From faithful garden correspondent Scout211:
I am sending some pics from Northern California to brighten up some Balloon Juicers’ winter blues out there in the cold and snowy areas of the East and Midwest.
The first pics are in my raised bed veggie garden, which right now only has strawberry starts (pic 1) and early rhubarb (pic 2). Not pictured are my blueberry bushes in one raised bed. They are still wintering, for the most part.
Our apricot tree is now in bloom, as is the plum tree [pic at top of post].
We had one weekend of heavy rain this February that produced lots of green grasses (and weeds) and jump-started the wildflowers. The Blue Dicks are the first wildflowers we usually see and here is a pic of a little group of them.
I have 8 tomato plants that I have already replanted into larger pots (pic 6) from starts that I bought at the nursery. I wheel them into the sun during the day and back into the heated garage overnight. We still have some evening temps in the upper 30’s but usually the days are in the 60’s to 70’s. This year I have 4 Ace, 2 Celebrity, 1 Brandywine and 1 Royal Flush.
The last pic is of a few of our chickens. We lost 4 last week to coyotes, but we still have 8 hens and 1 rooster. The Mister will be ordering new chicks soon so we will have some new layers by fall.
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I’ve been remiss — distracted by the endless snows here — and need to put together my shopping list for mail-order tomatoes before my favorite sites sell out!
What’s going on in your garden (or garden planning) this week?
NotMax
Damned grass is shin high. Again.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Damned snow is shin high. Again.
OzarkHillbilly
And yeah, I know, Anne has to climb up to see over her snow, so I really shouldn’t complain around this place, which is why I’m not. It was actually a nice pleasant 6″ snow fall. Of course, the snow, sleet, and freezing drizzle we are supposed to get today is gonna suck. February… In like a lamb, out like a lion. Here’s hoping March does it right.
HeartlandLiberal
Enjoying your pictures here in South Central Indiana, where, upon peeking out the blinds from the bedroom door at 5:30 I was greeted by a fresh four full inches or more of cold, fluffy, white stuff that had fallen over night.
Given that I find myself in the grip of the flu at the moment, I have crawled back in be, and plan to stay here the rest of the day and ignore the outside world.
FWIW, my concern for your part of the world in the western USA is, what the heck are you going to do for water? The latest climate projections by real scientists, not politicians who claim not to be scientists, suggests that the western third of the country is entering the rest of this century facing a probable 1,000 year drought of economy and culture destroying dimensions. The effects and super low ground moisture levels are expected to extend east all the way to the Mississippi River.
I will make one prediction. When it becomes clear that reality can no longer be resisted, the GOP / Republican party, will suddenly add a new plank to their platform. They will attack the Democrats because they did not warn the American people loudly enough about this looming threat, and claim that for that reason Democrats should not be allowed to run the government. And, the American People being the ignorant Sheeple that they are, they will buy this argument, and welcome their saviors, the GOP.
That is how low into Anti-intellectualism and Know-Nothingism our political discourse has sunk.
Tommy
Snow, snow, we got out first “real” snow of the year. Here in southern Illinois it has been one of the coldest winters in recent memory. Last week we had lows of 1, 7, and 10. A month or so ago it got to -32 with the windchill.
Don’t get me wrong I am not a huge fan of snow. I bet in a day or so I will be cursing the 8 or so inches we got yesterday.
But I figure if I have to endure the temps I outlined above, it would be nice to have at least one snowfall where I can look outside, go for a walk, and say to myself …. well that is kind of beautiful!
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: Just yesterday I was saying to my wife, “If it is going to be cold and miserable, at least let it be white.”
Mary G
We had a nice rain squall earlier. Hope we get some more. I made sure the prediction would come true by watering, of course.
Beautiful garden and chickens, Scout211!
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
The Republican voter motto!
HeartlandLiberal
Well, I posted about snow here in Indiana, and drought in this century coming to western USA. I know I submitted comment, because when is did not appear, I tried again, and got duplicate comment warning. But now 15 minutes later, it is still not appearing.
