some posts while i was gone

Blog post for april 5 08

I am,

Without internet

It is a long story, but hopefully in 5-10 days I will be again with internet
I will be on dsl.

So I am typing this in word……which keeps capitalizing things for me.
I just type and it inserts capitals!

Now while I am waiting for internet, I am planning on moving my seedlings on to larger quarters, hardening some off, adding more little starter pots ( mainly cottage garden flowers now)

As you all know if you saw my previous post with the pictures of the 3 week old seedlings, I have a green thumb.
And I got a bit heavy handed with the bachelor buttons, as well as the columbines, but hey, I CAN tuck a plant here and there if I need to……. After I plant the main cottage garden bed
Or I can nursery them over on the deck
OR I can even sell some if need be

I so wish for a greenhouse
And a cold frame hoop house

I discovered little finches eating my freshly sown lettuce and mache seeds…..one of the down sides of having bird feeders up and full of seed

Now back to the vegetable garden in the making,
As I repot the tomatoes into larger containers, I bury them deeper…..and put them into the windows.

There is no longer room under my lights I use to start the seeds and grow the seedlings with.
Very soon EVERY window will be crammed full of pots of tomatoes, cabbages, hollyhocks, marigolds, peppers and leeks………….
Very soon I will be rigging my sort of greenhouse/cold frame hardening off thing out on the deck
I use saw horses and narrow poles to drape plastic drop clothes on…..and nightly bring in the more tender plants

I had hoped for a hoop house and cold frame this spring so all the work and fuss of doing the sifting of the plants wouldn’t be happening but that is life

And I have finally come to a decision of what to plant on the fence that is a problem……..STINGING NETTLE….. an extremely useful plant
Although it is also an extremely defensive plant as well.
I could use the nettle, it’s excellent as a pot herb as well as a wash for hair and skin
It will make good fodder for the poultry well wilted.
And the attraction against the fence is that any one stupid enough to trespass where it grows will get stung and a nasty rash………no trespassing……no rash it is as simple as that, yet it is a very nutritious green….. so nettle it is

On to other news
Calpurrnia was sick again……. 24 hours of vomiting. I used that probotic paste last night on her that the vet gave us last time, and sure enough no vomiting over night….none so far today.
I made her ‘fancy feast’ soup. Which is exactly what it sounds like… a smallish quantity of fancy feast in a larger quantity of water, warm……….
It is good to keep them hydrated when they are like this.
The vet and I can not figure out what this is exactly but they seem to be susceptible to it when the seasons change.
Thaddeaus remains furred! We are so unused to seeing him with a full coat on…..he reminds me of those weird Victorian supernatural people that look all wooly like sheep…..
So far he is still relatively short haired, but it looks like it will grow in long, and it is very very CURLY fur…….
Ah…….. what a laperm should be…..

Now one last thing, today ( actually tonight at I think 11pm) is new moon….
And a good time to plant things that grow under the ground such as onions and potatoes, beets, turnips, parsnips, and carrots.
It’s been dampish and raining off and on…… very good for the peas I planted the other day, as well as any of the lettuce or other greens that the finches may have left to me

I still need to get the spinach in…the first sowing didn’t take for whatever the reason.

I think in two weeks I will be getting three more large barrels for the deck….. and get the small planters and such out of there, cleaned up and replanted with rosemary, lemon grass, vanilla grass, and maybe another patchouli, ( I miss my patchouli) I also have a packet of cat grass seeds so I will plant that.

The cat NIP bucket is alive….i checked the other day, the cat nip is coming up, and I need to remember to move it on and divide it, as this year is a year for drying herbs.
A LOT of herbs
I have four or five sages to set out, which I like to dry whole leaves from, and also make kitchen wreaths. ( Trish you really should have stayed with us longer….you would have loved some of this stuff I do)

Well that is more or less the state of my herb garden, my life, and my furry family at the moment. BTW, bernie’s birthday is Tuesday. I doubt I will be on the net by then but you never know.

I will tell you all, I miss the internet, I miss my friends, I miss the unlimited wealth of knowledge that is found there at the stroke of a key.
And while I am not too fond of modern life. The internet I have to say…..even with it’s faults, makes it all worthwhile

Til next time

vi



April 6, 2008
We have a little visitor………..

Life is such an amazing experience.
And it is brutal in it’s down from our point of view.
This morning, Bernie came down to find a tiny baby squirrel dead on the front lawn. From the looks of him, it looks like he fell out of the tree looking for his momma, as he is a bit too little to be out of the nest.
I went out to see if the little guy was indeed dead.
He was
I turned him over, to see if there were puncture wounds or something……. Nope
And he was stiff. ( and a boy too)

While I was out there I heard a racket up in the tree above….. in the squirrel nests that has been there as long as I think we’ve lived here.

An even tinier baby was trying to come down the tree.
I was a wreck watching this baby, sure at any moment he would slip and fall to his death as well…..
He came down the tree
He climbed back up part way.
It was a lot of effort for a little guy like him
He rested a while and started back down.
I called Bernie out

When the baby got to the bottom of the tree he went around to the back and sat there for a few moments.

I called him to come to me as I was so worried about him
No parents around
The baby started to wobble over to me
And climbed my pants leg
Looking for food
I sent Bernie for a towel and the baby gratefully burrowed into it
We fed him he was starving
We got to the pet store for milk replacer
We kept feeding him
We warmed him up
He is very thin but he is a fighter, he’s now out in his little birdcage with his warm towel to burrow in.
I go and feed him often
He likes the heavy cream much better then the milk replacer mix
( goats are like that too…..can’t say I blame them huh?)

I hope he makes it
I think he’s about 6 weeks….
Marilyn went on line for me, ( as we have no internet until the dsl thing comes)
And from what I told her………… we figured 6-8 weeks…. As his eyes are open and his tail isn’t a rat tail…it’s starting to bush out.
But he is definitely tiny and not eating on his own yet……
He maybe will think of a seed but believe me….he’s looking for a teat most of the time

Meanwhile, it is bernie’s birthday observed.
As Tuesday is his real birthday, we are observing it today sort of
The celebration food got side tracked while I was feeding the baby
And Bernie is such a guy that he ran up to the pet store and spent $20.00 that we could NOT afford for the replacer milk

I am still laughing about that baby coming right over to me and climbing my leg

If my folks could talk to you all right now…..they would say
“of COURSE the baby climbed HER leg…….every sick, homeless or hurt animal for 100 miles finds their way to her door….’

( mom said that about Bernie too when I was going out with him……’ the dogs are getting bigger….this one is over 6’ tall’)

but this little baby was determined…….. my leg was going to bring him to a place where he was warm, fed, and safe………and so it did huh?

Wish this little one luck please…… I hope he grows big and strong….and becomes a happy and WILD squirrel out back

Vi

Updated, we lost the little guy which broke my heart


April 13 2008

Ducks, ducks everywhere.

Serafina the sly little duck……….. has hidden her nest

I had been asking Bernie if he could see eggs in the duck house….
Nope

I sort of poked around….nope

Well the other day, I found the nest…….
A gagillion eggs in there too!

Damn duck

I went into the pen Friday morning, with food for the ducks, water and my egg gathering basket.

I went around the back of the duck house where I had found that nest full of eggs…….
Serafina peeked around the side of the duck house…..she looked up at me
She looked down at her nest
She looked back up at me

I went out with an empty basket
BUT
I told that duck……….

She can’t KEEP them after they hatch…… in a 9 X 19 pen…… two ducks are more then enough

Oh man

We are going to be over freeken run with ducks

She is a sly little duck

vi