Happy Thanksgiving - got snow?

We sure do - and we won't be eating our turkey outside this year!

Happy Thanksgiving from our camp to yours!

Fresh Snow - Finally!

This is the North Sister in the Oregon Cascade mountains at sunrise this morning.  Fresh snow fell overnight and more is on the way.  We really need it here and are grateful for every flake!

Oh, Chucky, what big toes you have...

And they are green toes, too!  Chucky loves playing ball when Tramp 1 is mowing the lawns.  The green doesn't last but he sure looks funny with green "socks"!

My new camera takes really great sunset shots.  I think I am in love!!!

 



Drought in our high desert -

 

Early morning sunrise hitting the Three Sisters in the Cascade mountains.  They are named Faith, Hope and Charity and are all over 10,000 feet in elevation.  Notice that there is very little snow pack left on them.  Our extreme drought is visually apparent when we look at them.  We have never seen the snow pack so low.  Everyone around here is hoping for a wet and cold winter season.

 

 



 

Some thirsty visitors enjoying our pond.  This covey of quail includes some late season chicks.  It has been a good year for the quail - we have seen more of them this summer than we have in the past several years.  We know when they are visiting because we hear their distinctive calls echoing through the juniper trees as they stealthily travel in spurts from one sheltering location to another.

 

 



Chucky says.....

 

Chucky says "Happy Labrador Day!

 

 

(He means Labor Day...)

 

 



Feeding the Troops -

 

Last weekend we were in Washington state volunteering at a Feed the Troops event.  The Pacific Northwest BBQ Association cooked up BBQ for over 1000 Navy personnel and their families.  It was an honor to share great BBQ with them.  And it was a whole lot of fun, too, prepping, smoking and serving so much food.  We did 40 pork butts for pulled pork sandwiches, 140 racks of ribs, piles of chicken, smoked mac n' cheese, smoked beans with pork and lots of chili with beans - all cooked outside.  The Clearwater Resort and Casino co-hosted this event, providing potato salad, corn, coleslaw, muffins, beverages, hot dogs and dessert.  They also provided the venue complete with tables, chairs and a great band.  We were so crazy busy that I didn't take a single picture.... 

 

until we got back home and found a big surprise....

 

This is all that is left of my beautiful bush beans.  Just little bean skeletons.  They should have been ready to start picking when we got home...  But the strong winds that blew while we were away ripped the gate to the garden open and the deer stopped by the all you can eat buffet!!!

 

 

The enjoyed the potato plants with their meal of green beans, too.

 

 

 

This isn't the best picture - but you can see that the branches have been stripped on the tomato plants.  Those darned deer managed to grab pretty much all of the red tomatoes and probably 75 percent of the green ones, too.  So much for all the hours I spent picking hornworms off the plants....

 

 

They even munched my one and only hollyhock.  It must have been their dessert - along with some lilac bushes and petunias!!!!

 

To have most of the garden devoured this time of year is heartbreaking.  But what can you do?  You can make sure to bungee cord the gate before going away!!!!

 

 

Smoky morning in the garden -

 

This is the sun setting in thick smoke.  Mega fires are raging in all the northwest states.  Our smoke is from the closest fire that is now at 62,000 acres.  Visibility has been really low, and air quality has been at dangerous health levels.  I haven't been able to see the farm fields below us for days. 

 

 

This is a very late planted yellow squash.  I thought maybe a late planting might avoid getting powdery mildew.  Sure do hope so!

 

 

The tomatoes are huge - way too tall.  While they are the Juliet variety that does tend to get lanky, I think Tramp 1 did too good a job of fertilizing when planting them.  He added alfalfa meal, bone meal and a cold climate organic fertilizer, plus ground up egg shells. 

 

 

The potatoes are doing well and are large enough now to require some extra water.  I am giving several plants extra water in the mornings even though they are all on a drip irrigation system.  It has been hot and really dry, so with their adult root systems, they benefit with some extra moisture.

 

 

The upside down tomatoes are progressing well.  This year we planted all Early Girl.  They don't seem to grow as well in this manner versus planning them in the ground.  It could be the extreme weather we have had, too.  I usually plant the Stupice variety in the upside down pots. 

 

 

This is a pepper of unknown origin that decided to volunteer in the top of one of the upside down tomatoes.  Hope it has time to grow enough to show us what variety it is!!