Hal
I haven’t had water in 12 days. Main line to the house is frozen, along with at least 100+ other houses in my town. It’s amazing how you take for granted simple little things like easily making a cup of tea, washing clothes, or just washing your hands after handling something dirty or greasy. Let alone using the bathroom. That’s been a fun experience. We are supposed to have some above freezing temps this week so hopefully there is enough melting/thawing to have water again.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: HA!
Baud
@Hal:
Damn, that sucks.
OzarkHillbilly
@Hal: Oooof. Where are you?
satby
@Hal: That’s terrible! Out here in Michigassippi no water is usually because we have no power, which can last for days after a bad ice storm. No power, no pump, no water.
Hope the line thaws soon for you!
JPL
The pictures are wonderful and indicate that spring is just around the corner.
I look at first draft on NY Times to see who will host McCain this week and it appears that once again, he has been ignored. I did see this though.
Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, will appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation” to explain what went wrong. Representatives Kevin McCarthy of California, the majority leader, and Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority whip, will do the same on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and “Fox News Sunday,” respectively.
The media doesn’t even pretend to be balanced anymore.
JPL
@Hal: Hopefully you have water soon.
satby
This may be my last garden year, it’s been a hard year financially and unless things improve soon I’m going to lose the house. But if I go, it’ll be in a flowery bang: I’m planting all my saved flower seeds into a new flower bed and the four old ones. Was just deciding if I should start my petunia seeds today or wait another week.
Maggie update: she improved a bit, but is still not well, so the vet did blood tests on Friday. Starting to looking like it may be diabetes or renal failure.
Baud
If Kay is lurking, this is in WaPo.
Baud
@satby:
I hope things get better for you this year.
currants
Oh, my blueberry bushes! I can walk on top of them–and on top of my garden fence, the snow is so deep. There aren’t even bumps where they were. (My 75-plant strawberry barrel still makes about a 12″ lump, though that’s the snow on top of it, not the barrel itself.)
So I’m making snowade out of snow. I made half an igloo (the bottom half, with an arch over the entrance–was not so certain of my engineering skills for the top half once I got going) and two sledding runs for my granddaughters. Since one of the runs is short but very fast, and because only the top half of the fence down at the pond was exposed (aka it was too much digging to get the fence open) so I started building a ramp up and over yesterday. Will finish that this morning and get it solidly in place with tonight’s new snow.
The older granddaughter is madly, screamingly in love with it as only a 2 y o could be.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Rough. Don’t know what I would do without this place. Hope things improve soon.
currants
(But will probably start tomatoes, peppers and eggplants this week. Am a little late this year, but with this snow…so what?)
satby
@Baud: @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks. It is what it is. I still have 10 animals that would need to be rehomed and that’s the biggest problem. But I continue to look for other jobs; you’d think 2 online stores and a regular job might somehow make it all come out though, wouldn’t you?
ThresherK
I was given an indoors herb garden kit. It doesn’t grow in the shape of any animal or licenced figure, but it is from the Chia-pet company.
Getting more light, getting a bit tired of winter. Time to follow the directions and see what kind of basil is in there. And if our cats are interested in nibbling herb sprouts.
satby
OT: I just found out the “Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is opening Friday!!! OMIGOD I loved that movie!
NotMax
Big thunderclaps from storms overhead. Whole house a-shimmying each time.
Tommy
Got a couple questions for you smart folks.
Last week, and my cat NEVER sleeps on the stairs, at about 3 AM I woke up and went to get a glass of water. Coming down the stairs I took a step, heard a cat scream at the top of her lungs, tried to avoid her and skip a step, face planted it and broke my nose and very minor factor of my cheek bone.
Well yesterday went out looking at motion detector lights. Got one for the stairs, but also saw some wireless (NOT Bluetooth) lights that I thought would work well in a few other rooms.
