The First Egg!

Red laid the first egg!

It's so itty!

It's a tiny thing but good shell formation and shape. The girls turned 20 weeks last Sunday so we were expecting them to start producing soon. We've been carefully checking for squatting behavior and keeping an eye on the color of their combs. In fact, that's why Red is called "Red" - her comb turned red much earlier than any of the other hens. 

It was a bit of an ordeal to get her to use the nest box rather than a dirt spot underneath an old pallet, but we were triumphant in the end. And so - the laying begins!

Garden update (only one tomato blushing)

The garden is going gangbusters. Here are the details (and I mean details, you might want to skip this post if you're not into garden specifics).

Plant issues and diseases:
   Vine borers are the bane of my garden existence. I've had to perform surgery on every squash plant out there. I was doing awesome at catching the darn things while still small enough to easily find and remove right up until I went traveling for three days. Amazing how quickly a pest can take hold in that small amount of time. I think I've caught back up and only lost on summer squash plant, so not too bad.
   Powdery mildew - I was keeping ahead of this by using a mixture of 4 cups water to 1/2 tablespoon white vinegar to spray the plants each morning. Then, you guessed it, travel interrupt and BOOM! white leaves when I returned. I've cut off the infected leaves, burned them (strangely satisfying), and resumed my spray routine and everything looks good again. (It should be noted that the travel was well worth any catch up I've had to do - post coming soon).
   Green stink bugs - huh? Where did these things come from? We've never had them before so I have to assume the eggs arrived either in the new soil that we purchased this year or in the starts that we brought from up north. Either way, we've got them now. Fortunately they seem to prefer the sunflower plants to anything else in the garden so I'm using those as lures. Unfortunately my sunflowers are about 10 feet tall and the bugs like to munch at the very tops of the stalk. Still, better those than anything else in the garden.

Plants:
   Yellow squash - so much squash! All of these plants are producing at rates that just amaze me. In fact, I'm getting so much that I'm harvesting young, small fruit so that they're more tender and the volume isn't so hard to use.
   Zucchini - One plant is producing at a nice steady pace. And it's actually put down squiggly white roots along the main stem which helps save it if I miss a borer. The other two zuke plants are barely producing despite looking gorgeous.
   Basil - crazy good. Will forever buy grocery store basil and plant it from now on.
   Dill - awesome dill crop. If only my cukes had produced...
   Cucumbers - meh. Turns out I had three different varieties: green pickling cukes and two types of white heirloom cucumbers. All taste great but aren't producing enough at one time to pickle easily. So I'm quick pickling what I have and will hope for a blow-out in September.
   Winter squash - I sure hope I can figure out how to use all this stuff. I have three massive Hubbard squash with more growing, and multiples of kobacho, buttercup, and butternut.
   Tomatoes - many, many green tomatoes. There is one showing the first blush of ripening. Hopefully this time next week I'll be awash in maters. Looks like I ended up with only beefsteaks, no paste tomatoes, no cherry tomatoes.
   Tomatillos - going crazy but nothing ripe yet. They're so cute in their little green jackets.
   Jalapeno - ate the first one yesterday and it was awesome. Great heat combined with flavor. Many more are forming. Fresh pico de gallo soon!
   Cauliflower - they are supposed to head up, right? Gorgeous leaves, nothing forming in the middle. I think caterpillars are retarding growth and my experiment with diatomaceous earth was unsuccessful. I've purchased caterpillar spray for next season.
   Kohlrabi - saved two from the voles.
   Sunflowers - gorgeous, huge, and starting to head.
   Cilantro - meh. Started seeds late hoping the plants would come in just in time for salsa season but they're barely growing. I have the worst time with cilantro!

The little kitchen garden is in desperate need of a redesign. The kale is doing well, as is the oregano, lemon thyme, and chives but everything else is sad. Not enough sun seems to be the issue. So I'll be moving landscape timbers and shifting it further west next year. I do have two volunteer cherry tomato plants that managed to set fruit but it's very green and I'm not sure they'll have time to ripen. I hope so. And I'll save some of the seed to actually plant up in the main garden next year. Obviously this is strong seed!

And now, since you've been so patient, here's a nice picture of Cooper enjoying the fire pit.

Wonder what she sees...

 
 

The water spigot

I've been told I didn't do justice to the difficulties in creating the water spigot. I, of course, commented that it'd be easier to crow about if there were photos of the process...

But here goes - because it is really cool what Chris did to make this look like it'd always been up there.

The spigot

He took an old barn beam and split it in two vertically. Then he carved a channel in both sides so that he could embed the Pex tubing.

The Pex needed to come out the bottom and run horizontally through the ground but he didn't want to add an elbow (they slow water flow and we have pressure issues this far up the hill as it is) so he carefully created a channel that would curve the Pex appropriately without putting undue pressure on it.

Then he joined the halves back together with a tight seam. Once it ages a bit it'll be pretty much invisible.

So that is the full story of crafting the water spigot. Thanks Honey!

Generator shed

We installed a standby generator when we built the house and, as recommended, built a shelter for it. But since we were expending all our energy on silly things like indoor plumbing and cooking facilities, the cover was sort of quick & dirty. In other words, it was really ugly.

Well, Chris found the time this summer to build a much nicer shelter and it looks great.

Dry fit on the porch

Figuring angles 

Assembling in place 

Zoom in for a look at that truss join!

Plenty of room for snow shed

Stained and roofed

I think he did an awesome job. The only downside to the black color is that it obscures the joinery but it matches the trim so we went with it. The whole thing just looks so much better back there. And now when snow comes sheeting off the house roof, it won't pile up so close to the vents. Less shoveling! Hooray!

