The Goodness of the Garden...

Today's harvest.
Even with the heat and drought
the garden has been producing well.
Chicken poop, bunny poop and straw
are a girl's best friends.
We have been eating well and tonight
those tomatoes and peppers
will become pasta sauce.
Ok.. that is a lie.
I will pull the last of last year's
tomatoes out of the freezer for sauce
because it is the right thing to do.
I have been using the fresh tomatoes,
but I must stop!
So tonight I will be good and
use the old stuff up.
But you know...
that bowl looks like salsa to me.


And I made the fountain for the insects.
I spent $20 on a small
submersible pump,
took the galvanized tub,
a length of old sewer pipe
and an anonymous pipe that I
found in the yard,
some bricks and
Ta Da! Fountain.
It was an instant hit with
the local insect life.
Butterflies, bees, wasps
and other bugs visit daily.
I placed a small stone on top
of the pipe to make a bit of a spray
that splashes down and wets the soil
and stepping stone and the old pot
that is leaned against the tub.
It gives wet surfaces for the insects
to land on and drink from
without drowning.
I have noticed an increase of insect
activity on all of my blooming plants,
including the important ones
like my tomatoes, squashes and cukes.
I knew it would help, but I am
amazed at how quickly and how well
it has worked to draw the bugs.
Never, ever again will my garden
be without a water source.

Garden Fix-Its..

I usually don't plant squash in the
early part of the year.
The squash vine borers and squash bugs
are just too awful to justify
the effort.
But I forgot myself this year.
What was I thinking!?

But, as you can see,
they look healthy.
My secret weapon..?
The lowly syringe.
I sucked up organic insecticidal soap
into the syringe and
gave the squash vines a shot.
The vines/stems are hollow tubes
and the borers play around inside
the tubes and kill the stem
and the plant.
So, I shot the insecticidal
soap into the hollow tubes.
It worked like a charm!
I had borers and my plants were wilting
and then I didn't and the vines look healthy
and are producing great gobs of squash.
I think it also worked
upon the newly hatched borers
as they bore into the
vnes. They encountered the soaped
tubes and were killed.
Gotta think outside the box.



And we have the new tomato supports in place.
I love, love, love them!
No more struggles.
No more crazy vines everywhere.
No more collapsing supports.

And such a simple idea from Sweet Husband.
The fencing is attached to a board
and the board is hung from the
PVC with zip ties.
It can be easily taken down
and stored for the winter
and easily set up again
in the early spring
for early peas and then the tomatoes
come summer.
Great!!

Goats..

So.. we have goats.
And I love my goats,
but unrestrained, free range goats
become a problem as they get older.
They think things like apple trees
and sunflowers are delicious.


I had to do a little creative
construction on the entrance to the garden


And we finally moved the electric fence
up to the upper foundation.
It needed cleaning.


And between the 20th of June
and today..they did this!


I really appreciate the eating power of goats.
They are a real bonus around here.
And today is the first day they are
staked out. I am not thrilled about staking them out
as it is not the safest thing for the goats,
but the area we need them to clean out
is a total jungle and there is no way
I could run fence through it.
For today they are close to the house
so that I can see if they will
kill themselves on lines. If it
goes well, them I will move them farther out.
They won't be left for long and
never when we aren't here.
We have about an acre of land we can't even set foot on.
Yippee goats!

It Is A Bad Scene, Folks...

I will post later on the success here this year..
the beautiful flowers, the tomato
supports and the like,
but right now the only thing
on my mind is the complete
absence of insect life.
Blooming here now we have
gorgeous bee balm,
hyssop, catnip, lemon balm
and a butterfly bush.
All of these are taller than my head.
All of them are empty.
Not a butterfly to be seen.
No honeybees.. not a one.
This morning's count was 4 bumblebees
for the whole yard
and 2 little moth type creatures.
There are some very small little bee type creatures
buzzing around, but only a few.
I have never seen a butterfly bush completely empty.
Nothing on it today..or yesterday..
or the day before that.
I have never seen bee balm empty.
Used to be I couldn't see the blooms
for the butterflies and
I cannot find a single one.

I am in the middle of a massive freak out.
I am despondent and worried
and ..well.. I am just plain ol freaking out.

The one thing we do have.. grasshoppers.
The grasses heave with them as I pass.
They aren't doing any damage, they are just there.
Off to hand pollinate my squashes... again.
I managed to get 4 for a casserole the other day..
I guess I should do the cukes too...

What in the hell?

