rent them can barely pedal them, so they are learning to "respect the rickshaw!"

Goofy faced Loch showing off his first real bike injury.  He cried at first, but then we told him he wasn't a real biker until he had enough scars to prove it, so now he's a little excited about it.

Yesterday while on the base at hubby's squadron, we had a heron pose for us!

  

These are quite numerous here, but we usually see them in the water or in the marsh.  This one decided that the naval flight line applied to him as well I guess!  I hope he doesn't get sucked up in an engine, he needs to relocate :)

Finally, this morning's non-gardening produced this...

The tomatoes are starting to become smaller, but still here.

The Daily Grind

It feels like Groundhog Day here...  every day starts the same, with hacking away at my tomato plants in the hot and humid morning.  Being the lazy blogger I feel like today, I just videotaped it instead of writing about it!

Heat index was already in the 90's doing chores this morning, steamy and mosquitoes are out in full force.  We have been having nightly thunderstorms the past several days, which is making the blight spread faster, and the storms wreak havoc with the plants and I'm having to re-tie them to supports on a constant basis, or they are completely laying on their sides, supports and all.

A few things are loving the heat, even if I'm not!

Sugar Baby Bush Watermelon in container

The Sugar Pie pumpkin/corn fence line bed

Pumpkin Blossom

My first squash, Butternut.

I finally got a photo of Mr. Mockers for you.  My constant companion for years out here, this time I was allowed a photograph!  Normally he hops around on top of the split rail fence following me menacingly, squawking and divebombing me, but today he decided to sit still and act nice for a moment.  I absolutely love this bird, his personality fits well with mine :), I know it's the same one every year since he has a mocking call that imitates me yelling out the back door "MAR-leeeeeee, SPROCK-etttttttt".  The nest is made in the very top of the Hops arbor every year, it's a fantastic perch from which to watch over the whole "territory" and watch for people and dogs coming from the house.

Mr. Mockers on his sentry post in the pepper bed!

I actually find his antics and middle of the night ruckus and singing pretty amusing!  One of his more endearing qualities is dive bombing Sprocket's head.  She looks at me like "aren't you going to stop this?" and I just laugh since she seems pretty deserving of a good peck on the head pretty frequently :)

for the birds...

As if I didn't have enough to take care of with 2 boys...

"Are you my mommy?"

Now I have to go outside and babysit whenever I let Sprocket out.  We made up our own breed for her, the Outback Jack, since she's an Australian Shepherd/Jack Russell mix - but behavior-wise she's all Jack Russell.  It's hard being a baby bird with one of those running amok!  Marley just barks and barks warning me that Sprocket is up to no good!

I'd do just about anything for the birds that call our little oasis home.  Including asking hubby to put a roof over LadyDove's head so she won't get rained on.  You should have seen his face when I asked him - well, he won't agree to an aviary/pet bird so what am I to do?  It happens every year...

Perhaps I should sew her some gauzy white curtains around her basket to sway in the breeze?

Precious cargo in that flower basket...

Mama Dove is smart, she always picks this spot right outside the back door so she can see when I'm letting the dogs out and I give her a minute to herd the babies to safety under a bush.

So now there's one more living thing for me to talk to around here so I won't seem like the crazy lady who talks to nobody!

Tonight's the Night...

Yes, I think tonight will be the big night for the first UFO!

How AM I going to get that thing outta there?!

Below is a photo of the UFO Tomatoes, they are really getting tall, that is me reaching as high as I can next to them!

This morning I got a little accomplished before the humidity and heat drove me back inside. I was able to replant some beds with more beans, cilantro, dill, lettuces (I keep trying), and a couple of hills of small pie pumpkins. I should still have enough time in the season to get the pumpkins in time to brew our Harvest Pumpkin Ale and freeze some for pumpkin bread in the winter. I still need to rip out and replant the "green roof", and prune one of my Crepe Myrtle trees that is completely blocking one of my garden paths, but that will have to wait until evening, but truth be told, I am hoping it will rain today and I won't have to go back out!

Photos from the garden this morning, good, bad & ugly in no particular order:

Note: Orange Wellington hybrid tomato does really well in a container!

Sugar Baby Bush Watermelon containers, cosmos are starting to take over the area, though!

Planted Japanese Climbing Cucumbers in this bed just 2 weeks ago, already out of control!

Now get ready to have a good laugh...

My "cornfield" in the shade experiment! It's pathetic! About 18" high and believe it or not, has tiny ears on it LOL! I just shake my head and laugh when I see it every day, it's right next to my shed. I left my radio on out there this morning, maybe they will grow more if they have some tunes to listen to. Here's the description of it for an extra laugh:

Corn, Early Sunglow Hybrid

Best early variety, thrives in cool weather.

Garden-fresh sweet corn is summer's greatest pleasure. A packet contains enough for four 15 ft rows. Seeds are not treated. Extra-early, uniform ears are about 7 inches long with 12 rows of deep kernels. Stalks yield 2 ears. Best early variety, thrives in cool weather. Height 4 to 4½ ft. Proven tops for productivity, flavor and wide adaptability. Ready to harvest in 63 days.

Ears 7" long? LOL... and cool weather? what was I thinking?!

More laughs above. This is my Asparagus bed. The one I dug out by hand all day by myself, even bothered to fence in from the dogs... I kind of forgot about it! So now it's a bed of Sassafras, grass, and miscellaneous weeds! Should have planted that stuff in the green roof, it might still be green!

