Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Denim Deb]

That sounds good-except for the tuna. I might have to try that w/chicken salad once I start getting maters.

 

[hqueen13]

Cool on the ducks! I hope you can post pictures!
If I didn't type on a phone I wouldn't be able to get online almost at all lol

 

[Britesea]

I'm not very good at taking pictures, and they were really nervous when I was waving the cell phone around under their noses... so here is their first (blurry) picture. You can only see the Cayugas as little black shadows, lol.

Yesterday was spent in town depositing the paycheck, paying bills and picking up some groceries. I scored 10 pounds of mushrooms for only $15! So today I have to start slicing and dehydrating them. It looks like DS was able to fill another garden bed with soil mix, so I also need to plant my sweet bells and that will take care of all the seedlings. The last bed will be for green beans this weekend.

It's cooler today, and supposed to get down to 33 tonight. I need to spend some time arranging more frost protection before that. I have lots of summer plants out there.
The favas are blooming now, and so are the tomatoes. The winter squash has buds but they haven't opened quite yet. The chilies and bell peppers have buds forming as well. It's time to give them a shot of fish emulsion. As long as I can keep the chill off, and keep the water coming, it looks like I might have a decent harvest this year (about time!)

The Water Board is talking about shutting off 2 wells in Klamath Falls. I don't know if they will go so far as to start shutting down personal wells like ours. I don't see how they could do that since it's our only source of water. I'm using soaker hoses because they put the water right where I need it. I want to put a mulch over the garden beds to keep from losing water to evaporation, but not sure what to use. The three things we have available here are 1) aged horse manure 2) pine needles 3) shredded papers. Which of the three do y'all think would work best? Comments welcome!

 

[Denim Deb]

The pine needles and shredded paper. The manure isn't really good as a mulch, but the other 2 should work well. People will try and tell you that the needles are too acidic, but there's no scientific proof to back this up.

 

[Plantress]

I also am a big fan of the shredded paper and pine needle

 

[hqueen13]

I agree that the house manure wouldn't work as well to keep weeds down, though it could have benefited if you put a layer of it down first. It might hold more water and would help return nutrients to the soil pretty quick.
Cute ducks!

 

[Denim Deb]

house manure

What kind of manure do you get from a house? (I know you can't help the typos right now, but I just couldn't let this one pass)

 

[Britesea]

If you saw the mess in my living room you wouldn't have to ask about house manure! My life is filled with danger, excitement, and dust bunnies the size of rhinos!

I finally discovered what's been munching on my broccoli, and I owe an apology to the birds. I was sitting just staring off in the distance when my eye caught a movement. I caught him in flagrante delicto- a pine squirrel, munching away! Now I have to spend some time trying to figure out how to keep him out of there. I have bird netting over the bed because I thought it was birds, but he just scoots under the edge of it. I may end up spending time out there with my husband's air rifle...

So pine needles and shredded paper it is for a mulch. I did add horse manure to the soil- the plants are loving it!

I got my bell peppers planted, and the swiss chard and a lone okra I bought just to see how it does here. The bees are starting to visit more now that so many plants are blooming- lovage, columbine, asparagus, favas, poppies, calendula, strawberries and raspberries, borage, tomatoes, nasturtiums, pansies, squashes and cucumbers, and all the peppers are budding out... and that's just the stuff I planted on purpose!

I splurged on New York strips for the grill tonight... with salad and oven fries and dilled carrots. Blueberry pie for dessert.

 

[Denim Deb]

If I could gain weight just from reading what others are making, I'd be in big trouble! That sounds so good.

 

[hqueen13]

Lol hilarious. Yes, Deb, my darn phone like to switch things and sometimes mistakes as subtle as those slip through. It did it again, and almost typed farm instead of darn.
Omg sounds so yummy!