 

 

 

We have grapes this year.  Usually the Scrub Jays get them before we do.  But this year they are down in the orchard garden working on the fruit trees....  We don't remember what kind of grapes we planted - we have the name somewhere - but at least they are doing well.  They do have a massive white fly problem and I am going to nail them with some homemade soap spray, hoping that it will help knock some of them out.  We have never had white flies so we didn't realize what was happening soon enough to stop it.

 

 

Creature of the night....

Going outside at night has gotten to be way more fun now that I have a new flashlight.  It is a black light flashlight and wow, does it ever make things look strange! 

 

Yep, this a scorpion.  They glow the most brilliant green when the black light shines on them.  I have been seeing way more of them than I realized were out and about at night. 

 

When we first moved here and built our shop, they were everywhere.  I would find them in all the boxes of things we had stored in the garage.  Our dog at the time, a basset hound named Angus, had a bad reaction to a sting.  We always keep liquid Benadryl on hand in our pet emergency supplies now.

 

Last week I was in the shop after dark closing a window in the bathroom when I looked down and there was a scorpion in front of me.  Chucky dog was right behind me and I didn't want him to see it.  So I grabbed what was close - a spray can of scrubbing bubbles type cleaner and blasted the critter.  It stopped him dead in his tracks with his tail curled up high.  I used a big wad of toilet tissue to clean him up and tossed him into the trash.  No going  barefoot around here at night!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Last hornworm post...

Okay, I know I am over the edge with all these hornworm posts.  So this will be my last one.  But I will still be searching for them every day and at night before I go to bed.  They are amazing!!

 

This is the tiny little egg attached to a tomato leaf.

 

 

This little guy is just coming out of the egg case.  This happened about a week after the egg was deposited on the tomato leaf.

 

 

This chewed up leaf is what tells you to look on the underside.  That way you can get the hornworm before it grows more and really munches your plant!  You can see the light green hornworm on the spine of the leaf.

 

 

This is a hornworm at night, found with a black light flashlight.  Wow, does that flashlight ever help.  Much easier to find them in the dark than in the daylight.

 

And so ends the saga of the tomato hornworm - I will say no more....

 

 

How does this happen?!

 

For the third time in the last several weeks, a hummingbird has flown into the garage and can't get out.  Crazy!  They are such great fliers and the garage door is up all the way but they just hover around at ceiling height.  This one is a large female that shows no signs of getting tired yet.  The other two were tired when we found them and after a crazy chase, we were able to net them with a bug net we keep handy.  Remember those bug nets when you were a kid?  It was great fun to see what you could catch.  But I never thought I would be trying to catch a hummingbird!

 

We have tried lots of ways to entice the hummers out.  Like hanging a feeder on a plant pole in front of the man door - but it didn't work.  Anybody have any suggestions?  In the meantime, I will head back out and try to catch the poor thing!!!

 

 

It has become an obsession...

 

This beautiful moth is the Sphinx moth.  They come out at dusk and look like a hummingbird that is somehow flying in the dark.

 

 

This is the egg that the Sphinx moth lays during her evening flights.  She sneaks around in the dark to leave these eggs that will become the dreaded hornworm.

 

 

This morning I found this huge hornworm headed out to bury itself and start the next stage of life - it has started to darken up from the bright green color it was earlier.  (Note that the coin beside it is a quarter...)  The hornworm is the larval stage of the Sphinx moth.  The hornworm can devour tomato plants practically overnight if not kept in check.  I try to find them when they are very tiny and still on the leaves.  I have pulled probably at least 60 of the tomatoes this season already. 

 

And yes, it has become an obsession.  I am out there checking first thing in the morning, then at noon, again in the late afternoon, right before dark and even after dark with a flashlight.  They will not be getting my tomato plants!!!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!

Well, not really, not chicken dinner - but definitely winner!!  Sometime in late May I entered a contest - I don't even remember how I did it other than online.  It was put on by Albertson's grocery stores and Proctor and Gamble.  Winners would get a Roku Streaming Stick.

I got an email that I was a winner and needed to respond within 48 hours.  But we were out of town and when I finally read it, it was several days past the date.  So I just figured I lost and it went to someone else. 

When I went to pick up mail at our P.O. box several days ago, there was a notice that I had a package but it was after hours and the counter was closed.  So today I finally remembered to stop by the post office to pick up whatever it was.  And to my surprise, it was a package from Albertson's - the Roku Streaming Stick - plus two 6 month gift cars for Huluplus!!!  Wow, was I ever surprised and thrilled!  Yep, winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!

