Let's see, where was I?

Let's see, where was I?  Ah. Yes.  Doom and gloom, end of the world.
Well, we're still there, but now that spring is here in full force it's not quite such a hard thing to bear.  Yes, everything may end tomorrow, or even later on today.  But isn't that blossoming cherry tree really pretty? 
And, standing here at the edge of the world, I've become a little accustomed to the view. 

In other news, this week's Master Gardener class was the last of my training, and I am now (drum roll please) an official Master Gardener Intern.  The training wasn't particularly hard, but it was VERY intensive.  We were really lucky to have some eminently qualified specialists make the journey to our little town to teach us about soil science, entomology, grafting, and other fascinating aspects of gardening.  We had field trips, too, including an organic produce farm and the most amazing home garden.  I'll tell you more about the latter later on in another post.

Let's see, turkey season is underway.  Yesterday, we finally saw a turkey for the first time this year, but she was a little female and therefore not at risk from us.  Really, though, is any turkey at risk from us? I'm beginning to think not.

I did manage to call in the most gorgeous coyote one evening last week.  He was the reddish-brown of fallen Ponderosa pine needles, and his tail was erect.  He was very well filled out, and had an almost cocky attitude.  This was a far cry from the mangy, slinking, tail between the legs, half-starved coyotes we tend to see in the fields around here.  My forest coyote took my breath away, and he keeps appearing in my dreams.  Maybe he stole a piece of my heart, too? 

I'll try to get some pictures up of our fruit trees tomorrow.  They're all in bloom.  The tulips finally popped open, as well.  Yep, spring is here.  We made it through another winter.

The bees at the end of March

Isn't rhubarb gnarly looking when it first pokes up out of the warming spring soil?
I think of aliens, and brains, or maybe alien brains? What I don't think of is pollen.
There isn't any.

 But take a close look at the bees...

You might just about be able to see that some of these little gals are so heavily laden with pollen that they can barely fly.  Look at that little group of three to the right of the sugar feeder.  The two flying above are looking at her stash of the good yellow stuff. 

They aren't finding any pollen in the currant bushes.  The first leaves are very tightly furled up, with no bud or blossom in sight.

If you look on the board behind her, you'll see another gal with some pollen, and another buzzing around in the air just above her.

The aspen trees have little catkins dangling down, but no yellow pollen could be coaxed out by me.  Maybe my little bees know a secret?

The lilacs are definitely bare, but they would be.  Even the tulips around here have a few weeks before they'll bloom.

Cherry?  Same thing!

I know of only one place in this whole town where you can find pollen.  It's about a half mile away, but that's definitely within a healthy bee's territory.  Tomorrow I need to go to the greenhouses in the Bi-Mart parking lot and see if any of my gals are hanging out in there.  I wouldn't blame them, what with the primroses and pansies and poppies in bloom, and the warm plastic sheeting over top to hold in the sun's warmth...

So yeah, I have a good scientific reason to go down there--I'm just scoping out the range of my bees, that's all.  It certainly isn't to imprudently purchase impatiens to plant in the snow forecast for tonight.

Bees. Yup.  That's my story, and I'm sticking with it!



June 1st garden update (by Kat)

So much has been going on in the garden.

Every spring I'm amazed at how looooooong it takes for the season to get here,
but how quickly it takes hold once it does.

Today I'll just show you some of the fruits and veggies.

But the flowers....oh the flowers....

rhubarb

apricots


plums, not nearly as far along

cherries

Walla Walla sweet onions, beets, and broccoli

more beets and broccoli

cauliflower, and lots of weeds

wispy little leeks, and lots more weeds

garlic, peas, and potatoes (and still more weeds)

Would anyone like to come help me weed?
Please?

Cherry Blossoms (by Kat)

Hack, cough, hack, hack,
Here's a photo of our cherry tree from this weekend.
Hack, hack, cough.
Back to bed.

Catching up (by Kat)

April is always a challenge. We have so many family birthdays, my professional workload skyrockets, my mind is constantly wandering up into the hills, and the yard calls me out to play for hours on end.

It isn't a terrible kind of busy at all. I don't feel submerged, but just the opposite, super-enabled. I gulp April down, and May too, then finally find some moderation in June.

So, what's been going on? This past week Chirp-chirp became an official, certifiable, 100% teenage girl. Thirteen. I'm the mother of a teen. A teenager. I have a teenager. A teenager refers to me as her mom. "Mom!" says the teenager, referring to me.

How did this happen? Am I old now? Am I too old now? Am I now elder?

Huh. Creepy.

Moving on, Mr. Boom also celebrated another year gone by. Next to him, I'm a sweet young thing. Keeping that in mind makes the whole mother of a teenager thing a little less daunting. A little.

So, besides the obligatory partying, we moved a pile of dirt I scored for free into the raised garden beds, added composted steer manure and chicken straw, roto-tilled the whole mess together, raked the beds smooth, and planted the beginnings of this year's garden.


The free soil came from a newly met neighbor. As I was walking home last week, he was in the process of digging out a crawlspace under his ca. 1909 home. I paused for a moment, gathered my courage, then walked up and asked if he had a place to dump all the dirt. He said yes, he did, but if my place was closer he'd be happy to bring it over. When he found out that I only lived three blocks away, the deal was set! In a sense, the soil is dead. It (literally!) hasn't seen the light of day in over 100 years. However, this also means that the soil is very clean. That's a nice assurance to have when you're putting it into your vegetable beds!


A good portion of this weekend was also devoted to the ponds. One pond developed a leak, so we had to remove all the water, remove the rocks from the edging, place a new liner in, and reset all the rocks. We've discovered we're not quite as strong as we were when we originally placed those rocks in about five years ago. I blame it squarely on having a teenager.

