Bucket in the Garden

At eleven-years-old, Bucket helps out in the garden as much as she ever did.

Bucket in the Garden

Christmas Day

A light dusting of snow on the garden.

Snow flurries Christmas morning, but they didn't end up amounting to much -- just a light dusting of snow. 


Jo and I drove over to Yellville, AR, and enjoyed a delicious (and bountiful) Christmas meal with friends.

Joe Doster slicing the ham.

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Christmas Day

Fall Garden 2010: FAIL

Lettuce (and weeds)

Our fall garden was a big FAIL this year.  It was just too hot, dry and buggy during the late summer when the seeds and seedlings went into the garden.  Few of them survived, despite several replantings.  We did harvest a few turnips.  Jo pulled the last of the turnips recently, but they were pithy and not edible.


On Tuesday, Jo pulled the row covers off what should have been our lettuce and spinach beds.  A very few small lettuce plants remained in addition to a half dozen or so spinach plants -- plus lots of happily protected weeds.  Jo harvested the spinach and stir fried for supper.  That was the end of fall garden.

Spinach (and weeds)

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Fall Garden 2010: FAIL

A Beautiful Saturday

We're on a roll: Two beautiful fall days in a row.

Our skies clouded up some during the middle of the afternoon, but cleared again by sunset. Jo did some weeding in our fall garden bed in addition to unloading her kiln, glazing pots and getting the kiln loaded for a glaze firing. I cranked up the lawnmower. Mowing was slow going out in the garden due to the tall grass that was still damp. I had to set my mower up to cut as high as it would cut and make one pass -- then, lower to the normal level and mow again. Having to use that method meant I didn't nearly get finished mowing the garden. I did also mow the clothesline area where the grass was neither as tall nor as damp.

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A Beautiful Saturday

Pointing The Way

Rusty may be an Australian Shepherd, but he seems to think he's a pointer. He was pointing at three rabbits at the back of our garden. I can guarantee you that every muscle in his body was tense. After a couple of more steps, he charged. He didn't come close to catching any of the rabbits, but after a shout from Jo and I, he did stay inside the garden instead of chasing the rabbits off into the woods.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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Pointing The Way

Garden 2009: First Picking of Green Beans

Jo picked a little less than a half bushel of green beans Thursday afternoon. We've eaten some, but most went into the freezer. We should get two or three more large picking and then production will fall way off. Eventually, we'll leave the wire covering off the beans and let the rabbits have a treat, though I don't know what they've done to deserve a reward.

Jo also harvested some yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers.

I made a trip into town Thusday. We were just in town this past Saturday, but I decided to make a special trip to buy a new thermostat for our hot water heater. The thermostat that's currently on the heater works okay most of the times, but every so often gets the water way too hot.
While in town, I made several other stops: Mailed a package, paid bills, went by the bank and, of course, bought groceries again. With all that running around, I managed to forget about buying the thermostat. Doh!

The price of gasoline jumped a dime per gallon since Saturday, up to $2.59/gallon. I reckon gas is bound to go up with Labor Day and our fall show season approaching.

We had to send our camera back to Olympus for a rebuild. The main control knob became so stiff it could not be turned. The photo above is from our archives. It was taken by Jo on 6/17/07.

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Garden 2009: First Picking of Green Beans

Garden Cart

I finished rebuilding our garden cart late Monday afternoon. Then, after taking this photo, I totally disassembled it again. Disassembling was much faster than taking apart the old cart since none of the fasteners were rusted together. Jo coated the wood with a preservative. Hopefully, the Woodlife will dry enough I can reassemble the cart this (Tuesday) afternoon. That job should go fairly fast since I won't have to drill holes or find and modify fasteners as I did during the original assembly.


I plan on this being the last time I rebuild our garden cart during this lifetime.

Tuesday evening update: As long as I've been working on DIY projects around the house, I should have known that saying the job "should go fairly fast" would doom this project to at least one more major SNAFU. I'll not bore you with the details describing how I screwed things up, but will admit the incident involved a large hammer. Even though it took about three times longer than I'd planned, I did get the cart back together again. After the wood sealer has another day to dry, the cart should be ready for another 25+ years of service.



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Garden Cart

Garden 2009: Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potato sets a couple of days after Jo transplanted them into the garden. I'm sure they appreciated a couple of days of moderate temperatures and overcast skies after being set out.

The wire enclosure is necessary to keep out rabbits -- and any deer that might get past the electric fence surrounding our garden. We would share with the critters, but the critters tend to eat everything. Deer seem to especially enjoy sweet potato vines.