Problem is they take batteries (lots of them BTW). The light switch sticks to the wall (cheesy). And frankly they were $20-$35 each, which isn’t what I’d call “cheap.”
Been playing with an ilumi Bluetooth lightbulb. Love the blub, HATE the app.
I know I will be moving to Bluetooth lighting in my main rooms (home office, kitchen, bedroom) sometime in the future. Then to more automation of heating if that goes well. But seems like the lighting time is now, so I plan to take back what I bought yesterday.
I’ve talked with a few folks here, more as an aside about this, but thought there might be others or “lurkers” that were once where I am now and put something in place they are happy with.
I guess my main question is what company? On Lifehacker/io9 last week they had, via Home Depot, an intro Wink Bluetooth lighting kit. Two blubs and the hub. $79.99. That seemed fair, since I paid that for the single ilumi. Wink seems to do it all, but the WoMo seems superior.
I don’t know, just somewhat early AM on a Sunday and figured there would be a few people here that knew a lot more about this than myself, so I thought I’d ask.
Eric NNy
The seeds have arrived but the garden is still under 4 feet of snow. Tapping the maples today. Hoping the bees haven’t starved.
JPL
@Tommy: wow.. It sounds like you were lucky that there were not additional injuries.
Mike E
@currants: Miss E was 4 when our 100 year 20″ event took place (that was right after our 500 year flood event, Floyd) and I never sledded so much in my life, before or since…the desert is starting to look good to me right about now.
Betty Cracker
Those are some lovely chickens. Barred Rocks and a Buff Orpington? Pity about the coyote.
We had an weird chicken incident Friday night. We’d let our seven hens out of the coop to free range about an hour before sunset. We do this just about every night, and they go back into the hen house to roost of their own accord when the sun goes down.
Anyhoo, the mister and I were distracted in another part of the yard, and the wind blew the coop door shut before sunset without us noticing. When it was fully dark, I went back there to shut and lock the door and noticed it was already closed.
Only one chicken was inside. Another must have heard me open the coop door, because she came staggering up as if sleepwalking, making a weird, whiny noise. I shooed her into the hen house.
We had to go find the other five, who had hidden themselves in various spots, and shoo them into the hen house too. Three had wedged themselves between the air conditioning unit and the wall, and we had to get a long stick to drive them out.
I can see where roosting chickens would be easy pickings for predators. They seemed half asleep and slow, as if they were drunk or stoned.
currants
@Mike E: My elder is Miss E too! I’m not QUITE at that point, mostly because I’ve been working non-stop since Dec and finally have a break and really only have had FUN in all this snow for the last 3 days (the building-igloo/luge runs were built during short outdoor breaks). I’m sure that by the end of March I’ll be tired of it (sooner if the snow storms start turning all to ice storms and occur as frequently…).
gelfling545
@Tommy: But you don’t have to shovel low temperatures. And here in Buffalo, where the snow removal strategy is “The Lord giveth & the Lord taketh away.” driving anywhere is generally more trouble than it’s worth except, of course people have to drive places & we’ve suddenly acquired a lot of ad hoc one way streets.
Tommy
@JPL: Yeah I was very lucky. Also a concussion. Best I can tell I might have been out for a few minutes because of the pool of blood. Never been punched in the nose before, who knew it could bleed so much (I sure didn’t). I don’t recall much of what happened afterwards, other than waking up in the morning (in my bed, not on the landing) with blood everywhere and I was like WTF. Went to the ER (THANKS Obamacare BTW). And again, as you said VERY lucky.
Tommy
@gelfling545: Oh I hear that. I just walked two blocks to my local 7/11 type store to get some milk. All these people are having coffee, sitting at a few tables reading the Sunday paper.
Bitching about the snow (they are ALL in trucks BTW). I think I might have said, “well it could be Boston.” I don’t think they got the point I was trying to make.