 

Have you heard of Roku?  It streams programming to your television via WiFi.  We have a Roku box connected to one of our old style TVs.  It is a great way to use an older TV to stream programs like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Huluplus and many others.  But it also has a ton of free programs to watch like PBS and Crackle, to name a few - way more than I could ever mention here and new things are being added all the time.  Plus there are lots of games for kids to enjoy.  We also have one connected to our flat screen TV that we purchased way before smart TV came out.  Both of these are the Roku box style.  Now, with the Roku Streaming Stick, it will be easy to take it with us on trips.  And I can scarcely believe that I won this!!  Thank you Albertson's and Proctor and Gamble!!!!

 







The dreaded hornworm....

Around here it is prime tomato hornworm season.  Every morning I go out to inspect the tomato plants and try to find the hornworms when they are just itty bitty fellows.  I do it again after dark with a flashlight. 

Hunting for hornworms should be getting a lot more interesting tomorrow night.  I ordered a black light flashlight that is supposed to make them really show up at night.  Folks use this flashlight in Arizona to see scorpions in their homes and other locations.  I think we will have a lot of fun with this thing!

 

This is a moonflower plant.  I have several of them over five feet tall.  So prolific and easy to grow, too.

 

 

And I thought they were pest free until this year when I found hornworms on them.  Even though they are a poisonous plant, a member of the nightshade family, the tomato hornworm seems to do fine munching away to rapid growth and on to the next stage of life.  And I don't mind if they eat this plant as it grows faster than they could destroy it.  I did note that the hornworms on the moonflower seem to be a paler color than when they dine on tomato plants.

 

This little chickadee and some friends flew in to visit while I was working in the flower bed.  They really checked out the moonflower, flitting around underneath the branches.  I think they were searching for the early stage hornworms that are small and probably very tasty to them.  I sure do hope they come back every day!!

What about you - do you have any hornworm horror stories from your garden?

Catching up on things -

Never have I had such a long absence from blogging.  Wow - the time flew by.  Plenty going on around here, too.  So here is the list -

Chucky dog broke one of his front toes - he runs wild when chasing his ball and came down hard on river rocks.  He had to be confined for a couple of weeks - not easy...

The weather has been awful - the earliest heat waves here, breaking records.  It was too hot to care about much, especially gardening...

We put up field fencing around a portion of our land so Chucky could have a lot of space to run free.  Oh yeah, no running....  Until he saw a rabbit - and the rabbit out ran Chucky, only to hit the fence and die an instant death.  Chucky found the rabbit twitching away and was rolling it around - he probably thought it was a fun toy!  Had to separate a 95 pound dog from his new find - it was 6:00 in the morning and I was in my nightgown and robe...  Nothing is easy here!

For the first time in a long time, we took a real vacation.  No hunting, no BBQ events, no visiting family and no Chucky.  It was really fun and much too short!

Chucky dog had a run in with the new fence.  He chased a cat - the cat got away.  Chucky forgot there was a fence and boing - he hit it hard, dented the fence and yelped loudly.  He tore a piece of his scalp off, fur and all.  We call him Scarhead now.... 

Tramp 1's father passed away.  We were blessed - he took his last breath in his own bed.  He had 93 wonderful years and would have been 94 this month.

We took a trip to Arizona this month - yes, more miserable heat!  It was my dear mom, her sister and husband, a cousin plus us 2 Tramps flying to Phoenix.  We went for mom's oldest sister's 90th birthday.  We kept it a short trip - flew out on a Thursday and back on a Sunday.  What a bake oven it was.  Why do people live there??!!  (Came home so happy to use my own toilet (I am not keen on public restrooms) only to find a dead mouse in the bottom of the toilet bowl.  I guess the heat makes everyone thirsty!!!)

Made it to just one BBQ comp so far.  It was July 4th in the Willamette Valley and it was 97 degrees.  Pretty miserable yet again.  The average weather for that day there is 79 degrees...

If I forgot anything, I am just too tired to remember what it was!

It is good to be back!

April is Asparagus Time

 

The first week of April we found our asparagus growing fast.

 

 

The stalks were growing inches each day.

 

 

We have had several meals of tender sweet grilled asparagus.

 

 

Now we are getting mammoth stalks - the coin between the purple and green stalks is a quarter!

 

 

To verify size to you, this is an extra large egg between the stalks.  The purple stalk next to the egg literally split open as it grew.  It will be interesting to see how these gargantuan asparagus taste.  They will be hitting the grill tomorrow night, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt.

