I woke up at 4:30am with a headache, heard definite peeping from the other bedroom where the incubator is, and found this little guinea fowl keet:
2020-06-13 log
Video call this morning. Then I had big problems with executive function, focus, and energy all day. I actually fell asleep on the floor for an hour after eating lunch. Here’s what I did accomplish:
- Mowed the lawn
- Staked bent over asparagus and monarda
- Tidied up the Victorian trenches
- Pruned back the fig limbs that are not leafed out yet
- Miscellaneous weeding and trimming
Six on Saturday
1. Dahlia ‘Red Fubuki’ preparing to bloom
2. Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’
I got this plant from Big Bloomers Flower Farm last summer and she is blooming for the first time.
3. Cocoa Chicken and Cinnamon Chicken
Cocoa Chicken and Cinnamon Chicken hung out under the hazel tree on Squash Mountain while I repaired the fence around the asparagus.
4. Beans
I cleaned out my cupboard a couple of weeks ago. Now I have lots of beans coming up near the compost pile.
5. Hemerocallis ?
This was planted by a previous inhabitant. I’m not sure what it is.
6. HATCH PROGRESS
I am told this guinea fowl egg has now externally pipped and hatching is now in progress. I had planned to lockdown the incubator tomorrow, but had to do so tonight. I hope that opening it to add more water did not hurt this little one’s progress. I heard PEEPING when I was filling the water channels!!
Six on Saturday is hosted by The Propagator. Visit this link to see all this week’s participants.
2020-06-12 log
- Staked the last two tomato plants
- First pruning of indeterminate tomato suckers
- Training cucumbers and gherkins up instead of out
- Cut flower/seed heads off burdock
- Cleaned up around burn pile
- Weeded
- Ate two freshly picked strawberries
- Severely lopped back Artemisia absinthium, which is starting to get on my nerves, growing two feet a day and flopping over
- I swear to god I saw one of my guinea eggs MOVE. Eeeeee…
- Staked some milkweed and asparagus that flopped over in last night’s heavy rain.
- Saw about five Japanese beetles and this guy…
- Enjoyed the scent of…
Daily log, 2020-06-09
Another remote hangout after work.
Did some weeding and Cynodon dactylon eradication around the mulch pile.
My first magnolia blossom, finally!
There are at least two more buds on this small tree.
Still not seeing the expected hordes of Japanese beetles. Dare I hope my milky spore application years ago is finally paying off? Probably not.
Ok, gotta run to bed…
Daily log, 2020-06-08
I had a Zoom call with a friend after work and then an acquaintance came to see my place and pick up some tomato seedlings I thought had succumbed to a fungus, but which bounced back.
So I did not do any real tasks in the yard.
I spotted the first Japanese beetle of the season on the cannas, though. I failed to catch it, but later caught another one and fed it to Piper the guinea hen.
I was a bit late getting the guineas cooped due to having a guest, and Zipper and Chestnut took forever to come inside. Then Zipper stood on the poop board and dropped an egg at exactly 21:00. Sorry for crappy photo, but with one hand, I was pointing the flashlight I was using to facilitate roosting. The solar light wouldn’t come on last night and seems to be getting increasingly flaky, so I need to replace it.
Six from Saturday
1. Goats at work
I moved the goats into the overgrown front paddock in the morning. Contrary to popular belief, goats are actually quite picky about what they eat and when. Usually they will not touch Microstegium vimineum (Japanese stiltgrass), but they went to town on it today.
At this point, this paddock area is basically unused and out of control except for me occasionally rotating the goats into it.
2. Magnolia grandiflora ‘Little Gem’
To say I’ve been “patiently” waiting for this to flower would be somewhat disingenuous. This is its first spring in the ground here, and, months ago, I thought the new leaf buds were going to be flowers.
3. Black Lives Matter
Sometimes you have to leave the garden.
I admit I got a bit burnt out on protests in protest-happy college towns and small cities a few years back.
It feels different and more important to show up in my current rural small town.
4. Extraction of yellow carpet, part 7,092,584
A previous resident put down or buried all manner of crap, presumably as a weed barrier. It was all invisible when I bought the place. I’ll have to write a separate post about all that, but one of the worst areas is this yellow carpet whose backing has totally disintegrated, leaving a bunch of loose plastic fibers to be removed from under and around all manner of roots. I’ve been slowly working on removing it, and put in a couple more hours today.
5. Lilium (Asiatic) ‘Netty’s Pride’
Or ‘Nettie’s Pride,’ as I sometimes see it. Just pretty.
6. Achillea millefolium (common yarrow) and Cota tinctoria (dyer’s chamomile)
These perennials have complimentary foliage and make a cheerful show when flowering.
The chamomile does get floppy and sprawly, and I meant to make an attempt at better support or trimming this year, but missed that window.
Six on Saturday is hosted by The Propagator and all posts for this week can be found here.
Log
The site going down and, now, my mood and energy tanking have broken my nascent routine of daily log making.
Also I’ve been turning my brain to mush working on complicated code all day every work day, and do not feel like typing or making words in a line in the evenings.
Sunday, 2020-05-31
- Planted out six Aralia racemosa (spikenard) seedlings wintersown this year. Three around old wellhouse and three in the southeast shady corner of the yard around the pussy willow
- Planted out 23 Symphyotrichum oblongifolium (fragrant aster) seedlings wintersown, in one of the new tomato bed quadrants, and in front yard bed
- Planted out 14 Solidago speciosa (showy goldenrod) seedlings wintersown, in front yard bed
- Planted out three Baptisia alba seedlings wintersown, in front yard bed
- Planted out ~30 Sorghastrum nutans ‘Indian Steel’ seedlings wintersown, in/around purple-and-forsythia
Monday, 2020-06-01
- Not a good brain day. Dragged small piles of branches from piles of prunings and a garden stool to the end of the driveway on a garden stool and turned the chaos tangle into new chicken sticks and stakes, while keeping an eye on guineas.
- Back neighbors were setting off super-super-loud fireworks erratically all evening which scared all the animals, left me perpetually on edge, and made the air smell farty. This was basically my mood at the end of Monday:
Tuesday, 2020-06-02
- Got a new, weird goat
- Several guinea hens mysteriously escaped the coop in the middle of the day. My only viable theory is that Lurkey messed with the latch on the coop, allowing the door to briefly blow open. The door was closed and latch turned just enough to keep it shut when I investigated
- Noticed someone mowed the front north edge of the property, even down into the roadside ditch. I was inspired to tidy up the other side of the driveway and got out the scythe. I ended up scything halfway down the front of the goat pasture as well as around my mailbox.
- Planted out five Amorpha fruticosa seedlings wintersown, on outside of front tree border
Wednesday, 2020-06-03
- Guinea egg management in the coop (removing old and filthy eggs, gathering newer eggs to eat, and catching up on marking the remaining eggs. Inkpot came in the coop for a bite to eat and yelled at me.
- Planted out 3.5 Baptisia alba in blackberry bed. One was barely up and probably won’t make it. This involved making plant cages, including one extra.
- Boiled and peeled guinea eggs and put them in a jar of saved pickle brine
- Candled the eggs I’m incubating: ALL EIGHT STILL DEVELOPING!
Thoughts
- Making myself do at least one thing every day is helpful and usually leads to my head clearing a bit and the ability to putter around and do more things
- I really need to draw a map of my place and assign consistent names to all the areas in which I am planting stuff.
Weird cement thing
2020-05-30 log
- Ran a ton of errands
- Did some research to help decide where to plant some things
- Mowed the lawn
- Weeded some areas while keeping an eye on guineas