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Garden 2009: Sweet Potatoes

Journal: Monday, 6/15/09

Propane:  I got our 40# propane bottle filled when I went into town last Friday.  Since then, whenever the temperature climbs, the bottle vents propane through the relief valve.  I don't know if the problem is that it was filled on a rainy and much cooler day, the bottle was overfilled, the relief valve spring is getting weak, or some combination of the three.  With the bottle sitting on the front porch in the shade, it tends to fill the house with propane whenever gas escapes.

The cabbage in our garden is beginning to form heads.

I don't think the concentration of propane is high enough for an explosion, but it stinks.  I've taken the bottle out in the yard and opened the valve a couple of times, but it still keeps building up enough pressure to open the relief valve.  (The cost of filling a 40# bottle is up to $29.00 + tax these days.)

Phoebe:  The phoebe is sitting on her nest under the eaves of our porch again.  This is her second clutch of eggs this summer.  Her first brood fledged a couple of weeks ago.  I hope this brood survives.  Her nest is only about six inches below or porch roof.  Now that we are heading into full summer, it gets awfully hot up there.


Garden:  Jo and I worked on weeding beds.  Seems like getting the overgrown weeds and grasses out of our garden beds could be a full time occupation for us.  That's the price we pay for getting so far behind.  I finished edging a bed Jo already weeded  and Jo got all the weeds out of another bed.  Slowly but surely progress is being made.

A couple of broccoli heads are ready for harvesting.

Weather:  High = 90ºF/32ºC.  Low =  75ºF/24ºC.  Partly cloudy and humid.  A moderate south wind helped a little with cooling while we worked outside.

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Journal: Monday, 6/15/09

Journal: Saturday, 6/13/09

Week In Review:

Home from art fair in Columbia. Got the van totally unloaded.


Set up part of the canopy frame and dried the canopy side panels. We had a little rain Sunday morning at the show. The canopy tops got dry during the afternoon, but we'd rolled up the side panels to open open our booths for sales. Being rolled up, it was impossible for them to dry. They dried quickly hung up in the heat and breeze here at home.

Jo harvested a huge head of broccoli from the garden.

We finished weeding another bed out in the garden. Jo set out some tomato and pepper transplants she'd purchased. Normally, we have about three beds devoted to tomatoes and peppers, but are cutting back this year, mainly because of our late start but also because we produce more tomatoes and peppers than we need. We still have tomato sauce and frozen peppers from last year.

Jo set up cages around the peppers and tomatoes. Then, I installed the fence posts that support the cages. The hardest part was getting them out of the ground from last year's location.

We began cleaning up another garden bed. Pulling a few weeds from a bed is one thing, but we are removing waist high grasses that have deep roots. It's slow going.
Friday I made a trip into town. This was a fairly quick and easy town run. Mainly I needed to get the checks from our last show into the bank and return the books on tape to the library before they were past due. A thunderstorm moved through while I was at the library -- high wind and heavy rain, but small and moved through quickly. Instead of getting drenched, I just spent a little time on one of the library's computers.


Our weather has been very unsettled this week. I've lost count of how many little thundershowers we've experienced. All have been small and not too severe. We've only gotten maybe an 1.5" of rain out of them. We still are not out of the unsettle weather cycle. When we weren't experiencing a thundershower, it's been hot and humid.

Friday was the end of our television reception. We went from being able to receive one fuzzy analog signal (Arkansas Educational TV) to receiving no digital signals. On Saturday I mounted our antenna on a short mast and crawled up onto the roof's peak with it. We did three scans with the antenna oriented in different directions, but the digital converter could pick up no signal.


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Journal: Saturday, 6/13/09

New Potatoes Planted

                                                  (Photo taken on 03/17/09 by Marvin)

Jo planting our potatoes.

One bed down; ten left to be planted.

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New Potatoes Planted

Journal: Tuesday, 10/28/08

►  Started Jo's kiln on a glaze firing. (36F/2C @ midnight.)

►  Jo's kiln is up to 1034ºF/556ºC. All the wax has burned off and the fumes vented. Shut the lid fully. (36F/2C @ 3 AM)

The area right behind our garden.  This area was cleared only a year or so before we bought this place.  The previous owners were trying to make a pasture out of it, but Jo and I decided it was much to steep for that purpose.  We've let the trees grow back.  

►  Time for some sleep. (34F/1C @ 4:45 AM)

►  First cuppa coffee is so-o-o-o good. (They're all pretty darned nice.) 41F/5C, sunny skies, light wind @ 10 AM.


►  Time to move on to off line projects. (51F/10C @ 1 PM)

Our garden for 2008 is over.  Temperatures a few degrees below freeze did in everything except for some dill weed.  Of course, there's still a lot of work needing done out there, but no more produce to harvest.

►  Back from a pleasant afternoon walk up the road. (55F/12C @ 5 PM) Temps forecast for tonight not quite as cold as last night's 30F/-1C.