 

 

About how we grow our asparagus - we let the plants go to seed the first two years so the tops could help feed the roots.  Now we are reaping the reward!  Our asparagus is planted in raised beds that are 5 feet by 5 feet.  In the middle of these raised bed are our fruit trees - one per bed, with the asparagus planted around the sides.  We remember asparagus growing wild in the apple orchards and along the ditch banks when we were growing up.  So we wanted to give our plants the same type of location.  We planted the roots in good organic compost and used an organic cold climate fertilizer. 

Sure hope they do this again next year!

 

They flew the coop....

 

Yesterday Mildred was literally right outside my kitchen window.  I was standing at the sink and could have reached out to grab her if it weren't for the glass.  I knew she was trying to coax the little one out of the basket.  You can see it just sitting there snugly on the right side.

 

 

 

Early this morning, before the sun was up over the buttes, Mildred and Harvey got their little one to leave the nest.  We were up making coffee and noticed the baby was gone.  And when I went out in the garden, I scared the little guy who was hiding behind a raised bed.  Doesn't it blend in well?

 

It is really still so small.  I am going to have to watch Chucky and keep him out of the garden area for a few days until the chick gets brave enough to fly up to safety.  And I need to remove the egg that is left in the nest - for some reason one did not hatch.  This is the first time she has only had one baby to care for.  Perhaps that is why she was in a hurry to get it up and out.  She must be ready to start the next batch.  Both she and Harvey have been checking out other hanging baskets all around the house.  I need to take them down and clean them to get ready to plant soon and that way she will just have to use her usual nest.  It will be interesting to see when she nests again and how many eggs she lays this time around.  It was March 19th when she started setting, so just a couple days shy of a month to when she decided to empty her nest.  Amazing!!  Very prolific and very fast for such a large bird to fledge.

 

 

 

Out my window - a baby dove -

Yes, Mildred has hatched one egg in her first round this spring.  There were two eggs in the nest but only one has hatched.  We don't know if the other wasn't fertile or if she lost it.  We did have an episode where she got scared off the nest in the dark when Tramp 1 was at the faucet filling a water bowl for Chucky and maybe the egg rolled out and is in the bushes below their basket.

 

Today I found both parents in the nest at the same time.

 

 

They seemed like it was shift change - they take turns caring for the new baby.

 

 

But they both left the nest together and I got to see their new chick.  It really blends in with the new color we had the house painted last summer.

 

 

It is amazing how quickly the baby doves grow.  This one will probably be out of the nest in a week.  The young doves seem to stay nearby for months, even while Mildred is busy raising another clutch.

 

As much as we enjoy watching the doves, I can't help but think how nice it would be to be able to plant that basket this season.  But we don't have the heart to take it down and force her to relocate.  The cycle of life she shares with us at very close range is just too enjoyable to trade for flowers!

 



Eggscellent!!!

 

After almost a week of daily inspections and departures, Mildred the Mourning Dove seems to have decided her nest from the last several years is good enough for another round of babies.  She started sitting today and never left the nest all day. 

 

But early this evening she disappeared and we took advantage of her absence to check the nest.  Sure enough, she had laid an egg.  The first of how many?  Usually there are two eggs but last year she surprised us by laying three in one of her clutches.  Such fun to have her back outside the kitchen window!  Who cares if the flower basket looks kind of scraggly.  She and I have formed a bond - she trusts me and I respect her space.  It should be an interesting spring and summer! 

 



Time to Garden -

Our crazy warm weather just continues on, so it is time to get some seeds out and germinating in the garden.  Some will need to be started indoors and moved out later.  To do any of this, I needed to get a bit more organized.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and went with it.

 

 

 

This is a plastic suitcase sort of thing made for photo storage - I got it at Joann's.  It has 16 separate boxes in it.  It is perfect for seed packet storage.  I had all my seeds in a big tote and always had to dig through gardening gear to find them.

 

 

Now my seed packets are neatly organized by type of plant.  It is so much easier to find them and I can carry the case into the house or out on the deck and easily find the seeds I want to plant.  Good seeds are an investment and need to be protected from weather and heat.  I can tuck my seed case into a cool closet when not in use.   I just need to remember where I put them!!!

 

How do you like to store your seeds?  



Because of you....

