Guineas and Gardens

After all these years, I still have two guinea fowl - both males.  They seldom roost with the chickens, and prefer to sleep in the rafters of the barn.  They make funny whistles and squeaks when I disturb them on my way to close the chicken coop and do my nightly animal checks.  They keep an eye on things around the farm, and Wendigo knows to be alert when the guineas sound the alarm.  My parents are currently raising fifteen guinea keets.  I can't wait to hear them all sounding the alarm at the same time - they are going to make such a racket!  

I'm enjoying the herb spiral near the back door this year.  I forced myself to do some weed management, and I think the plants are enjoying a little elbow room.  The milkweed is dominating the spiral, and I counted over twenty stems, all from that single transplant a few years ago.  I was complaining to a friend that the milkweed was taking over the herbs and turning my spiral into a butterfly garden and he reminded me that it has "weed" in its name for a reason!  

But look, the oregano is holding it's own amidst the forest of milkweed stems.  There's also a volunteer black locust tree that I keep cutting off and letting send up new shoots.  I transplanted some dill from the greenhouse to the very tip of the spiral, and it's getting ready to bloom.  Monarchs love the milkweed and swallowtails love the dill.  I should probably rename the herb spiral the butterfly spiral after all.  

Look, Mom, the lemon balm I transplanted from your garden is really taking off!  The mint is doing pretty good too.  Wouldn't it be nice if the whole spiral was perennial plants, and they came back thick enough to choke out the weeds?  

I pulled all the weeds from the row of green beans in the summer garden.  You can hardly see the bean plants, but they are there, just to the left of the row of mustard greens.  It's past time to harvest mustard greens.  I guess I know what I'll be cooking for dinner!  

I planted onion bulbs in two different areas in the garden.  I asked Brandon yesterday if he could remember what animal stall we emptied onto the north side of the garden, because the onions in that area are three times the size of the other onions.  We think it was really thick goat bedding,  Whatever it is, the plants love it!  

The spaghetti squash and zucchini are also in this part of the garden, and they are thick and dark green.  I put tomato cages, on their sides, over the planted seeds to keep the chickens from scratching them up, and now the plants have grown so much I can't get all the cages up without pulling up the plants!  Doh!  

I managed to get a sunburn on the back of my legs and the top of my feet yesterday while I messed around making a garden fence out of tomato cages.  I used some pieces of deck railing that we salvaged from a friend, and sort of wove the cages together and made a big circle, that's open in one spot for access to the center of the circle.  In theory, chickens can not get to the inside of the circle.

I dumped bedding from the chicken coop into the cages, to suppress weeds, and planted about thirty feet of green beans just on the inside of the circle.  My hope is that the beans will climb the wall of cages, and we can pick from outside and inside the circle.  I didn't stake the cages down, so I anticipate the whole thing being knocked over by a wind, or a goat.  I can't say that I wasn't warned, huh?  

Fixing Chairs

 

I wanted to make new seats for some cool, tall outdoor chairs that were given to us when someone moved to a new home.  Our friends and family know that I take in homeless yard furniture, so we have quite a collection of chairs and tables now.  Brandon was skeptical that I would ever fix these chairs, and gave me looks every time we had to move them about.  I could tell he had doubts about my chair repair motivation or abilities, so I was determined to finish this project in time for pool season and the firefly party.  

One of the chairs that needed a new seat is this nice lounger.  I love a good lounger for pool side relaxation, so I hated to see it go to the trash if I could repair it enough for a second life at our house.  

I did some reading on the interweb, and shopping at the amazon, and purchased a roll of lawn chair webbing, and five spools of different colored parachute cord.  

After some experimentation with wrapping techniques, I settled on three long wraps alternating with three short wraps, and used nearly two hundred and fifty feet of para cord for each chair!  The cord is supposed to be strong enough to hold seven hundred and fifty pounds, so unless we all pile up in one chair, it should hold.  The cord is flexible and comfortable to sit on too, so the chairs don't need seat cushions.  

I didn't get as fancy with the lawn chair webbing for the lounger, and just wrapped it around and around until the whole seat was covered, then I tied the end to the chair.  

It works!  

The first chair was a struggle to wrap because I didn't have my technique established.  The second chair was fun because I knew what I was doing.  The third chair was a bit tedious to wrap, and by the fifth chair I was very thankful that it was the last one.  Done! 

