Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again in...5 Days

Two weeks without rain. For days and days, they promised us rain. We watched the skies, hoping for it from the dark clouds that hovered over us, the gray clouds that skidded over us, the blue-gray clouds that skated around us. It never rained. Our strawberry plants started to wilt, our fruit bushes started to crinkle. The plants all started looking the worse for the wear.

I consulted the weather: possibility of thunderstorms on July 4, 20-40% chance of rain (depending on the day I looked). This would never do. And we're going out of town this weekend for a week. So the plants will have to be watered. Two days ago, we started. M watered the garden with the hose. I filled a 5-gallon bucket and the 2-gallon watering can and put them in our small gorilla cart and pulled it behind me all the way over to the orchard/berry patch, sloshing water out of the bucket and into the cart and over the sides of the cart. Over four trips, I lovingly watered every strawberry plant--all 133 original plus the new plants started from runners.

Last night, M fertilized some of the garden plants that seemed to be nutrient deficient. I watered the fruit bushes and trees, the boxwoods, the magnolia trees, the maple saplings--again, 3 or 4 trips with the 5-gallon bucket and the cart. (M was using the watering can, so I had to carefully pour the water from the bucket around every bush and tree.)

Today, July 4, I consult the weather when I get up: Thunderstorms, 90% chance of rain. No thunder. No storms. Rain the whole ever-loving day. So far, 10 hours of it--nice and gentle. Perfect for plants. I have discovered the Crawfordsville rain dance--water your own damn plants. When Mother Nature lies down on the job, take matters into your own hands. Then M.N. wakes up and makes good on her shirked duties. I love her, but sometimes she's a real bitch.

* Stringham high: Rain
* Stringham low: Rain, so no good fireworks displays tonight.
* Stringham super-high: From our yard, we have an excellent view of ANY fireworks that might be set off up to 25 miles southeast to south to southwest to west of us. Only the immediate east and the north are limited, because of the trees.

****Disclaimer: The title of this blog links to a page that I found accidentally. I agree with most of what it says, but I have to add that the bits about Native Americans unfortunately lump all NA's together, completely disregarding the fact that the NA ways of life were varied, including hunting-fishing, hunting-gathering, farming (plants), farming (livestock), farming (plants and livestock), and others besides. (And yes, of course, some NA societies/groups lived as the author of the linked page states.)

Crikey! Let's Go on a Backyard Safari!

We've had a few encounters with native fauna this week. As we were weeding near the house last weekend, M uncovered a black snake that was about 10-12 inches long. It scurried away from us quickly...right into the crawlspace under our bedroom. Oy vey.

A couple of nights ago, M saw two deer in the beanfield behind our house. I scrambled over to take a picture or two. They certainly weren't afraid, that's for sure. They were about a hundred yards away, and they never got spooked by me walking out the back door and standing there, taking picture after picture of them for 15 minutes or so. (For those who are curious, no...no god picture exists. It was sunset light, and the camera either gave me a nearly black photo or a picture of brown blurry masses--think Bigfoot with antlers.)

Last night, I heard some more scrabbling in our kitchen drop ceiling. Yes, we have a few mouse friends up there. Actually, judging by the very high-pitched squeaks I've been hearing this week up there, I think one or two have set up house and started a little family. I tell you, EVERYONE is having babies... Heh.

Today, on his daily rounds through the garden and the "orchard" and the sunflower patch, M has been waging a crusade against Japanese beetles. We'll see if he has any luck.

And on his walk through the sunflower patch, M was startled at the sight of a very large black snake. Oops. He came running into the house to ask me about the venomous snakes we have around here. I had to assure him that though it was large and startled him, it was no threat. Alas, no picture. I'm not sure whether the snake had the chance to "run away" before M hightailed it in the opposite direction. And no, I absolutely cannot blame him. I know they're good at keeping the rodent population under control. I know they're not harmful to humans. But that still doesn't mean I want to see it or be anywhere near it. Perhaps its the instinctive distrust of snakes in our own little Eden? ;)

Bringing Home Four Baby (Bumblebees)

This is not an update on my life but a quick note of congratulations to several friends, because I am both extremely broke and extremely busy this week:

For my friends Rachel and Elin, both of who have recently had beautiful baby girls!
For my friend Sara, who is expecting a baby girl, who I am sure will also be beautiful!
For my step-sister-in-law, Stephanie, who just had or is about to have a brand new bundle of joy!
For my friend Tina, who FINALLY got a proposal out of that man of hers!


