Disney Land for Bambi

This morning I went wandering around the property looking for a place to build a little tree stand to have a second spot to deer hunt.  Everything here is dry.  The grass is dying and none of the small branches that flow through our property have any water in them.  I guess this is going to be more and more common if the summers have longer dry spells.  When we used to just come here to visit they were never completely dry.  At this point they aren't even mud holes just dry sand.  When I went to the branch that flows along the south side I heard the deer making their weird noises to warn each other as they took of through the woods. I know they are close which made me wonder how far they have to go to find a pond or creek that still has water.  The creek that flows into my wife's grandmothers place has water, but its a couple miles from here. I thought they might like a little drink along the way.  So I filled this plastic turtle that used to be the girls sandbox when they were little with about thirty five gallons of water.

This means that in this little area is a mineral lick, a feeder full of corn and this smiling turtle full of water. This starts about sixty yards from the house at the feeder and extends about another twenty yards,  just beyond that is one of the dry branches.  This tripod feeder that my wife's cousin put out is about another twenty yards and puts out like ten times as much corn as mine.  He is going to put a chair up one of the nearby trees and go bow hunting in this spot.  If Bambi doesn't like all this something will.  So far I have seen lots of squirrels and rabbits visiting both feeders, but haven't seen a deer stopping to munch a little corn.  I was hoping they might apperciate the water, but of course as I write this I can hear the thunder coming so we will probably have an epic rainstorm tonight that fills everything up.

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October 8, 2010: Seeds of Friendship & Sweets From the Sweet

Sometimes my readers make me feel so special :-D

I think Robin and Mr. H. know I must grow tomatoes, many tomatoes, regardless of what I say each year when I am inundated with their fruits. Robin made sure I would have a sweet cherry tomato next year, and sent a lovely card with seeds for Matt's Wild Cherry. Mr. and Mrs. H. will be filling the rest of my tomato garden with Russian Baby, Bloody Butcher, Cherokee Purple and Coastal Pride Orange! They will all be new varieties for me, as this year's Cherokee Purple turned out to be a very prolific, small, red tomato. I love the card they sent, too. I still have five unfinished birdhouses tucked away in the garden shed, so maybe the Backyard Birdhouses will get my creative juices flowing again.

Just look at the Maine sweets from Henbogle! Now how did she know I have had a passion for maple sugar candy since I was a small child? I have never tasted a candy made from mashed potatoes, but I have a feeling that, once sampled, Maine Needhams will become one of my favorites.

Thank you Robin, Mr. & Mrs. H. and Henbogle! It's so nice to have such good friends.

Granny

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October 11, 2010: The Final Harvest Monday, or Five Days and Counting

Five short days until we leave for Arizona! I had planned on finishing up with my garden cleanup, but wouldn't you know it's been pouring rain. I actually went out in the downpour and ripped some of the Ottawa Cranberry beans off the side fence, and piled the vines on the patio. Very few of them had dried, but they had to come out.

I shelled those that were close, and put them in a basket on the plant window shelf, where I'm hoping they will continue to dry.


Those that were still far from being dry were left in the pods and put in the hanging fruit basket in the kitchen. They will probably stay right there until I return next spring, as I know it will take longer than five days for the pods to dry out. Or maybe they won't dry, and I'll come home to a mildewy mess!

That might have been about 1/3 of the cranberry bean crop. I hope it stops raining long enough to pull out the rest of them today.


I had better luck with the Cherokee Trail of Tears beans. From the 25 seeds that were sent to me by Daphne's Dandelions, I harvested exactly one pound of dry beans! The ones in the pint jar have already been in the freezer to kill any creepy crawlies that may have taken residence in them, the others are going to air dry for a few days. Most of them are quite dry already, but there are a few that are still a bit soft (the larger, lighter colored beans).

The final dried beans are Fortex, being saved for next years pole bean crop. There were also quite a few that were not yet dried on the vines, but all of those in the plastic cup are good to use for seeds, and that's a lot more than came in the packet from the nursery, which gave me a wonderful bean harvest through the summer! I think most of the beans that are still drying should be OK, too.

Seeds for all of the above beans were from Daphne, who is also our hostess for Harvest Monday.