Wendigo, don't they look pretty?  

Each chair has about twenty five dollars worth of para chord tied up in it.  I think the cord would last longer if I could find a way to keep the chairs out of the weather when they aren't being used.  We have a tall table given to us because the glass center piece was broken.  Brandon cut a wood replacement and I painted it so it will last longer in the elements.  My newly fixed tall chairs work wonderfully around my newly fixed tall table!   

The Lost Art of Chicken Saddles, and Bouncing Ponytails

Who knew that making clothes for chickens would be so much fun?  Or be so adorable?!  Doesn't Pork Fat's Sister look fancy in her tailor made jacket?  Don't worry, I haven't gone completely off the deep end and started to play dress up with the chickens.  There is a reason why this chicken needed a jacket.  That doesn't mean that now that I see the potential for playing chicken dress-up, that I won't go there though.  Mrs. Hall would look so cute in a bonnet...

Just like Pork Fat, before she had her recuperation period at my house, Port Fat's Sister gets so much attention from the roosters that the feathers on her back have been worn off and her skin was scratched by the rooster's claws.  All mom's hens get plenty of attention from the roosters, but for some reason the Easter Eggers get more than their back feathers can handle.  A solution to this problem just might be a padded chicken saddle.  Mom came up with an idea for the pattern, and cut the shape from some paper, so she could trace it to a piece of fabric.  

The fabric she selected was from a set of chair cushions she was going to make once upon a time. The cushion we sacrificed to the chicken saddle was already cut and marked to be a high chair bottom.  Not a high chair for the grand kids, the high chair she had when my brothers and I were little!  Not every chicken is lucky enough to get a saddle made from vintage fabric.  

Mom wanted to know why I was taking pictures while she worked.  Well, chicken saddle making is a lost art, and we owe it the world to share this long lost skill, right?  Plus, it's just a funny thing to do on a Friday afternoon, and I may want to remember how we did it.    

Following mom's design, I used her sewing machine to sew it together and attach an elastic strap to go around the wings.  

This pictures a little dark, but it was meant to show how the elastic band goes over the top of the wing.  Port Fat's Sister didn't really enjoy being fitted, but once the saddle was in place, she didn't seem to mind it at all.  Actually, she stopped cowering near the nest boxes and joined the rest of the flock in the the grass.  The rooster didn't mind that she had it on either.  

I raised the jacket and took a picture of her poor back.  Her scratch is healing, but I'm sure it painful when the rooster stands on her back.  Hopefully the saddle will help. 

See the blue egg in the nest above?  That's a Pork Fat egg!  In all the months I had her, she never laid an egg for me.  She must be feeling better.  The eggs in the nest that have been marked with a red line are the ones mom is allowing one of the hens to sit on to hatch.  The other hens still lay eggs in the box too, so mom knows to leave the marked ones and take the unmarked.  

After sewing and playing with the chickens, my nieces and I had so much fun trying to capture photos of them suspended in the air when jumping on the trampoline.  Even with the fancy cell phone camera with stop action, it's harder to do than I thought it would be.  We had big laughs when we reviewed the photos together and saw their funny faces and bouncing hair.  Ponytails are the perfect hair style for trampolines.  

Wild Grape Vine to Wonky Grape Wreath

I made a giant grape vine wreath!  Or, at least I made a giant circle from grape vines, but I'm not convinced it qualifies for official wreath status yet.  A few weeks ago Brandon and I took a day off from farm house renovations and dedicated an entire Saturday to some much need garden and yard clean up.  We cut down the asparagus, disassembled the bean teepee, and rolled up all the bits of chicken wire that I use for chicken proofing my garden beds.  Once the garden beds were cleaned up, we raked leaves from under our big silver maple and used them to mulch all the garden beds, and then laid the tomato cages on the leaves to keep the chickens from scratching up the leaf mulch. It really did feel like tucking the garden away for the winter.  

The picture above is from the end of the summer.  As you can see, the back porch was over grown by the wisteria on the right side of the photo, and wild grape vine on the left side of the photo, which, when I stopped trimming it, grew up the side of the house.  

Not only did the wild grape vine grow up the side of the house near the porch and back door, it then spread along the wall to cover nearly the entire back side of the house, studio window, kitchen window, part of the roof, and then extended along the cables that run to the house from a telephone pole.  I thought it was awesome.  