So, excitement all around me. Ah, I must live vicariously through my friends...

While My Sunflower Gently Weeps

Our field neighbors are reckless drivers…or at least one of them is. M watched a couple of days ago through the kitchen window as a sprayer went by, driving like a bat out of hell, with the sprayer hanging over our property line. I then watched through one of our living room windows while the driver swerved and sped through the field on the west side of the house. We hoped they were spraying fertilizer, or even a pesticide, but we discovered today that it was herbicide.

The last time they sprayed, several of our newly transplanted evergreen trees nearly bit it. As a result, I’m now leaving weeds up between the evergreens and our property line to act as a bit of a barrier for the young trees. But this time, because the sprayer was hanging over onto our property line, a whole swath of sunflowers and cosmos that M had planted and that were thriving, are now yellow and dying. (This after they bad driver had crossed our property line and driven THROUGH the patch that M had just planted with those sunflower and cosmo seeds.)

I suppose it was silly of me to assume that neighbors would be as considerate of our property as we are trying to be of theirs. Yes, we felled a tree into their field, but before the beans had even sprouted, and we cleaned up our mess immediately afterward. *sigh* Now we are going to have to track down the people who own the farm and ask them to be more careful and considerate of our property, as we are trying to grow things that are just as important—if not more important—to us as their corn and beans are to them.

Ah, will the “excitement” never end?

Fleshy-headed mutant, are you friendly?

We met our new neighbors today—well, “the mom,” at least. Really, we learned about them. JJ & J are dad and mom, and they have three kids. J is really nice and really talkative. We learned a lot J. It turns out they’ve been trying to buy the house for a year. They’re still in the midst of painting and updating (it’s been unlived-in for 4 years now, but it’s “stuck in the ’70s,” as J says).

We’ve already been invited to come over any time to visit, and J already acts like it’s a foregone conclusion that we will be there and get to know the house pretty well. So that’s awesome. I mean, come on, they bought the house and its 23 acres so they can dirtbike. Yes, that’s right, a family of dirtbikers. Considerate dirtbikers…there are whole sections of their property they won’t bike on because it might disturb the neighbors.

And from J we learned that our neighbors down the road did move in about 6 months ago, so they aren’t the family that owned the property to begin with. Yeah, we need to make friends with them, too.

And J has noticed us peeking out and watching them. So, hopefully that comes across as neighborly concern and not wackiness/craziness. But, hey, the basket of goodies we left them seemed to score some points. J

Now, we just need to walk the thin line between whacko/crazy/considerate/nosy. Hmm…a very narrow line, apparently, since the only good term in that list of adjectives is “considerate…” :D

* Stringham high: Raspberries blooming! Potato plants blooming! 1/2 - 1 pint of strawberries every day! Radishes, beets, and spinach, oh my!
* Stringham low: The highs (temps,---it's miserable out there :( )
* Stringham super-high: Promise of awesome neighbors. (Oh, and I saw Wicked yesterday. Fabulous! I laughed, I cried, it was better than...some other musical that shall remain nameless.)
* Stringham laugh of the moment: George chasing his tail. I think he's rediscovered it again. There are few things so funny as watching a 15-year-old cat chase his tail like he's a kitten again.

More Change than President Obama

* Stringham high: We have neighbors! Both houses across the road from us are now occupied. Our new neighbors just started moving in Wednesday evening. Now we just need to meet them. Waiting for the right time, since they seem to have movers and contractors and other helpers there constantly. We're planning for today...we just have to get our social sides kicked in the butt to take our new neighbors the welcome basket we made them (well, and M has to make some of his tasty bread to go with the basket).
* Stringham low: What's there to be low about? I've been working my tushy off freelancing, and it's been fun!
* Stringham super-high: We had a red strawberry yesterday! It was smile, and it wasn't fully ripe yet, but M snipped it off because he didn't want the birds getting to it first. (Oh, and we picked up a WiiFit when we went grocery shopping last night--first time we'd SEEN one, and there were bunches and bunches...stayed up until 3 AM playing and working.)

