What did you do in the garden today?

[Sueby]

My birds LOVE the leaves! They spread them out then spend their days sleeping in them & since they're production reds they blend in & I can't find them. It's too funny that they're scared of them (and now aren't).

@TropicalBabies I totally agree, I wish everyone would post more pics.

@WthrLady please do - I'd love to see them getting sheered. Do you keep them just for their fleece (is that right, fleece)? Or just kind of for fun?

@karenerwin - wow the meaties are bigger than I thought they'd be! & I'm fascinated with the bees, they are amazing little creatures. I had thought about getting some but decided it was more work than I needed - we have bears so I'd have to do electric & I don't have a great spot for them.

So I picked up the half a cow yesterday! It was huge. I was there while they cut it up, the slaughterhouse people were awesome, they answered all my stupid questions & let me help. I spent 4 hours there & had a great time. I'm not sure how much meat we got, but I think it's about 400lbs. I have 165lbs of hamburger alone. I got up to pee in the middle of the night & the alarm on the freezer was going off, check on it & the temp was going up - I panicked! The thought of losing 400lbs of meat the first day...ugh. I'm pretty sure DH didn't close the cover tight. But I'll take that over the freezer broke. I hope I don't gross anyone out - don't know if we have any vegetarians here, sorry if we do...

I actually have to go into work today to fix a machine - haven't been there since Mar 12th. I don't want to go!

Have a great day all!

 

[Acre4Me]

Awesome Hawaiian brooder @TropicalBabies ! Looks pretty and very functional. Yay for hobbies and baby chicks!

lovely garden pics @NewBoots! Everything looks wonderful and healthy. I liked Oregon weather (lived in Corvallis for 3 years) better than western Washington bc there was more sunshine throughout the year.

@karenerwin, interesting pics!! I hope you’ll be told the bees are Doing well by your mentor. I know nothing about bees, although they would be interesting to learn about.

@Sueby - wow! That’s a lot of beef!! We ordered a split half for later this year, but I don’t think I’ll get to help butcher it at all, but I’m sure the process is interesting and I would likely enjoy the learning.


@WthrLady, busy as usual! Looking forward to the video of Alpaca shearing.

 

[Acre4Me]

Today is the first day of reasonably nice weather. A bit windy and cool still. I’m going to wait to plant tomorrow, but might take a page out of @WthrLady book, and pre-dig and prep the planting holes, so I can have an idea of what I’ve got room for. But winds will be calm for the next week with light rain chances here and there. Weather will warm up too, but will be partly cloudy.

I’ll call to verify the meat chicken order before I drive there today to pick them up. It’s about 90 miles away, so I want to make sure there are chicks for me. Brooder is set up in the barn.

peas are sprouting! Green beans are all sprouted! Soybeans sprouted, but looks like a few seeds did not sprout. The potatoes are looking good now, there is lots of green shoots coming up above ground! Just beginning to see some of the shelling (dry) beans popping up.

 

[igorsMistress]

Whelp the sun did come out so I had to go be useful. Pretty much cleared out the greenhouse except for some assorted flower seedlings. Got the supports up for the tomato beds and planted a lot of the tomatoes and basil.View attachment 2151363View attachment 2151364


Tomato blossoms!

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Mixed raised bedView attachment 2151379
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Jerusalem artichokes, they'll look like sunflowers later in the seasonView attachment 2151382

Deck area as it is nowView attachment 2151384
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Red clover bed for the rabbits and chickensView attachment 2151387


And assorted plants we brought from our last placeView attachment 2151389
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The vine maple and campanula are both native plants. The pitcher plant isn't but it and other carnivorous plants are our hobby.