I knew Brandon would not think it was awesome if he ever noticed how it was pulling the siding off the house, workings its way under the roofing, and blocking the sun light from his studio window.  Fortunately for the grape vine, he never paid any attention to it all summer, even though he had to practically duck under it on his way out the back door.  I knew the vine had overstepped it's bounds, so I was prepared for the severe trimming it was going to get once Brandon tuned in to it's presence.

Once Brandon started to really look at the vine during our clean up day, he responded to the grape vine's aggressive attempt to dominate our house with some aggressiveness of his own, and pulled it from the house cut the whole thing down to the ground! Bad, bad grape vine!

While Brandon cursed the vines tenacity and struggled to remove it from the telephone wires, I collected the longest pieces from his work and began to assemble my wreath.  I may have been overly ambitious, because making a wreath this big made it very hard to get it in a round shape.  

When I showed Puck my progress, I could tell that he was very worried about the non-circular condition of my wreath.  I tried to get him to jump through the wreath, lion tamer style, but he just gave me a look and sent me off to play with the silly chickens.

Mrs. Hall seemed willing to entertain the idea, but June kept her distance.  I could tell that I would need many kernels of corn and more time than I had left to accomplish the chicken through the wreath trick.  

By the time I got tired of finished it, I had at least added enough vines that the wreath was semi circular.  I think I could really dress it up with some ever green boughs and some pine cones or berries, even if it is a bit wonky.  

This vine doesn't get edible grapes, but it does have pretty little curling tendrils that help it attach to things.  I think they look very nice, and was excited to get to keep some of them by making my wreath.  Judging by the progress the vine made this summer, I don't have any concern that it won't recover from Brandon's pruning, and I'm already looking forward to Brandon's expression at the end of next summer when he realizes that the vine he cut down is back where it started!

Boozie

Not long ago our good friends joined us for a day of welding, tasty sandwiches, garden goodies, and swimming pool fun.  I've never hosted a welding party before, probably because Brandon hasn't had a welder and welding skills until recently.  Since the guys did all the dirty work, and I mostly played in the pool and enjoyed frozen drinks, I say we should make it a tradition!  Which means someone has to burn the bottom out of their grill again so we have an excuse.  

I visited the garage occasionally throughout the day as they worked, trying to get some good photos of sparks without burning my retinas.  Brandon enrolled in an evening welding class last year to gain some practice and welding skills.  Even with his new skills, the welder we have had never been tried until this day, so there were some issues getting started.  At one point, after having serious technical difficulties, they even dismantled the welder and put it back together again, which is the challenging part.  By the end of the day the grill was repaired and no one was scorched, so it was a successful party.  

My friend and I weren't completely idle while the husbands labored.  We made some excellent pina coladas!  I drank a pina colada made from a mix once, years ago, and decided I didn't like them.  I should have known not to make a claim like that until I tried one made with fresh pineapple, coconut cream, and coconut milk bended with some ice and rum, and garnished with a cherry.  These pina coladas were muy buena!  

Even better, were the strawberry daiquiris we made using the frozen strawberries my friend picked this year, garnished with mint leaves.  We made one for a hard working welder too, and put it in the freezer for when he was done working.  Sadly, for him, the guys worked so steadily that we forgot about the icy drink and I didn't discover it again until the next day, after work.   What a treat!  I decided that only the best of friends would leave a frozen treat in my freezer for me to "discover" after a Monday work day.  It was so good that I wish I could return the favor by sneaking into my friends house sometime and leaving one as a surprise.  Like a a visit from a magical daiquiri elf.  

  

It's likely, after reading about how much I liked the pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris, that you are thinking the title of this post is referring to me, a total boozie!  Not so.  Boozie is the name Jamie and I have given our new drink invention - smoothie plus booze equals, Boozie!  Yes, that's right, we combined rum with a vegetable and fruit smoothie, and wha-la, our drink invention is born!

While Jamie and I were relaxing in the swimming pool one day after work this week, I was reminiscing about the pina colada and daiquiri that he missed out on.  I didn't have the ingredients to reproduce the drinks, but I did have a fresh blueberry, banana, and Swiss chard smoothie made up in the fridge, and rum.  Why not?  After our first one, we decided a more tropical fruit would be better, so we blended frozen mango chunks with banana and frozen raspberries, and a giant handful of chard from the garden.  Not bad!  