►  Midnight: Clear skies ... calm wind ... 39F/3C. A perfect time for a midnight snack, I'd say.

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Journal: Tuesday, 10/28/08

Journal: Monday, 10/27/08

Early Morning:

► Midnight: Down to 47ºF/7ºC and dropping. Gusty north wind has not abated. Chilly out considering I'm dressed for our mid-day 77º.


► 3:00 AM: Down to 41ºF/5ºC outside and 65ºF/18ºC inside. Time to crank up the wood stove before the house loses any more heat. Surprisingly, the north wind seems to have mostly laid, at least for the moment.

Late Morning:

► Sunny, breezy and 42º/5º @ 10 AM. Thermometer says temperature only fell to 36º/2º overnight, but there's a thin ice layer on the birdbath. Methinks the thermometer pickup is located too close to the house.

► Sunny and 51º/10º at noon. It would be almost pleasant outdoors were the north wind not gusty so strongly. Always staying in the sunshine and out of the wind is tricky.


Afternoon:

► Back from PM walk ... 51F/10C @ 5 PM. The north wind that came up again this AM seems to be laying now. Seems warm inside the house after walking. Wish I hadn't thrown those last couple of logs into the wood stove.



► After our end of season harvesting over the past couple of days, we didn't bother turning the electric fence back on. There really wasn't anything needing protection from the deer left out in the garden. This afternoon I saw a doe cautiously approach the garden and then slip inside. She never made it as far as any ot the plants before getting spooked. Now, does the deer entering the garden on the first day the fence was off demonstrate how well the fence is keeping out the deer? Or, was it just a coincidence? I don't know but suspect a little of both -- and probably more of a coincidence. The fence has been off many times.

Evening:

► Spent some time in the basement getting som spoons made.

All photos take on today's afternoon walk.

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Journal: Monday, 10/27/08

Journal: Friday, 10/24/08

Early Morning:

Started Jo's kiln on a bisque firing. 49º F (9º C) at midnight.

Late Morning:

Sunny, but a gusty south wind trumps the sunshine if you are outdoors.. 54º F (12º C) @ 11 AM.

The garlic Jo planted a couple of weeks back is up and doing well. Unfortunately, so are the weeds. The garlic will remain green, but go dormant over winter, then take off growing again as soon as spring arrives.

Afternoon:

Jo just toted a jug of hot water over to her pottery studio. It's chilly enough she wants her throwing water warmed. There's no hot water in her studio so she usually puts a kettle atop her kerosene heater, but that water isn't warm yet. 60º F (15º C) @ 2PM.

Back from PM walk. South wind has laid a bit. A few cumulus clouds scattered around, all the better for adding interest to pix. 60ºF/15ºC @ 5 PM.



Losing the ball yesterday meant today's session of fetch with the dogs was played with a new tennis ball, a ball that still bounced. We usually play with the same ball until it's way, way past dead -- until the cover comes off.

This maple is one of the prettiest trees along the road we walk most afternoons.

(Speaking of playing fetch with a tennis ball... The Chuckit is one of the greatest inventions I've run across in a long time, unless you enjoy having hands covered with dogs slobber, of course.)

Evening:

Another fire this evening. The temperature was down to 44ºF/6ºC at midnight.

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Journal: Friday, 10/24/08

Journal: Tuesday, 10/21/08

Morning:

After several days of abundant sunshine, today began overcast.  Several days of fall funk in our forecast.  63º F (17º C) @ 10 AM.

The sun partially burned through our overcast, producing a bit of hazy sunshine -- more sunshine than I expected.   71º F (21º C) @ noon.

Since most of our fall wildflowers have already bloomed out, the zinnias in our garden are a very popular place among the butterflies and other pollinators.  A group of monarchs is evidently migrating through.  I saw several in near pristine condition.

Afternoon:

Dug potatoes and sweet potatoes.  Sweet potato harvest was on the low side of pathetic.  Yukon Gold potato yield was worse.  Read about our potato harvest on Nature in the Ozarks.

The fallen and fermenting persimmons are attracting many insects.  I hope this bumble bee didn't get pulled over for DUI.

Evening:

Twas and outstanding day for creating dirty dishes for me to wash.  This happens when Jo cooks a big meal.  (Which doesn't happen often and that's fine by me.)  A counter full of dishes needing washed also happens when everything we eat during the course of the day empties a leftover's container.  Today was definitely an empty container sort of day.  I thought I'd never finish washing all those dishes.

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Journal: Tuesday, 10/21/08

Garlic Planted

Garlic cloves laid out in the bed ready for planting.

Jo got our garlic planted Wednesday afternoon.  She was a couple of weeks late getting the garlic in the ground, but everything we've done out in the garden this year has been late.