Spring Deepens Toward Summer

The garden continues to grow.
And how about those poles!?
They are going to be my pride and joy.
7 tall tomato fences..
Yippee!!! Woo Hoo! Hazzah!
I kept hoping they would be up and finished
before I showed them off,
but blogger time was ticking
and waiting on a husband is.. well, it just is.
But, when they are all finished and the tomatoes
have been slowly lifted onto them,
they are going to be spectacular.
No more trying to control those crazy
heirloom vines, it will be easy as pie.
And they will have fencing hung on them
and I can just take the firewand to them
and burn off the old vines and plant
turnips and kale and whatnot for a
winter garden!
Sigh. It really is the simple things
that bring the most joy


Squash is squashing right along...



And lookee!
Peppers are peppering too!



My supply of summer greens..
Lamb's Quarter.
I love this stuff.
It is a great weed and is ALL
over our place.
Tasty, heat hearty
and I have don't have
to plant it.
We eat it often.. on sandwiches and burgers
and any other way I would use spinach.



My Jersalem Artichoke bed is looking great.
I still haven't tackled the patch
over in the neck high weeds
and hard clay... I do solemnly swear
that I will dig it all up this winter.
Really.. I will.



Mammoth sunflowers are cruising right along
and that blooming thing surrounding it..?
I think it is parsnip.
I am letting it go all the way to seed
and then I will dig it up and see..
Right now it is busy drawing pollinators
into the garden and looking
airy and yellow.





The goat babies are really growing up.
Aaawww.
But they are still sweet lovers though.
Goats are...
um...
interesting.
It is like having toddlers in the yard.
They get into everything
and cry for their mamma (that'd be me).
They eat and get tired and whiny
and have to be put down for a nap
before waking rested and ready
to get into everything again.
It is challenging to keep the fence moved though.
As soon as we get it set up and electrified,
it is time to move it again.
They are eating the scrub and
weeds too quickly.
As a result, they spend most of their
days roaming free about the place.
Goats on the back steps crying,
goats in the garage climbing over the crap,
goats on the front porch if I don't
answer the back door.
Goats, goats, goats..
We love them.
Goats eat my lamb's quarter and
sunflowers by sticking their
snouts through the fence.
Bad goats.
Goats give goat kisses and want
snuggles when they are tired.



The side door to the big ol barn.
One day I will have to tell you about the big ol barn.
10,000 sq ft of barn.
That is a lot of barn.
Yes.. I did say 10,000 sq ft.

My finger..
well, it is still attached to my hand.
It is healing and I have gotten bold
enough as of late to take the splint
off. I was terrified at the thought of ever bending it again..ever.
But a few days ago I gave it a try.
I unwrapped it and stared at it and tried to bend it.
Nothing happened.. at all.
The animal part of my brain freaked all the way out.
But I started bending it
and manipulating it manually
and it could bend and eventually it
started to bend on it's own.
I fear it will never be quite right again though.
It has become obvious that I cut down into muscle..
the extender ones on the top of my finger that are
supposed to stretch when the finger bends.
Well.. they don't. Not really. But it is getting better.
And while the actual visible slice
will leave but a thin line,
the deeper slice has definite scar tissue under it
and makes a hump in my finger.
And I am hoping that the nerves grow back
because as of now, my finger is numb.
But I washed my hands like a normal
person day before yesterday.
What a wonderful feeling that was.
There are not words for how it felt to
have water run over my left hand once again.
Though it was weird to see
the water but not to feel it.
I will live and hopefully one
day it will bend and
I will have my kung fu grip back...

Did you know you could hoe one handed?
Do you know it is hard to wash one hand?
You cannot do dishes with one hand.
That is very hard.
I see the sink.
I see the dishes.
I cannot do anything about them.
I got busted once or twice trying to do them.
I got in trouble.
I have recently been able to cook dinner.
I was not allowed to chop veggies.
I have a deep butchering phobia
at this particular time.
I know I have to do rabbits soon,
but I have fear.. deep, dark fear.

A Quickie..

Anna from the Walden Effect blog
(see my list of favorites to your right
and down a little.. yep, there it is)
brought up a point I will be covering shortly.
Comfrey!
Comfrey rocks.
You guys saw the cut..
well, I put my comfrey salve on it
and am here to tell you that the skin
is already trying to grow back together.
I am only using it once
every 2 bandage changes
because I do
not want it to close
too quickly.
If it needs to drain,
I want it to be able to.
This winter I cut my middle finger
(same hand) on my rotary cutter.
I thought it was bad, but nothing
like this one.
Still, the finger was splayed.
Now I have to search
for the teeny, tiny scar.