Scout211
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, Barred Rock and Buff Orpington. But most of the hens and the one rooster in the pic are Appenzellers. They are similar to Hamburgs.
debbie
I’d settle just to have that blue sky overhead.
satby
@Scout211: BTW, beautiful pics! I’m hoping my nectarines tree blooms for the first time this year, it’ll be it’s second spring here but last spring I had it in a tree tube to protect it from the starving deer. If it bloomed a bit then I missed it.
Hal
@OzarkHillbilly: right outside of Buffalo. Same thing happened last year. On the bright side I learned the whores bath.
Tommy
@Scout211: I am so darn jealous of those with chickens. Technically I live in an unincorporated part of town. The lady behind me is a hippie liberal like myself. We LOVE eggs. I could eat eggs every meal for maybe a year and not grow tired of them. Maybe not a year :). She is the same.
When I bought my house there was this pretty large metal shed falling down. I torn it down, but it was built on a wood foundation. I never tore that up. I think, from my basic research, it would be about the exact size for a chicken coup. In a few hours I could be read for a chicken coup to be delivered!
My yard isn’t fenced in, hers is. Not huge, but not small either. I’d have the coup in my yard, they could range in hers ….
We’ve talked about it. Priced it out. Went to City Council meetings but we can’t get a straight answer to if us having chickens is legal.* I am 95% sure they couldn’t stop me, but I got no desire to get into a “pissing match” with the city. Again I know I’d win if it came to that, but I don’t like to fight.
Mental note: talk to her this week and suggest we again push more to get something in writing it is legal for us to do this.
*Funny, city by-laws says you can only own three dogs in a residence ….. says nothing about chickens.
OzarkHillbilly
@Hal: Damn. You would think the water company would know the depth of the frostline. Whad’ya wanna bet they try to charge you for the full month.
Poopyman
Twenty five degrees and raining here in Southern MD. A little leery of taking the pickup out on the ice rink, but there are chores that need to be done.
@Tommy: A real downside to living alone. If you were 20 years older there’s a good chance you wouldn’t have woken up.
debbie
@satby:
I sure hope you’re wrong, but don’t ever give up. I was unemployed for a year and a half and I had a whole lot less to lose than you. I finally managed to find a job, and while it’s nothing I’d ever have picked for myself, it’s buying me time, hopefully, to find something I would want.
Scout211
@Tommy:
My advice: just don’t get a rooster. Even though the flock is more protected from predators with a rooster, they are REALLY LOUD and the noise will annoy your neighbors. And annoyed neighbors will be the ones who call code enforcement to complain.
Also: once you start getting eggs regularly, start using what the Mister calls “egg diplomacy.” Give eggs to your neighbors every once in awhile to sweeten their opinions of your chickens.
Good luck!
PurpleGirl
@Tommy: Don’t know about that stuff but I had a motion detector light switch put in in-place of the regular switch in my hallway by the apartment door.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy:
Then, technically, they have nothing to say about it. Really, either you are in town or you aren’t. I don’t care if the city limits come right to the border of your property,they can’t say a word about it and if they do they don’t have a legal leg to stand on.
Scout211
@satby:
Thanks!
Out here, the deer problem comes in the summer and fall. The grasses are plentiful right now so the deer won’t bother the trees. But by late summer, all the grasses are dry and brown. The deer start eating everything they can reach at that point. And that means the bottom layerS of tree leaves on all of our fruit trees.
Tommy
@Poopyman: You are correct, very correct.
I don’t get melodramatic often. But I do live alone. I have thought maybe a foot this way my head might have hit the door knob (it was close). I have left the blood stained carpet in place. I totally downplayed what happened to my parents afterwards. Didn’t want them to worry. They were over for my nieces 6th birthday yesterday and they were like WTF dude. That is a lot of blood.
I am like yes it is, didn’t want you to worry. But leaving it there as a reminder.
I am 45 but I feel like I am 25. I don’t so much walk down my stairs as run/hop down them. Fit and trim. Agile. But this happened.