The harvests were small this week. The last of the lettuce leaves were pulled from the bolting plants. It's too bitter for us, but the pet rabbit likes it. There were a couple of cucumbers and just enough tomatoes for the dinner salads. Otto and Annie got fresh green beans with their chicken dinner. That's about the last of the pole beans, but the freezer is full.

Then came the 17 pounds of green peppers and a big bunch of basil. The large peppers were all given away to my kids, and I kept a few of the smaller ones for us and the dogs. Since Kelly told me her dog eats them, I tried feeding slices to Otto and Annie....and they loved them! They've always eaten green beans and carrots, raw or cooked, but I never thought to give them peppers. They work just fine for Annie's snacks during her diet, low in calories and high in vitamin C!

A few more radishes were pulled, but the rest are just tops with long, squiggly roots. Cookie, the house rabbit, loves radish tops, so they'll go into his food bag. A few tomatoes are still hanging in there, as well as the cucumbers.

Are cosmos supposed to get 8' tall and not go into full bloom until mid October? I've had an occasional blossom on this, maybe one or two a month, until this week. Now look at it, and it's loaded with buds. That's only one of the flower stalks. I cut the others back when they began getting so tall and showing no sign of blooming.

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October 11, 2010: Harvest Monday Update

Having written the Monday Harvest post late last night, after a hard day of packing, beaning and cleaning, I forgot to add in the poundage!

38 oz. cucumbers
3 oz. pole beans
47 oz. tomatoes
21 oz. lettuce
283 oz. sweet peppers (final)
11 oz. basil
3 oz, radishes

Total for week: 406 ounces = 25 pounds
Total year to date: 897 pounds

Although that was my last "Monday Harvest", it won't be my final harvest from this garden. I still have several butternut squash, some carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers.

I'll easily go over 900 pounds for the year, which is quite a bit lower than last year's 1070 pounds. I'm not complainin'!

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October 11, 2010: Cosmos & Other Monday Stuff

How about that....three blogs in one day!

I've had several comments about the cosmos, pictured in the first blog from today, so I thought I'd give a bit of history on it.

The cosmos were planted from purchased seeds on March 15. Three days later I noted:

Cosmos had very good rate of germination, only 2 of 18 haven't peeked out so far. As soon as they outgrew the mini greenhouse, they were transplanted into a large container. I think I had about six plants in there!

On May 25th., I had the first blossom. The plant was probably about 18-24" tall by this time.

If you only have one cosmos, is it a cosmo?

July 31, the container was moved from the main garden to its present location by the shed. All but the center plant wilted badly. The roots had grown through the bottom of the container and were pulled loose from the soil below. Shortly after this photo was taken, I cut back the wilted plants. There was one blossom and a few buds at this time, but they were on one of the plants that ended up being cut off.

Which brings us to the latest photo:

I'm not showing the ugly, cut off dead plants. That was the only thing that was distracting about this planting. I really wouldn't mind if it naturalizes in this corner. There's nothing there but an old rose bush that has gone wild and attacks Mr. Granny when he mows around it. I'd like to just kill it out and let the cosmos take over. Even if they decide to always be 8' high, they would at least hide the neighbor's shed....the one he didn't bother to paint on the side facing us.

Elsewhere in the garden, the rain has stopped, so I got a bit of garden cleanup and a little harvesting done. I pulled the rest of the cranberry beans from the fence, and was happy to see quite a few dried pods. I still probably won't have enough for a meal, but there will be plenty of seeds for next year's garden. I'll get them shelled tonight, while I'm watching Dancing With the Stars, and then I can weigh all the beans and add them to the harvest total.


I won't be counting the weight of the three humongous cucumbers, although I weighed the largest out of curiosity. It was exactly two pounds. They were hiding on the back side of the fence, but I don't know how I missed them. I need to do a bit of research on the variety, Double Yield, to see if I should save the seeds. If it's not a hybrid, I'll take seeds from the big yellow one, as it was an excellent pickling cucumber and performed well for me this year. (*They are not a hybrid, I will be saving seeds).

I picked a few under ripe tomatoes, as well as some that are ripe. I'd like to take a few greenish ones to AZ with me, and hopefully they will ripen over the next few weeks. There was just a handful of green beans, not enough to bother weighing. The dogs will eat them raw, as a treat.

I'm still getting enough strawberries for topping an occasional dish of ice cream. The few that I've picked recently have been larger and sweeter than those picked earlier. In fact, several have never made it back from the garden, they were eaten on the spot!