This is just plain redneck!

I swore I would not buy any more stuff for my garden except seeds for fall. I have more than my fair share of "stuff" in my shed to create things from, and this is what ensued! These are my bean and Edamame beds, and this is actually working to keep the Mockingbird out. I caught him red handed yesterday morning hopping around eating tops off my beans. I sent Sprocket the "Outback Jack" after him and then she was in there messing up my bed too! We made up our own breed for her, she's half Jack Russell, half Australian Shepherd, and the only Aussie in her is her coloring, other than that she is a complete terrier-terror to all vermin in the yard! So while my setup is ugly, it's working. It can come down in a couple of days, the birds don't bother the beans once they get their 2nd set of leaves.

In case you are wondering, this is what an Outback Jack looks like! Yeah, we can't figure it out either...

Sprocket the wonder girl

Really?!

I am really hoping my grapes make it to harvest this year, last year I put paper bags on all the bunches and the mockingbirds still got to them!

Don't you love the fact that the garden can provide delicious junk food, too?

Tomatoes, Jalapenos, Cilantro, Chives & Homebrew

I walked outside with this yumminess last night and my neighbor said she wouldn't be surprised to see me milking a cow in my backyard and making my own cheese for the nachos, too - hmmm, not sure if that was a compliment or not LOL!

Speaking of last night, this is what the kids looked like when I arrived to pick them up at the "Y" from Parents Night Out! While I am glad they had fun, this means I had to spend a half hour scrubbing them down at 10 pm before bed!

I will be hiding out from the heat all day, but hope to post about that tomato very soon...!

Killer Sunday!

I can't quite believe the amount of work we (I) got done today! We headed outside this morning

and got both the border beds that run the length of each side of the fence weeded, Loch helped without complaining and thus has started earning some weekly cash! We are going to start a chart for this and see how it goes. Finn complained the entire time but that was pretty much expected, his brother is really the one more into the garden thing. I was able to dig some amendments into my tomatoes, tie them onto their cages and pinch off some suckers. Next came pruning of a couple of small trees and raspberry canes and tying them up. It started getting really dark then and we heard thunder in the distance so we picked up the yard and all our tools, then I remembered "Ladybird" Dove in the hanging basket... she has a thin bamboo roof covering the pergola above her but could still get wet - so I climbed up there and laid some shingles across giving her a "roof" to stay dry under! Yes, another "look at that crazy lady" for the neighbors moment watching my balance-beam walk on the balcony railing while crouching under the pergola and flinging shingles up in the air - what's next I'm sure they wonder!

Ladybird in her new improved digs...

When we went back into the house after hearing the thunder, I was amazed to see it was only 12:55 p.m.! I didn't mind calling it a day for yardwork and waiting out the rain since we got so much done. Bored inside, I decided we'd take a trip to the big box store to get a lightbulb and cabinet hinge... yeah, that's how it always starts...

and returned home with this 18 pack of healthy petunias marked down from $18.97 to $6 !

and then I really got suckered in - I'm finally going to do it... ASPARAGUS! It was 75% off so I figured what the hay, I have an area that would be great for it, so I'll give it a go. If they aren't viable I'm only out like 2 bucks! I kept saying that I didn't want to do an asparagus bed until my "forever house", but whatever!

We have had the same exact dinner twice the past week! But my freezer is officially cleaned out of last fall's pea harvest and miscellaneous cornish hens that have been chillin' out in there too. The kids think they are fun, I just know they're inexpensive and easy!

Kids just went to bed and my legs ache so I'm headed to relax with a glass of wine and knit! Don't you just love that feeling of a productive day's work? I better savor it because I know tomorrow may be a completely different type of day. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Men, Fish and Beer...

We were able to bottle the homebrew on Friday evening!  The kids find this whole project fascinating, and I realized that my boys are going to show up freshman year at college already knowing how to brew their own micro's....ooops!  I must admit it is alot of fun and actually is quite fascinating!  Now the freshly capped bottles have to age for about 4-6 weeks, which means I will get the first taste since Charlie will be out on the ship again next week for awhile!

The Chief Bottle Washer

Capping the bottles

This weekend we sort of played hooky from the garden duties.  I was looking at the calendar last week and noticed that even though Sailor/Husband/Father/Farmer doesn't go on deployment until this fall, he only has a total of 6 weeks home with us this summer since they are gone on "workups" (training) so often.  So, I figured the chores like building fence gates will still be there next week and we needed to just make a priority out of spending some time together doing things the kids enjoy.  We decided to take the kids fishing out in Back Bay and ended up eating at one of our favorite restaurants out there, the Blue Pete.  Next weekend I think we will go back out and take the canoe this time a little earlier in the day so the kids can have some better luck with the fish.

Fishing with Dad

Feeding the fish at Blue Pete's

Strawberry Shortcake with local berries, yum!

Other notable weekend happenings around the homestead:  

Pumpkin sprouting...this was neat since the seed case was still attached and the kids can better visualize what's happening!

One of our juvenile doves waiting patiently for mom to come back and feed her!

I am really hoping to get plenty of chores done during the weekdays this week so we can have a little fun again this weekend!  Now I am off to order more beans - this was the first time I planted them outside the raised beds and critters helped themselves to about half of the sprouts!