Washingtonians

[justbugged]

Quote:

If you haven't done a Blackberry/Blueberry pie before try that. I love the mixture.

This sounds extremely yummy.

(I think I am hungry!!!) lol


I need/want to go blackberry picking. I know a couple of great spots in undeveloped county parks. I just don't know how I could do anything more than eat them fresh. The real kitchen remolding starts tomorrow. DH is coming home on Thursday, but I have to get the cupboards emptied out. I am hoping that I can do this so that I can still find enough stuff to cook with. I am fairly good at cooking on the bbq. I once made an entire turkey dinner on the Q. That included the homemade bread rolls, and pumpkin pies. So all I need is a few dishes. I can see a few paper plates in the near future too.

Last night I got a handful of raspberries, of the canes. This is the second harvest off of the plants. For some reason most of the canes that produced earlier this year died completely off. I thought for awhile that I might loose all of the plants. Right now the canes that survived are looking really good. I did loose a number of plants, but the others are starting to fill in. I may look and see what Raintree is selling for next year, and get another variety to add to the row.

 

[justbugged]

Quote: X2

 

[justbugged]

Okay I was an evil girl last Saturday, and I posted a picture of the group that met at the auction. There was a picture that was tag as being an unmasked Rustler. That wasn't the real Rustler, that was his good twin brother from another mother. This here is the real picture with the real Rustler in it.

 

[itsren]

If you haven't done a Blackberry/Blueberry pie before try that. I love the mixture.

Oh, yum! Shoot! I had blueberries, too, that I could have mixed in. I already baked a blackberry pie before I got back on here and saw this. Guess I'll have to go pick some more blackberries, eh?

Maybe the 2nd time around, I'll manage to back it without the top getting so dark.

 

[itsren]

The square foot garden technique is great!! Its amazing what you can grow in a little space. I did the square foot garden for about five years, then it wasn't fun any more, it became work so I stopped. I had 13 (55 gal.) rain barrels hidden around the yard. I used a pump to move water around. Usually didn't have to use my own water until the end of August !

My dog and I would sit in front of the peas and I would shell one pod for me and one pod for her! and I better NOT take two in a row for me cause she was watching

those were the days!!!!!

I love, love, love the square foot garden method. I don't use "Mel's Mix" but the rest of it, I follow pretty closely.

I have one rain barrel. How do you "hide" a rain barrel? I sure would like to figure that out.

 

[RonB]

I love, love, love the square foot garden method. I don't use "Mel's Mix" but the rest of it, I follow pretty closely.

I have one rain barrel. How do you "hide" a rain barrel? I sure would like to figure that out.

I had four sheds ( boy they would have made great coops!!!) and several trees and I was able to put my barrels around and behind them. I gave all the barrels away when I moved

 

[FirewifeJess]

Christina/JustBugged: I am on my way to HoneySuckleHills' place to pick up my birds; if you want me to grab yours for you, PM me so I will know to snag her too!! You can come get her any time, since I am way closer...maybe send her a check since I can't front the cash this time? I you call her and work oyster the details just let me know!!

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

Back from the camping trip to Lake Snoqualmie! I had never done backpacking before and I am S-O-R-E from head to toe! But happy! Upon return, we were pleasantly surprised to find two white eggs, but we're pretty sure they're from our blue mutt starting to lay again after molting (is it too soon for that?!?) as they are pretty big, and our other hens both lay brown eggs. I doubt our Exchequers, who are supposed to lay eggs on the smallish side, will start out laying eggs anywhere near that large. I'm starting to wonder what's up as they are now five months old and I know Leghorns are supposed to mature very early. I talked to someone who has Exchequers who hatched three days before mine and she's been getting eggs from them for at least a few weeks now, I believe. I think my hatchery Exchequers are likely actually more Ancona than Leghorn, but I think Anconas are supposed to mature early, too.

As for the trip, after hauling a 40-pound pack eight miles up a mountain in six hours, I can safely say it was actually worth it (and that's saying something!!!). We had some significant setbacks as far as equipment malfunctions and rookie mistakes, but there were many wonderful firsts for me! Saw a coyote. Pushed my body until I was crying in a heap of defeated exhaustion (next time: even more trail mix. You don't want to do this kind of thing with low blood sugar, trust me). Was so tired, I slept through our tent being rattled by a hungry raccoon (we think). Sunned all afternoon on an actual beach on an idyllic alpine lake we had quite literally all to ourselves. Relaxed for a long while at night by lamplight on a rock in the middle of a lovely mountain stream, feeling quite safe with the world's best 24-pound guard dog dutifully watching out for wild animals on the stream bank above. Drank lots of cold, delicious water, freshly filtered from mountain stream/lake. Best part was I realized my sweet boyfriend will do practically anything to make me happy!

Speaking of which, we are going to pick up more free lumber this week and get started on the new coop!

I will catch up on the thread as soon as I can.

 

[RaZ]

I have one rain barrel. How do you "hide" a rain barrel? I sure would like to figure that out.

I've hidden several. One lady's deck, I mounted them sideways and build benches around them.
I've turned the tops into planters and had trailing vines hang over the sides.
You can also build a facade to mimic a column to hide the barrel and downspout. You just need a decent overhang so it looks right.

I'm looking for a female mannequin so I can make a "Southern Belle" to stand on the front porch.

 

[SadieSue]

Here's a better shot of the tail. It had silver bars on the tail.



Jennifer

Nice shots Jenn. I've seen those in my backyard although it was over a year ago now. The crows sounded the alarm first and I looked out the window just in time to see the crows chasing a large, gray bird with horizontal stripes on the tail take off from the fir trees surrounding our yard. While the crows took care of chasing the predator bird away I ran out to the yard, to see my light Sussex was standing alone in the yard hollering for help. She had just hatched some EE chicks who were all hiding with their "aunties" in the bushes surrounding our yard.
When the light Sussex saw me, she called for the chicks while I "covered her" and high tailed it to her broody coop with the chicks in tow. The other girls followed me quickly to their big coop where they were enclosed safely in their run.

All chickens were kept locked up in their run for a couple of weeks after that until I felt certain that the hawk had moved out of our area. I've heard that they will pass through here a couple of times a year.
I have made the choice to not keep my girls locked up year round, but I listen for the crows and watch the trees as much as I can when I'm home. I'll never feel we're absolutely safe. I am very afraid to let the Silkies out though since they're so small they could easily get carried away.