But not sure if anybody, if I couldn’t get up, would have come looking for me for 2, 3, maybe more days.
I have friends, family, clients. But also fiercely independent. If they don’t hear from me daily that isn’t strange. We don’t talk daily and nobody checks in on me, why would they? As much as I hate to think/say this, I could have seen myself lie dead on that floor for a few days before anybody got worried.
MazeDancer
@Scout211:
Wonderful pictures! It’s not just the lack of 4 feet of snow on the ground that is giving me such homestead envy. Those raised beds, the chickens, the blossoms are all just lovely.
@satby: Hope something good works out for you. Maybe roommates with lots of pets who can’t find a place? You do so much for animals, good luck ought to come find you.
satby
@debbie: @MazeDancer: Thanks to you both! I do have a job, one that I fell into and love: helping place and support people with disabilities into jobs, coaching them to successfully keep the jobs, and finding new job sites to hire them, even on a temp basis to get their foot in the door. But it’s social service so low wage, and only about 20 hours a week consistently because client load varies (next two weeks will be 40 hours though). I hate to give this job up, but I’m falling further behind every month. Haven’t had a working furnace for the last month of cold temps, I do have space heaters so we’re warm enough but the electric bill this coming month will be a killer. So I’m looking….
Or maybe the universe is trying to tell me I need to really change things up a LOT!
Violet
@Tommy: Sorry to hear about your fall. That’s scary. I fell in the shower like an old person and hurt my hip/lower back and it has changed my life and not for the better. Take care of yourself and get checked out, maybe more than once. Problems can linger.
J R in WV
Still in recovery from shoulder replacement surgery last Thursday a week, 10 days ago. Doing very well, not much pain, pills working well. But last night when I laid down to go to sleep, in just a couple of minutes my hand was cramping and my arm throbbing.
So I got up and read/surfed and in 20 or 30 minutes things were ok. I waited until I could take a second pain pill around 3 and went to bed again, worked fine the second time. Not complaining, just reporting. Very well regarded surgeon who apparently did a good job. Now my other shoulder is the bad one, though the right arm is very weak until I get into rehab.
Cold rain here today, foot of snow slowly melting, letting water run to keep it from freezing. The pump didn’t push itself off the bottom of the well as it does often when the water freezes off. The frozen pipe thawed after a couple of days and I have left it running ever since, probably 8 days now.
Stella B
It’s nice to know that I’m not the only person whose tomatoes get a daily field trip to the outdoors. I was too lazy to clean off the workbench and set up the grow light this year. Currently, they are sitting sheltered under the eaves, watching the rain.
kindness
Central Valley, N Cal- our peach trees have mostly blossomed. Cherries not yet but almost there. Same with apricots. Almonds are almost finished blossoming. Almond farmers(they like to call themselves ranchers really) got lucky it didn’t rain through blossom season although it did get wet last weekend. Haven’t put in a ground crop yet. Water’ll be tight this year so I have to think that one through a bit more before I do it.
Tree With Water
“We lost 4 last week to coyotes, but we still have 8 hens and 1 rooster. The Mister will be ordering new chicks soon so we will have some new layers by fall”.
You should get a sheep dog to go with the coyote, and a time clock where the two can exchange greetings when punching in-and-out of work each day.
opiejeanne
Beautiful garden pictures. I envy you your chickens.
In Western Washington we were told last week that we could start planting our gardens but to remember to water them. For the Seattle area that just sounds wrong.
Montarvillois
How goes the bee population in your area?
keestadoll
@Scout211: Those big tomato plants have me panicking here. I’m up in Humboldt and I’ve only begun planting some brassicas this week. I wasn’t even thinking of starting tomato seedlings until April since they usually aren’t ready for harvest until well into September. Have I missed a late-breaking Farmer’s Almanac?
Scout211
@keestadoll:
I’m in the Central Valley so we are warmer here than in your area. We usually plant tomatoes by the end of March. We usually harvest from July through October.