73 oz. tomatoes
22 oz. cucumbers
4 oz. strawberries

Today's harvest: 99 ounces = 6 pounds
Year to date: 903 pounds

Is that tacky or what? My long stemmed rose.....in a Snapple bottle! My son accidentally broke my only bud vase, and I keep forgetting to buy a new one.


Oh, I forgot about this vase. Maybe a little "earthy" for a delicate rose, but better than a Snapple bottle, I think!

Alicyn visited this week. I'd purchased a blanket for the dogs, and it came rolled up and held by a wide ribbon with Velcro ends. Alicyn discovered the ribbon was the perfect size for a headband.

"Sniffle" I'm sure going to miss that baby and her big sissie while I'm in Arizona.

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October 12, 2010: Four Days and Counting

Only four days until Saturday, the day we leave for Arizona. I'm trying to tackle one room at a time, packing what we need, and giving the room a thorough cleaning, so that I can come back home to a nice clean house. Today the laundry room got cleaned, shelves and floor scrubbed, canned goods organized, washer and dryer wiped down inside and out, all the dry beans pulled off the window shelf and put into envelopes (seeds) or jars (food). I've decided to shell and cook the rest of the cranberry beans, rather than take a chance they'll mold if I leave them to finish drying. They can be blanched and frozen if we can't eat them all right away.

The actual dry bean total weight was 36 ounces, including the Fortex that will be used as seed. That 6 ounces of Fortex would have cost $12.70, including shipping, if I had purchased them from Johnny's Seeds. So not only did they provide us with several gallons of delicious green beans, they will be a source of free seeds for years to come.

The harvest total in my sidebar will be updated daily, for the rest of the week.

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October 12, 2010: Shell Beans

After I picked all the rest of the cranberry beans yesterday, I sorted through the pods and shelled all of the dry ones to either cook later this winter or use for seed next year. I had planned on just letting the hanging basket full of the large pods that hadn't yet dried hang in the kitchen through the winter while we are gone, hoping they would dry. I had second thoughts about returning to a moldy mess hanging from my kitchen ceiling, so decided I would go ahead and shell the beans and cook them for dinner.

This basket of pods is larger than it looks in the picture!

I put the shelled beans into a sauce pot, just barely covered them with cold water and added some salt. I brought them to a boil, put on a lid and lowered the heat to a simmer. I set the timer for thirty minutes.

At 25 minutes, the shell beans were tender, and some of them had begun to burst open.

I added a lot of freshly cracked pepper and a big pat of butter.

I served the beans as a side dish to grilled Italian sausages with red bell peppers, and fresh sliced Eva Purple Ball tomatoes.

The verdict: The beans were very mealy, much like Lima beans. The flavor was good, but would have been improved with the addition of onion and ham or bacon. I was out of onions, bacon and ham, as we're trying to just eat what is on hand so we don't have to transport any fresh foods south with us. Would I cook them like this again? Maybe. Would I grow cranberry beans just for using as shell beans? No. I'll have to try the dry beans before I make a decision whether or not to save some as seeds for next year.

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October 13, 2010: Three Days & Counting

This is the first of what may turn into several blogs before the day is over. I have a lot of photos to share, and not much time left.

Just three days until we leave for Arizona. Actually, there are only two days left to get so much done. Today I tried to get in some more garden cleanup. I still must rake out the paths, but this is what the end of the garden looks like today......

We haven't yet experienced a frosty night, let alone a killing frost. Last year it happened on October 9, but this year I have more green growth in October than I did in September.

Although most of the tomatoes have been removed, the north garden still looks pretty good. I've thinned out a lot of the overcrowded strawberries, and transplanted some of them into the whiskey barrels by the fence. That nasturtium, in the center of the photo, is blooming better now than it did all summer.

If you click on this photo, then click again when it opens in a new page or tab, you'll be able to see the many Heavenly Blue flowers on the kennel garden.


The vines have begun to grow all along my clothes lines.


The Heavenly Blue morning glory in the north garden has still not had a single blossom, even though it was the first bed planted, and gets the most sunshine.


It is, however absolutely covered with what must be a million buds. If it blossoms before it freezes, it will be quite the show. Unfortunately, nobody will be here to see it.

A few small potatoes were missed when I dug the mature ones this summer, and just look at these volunteers! They're greener and healthier than the ones I planted in the spring.

