The longest month

Good grief; July is lasting forEVer!!! I don't have anything against the month (other than that it's summer); two of my favorite people were born in July, after all. But it does feel like it is taking up more than its fair share of the year.

Then again, I guess that means more homegrown food. As worried as I was that we weren't going to have a garden this year, it is shaping up to be one of our best seasons here. Last night I picked the first snow peas, after thinking they were just beginning to bloom. That has happened with several 'crops,' including English cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers. (It's amazing what you find when you wear you reading glasses to the garden! 🤣)

ONE potato plant has blossoms

No glasses needed for the zucchini; it's producing abundantly enough for us, neighbors, and friends, who are all welcoming the offerings as I am picking them young and tender. Another neighbor let some get away from her, so my chickens benefitted.

Our new 'chicks' are now beautiful young birds that come running to my friend for mealworms. I was planning to bring them home week after next, but got a text from my friend tonight asking if we could move them tomorrow since she has to leave town for a funeral. Okay, then; hopefully introductions will be trauma-free! Here are the last photos Kate sent me on July 12; I'm sure they look much different now. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be seeing that for yourself soon!

Dot

Chippy

Lottie

Kate

Last Sunday I worked on skirting fleeces, finishing all of the five reserved by one repeat customer which leaves only one to do before the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in October. I took photos of the first one I did (Bridget) and the last (Vienna).

I had a new perspective as I did it; I've been asked to judge fleeces in the Shetland show at the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival in September. I do NOT feel qualified but have been talked into it, and while I'm in the area, I'll get to visit relatives that I haven't seen in decades, too.

This year is turning into "The Year of Extended Family," and I love it. Since the funeral/family gathering in Alaska, my cousin who lives in Salem and I have met up three times; we're really enjoying our visits. Now I get to anticipate a visit with my mom's first cousin and his wife in Wisconsin!

That's it for now from . . .

The Perils of Poppy

Yes, two posts in one day; don't panic!

That's because I decided to 'divide and conquer' the topics and photos piling up in my mental and laptop files. Although I could have worked Poppy into the previous post since she has a flower name.... 😉

Poppy leads a busy life. She plays, she hunts, she sleeps, she goes to agility class . . . and I even get photos of some of it!

She loves our bed – with or without company:

She's a good little traveler, and sometimes is rewarded with FUN! On Sunday Rick had to go to the coast on a vet emergency, so Poppy and I rode along. The client had a large mixed breed puppy, and they had a great time playing together (even thought they look like they're fighting 🤣):

Then we went to the beach for a walk:

She wants to get a seagull SO.BAD.

Yesterday while outside, she must have tangled with a bee or wasp, because she came back to the front door looking like Rocky Balboa:

She's almost back to normal now. I suspect she revisited something she killed; the yellowjackets go crazy for flesh this time of year. If I find something right away, I pitch it on top of the woodshed so the vultures (and wasps, I suppose) can clean it up from there. I did that last weekend with three of Poppy's catches. At first I thought she was playing another gopher – until I saw a long, hairless tail. Ugh; a RAT! After I got a closer look at it and the two smaller carcasses I thought were mice, I did some online research. Who knew there were so many species!?! What Poppy killed appeared to be an adult and two young Dusky-Footed Woodrats, which  now makes me kind of sad because these aren't your nasty city rats. Oh well; terriers will be terriers.

That's it for now from . . .

Beauty and bounty

I posted this to Instagram>FB last week:

In spite of a lack of watering (the soaker hose I've used for them has failed), my daylilies are providing some color in the yard.

Rick and I took Poppy for a walk Sabbath afternoon and found more flowers:

Up in the garden, the flowers are less obvious but more fruitful:

I've eaten the first yellow cherry tomato; something helped itself to my first Matt's Wild Cherry tomato. 🤨 My tomatillo plants continue to go CRAZY; if I'd know they'd get so big I would have planted things differently. The eggplants seem to like their shade, but the pepper plants are struggling to find more light.

The zucchini, true to form, are producing well; hurray! I've harvested eight to date; Rick and I enjoyed the first two sautéd with onion, garlic, EVOO, and Penzey's Fox Point Seasoning, then tossed with whole wheat spaghetti. This morning I gave the neighbor three of the four I had just picked. She was delighted; they turned their garden plot into their chicken yard so have nothing planted this year. I really like the light green variety that was in the Renee's Seeds mix; need to save seeds for more of those next year!

This morning before it got too hot I chopped thistles and pulled tansy. Both noxious weeds are blooming now, and we don't want THOSE to go to seed.

That's it for food and flowers for now from . . .

I spy with my little eye

I've been taking garden photos for a planned post, but it's taken me so long that my title no longer fits! That's zucchini for you; it goes from blooms to 'boom' in practically the blink of an eye:

I picked this yesterday – after finding the last few strawberries

This was just one day earlier!

Lots of other zukes on the way!

We have blooms galore on the tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, and eggplant, the snow peas and bush beans are beginning to flower – and the cucumber plants have finally gone from lackluster to gangbuster!

I spy with my little eye from our bedroom window, bluebirds in our nest box. Since early spring we've gone from bluebirds to swallows and now back to bluebirds again; each pair has been in residence long enough to raise a clutch, I think (and hope).

As for my chicks, I got this update from friend Kate today: "Chippy is quite the beautiful bird and came over to see what I was up to when I wanted to take photos. Getting back far enough was a challenge. Dot and Lottie really like the 'sand pit.' Kate is curious but cautious. Dot will be smaller than Chippy [they are the two Whiting True Blues] I think but very similar to Lottie. So it looks like three regular girls and the homecoming queen." It is hard not to be able to spy all this with my own little eye!

I spy with my little eye . . . bleepin' TOUGH weeds. Tim suggested letting Brian use a propane torch to kill the weeds in our driveway when I mentioned that I can't keep up with them manually and don't want to use poison. Being a boy, he decided to mix used oil and gas to really scorch them (leaving a black, probably toxic mess...). 🙄 Yesterday I noticed new growth:

I spy with my little eye – my little spy:

I had pulled some hay down off the stack to feed horses and sheep, and Poppy had to check out the newly uncovered hidey-holes. She didn't find anything there, but the next morning managed to catch a gopher. Yay; a new TOY!  😝

I do spy with my little eye a few flowers around the place. My lemon yellow daylilies are in full bloom; my deck geraniums are trying to put out some color, and the Queen Anne's Lace blooms where it can (one weed I don't mind too much).

Finally, I spy with a teary eye just two horses out on pasture this evening. Poor Oliver was struggling to move around on broken-down legs and wasn't eating well; it was past time to end his suffering. Still, it is sad.

That's it for now from . . .