Because of you many diligent gardening bloggers, I find myself headed back out to the garden this season.  After this last hot, dry summer and fall, I really thought about cutting back and just growing flowers - easy, carefree flowers.  But I started all this with the brotherhood of gardeners, most of whom I have never met and I will continue in that same spirit.  Please grab a another cup of coffee and visit a few of the inspirational blogs that have shaped how we garden.

Sue's Garden Journal

This gal knows what she is doing and she does it well.  That might be because she is crazed!!!  I know this first hand because she and her hubby came all the way out west and visited us one fall!

My Freezer is Full

Judy has grown gardens in a couple of different locations.  She has always openly shared her successes and losses, so I don't feel too bad when I fail at something.  Early on I won a drawing in her blog and she sent me a couple of magnetized garden planning tablets.  I am still using them and think of her often with gratitude.

Powell River Books and Margy Meanders

Margy is a true gardener.  She loves to grow things.  While her space is unique and small, she always finds fun ways to garden - truly a bloom where you are planted story.

Throwback at Trapper's Creek

This kind of gardening is on a much larger scale than I will ever deal with.  But I find that it somehow fills my gardening soul reading about their efforts to be a sustainable farm.  Truly a lifetime endeavor of the heart.

A Home Grown Journal

What can I say - is there anyone that doesn't know and love dear Mama Pea?  She exudes a calmness and a long time gardening base of knowledge.  She also is a very good cook and sometimes shares her great recipes - like raspberry pie!


With every gardener there is a quest for more knowledge and peeping into what others are doing.  So a few of the newer to me blogs are -

As Long As You Have A Garden

This blogger lives in British Columbia and gardens in a maritime climate.  Yes, kind of far away from our high desert home but I like to dream....

Two Men and A Little Farm

These guys are in the process of creating a farm.  Always a good read, inspirational and cheerful.  They had a give away a couple years ago and I won a great book - Reader's Digest Slugs, Pests and Diseases - so helpful with lots of good pictured to identify problems.


Yes, there are many more blogs I could share with you - but it is 55 degrees here and it is after ten o'clock.  I need to get out in the garden and make a to do list.  Actually - make that maybe four to do lists - his and mine, now and later.  With this kind of weather, it is really hard to stay grounded and stick to the necessary tasks and not get all caught up in starting to plant too early.  We are having June weather in March - and it surely will not last, so gardener beware!!

What's happening with your gardening dreams?  Who inspires you?

Back at it....

Oh, yes, spring is on the way.  You can set your clock by her - Mildred, that is.  Yes, Mildred the mourning dove made a visit to the hanging pot that she has nested in the last three years.

 

On Monday I saw a dove sitting on the fence.  It sat there for several hours, which is out of character for our doves around here.  I thought it might be Mildred scoping things out.  And yes, it must have been her.  This morning when I was getting a second cup of coffee, I glanced out the kitchen window and there was Mildred, checking out how her preferred nesting site.  Last year I vacillated about letting her nest there again but this year there is no question about it - the hanging home is hers - the law of imminent domain surely applies here!  It will be fun to see how many clutches she hatches this season.

 

Yesterday I made a trip to town.  There is always so much to see this time of year.  The cows have been calving for over a month now.  New little calves are popping up in all the fields.  The unusually good weather we are experiencing surely has to be good for their survival and growth.

 



These are a couple of my favorite critters to pass by on my way home from town.  I don't know as though the bull really wants this fellow for a friend, but that's the way it is.  They are enjoying the milder weather, too.

I don't want to leave out the wild side of things.  A herd of mule deer were crossing the road not far from home.  I stopped the car to watch them.  Only got a picture of them on the retreat.  With green up starting early, they are able to range around looking for good eats - like some one's garden where plants are budding up way too early!

This crazy warm weather has me wanting to garden.  Funny - after last year I was ready to throw in the towel and just do flowers - easy ones.  But after a walk around the raised beds in the sun, I seem to have had a change of heart.  I even purchased some pea and bean seeds yesterday.  I know, pretty darned wild!  And I am visualizing some changes to the garden space - adding a few fruit trees and moving the garden kennel that we grow the upside down tomatoes in to a different location.  Also moving the composting area and putting in a seasonal water line and spigot to cut down on the need to drag a hose so far.  Yes, optimism!!!

And yes, I do feel guilty - every single day - knowing how so many of you are still buried in snow or ice.  In return, I want all of you to think of me every day when fire season is raging here after such a dry winter.  Trade offs, always trade offs!