I finished killing off the garden fork when I dug down to see if there were any potatoes. There were lots of dime and nickel sized ones, but nothing large enough to eat.

And on the home front....

Remember when I bought the new living room furniture last month? I also bought a bunch of fleece blankets for the two dogs to lay on. You can see how well that worked out! Otto is pretty good about staying on his blankie, if he's not hanging over the arm of the sofa. You have to look hard to see him, he blends right in! Princess Annie, of course, has to sit where she can view her kingdom. She likes her throne to be soft and squishy.

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October 13, 2010: Today's Blog Post #2 - I'm Seeing Orange

How appropriate for Halloween month.

I checked out the carrots, to see if any of them were big enough to pull, and came back inside with a basket of gold....er, orange.

A sink full of orange from the first trip to the carrot beds.

Although there were quite a few that were 3-4" long, many of them were at least 6".

Trimmed, the first bunch weighed exactly two pounds. And that was after Annie had her snack!

A second trip to the garden gave me another basket full of lovelies.

Another 1-pound, 4-ounces to add to the total.


For today's harvest, I ended up with a gallon bag full of sweet little carrots, some tiny carrot snacks for Annie (she's still on her diet), as well as a pound of cucumbers and, last but not least, a bag of parsley and carrot tops for Cookie.

None of these carrots were large enough to pull, so I'm hoping they will overwinter in this bed.

As well as these, although it's just one short row.

Both sides of this bed are filled with carrots that are still too small. They'll also be left to overwinter, so keep your fingers crossed!

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October 13, 2010: Third Blog's a Charm!

Hopefully this will be may last blog for the day! I only have two days of internet connection left, so I have to take advantage of it.

The butternut squash are all taken care of.

Of the four that were left out in the garden, two small ones rotted, and it's iffy that the larger ones will ripen. I'm going to put them in the garage, and if they get ripe fine, if not, so be it. I'll not add their weight to this year's harvest.

One big basket full has already been loaded into the pickup for the trip south. I think I had six of them in the basket. Others were put into the laundry room, where it will be a constant 45F through the winter.

Some squash are still waiting for their space atop the dryer, once I finish the last minute laundry. The beans are still drying in the baskets on the top shelf in the window. These are the ones that have already been shelled, and upon today's inspection, seem to be fully dried and ready to be put into jars and stored until spring.


The final loaf of bread has been baked, and as soon as the bread machine cools off it will be packed into the back of the pickup. We've only bought one loaf of bread since I bought this machine, and it languished in the bread drawer until it turned several shades of green.


A big crockpot of chicken thighs is cooking, which will be frozen and taken south for meals for the two dogs. I've been reducing the amount of chicken and increasing the amount of dry dog food in their dinners, so this pot of a dozen chicken thighs will give them twelve days of meals. Annie is beginning to look like she's losing a little weight. Her butt doesn't look quite as large as it did a couple weeks ago.


And then I have to deal with these. I think I'll throw them at passing cars.

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What I Really Should've Written Last Night

As soon as I got home I got wind of the crazies coming to my part of town and was so distracted by my anger that I didn't even think to say how wonderful I thought the exhibit I went to see at the Whitney Museum is. Friday nights are 'open late, pay what you wish' at the Whitney. Betsy and I got there around 7 pm to see the Charles Burchfield exhibit before it closed next week. The curator is Robert Gober, a great artist and nice guy that I was fortunate to meet up in Maine a few years back. It's wonderful to see he is thinking about this painter, who inspired me a decade or more ago and who is often under-recognized.



Burchfield's life-long work shows a shifting emphasis between his drafting skills and inventive form. His medium is watercolor, doing it in a way that is completely his own, and often with a density that may make it look like oil painting when seen in reproduction. My favorite early works are those that are highly evocative of a sensation, an experience of the environment.



His images of western NY state towns and industry appear menacing at times, always in dark grays, blues, and white. They have a density and mood that recalls for me early van gogh.



Later in life, freed from certain representational constraints, and in no way completely unconnected from the movement of abstract expressionism, he moves into a wildly energetic symbolist landscape painting that reminds me of Samuel Palmer.

Samuel Palmer

Charles Burchfield

The exhibition is up for one more week, closing on the 17th. You also have one more opportunity for 'open late, pay what you wish' next friday. Enjoy.

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