We've Got Wood

This weekend, my parents came up and brought with them my cousin BJ and his wife, C, to cut down the 2 mature trees we have that were rotting. We knew when we bought the place last year that 3 of the 4 trees were rotting and would have to come down, and of course, last year, half of one tree fell on and near our house, necessitating its cutting then. But the other 2 were left for when we had the money to get them cut.

But my parents decided to spend their holiday weekend helping us. So they persuaded BJ and C to come up. BJ brought his tree-felling equipment, and within an hour of their arrival on Saturday, had the first tree (one along our driveway) down. While Dad and BJ used the chainsaws to cut the branches and limbs into manageable pieces, Mom, M, C, and I drug the limbs away to a pile and stacked up the wood in an out-of-the-way place. Three or 4 hours later, only the main part of the trunk remained on the ground (and it lies there yet today, waiting for M to split the pieces into manageable, moveable sizes). Luckily, the skies had gotten cloudy and a breeze had picked up just as my parents and BJ and C arrived, so we weren't miserable the whole evening.

After dinner, we all fell, exhausted, into bed, and woke up early yesterday morning to make a "quick" trip to Home Depot for more supplies. The day was a little sticky, but still cool. Until we started on the tree. This time, we were felling the tree that's on the west side of the house, amid all the ruts left when the heatpump line was dug and laid, where we have no shade, but sun exposure all day after 9 or 10 AM in the summer. The humidity really vamped up, and it got up to the mid-80s, at least. The tree fell easier than the first one had, but it was almost unbearably difficult to cut up and move...the thing was full of water, so it was dense, and hard to cut and move. Add to that the fact that we were still worn out from Saturday night and were so hot and that we had to watch every step for fear of twisting our ankles in ruts, and you had a crew of extremely sweaty, thirsty, filthy (did I mention that the sawdust from this tree was super-fine?) people. At almost no point were all 6 of us working like we had on Saturday. Instead, 2 or 3 of us worked as long as we could, until we thought we'd fall flat on our faces, then take a seat and drink water, beer, or soda, and then we'd rotate, going back to work while others rested, or we'd all collapse for a while until someone could muster up enough gumption to haul just one more wagonload of wood to the pile. (Across grass the whole way, so the pulling of the cart or the dragging of the branches was far more difficult than it had been Saturday, when most of the trip had been on the smooth driveway, and shorter.)

Again, several very big pieces of trunk are lying in our yard, but the limbs that landed in the neighbor's field were all dragged away, and all the pieces that were small enough were carted to our woodpile, though they were simply dumped unceremoniously into a large pile instead of neatly stacked. We were just too damned tired to do much after about 3 hours of cutting, dragging, and hauling.

That's it on the tree front. We now have just 1 shade tree left, and it's pretty young and on the northeast side of the house, so it doesn't help much...

Meanwhile, the reflective ribbons M put on the fruit trees, along with the blood meal spread around them, seem to have kept the deer from further nibbling, so our "appetizer" trees have really bounced back.

Several of the greens in our garden are popping up; all of our corn mounds have sprouted and have plants at least 3 inches tall; our tomato plants are thriving in our water-bottle "thermal protection" pods.(TM) :) (Pictures shown here are from Mother's Day weekend, when we planted the corn and transplanted the tomatoes, not of the sprouts)

Our potatoes are thriving. (And BJ has offered to give us as many old truck tires as we want to use for planting the potatoes next year. Three cheers for [free] recycling!) Our beans seem to be suffering from SOME exfoliation, but according to our companion planting guide, the potatoes should be attracting some other insects that will feed on our bean-stripping friends.

Our Ozark strawberry plants have teensy little strawberries everywhere. All but one blackberry bush is showing foliage; same with the blueberry bushes. Sunflowers are starting to sprout, and our Jerusalem artichokes are really shooting up.

And tomorrow, I begin my stint as a full-time freelancer. I think I'll start by taking half a day off. (Well, it's to donate blood, not to play hookie.) Cheers!

Oh, and we had another traffic pull-over while we were working outside yesterday. Instead of pulling into our driveway, this genius just pulled off the side of the road at our mailbox. (The picture isn't that great because I didn't want to be obvious about taking pictures of two cops pulling a minivan over.)

* Stringham high: Rotten trees: 0 Seifert/Stringham family: 2
* Stringham low: Supreme exhaustion
* Stringham super-high: Go, go gardening!