I love, love, love comfrey.
It has amazing restorative properties.
It promotes cell growth.. no kidding!

Some day very soon I will harvest and
dry some of my comfrey and
extole it's many wonders..
and make a batch of comfrey salve!!


Meanwhile..
I am useless..
I am one handed.
I cannot make goat baby bottles.
I cannot chop veggies.
I cannot put on my bra.
I cannot do anything.
It is driving me nuts!
If I use my left hand for anything
at all that is more than scratching my nose
the pull of the other fingers
and the muscle contraction
pulls at the wound..
this is annoying and painful.
Thank you to Sweet Husband
for picking up ALL my slack.
I cannot do dishes.
I cannot carry something
and open the door.
I cannot open anything...
sigh.
If I had broken it and had a cast
I could use it for all kinds
of things..

Weird Week...

It has been a weird week here.
Not in that cool stuff kind of weird,
but all bad weird.

We had massive rainfall
and low grade flooding.
Well, not flooding as much as
runoff. We are living on hard pack clay
and heavy rainfall runs down through
our place like it would over concrete.
If I didn't have the garden planted in raised mounds
I would have lost it all.
As it was, we still had some cleanup to do
and, truth be told,
more cleanup to do because we
really didn't do that much.


I caught a snake in the Ameracauna
nest boxes chowing down on eggs again.
I caught it and put it in a feed bag.
this time I made sure it did not
have a hole.
Did you know that snakes can work
the weave loose in a woven feed bag?


We know that now.
I figure that it just wiggles it's head
back and forth
and back and forth
until the weave loosens up
and makes a hole.
Sweet Husband had put it in the fridge
to slow it down.
It was a very feisty, read aggressive,
snake and he wanted it a bit calmer
before he rehomed it.
The first time I opened the fridge
I squeaked.
Then I laughed.
Then I went for the camera.


We had a hatch go badly.
Shame too. We had a customer waiting
for those birds. We still have some,
just not the full order.

Then I had a clumsy week.
I fell down.
That hurt.
Then I stepped lightly on a nail.
No big deal.
I walked into a few walls.
I poured milk all over the counter.
The list really does just go on..
but then.......


I did this.


Sorry if it is gross.
So there I was..
butchering a chicken..

Now, as you may know
when I butcher I prefer to
break the neck of the bird,
then hang it and cut it's throat.

Well, Sweet Husband wanted to slit
the throat of the birds before the
neck breaking activity.

I had spent a long time honing my knives.
I mean a long time.
And they were very sharp.
I wanted to make sure the
bird died quickly..
So with ALL my might
I drew the knife across the
bird's neck and right through
my finger.
Oh sweet Mary of Mercantilism!!
I screamed. I really, really did.
Sweet Husband came flying out of the barn
and I headed for the house with my finger
clamped together.
I knew it was bad.
I felt it.. the slicing feeling
that is almost a sound.
I think I got bone.

I couldn't look after my first glance
and turned it all over to Sweet Husband.
I did not know I had that level of trust in him.
I put me head on the counter while he tried to
stop some of the horrific blood flow.
We wrapped it tight with gauze and electrical tape,
very tightly applied, to staunch the blood.
And I paced the house until the
FIRE in my finger and whole hand lessened
enough for me to sit still.

Later we took off the bandages and took a look.
(before the bandage removal,
I wrapped my arms around Sweet Husband's
neck and had a good cry.)
Wow.. if I was fortunate enough to have
insurance I would have needed stitches.
Some of the skin slides around in
ways it is not supposed to.

So, today I did the buttefly bandage
to try to pull the two parts closer together.
I have some nerve damage..
as in I cannot feel a good
portion of my finger anymore.
That may heal up a bit.
I am not getting microsurgery
on my hand. Not happening.
And there are no gurantees it would even work.

The main goal is to get it to heal
and to keep it clean and infection free.

Pictures just cannot do justice
to the severity of this wound
and how very, very deep it goes down.

I know it is a cut on a finger,
but today I am feeling the after effects
of adrenaline and pain. I am weak
and shaky and muzzy headed.
I am hoping tomorrow is better.
I do have a badge of honor though..
Sweet Husband, who has had some major league
boo boos in his life.. shit that makes me cringe,
says that I have bested him!! Woot!!


So...
Slow down.
Keep very sharp knives.
Pay attention.
And don't ever try anything new.
Ever.
Be careful.
Take care.