Garden update

The camp garden is doing great. I took these pictures on July 30th and despite sporadic rain the plants look fantastic.

I picked 18 ounces of basil leaves already; enough to make our entire winter supply of pesto. And the plants are already producing new leaves so we'll have plenty to use when the tomatoes finally start to ripen. Love Caprese salads!

After the basil harvest

Dill, mystery squash, hubbard squash, yellow squash 

I got most of my starts from a friend but there was a bit of confusion in the labeling. So I've got plants that I have no clue as to how to identify the produce. Especially on the squash plants.

Sunflowers, tomatillo, cauliflower, jalapeño

Mystery squash - maybe buttercup? kobocha? 

I've been battling squash vine borers again this year. I've performed multiple surgeries on many vines and so far I've been able to save the plants. It's a losing battle though so I'm going to have to find an alternative. I did a bit of research and came across a recommendation for Safer Brand 5163 Caterpillar Killer. I'll try that next year. For now I just keep digging them out, powdering with diatomaceous earth, and burying the vines.

My nemesis-squash vine borers

So many Hubbard squash! I've got six good sized ones and about six more little ones that may not have time to ripen. Last year Dad and I split one squash and both had enough for that night's meal, leftovers, and freezer stock so I'm going to be overrun with squash. I'm going to try this in a pie and see how it goes.

Hubbard squash - one of many

The mystery squash to the left of the photo hasn't set fruit yet so I have no idea what it could be. Given how late we are in the growing season I'm assuming I'll never know now. Also in this area is cucumber; but not normal cucumber, an heirloom white variety. They're small, spiny, and tasty.

Zucchini, Yellow, Cucumber, and more mystery squash

Chris got the rain barrel hooked up. I'll set it up next year for a drip irrigation system.

The new water barrel

My zucchini plants are huge. This is just one of them and the leaves are enormous. It's producing good quantities of fruit too.

Huge zucchini leaves! 

The tomatoes are being difficult. They set fruit early but none of it has ripened. None.

So many green tomatoes 

Very healthy tomato plants

I've been playing around with next year's garden layout already. I figure it's a good time to think about it while I've got perfect examples of how much room everything actually takes up.

As for harvests, we're getting enough summer squash out of these plants to make a dish every day plus share with Dad. Fortunately I've got a lot of squash recipes else we'd be really sick of it already. It's been a slow cucumber year but I've managed to put up a couple pints of dill pickles so far. The tomatillos are finally forming and I expect an excellent harvest there, and the jalapeño plant has one pepper already and lots of blossoms. I lost all but two kohlrabi to voles but those last two look great and I should be able to pick them this week.

Running water to the garden

I've been using hoses to run water up to the garden area but now that we've got it all spiffy looking we figured a more permanent solution was in order. Particularly a solution that would allow Chris to mow up there without having to worry about chopping hoses all to hell. 

We bought some Pex tubing and stretched it up there so that it could relax. 

Coils of Pex

 Then Chris dug a hole near the garden and put in an entrance.

Choosing the spot

Dropping pipe

Once the Pex was connected he used the tractor to dig a shallow trench and bury the line. It can be shallow because we'll blow out the line each year rather than let it freeze.

Water through the woods

The Pex comes out in the hosta bed near the house and when I want water at the garden I run a hose out to it. I didn't want a permanent water line from the house as that would be harder to install (it would have to run under the concrete carport) and to maintain (would have to dig below the frost line so it wouldn't freeze). This is quick and easy to connect with the added advantage that I never forget I've got the water running.

He used some old barn wood to create a cover for the line and it now looks like it's been there forever. We haven't done anything to cover the connection near the house yet but I expect it'll be something similar.

Awesome cover

My hose management system stinks at the moment since I didn't anticipate getting this water spigot this year. The soaker hose entrance is on the other side of the garden and I'm not disturbing plants to redo it. So at the moment I've got hoses running everywhere - though none are where they can be mowed so that's a win! I'll get everything laid out properly for next year and it'll incorporate the new rain barrel we're putting up there too.

Moving the Latrine

Way back in 2009 when we built the little camp on the property we also built a latrine. 

Subtle, huh?

This was not an outhouse but rather a private spot to use the composting toilet. Which means it didn't have a hole in the floor nor did it get gross with excrement. Which is fortunate because once we got indoor plumbing I repurposed it to a small garden shed.

Then in 2016 it got repurposed again when we turned it into a temporary chicken coop. 

See the chicken?

Of course, temporary implies impermanence and sure enough the chickens were moved into the permanent coop by the end of that summer. Which left the latrine/shed/coop stranded in the middle of the yard where it quickly became a storage shed again.

Sad and lonely

This year solved both the location and the usage issues. Once the camp garden was all set up we decided to once again move the little building to a new location. It makes me nervous when we move this thing but Chris is a dab hand at tractor work so it went smoothly. The hardest part was keeping it level when going up the steep driveway hill. 

Careful...

Argh! Don't let it tip!

Whew!

I want it around the back...

Yeah, in the corner closest to me. 

Um, it'll never make that swing...

I had doubts but Chris wedged the tractor into the corner and we wiggled the shed onto the stone foundation, and it all went great.

Setting foundation stones

It's now officially a garden shed (again). I removed the pop door shade cover but left the nest boxes. They're held closed with just a magnetic clasp and I keep my small hand tools in there where it's easy to grab them.

Wonderfully functional

We're going to put a gutter and rain barrel on the back so that we can set up a drip irrigation system for the garden.  And I desperately need to paint it. If you look at the photo where you can see the door you'll note that the walls and door are two different colors. The whole shed should be the color of the door and it will be very soon. Funny that I lived with it like this for years. Years! You just get blind to some thing I guess.