Posted in Animals, Dog on June 17, 2013| 8 Comments »
Meet Marshal Dillon.
He is our new Great Pyrenees puppy. I have been strongly against getting a new puppy, even though the family has been begging for the last few months.
This breed finally made me give in. He is practical and adorable, how can I resist. Great Pyrenees are protectors, and this little guy (who will get MUCH bigger) will eventually guard our entire flock, whatever that may be, chickens, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, lamb — you get the idea.
Posted in winter on June 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »
One of my next garden steps is to collect my own seeds. I can do the easy ones, okra/beans/peas, but am trying to branch out to the more difficult ones. When my carrots started flowering this spring it seemed reasonable to let them go and gather the seeds. This week I just read in my seed sowing book and reverified online that it takes 2 seasons for carrots to develop seeds. Are you kidding?
Now I have to decide if I want to forget the whole experiment or take the time to store the carrots until fall and replant them just for seeds. Had I known it was this big of a process I would have planned more carefully on choosing the variety, or at the very least kept track. I’m thinking I may just pull them and be done with it. At least the rabbits and chickens will like them.
Posted in butterfly, caterpillar on June 10, 2013| 4 Comments »
I have grown fennel for several years, but have never eaten any. I always leave it in the garden way past it’s prime for the butterflies. It is a host plant for the Eastern Black Swallowtail. Here are the stages I’ve seen in the last few days.
Unfortunately, another visitor has been the red wasps who seem to like the caterpillars 😦
Posted in pickles on June 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I am getting lemon cucs, but not a ton of them yet. I ended up going to the farmers market and buying 7 lbs of cucs. I made 3 quarts of dill pickles and 6 pints of my favorite sweet and salty pickles. The later is my own accidental recipe.
Posted in camo creatures on June 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »
This one should be a little easier to spot than the last one, but pretty cool just the same.
We were sitting in the adirondacks again, man do I look lazy lately 🙂 I got up to show my friend how pretty the sage flowers are and when I sat back down, I had this little guy on my toe. I thought it was a dry blade of grass until I saw him moving.
Posted in eats on June 8, 2013| 2 Comments »
Posted in Animals, Quail on June 6, 2013| 1 Comment »
I came home from work to what I expected would be a normal evening. I kissed the dog, checked my vegetable garden, dipped my toes in the pool, and considered going for a swim when I noticed that the door was open on the bottom quail cage.
I looked around and didn’t see any quail so I called my husband to see if he had relocated them without me knowing. He hadn’t. I looked around again and heard/saw nothing. I was wondering if someone had stolen the quail. Seemed unlikely, but how could 10 quail just disappear?
I started my search and finally found signs. In my flower beds I heard a crow and saw some movement. I was able to find 4 quail in my flowers. They were not easy to catch with the density of the plants. Luckily my larkspur are starting to go, because they got seriously trampled on today.
If you look close you can see on hiding in the artemesia.
Then I looked over the fence into the back un-fenced area. Three quail were wandering around, happily eating grass. I was able to corner them pretty easily and get them in the cage.
Next we moved to the front. We found one, our favorite little tuxedo rooster hiding in the front hedges. This guy was tough to catch. Here is Eric with the stick trying to herd him in.
When we were out in the front yard, I came across this little fawn. Looks like momma hid it for safe keeping. It didn’t move a muscle. This is exactly why I don’t cut the grass, but once a year. It’s nice to provide a safe place for wildlife.
Unfortunately, one that was in the flower garden flew the fence. When we went looking for him he flew back over the fence, than over the fence into the chicken area, and finally way over the fence into the neighbors yard. There was no way of tracking this little guy down 😦
When I was in the chicken yard I found this cool guy too. He was so interested in burrowing he didn’t seem phased by me.
In all we were able to save 7. We are hoping maybe they will show up tomorrow.
So much for cooking, cleaning, etc. I’m exhausted.
