Visits as summer wanes

Brother drove up again to go shooting at our favorite, roomy spot. Another old friend, Dave, was also visiting and as a professional photographer gifted us with many pictures of our outing. Notice Joanna showing off her beloved 10/22.

Here Dave fixes the AR-15 to suit him. My brother has it adjusted so well that it's hard to miss the target.

Just point and shoot. The day was in the mid-80's and proved to be quite toasty down in the gravel pit.


The new truck held all our gear quite nicely as J takes a moment in the shade it created. Next time we've decided we'll bring the BBQ and just make a day of it.

The world's most powerful handgun... well not quite.

But J still practices her Clint look.

We had a great time with our visitors, including the trip shooting, and look forward to when next we all meet. In the meantime, harvest carried on back at home. The Centennial Hops were very ready and needed attention. Notice the cat foreman, Crichton overseeing this task as he does most all tasks inside and out.

Another bonus from our kind neighbors as our young Italian plum trees aren't yet producing. These will either be eaten fresh or dehydrated... the jar contains dried exactly what the bucket does fresh.

And speaking of buckets... I'd no sooner set the pick bucket down on the back porch after emptying it, when I next passed by it was already occupied. At first glance, I thought I missed a leaf, but it was a small tree frog who decided it was a nice place to hang out.

Once noticed though s/he headed to points "up".

Not sure if you can tell, but high up at the top of the back porch is a second frog who our bucket frog joined. Did froggy go a-courting??

The back porch now appears to be a favored frog hang out as we either hear or see them there these days. Maybe they like that we replaced the leaky porch roof this summer.

It gets dark earlier and light later now, so we have installed lights on timers in both of our mini coops for the chickens. Today was an egg record with a total of 21 laid!

Strange Ordinance

While on vacation we visited a local gravel pit in order to do some shooting. There we found this strange ordinance... someone's bottle rocket special with a shotgun shell finish. Just hope no one was below if it really went off!

We also ran into this melon bandit...


Guess he tried to rob the wrong bunch of hombres.


Returning to life on the farm... this is the 2nd best of the two barred rock roosters we have from the spring chicks, also known as "Number Two". We placed an ad in the local Craigslist for him [there can be only one], and he went to a new flock elsewhere for the tidy purchase price of $10.00. Who says a farm can't be profitable! We just probably won't be quitting our day jobs anytime soon... sigh.



And the painting project continues. Here J is at the midpoint on the front exterior wall. At this point we now have the house competely washed, calked and nearly the entire first coat on the outside walls... second soon to follow. After that it's just the trim paint. New gutters are also on the horizon, when the budget allows as we'd much prefer a color that matches the darker trim over the current white ones. The old gutters will probably get recycled for use on our run-in, and the remainder are spoken for by a neighbor who'll use them on a shop.

Here D screws off the last flashing on the renewed back porch roof. We tore off all the aged, badly installed panel roofing that leaked, reinforced then painted the framing, and installed clear polycarbonate "Tuftex" roofing. The rain was just starting to fall, so job was finished not a moment too soon. Eventually, the back porch will be enclosed to be a bit more user friendly in the winter months. You can see more old white guttering here that simply has to go, especially once the fascia has the darker bronze paint.

We took enough time out from house repair to do a garlic harvest. This year we managed almost 60 plants at harvest, so we could nearly go the year if we didn't use too much over a full bulb per week. Not too shabby. Some of these plants were, simply put, huge! We placed them in an area manure was piled during the winter, then left to compost all summer. By last fall when we sowed garlic, the pile had turned into some dark uber-rich soil. We'll definitely have to use this method again.

Of course no post at Seven Trees is complete without some kind of critter pic. Here Crichton demonstrates the proper form of "sleeping in". Thanks, Crichton!

Spring Update

The weather is finally warming up at least a little. Had a few days of sunshine albeit cool out still, but enough that the dandelions are popping out as are tree buds, grass is finally growing... all signs it just might really be spring! I have mowed 2x this week alone, if that is any sign of the long awaited thaw.

Honey Bee update. About all we have done besides gawk at them while they are working whenever we have a few moments, is change the entrance opening from the smallest to the slightly bigger 4" opening, and refill the feeders located inside the top honey super. This picture is looking down into the honey super at the feeding jars. A few bees get in here and spend the night, and you can see bees that were feeding on the jar that is being removed. The feed is a 50:50 mix of sugar to water, and some Honey B Healthy a feeding stimulant with essential oils that is supposed to aid in hive "build-up" with new honey bees. It is also supposed to calm the bees when used in a spray bottle in lieu of smoke or in addition to, during honey season when the bees are more protective.

Baby chick update. The new laying flock is rapidly feathering out, likely thanks to the cool spring temperatures. They often act like little raptors, rushing at each other and leaping as if to spur their opponents, and generally practicing at other grown up chicken behaviors, even roosting on the perches. Sadly the cute little peepers are growing up, but we can look forward to some healthy new layers.

Dog update. Stewart will do anything for a tennis ball, even twirl like a ballerina. Fergus has teeth, will bite ankles.

Cat Update. This is what goes on while we are at work. As a matter of fact, this goes on when we are home as well. No doubt about it, these kitties know how to sleep.

Except when Magnus is having play time. The two older cats are only minimally interested in play any more, but Magnus waits for me to get home from work each day, and rushes to find me so we can play. Here's a creative cat hide out of box and newspaper with some old New Years beaded string that he loves to attack. Two paws up!