What else...oh right! We built a new little chicken pen for the little hens right next to the big chicken pen wherein reside the larger hens.

We built a little solarium for them out of scrap wood and a scavenged storm window. In here, they can escape from the wind and enjoy temperatures a little higher than the natural clime.

The chicks are staying out for a good portion of the day now, but still spend the night in the downstairs bathtub, under the heat-lamp, contentedly chirping away. The new pen butts up against the old pen so that the old hens and the young hens will get to know each other a little bit before the ultimate co-mingling occurs. So far, so good.

Finally, we rescued this poor little white-crowned sparrow who ensnared himself in the netting covering the chicken pen. He was quite calm during the entire rescue mission, and even regaled us with song after the operation was complete.

What did you do this weekend?

Did any of you get a nap in there for me?

Asparagus! (by Kat)

A week ago, it was snowing.


This weekend...this popped up!

Weekend walk in the woods (by Kat)

Last Saturday, we took a walk in the woods. This road goes up and up and up and up.

These false hellebore (Veratrum sp.) were poking up through the snow.

Belligerently, they yelled at us from their poky little noses:

SPRING IS COMING


I wish I had Mr. Boom stand next to this log to add some scale.
The stump was nearly up to my chest.


More false hellebore.
These had convinced the snow to move on,
and were reveling in their sunlit little spot of forest floor.
(I'm not anthropomorphizing... I heard them for reals.)


Suddenly, we came up this site.

This is what a bear does in the woods in the spring.

And here's his or her view.
Not bad, eh?

Two hours later, we were back in the rig, heading back toward home.

I'd like to add this scenery to my bathroom.

Why should the bears have it all to themselves?

Weekend hike (by Kat)

So the buttercups stole the show yesterday, but they weren't the only flowers to be found .

See the little white puffs?

Lomatium!

And this sole yellow flower.
My first thought was glacier lily, but that's not it--the leaves are too narrow.
I'm thinking Fritillaria pudica?

Finally, we came upon these sea anemones!

All the Googling in the world hasn't yielded the name of this little guy.
Anybody know?

Buttercups! (by Kat)

Mr. Boom and I woke up early this morning and ran up to the hills. The sun shone through our bedroom window in a long-forgotten angle, and we just KNEW we had to make a run for it! That particular angle meant spring! It promised beauty and warmth and squishy mud under our boots. It whispered that we might find some antlers that deer and elk are now shedding. It yelled at us to get the heck out of the house at this very instant! Being obedient sorts (ha!), we did.

The snow is still thick on the mountain ranges surrounding our valley, but the lower hills have lost their blanket.

As we traipsed up a draw, the still-frozen soil crunched under our feet, but as we neared the upper portion, the soil grew less firm, and then it was downright muddy. We started up a toe slope, and discovered a buttercup!

Then this!

Then these!

Then a stream!

An ocean!

Oh heavens above...
Spring has sprung!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pruning Rewards (by Kat)

If you're pruning your plums, cherries, and apricots...

Do yourself a favor.
Put the pruned-off bits into a can of nice warm water.


You'll be thankful one week later!

Odd Harbinger of Spring (by Kat)

One of yesterday's tasks involved taking my grandma to a medical appointment in the big city.
On the freeway coming home to our little town, we saw a semi truck with two trailers. The trailers were piled high with bags of bark mulch.

I never thought of bark mulch on it's way to market as a harbinger of spring.

But heck, I think I'll take it...

Bark mulch, coming soon to a garden center near you!

Thursday is the last day to enter the drawing for the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book. It's so good, I'm reading it one last time before it leaves my little home.

Good luck!

Spring? (by Kat)

Spring is visible here, but only out of the corner of my eye.

This weekend we traded in our parkas for sweatshirts, and began to survey the yard.

I pruned the apricot, cherry, and plum trees, then Chirp Chirp put the twigs in water for me. We brought them inside, and scattered vases and jars throughout the house. Hopefully we'll have some cheery blossoms in our home soon.

I also pruned the roses, and have all the scratches and puncture wounds to prove it.

We built shelves in the shop, and cleaned out the winter's worth of cobwebs and dust.

We mucked out the chicken pen, but I'll spare you the detail on that chore! The hens are laying again, and all is right with the world....

Perhaps the most fun we had, though, was celebrating Mr. Boom's grandma's 86th birthday. Per her request, I made my version of Smitten Kitchen's Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake. Seriously good stuff! You can see I need to work on my basket weave, but the cake didn't last long enough for anyone to get too close a look.

It was a happy busy weekend, and I hope my hands heal in time to play in the yard again next weekend. We have major chicken coop overhaul plans...

PS Quick! Sign up for the giveaway before it's too late! Bet's mom brought the book over this weekend, so it's here and ready to go!

The Birds (by Kat)

Yesterday, for just one hour, the heavy gloomy grey fog lifted--
and we had sun!

In that same hour, our yard was visited by hundred of robins.

The trees were full, the bushes were full,
and parts of the lawn looked like they were alive.

Somehow, the birds were able to wrestle large juicy worms
from our still mostly frozen lawn.

The clamor of their chirps was unbelievable.
Our hens were very quiet for the duration of the robins' visit.

Goldfinches are back, and re-examining the sunflower heads
they stripped clean in the fall.

Maybe they missed a seed then, a seed that would
make a good snack right now.

Oh, how we're all aching for spring to finally arrive!
How much this hour meant to all of us!
How the gloom seemed that much harder to bear
when our hour of winter reprieve ended.

Don't forget our giveaway!