Maybe it's the boozie talking, but I thought it was really good.  We joked that these are guilt free since it has a serving of fruit and vegetables plus a serving (or two!) of booze, for a well balanced meal.  Heck, why even eat dinner?  Just drink Boozies.  It's got vegetables and stuff, you know, for health.  After a couple of boozies, I can tell you that I sure felt happy and healthy.  

Bear Sighting! And the Garden Gate Latch.

Do you see the bear at the edge of the forest?  See it's dark menacing shape, right behind the chicken coop, when looking through the living room window at mom and dads house?  

Here's a close up.  It looks like it's standing on it's hind legs, sniffing in my direction!  I did a double take when I saw the bear, and told mom what I was seeing.  Instead of being alarmed, she just said she sees it all the time too.  What?!  

Here's what the scary bear looks like when you walk up to him.  Not a bear at all, just a flaking dark stump in the woods.  Shoot.  I must admit that I was only momentarily fooled into thinking the stump was a bear, but the shot of adrenaline that I received in that quick glance was plenty enough excitement for me.   I'm not sure my brain immediately understood the shape as a bear and not a Sasquatch, but either way it was a momentary thrill.  Growing up in those woods I was never afraid of running into a bear, probably because no one ever reported seeing one there.  But, bears have been seen in the nearby mountains, so it's always a possibility, and there were many times when I convinced myself that I heard big foot howling, or saw his dark shape moving through the trees.  

A garden gate latch may not be as exciting as a bear sighting, but for mom and I, rigging up the latch was a great accomplishment, and deserves to be photographed and recorded for posterity.  We had no help from manly muscles and manly power tools, so it truly was an accomplishment for us.  Armed with a screw driver and a scrounged up L-bracket and a shoe string, we completely remodeled the garden gate latch.  

The old latch configuration required that we reach behind the gate post and around the electric wire to fumble for the lever which unlatched the gate.  Closing the gate required putting your back into lifting the gate an inch while simultaneously pushing on the gate post to correct the angle, all the while aiming the two pieces together and gritting your teeth until you heard the click that let you know it was okay to let go.  The whole process was made even more interesting by the closeness of the electric wire that runs up the gate post to the fence charger, so most of the time I was holding my breath too, bracing for a shock.  It took quite a bit of dexterity and practice to operate the gate, let me tell you.  Our new gate latch has a handy string which can be pulled to release the lever without having to reach around an electrified pole.  It's genius, if I do say so myself.  And after moving the latch location on the post and the gate, it now swings closed all by itself, hands free.   It's the little things in life that really make all the difference!  

Here you can see the gate from a distance, and the little house on a pole near the gate, which used to be a bird feeder, but now shelters the electric fence charger and it's timer.  The garden fence was a weekend project for the whole family early one summer.  Even the nieces helped me dig holes for the posts.  The woven wire fence isn't stretched super tight, like it would be if it was supposed to contain a cow or other large animal.  Our goal was to keep the deer and chickens out of the garden, which it does pretty well.  What it's doesn't do well with is keeping out the the groundhog or the rabbit.  The groundhog can eat a bed of snap peas or sweet potatoes in a single night, and the rabbit was so smart that she had her babies in the garden fence right next to the lettuce patch.  

When I would tell many of my friends that we were having issues with a groundhog, they would recommend that it be shot. It's just a ground hog, right?  Well, Brandon, mom, and I were discussing how to accomplish this one day (which shows you just how irritating it was to have the groundhog treat the garden as a buffet) when we noticed the groundhog at the edge of the forest.  He stood up on his hind legs until he could almost reach the blossoms on a wild daisy, then he bent the plant over and munch the blossom off.  Then he waddled to the next stalk and ate the flower, doing this over and over all along the edge of the woods.  He was adorable!  We all looked at each other, said "awww" and decided that we couldn't shoot him, he was just too cute.  I mean, he eats flowers!  Wimps.  So that's why the garden fence has an electric wire along the bottom on the outside, to keep the groundhog and the rabbit out.  It's only six inches off the ground, and it's on a timer so mom can set it to go off during the day when's she's out there working.  It's a solution that allows for harmony with the local wildlife.  I doubt it would work on a real bear though.