I cleaned out the big coop today, fired up the incubator in case I need to toss any eggs in it ( if the broody hatches some and decides to abandon the rest).
Moved more logs into the raised bed. Tossed in all the shavings from the coop clean out as well as a bunch of leaves. Started moving the compost over to the raised bed from the compost area. Got 2 wagon loads done but then it started getting dark. I still have about 2 more to go.
This morning it looked like there were a few raider bees trying to get in my hive. I saw a couple of my bees attacking a couple other bees. There were about 15 or so dead bees outside the hive on the grass. I also watched a bird swoop down and snatch up 2 fighting bees in flight! So much was going on!!
Opened the bee hive today to take a look. Still haven't found the queen but I think that is user error. The frame feeder was completely empty and they had drawn out a lot of comb on the side of it. My plan was to take it out today and replace it with frames and wax (which I did).But I am wondering if I should have left it and refilled it.
I am not happy with how the brood pattern is. It seems very random to me. I only looked at 1 frame, the others that I took out had comb on the top or the bottom or just had a few bees crawling around on them. When I went to remove the top brood box 2 frames from the bottom brood box were stuck to frames in the top box!! 1 frame fell off when I was moving it.
I was a bit perplexed as to what to do. I replaced the top box and then used the hive tool to separate them. ( That worked).
Then I had 3 frames hanging on the side frame holder and tried to scrape off the comb they were building on the top. That caused the frames to move diagonally and another frame fell.
The bees were very patient with my bumbling efforts.
I've messaged my mentor to see when she can come over and open the hive with me so we can go through the whole thing and find the queen. Plus she can give me her thoughts about the brood pattern. I'll post a picture from my phone.
They have plenty of wax to draw out but it seems like they are building comb on the top and bottoms of the frames instead.
I also forgot to look to see if there was larvae in the holes. Oh, and my smoker went out. And, I had a bee INSIDE my bee hat TWICE!! I can't believe I didn't get stung.
To top the day off, I got a call from the care center where my Mom is. They were informing me that there are 4 positive covid cases in her hallway, so they are going to test everyone in that hallway to be sure. Mom isn't doing well ( still from when she had that surgery months ago!). She was around 135 lbs then and is now down to about 97 lbs. The house doctor isn't sure if she is entering her "end of life" stages or what.
Trying to potty train 2 puppies is very hard. We have only had 1 accident free day ( and it wasn't today ).

Sounds like one of those days Karen

 

[littledog]

Hi gardeners, has anybody here grown loofahs? I would love to hear your experiences, especially if you've grown them in or near the Puget Sound area.

I was watching some UTube videos from people who grow them, and it's something I'd like to try. How great it would be to use cleaning products I can grow myself, and just toss them in the compost when they're worn out, instead of buying expensive plastic sponges/scrubbies from the store and having to throw them in the garbage when they're used up. I even have an empty trellis for the loofahs to grow on, since my kiwis didn't survive.

The videos seemed to be from people in warmer climates than mine, though - I wonder what kind of growing season they need, and if they'd grow here at all?

 

[igorsMistress]

Hi gardeners, has anybody here grown loofahs? I would love to hear your experiences, especially if you've grown them in or near the Puget Sound area.

I was watching some UTube videos from people who grow them, and it's something I'd like to try. How great it would be to use cleaning products I can grow myself, and just toss them in the compost when they're worn out, instead of buying expensive plastic sponges/scrubbies from the store and having to throw them in the garbage when they're used up. I even have an empty trellis for the loofahs to grow on, since my kiwis didn't survive.

The videos seemed to be from people in warmer climates than mine, though - I wonder what kind of growing season they need, and if they'd grow here at all?

I've never grown them but I recall they need about 3 months growing time. You could always start seeds inside to get a jump start for next year though.

 

[Sueby]

Adding a pic of the girls in the leaves, Where's Waldo?

 

[Sueby]

Never thought of loofahs as being grown @littledog! I mean I know they are, but not anything I've ever considered or would have imagined could be done in a backyard garden. Interesting! Keep us update if you try it.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. The good news is the temps stayed in the 40's overnight. Warming up to near 80F today. No work in the garden yesterday, however, I did finally find some mint plants for the gardens. I also did a little research and figured out what is likely going on with my apple trees. The crabapple tree that bloomed is not in my yard, but across the street from my front yard. My trees bloomed and grew a few apples last year so I know they are OK. The only thing I did different was to fertilize them. Apparently if they get too much nitrogen, the trees won't blossom. So, they can just work on growing this year. I got replacement plants for the summer squash and should get them in the ground later today. Today I'll be painting the sides of the baby chicken coop and sticking the linoleum tiles to the floor. The littles seem to be a bit slower with getting all their feathers. I'm guessing since the temperature on my front porch is pretty comfortable. But I think it might be another week and a half or more before they are fully feathered. So I feel better about being a bit behind. I need to schedule some grass mowing time in with everything else. I did find loofah seeds to plant @littledog, but I opted for the bird house gourds for this summer. I really need to get them outside. I might try loofah's in the future. I'm looking forward to seeing how yours do. I love all the pictures this morning. I only have one to contribute, one of my little friends who are quite comfortable running around with the chickens lately. Also, on a side note, yesterday evening I watched a robin taking a bath in my new bird bath and actually using the fountain spray. Sweet. OK, @Sueby, like I've mentioned previously, you need to stock up on steak sauce. Yum! Have a great day everyone.

 

[Sueby]

OMG Patrick (the dog) would go INSANE if he saw your little friend!!! The chippies drive him batty!