Here's Newt having a little break in the grass out back. Notice the sour expression at the photographer? Newt is about as happy to see a human wielding a camera as the Brangelina clan!

Coming soon: Photo montage of the Honey Bee hive check to make sure we still have a queen!

Weekend project runs amok!

Re-doing the south bedroom was supposed to be a 3-day weekend thing. Install a ceiling fan, replace all the switches & outlets, shampoo the carpet, paint & make new drapes.
It took most of Friday just to get everything out of the room. Gemini was doing yardwork, when he wasn't busy chasing chickens, cats & dogs all over.

Here's a look at the entire bedroom, spewed out all over the living room. Chaos!

The minty-celery green was just too pale for that room. It gets full sunlight, even in winter, and needed something dramatic.

Same corner with partial paint & new ceiling fan. The trim, including the tiny bit around the ceiling edge, will be a dark bronzy-brown.

Another view, partially done. The room is so small that it's hard to get a picture showing perspective. The closet will stay the light green color, as a memento, and because it's a pain to paint it. There was a spiffy beaded curtain with a bright yellow sunflower painted on, but we'll replace that with a plain dark wood beaded one.

Painting done but for the trim. We just got the bottom trim done so we could shampoo the carpet and start putting furniture back in. We ran out of weekend, so we'll finish the trim painting and get the drapes done hopefully this coming weekend.

The kitties enjoyed a slumber party during the mess.

We also secondaried our first-ever batch of grape wine. A neighbor gifted us with buckets & buckets of grapes last fall, and we made jam with some and wine with the rest. Wines made from North American wild & hybrid grapes are often said to have a "foxy" quality. Whatever they call it, it's pretty darn tasty! We'll try more in about 6 months.

Our batch of chicks should arrive this week, and the bees not too long after. The garden is underway as well. Busy times, but we're planning to check out opening day at the Bellingham Farmer's market April 4th, and seeing Dan Savage at WWU later that evening.

Is it spring yet?

It's that scary-licious time of year when we have to put down the seed catalogs and place our orders. Time to commit to a list of plants, and hope to get a year's worth of produce from them. Most of 2009's veggies are return visitors, but we're adding a few we've never tried before.

The picture above is Detroit Dark Red Short Top from Fedco Seeds, who say:

"Introduced 1892 and still the standard late variety for home gardeners and canners. Globular smooth uniform beets with tender oxblood-red flesh. This short top strain had the best roots in our evaluations."

Beets seem pretty happy here, especially with all the compost we add to the garden soil. We've grown Early Wonder Tall Top, which was good for fresh eating & pickling, but the greens were a bit iffy. Bulls Blood was a red-leafed variety we tried too. The "greens" were wonderful, with a deep purple-crimson color. The roots themselves were good, but stayed small. Since we get lots of wonderful greens from chard & spinach, we're going to concentrate on beets for pickling this year.

Most gardeners in the PNW were challenged by the cold spring of 2008. Plants just didn't want to grow! We ended up replanting more than one kind of veggie because the seeds rotted in the ground. Everything eventually got into gear, but by then there just wasn't much time to set and ripen fruit. We would have had a bumper pepper crop judging by how many green ones we managed to pickle. But I really wanted to try those candy apple red Jimmy Nardello's or have some Cayennes mature enough to gring into red pepper flakes.

This year we decided to hedge our bets and look for short season peppers. After hearing good things about the Czech Black hot pepper from Fedco and a few friends, we're giving this black beauty (see picture above) a try. Fedco says:

"Black when immature, the 21/2" long conical fruits ripen to a lustrous garnet... Mild juicy flesh runs with a cherry red juice when cut. The heat, a tad less than a jalapeño’s, is in the ribs and seeds... 2-1/2–3' bushes bear very early, setting about 20 pointed thick-walled peppers per plant."

Now that the only plants left in the garden are these topless mangel beets, the hens can get to work tilling in all the compost piled on the garden rows. They really look forward to it and it's a big help working in all that raw material.

Warning! Gratuitous critter pics below.

Crichton assembled a hoard of catnip toys and proceeded to beat the crap out of them. As you can tell by the rest of the pictures, no one was impressed....

Cats in winter

Critter pic interlude

Check out the garden assistant! Crichton is doing his part by making sure every last grass clipping made it into the barnyard for the cows to snack on.

We're transitioning from summer activity to winter "hibernation". Still plenty to do, but now we're stuck waiting for breaks in the rain to get things battened down.

Stewart, demonstrating his "intelligent" look.

Here's the two canine boys, napping. Notice Fergus' choice of pillow....

Aahhh, the after-dinner rawhide cigar. It's a dog's life!

Here's Ryder, vogueing for the camera. He's still a bull, and still for sale, but not for long. He'll get an appointment with the vet in December, and then his next stop will be freezer camp in 18 months or so.

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We'll be ordering our beehive soon, so we have plenty of time to assemble & paint it before the bees arrive in the spring. It's also time for planning the garden. We have some nifty ideas for maters & taters that will give the blight time to work its way out of the soil, but more about that later this week. Right now we still have beets, carrots, chard, kale & lettuce growing. Not bad, but next year we hope to grow a lot more in the spring and fall. We will also be planting sunchokes (also known as Jerusalem artichokes) soon, thanks to our Endorean friends on the Skagit river.