Here in the South, garlic is planted in the late summer or early fall.  It sprouts and grows to a foot or so in height before the weather gets cold.  During winter, the garlic remains green but goes dormant and stops growing.  Our temperatures in the teens and occasional snow and ice do not hurt it.   When the warmer days of spring arrive, the garlic starts growing again and is ready to dig by mid-July.

I hope this year's late-planted garlic has a chance to get established before our weather turns cold.

Garlic Planted

Journal: Friday, 9/5/08

One of the many varieties of binder weed blooming at the present time. Binder weed is a vine closely related to the Morning Glory. Many gardeners hate binder weed with a passion because it is weed that's difficult to eliminate. I love them blooming along side our road.

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► Started Jo's kiln on a bisque firing. The damp weather we've been having is causing Jo problems over in her studio. (No I'm not referring to the drips. She's more or less learned to live with those.) Whenever she throws something like a mug, it must dry a bit before she can attach a handle. Nothing is drying. The work she threw yesterday was still as wet as when it came off her wheel. She's building up a backlog of thrown work that needs more attention. She doesn't have room for a backlog. (66º @ midnight)

► 10:00 AM: So far, the forecast for today is proving to be accurate. Our skies remain overcast. The current temperature of 65º feels a little chilly since I'm dressed as I would be for a temperature in the nineties.

► Took pity on the dogs and bathed them inside because of the chilly temperatures and breeze outdoors. The dogs don't particularly like being bathed, but tolerate it. Dog bathing works best if both Jo and I participate, one to hold the dog in place and the other to do the actual bathing.

While Rusty and Bucket don't like baths, they certainly find them invigorating. After a bath they run, play/fight, shove furniture around, bounce off walls and just make all around nuisances of themselves.

The sun has made a few very unconvincing attempt at burning through the clouds. (72º @ 2 PM)

► Walked up the road taking photos of fall wildflowers. Skies have finally cleared to partly cloudy. (72º @ 5 PM)

► Almost tripped over a copperhead as I rounded the corner of the house. We both thought we were alone and we were both startled by the encounter. He tucked tail and disappeared under the wood rack while I watched. Copperheads are common around here in the summer. I see them most often at dusk, a time when we are both out and about. They are just beginning a night of hunting while I'm trying to finish up chores, pick up tools and complete my day outdoors. Last summer, copperhead sightings were frequent. I haven't seen nearly as many this summer. Everything in nature seems to run in cycles, most of which I do not understand.

► Jo and I spent a little time out in our soggy garden late this afternoon. She harvested a few veggies. Many cherry tomatoes had ripened over the past couple of days. All but a very few were split. That happens when a lot of rain falls. I just checked things out a bit and picked hornworms off the tomato plants. It seems another hornworm siege is beginning. Also found four hornworms covered with parasitic Braconid wasp cocoons. (68º @ 7 PM)

► Chilling down a bit this evening. (61º @ midnight)

Journal: Friday, 9/5/08

Journal: Friday, 8/22/2008

Midnight:  Weather conditions about the same:  Mostly cloudy to light rain falling off and on.

2:00 AM:  One of those little rain showers just came through.

5:00 AM:  How did it get to be this late already.  Way past time for going to bed.

10:00:  Mostly cloudy and hazy this morning.  It looks as if the weather is going to try for a few days of muggy.  79º

Out in the garden the garlic chives are beginning to bloom.

Noon:  Mugginess "progressed" to actual rain.  Could hear thunder in the distance.  I had a look at the NOAA radar.  One little isolated thunderstorm was over us.  There was no line of storms on the way.  I decided that I didn't need to bother unplugging the computer.  As soon as I made that decision a simultanious flash of lightning and crash of thunder occured -- very close.  I revised my decision and quickly hibernated and unplugged the computer.  Of course, that proved to be the one and only flash of lightning nearby.



2:00 PM:  Rain over.  .5" out of that little thundershower.  Skies cleared to partly cloudy again.  83º

Believe it or not, there are wire tunnels under these peas.  Obviously, the tunnels are no good for keeping the peas confined.  The Souther Peas are growing well, but have yet to bloom.

4:00 PM:  Our routine walk up to the gate.

6:00 PM:  I thought I might get to do some mowing today, but after that mid-day shower, the grass was just too wet.

The wild plums are getting very close to being ripe.  The pulp is sweet and flavorful, but the skin will still cause your mouth to pucker.

Weather Summary:  85/73 ... .5" rain ... mostly cloudy to occasionally partly cloudy or overcast... mid-day shower ... very muggy.

Journal: Friday, 8/22/2008

Zinnia Bud

One of the volunteer zinnias that reseeded from last year

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Zinnia Bud