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Syndicate
Strane weather for us, usually the end of June is warm and dry - this year, anything but.
There are about five Merlin Falcons living in the conifers facing my back yard. They fly from tree to tree, centred on the one with their nest, and squawk a lot. The other day they were really howling, so I checked them with binoculars and saw one holding a dead bird in its beak.
Well I am finally getting vegetably looking things on my plants. Even 5 whole snap peas, mmmm delicious (the first ever that I have ever grown myself from ground to mouth! At least the plants look green.
The Fruit Tree Project just launched for the season in my neighbourhood, as seen on rabbleTV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g83Y0iPIC88
As we were driving past Kandahar yesterday evening we saw rows of dark columns of something hovering over the fields. At first I thought they were moisture or dust or something, but as we kept driving we ran into some along the road. They were pillars of tiny flies. I'd seen them in balls before, but this was unusual. The pillars were about eight feet from the surface and six feet high. the really weird thing about them was that they were aligned in rows - all along the edge of the blacktop in some cases, but in lines wherever they were.
As we continued up to Dafoe I looked over into one of the Ducks Unlimited sloughs along the road and saw about 25-30 geese swimming along...in single file!
A disappointing year for my veggie garden - very cold, wet summer, not enough sun. However, the flower gardens have been fantastic. Go figure.
Veggies that are doing well here: lettuce, beets, radishes, cabbage, swiss chard, spinach. Veggies that aren't doing well this year: rutabaga, carrots, onions, and most herbs except coriander. No mint or basil at all.
I can't think of anything urban that hasn't done well this year. Plants that have struggled in the past have grown phenomenally.
Lot'sa wasps though, which I don't mind-- except for my sworn blood enemies the yellow jackets.
I tasted a few ripe grapes from the wild vines in the back yard. Pretty sour, mostly seed, but actually kinda juicy. I was day dreaming about cutting a few bunches and putting them through a blender, straining them and see what I get.
Out in the woods, wildlife abounds. People are seeing coyotes everywhere now. Saw a young one myself a couple of weeks ago around the Westminister Ponds area, which while pretty woodsy, is still almost entirely surrounded by houses.
A pair of oak seedlings I potted are struggling. I corrected mistakes I made in the past, tried a few new things, still I don't think they'll make it.
Still trying to get my brother to come over and see if he wants some trees that are growing in places I can't let them mature.
A nice straight ash about six feet tall. A walnut about the same. A good number of elms varying from seedling to five footers. Might start asking co workers who live in the nieghborhood if they want them.
Our TO tomatoes are finally coming on strong and the beans continue.. chard is going crazy.
Just finished Niagara yellow plum and peach jam with non-Niagara sugar and vanilla; it joins the ginger lime peach-plum sauce and apricot jam . Peaches are in the freezer and so is apricot sauce. Gonna pick tame blueberries tomorrow and hope to put up pickles. Just had a perfect peach and sweet corn. The fridge is over flowing with our organic CSA haul. Life is good and we are very lucky.
I've decided that next spring I'm buying one of those small Mantis tillers, I really need to do something with my soil. This summer I weeded all my gardens by hand - that was a lot of work! - then tilled also by hand with a shovel and hoe. No more. I'll be 60 in a few weeks, I have arthritis, and other medical issues, some of them serious.
Our garden is great this year. It seems we finally got our soil in the correct space. So next year we are going to be able to plant more than this year, as we held back because our root veggies were stunting and not etable in other years.
The cukes did not do well though.
The tomatoes are fantastic, but they are all cherry tomatoes for the most part. I gave away several seedlings, which I thought were mixed between beef steak and cherry, but apparently, I gave away almost the beef steak, which is a serious bummer, as I wanted enough to can.
The brussel sprouts are mind moggling in their hugeness.
Going to make and can horse radish next week.
Air quality is poor.
I've been moving firewood all weekend from its location in the bush to dry over the summer, to the side of my woodshed, still not finished moving it all, and still have to stock it all in the woodshed after I get it all moved. The blackflies are awful. It's almost (but not quite) enough to get me to convert my furnace from wood to more expensive oil. Maybe after we get a road to Natashquan (maybe in three years) and we have access to somewhat cheaper oil (pick it up ourselves in our trucks rather than pay expensive frieght on the supply ship - it becomes very expensive when shipped). Firewood is very labour intensive, and even though oil is more expensive, it's by far less of a hassle. My house is already partially heated by electric, that will continue even with a conversion of the furnace to oil. I spend about $600 every winter on firewood. Oil will be at least double that much, but with no hassle.
At first I thought you meant fire wood was more expensive. Then I see you meant oil.
I was just out swede sawing limbs off of some trees we fell a while back. And then moved the branches to the fire pile waiting for the fall and burning allowed. Got the ones off the front yard a few weeks back they were covering my wild blue berries. Swede sawed them all to length too. The other downed trees will have to wait until it is less hot to get cut into lengths. Freaking high 30's out there right now.
Oops - I'll go back and correct my post.
We do not pay, as of yet, for our wood. Still have enough around us that is standing dead or close to it. Then there is a whack load that is free, fallen and bucked right now along the hydro lines.
I'm unable to get into the bush and cut sufficient firewood on my own, so that's why I pay someone to do it for me. Almost everyone here cuts their own firewood for free, except those of us (like myself) disabled by one thing oor another.
Quebec Hydro just cut a swath of trees to prevent interference with their lines, and local folks are helping themselves. I don't have an ATV, trailer, or chain saw , all of which one needs to get in and bring it all out.
The Municipality has passed a bylaw that forbids cutting of trees within its boundaries, which means the only access to firewood is in the winter by skidoo to a standing forest about 30 km from our village. Quebec Hydro was exempt for this rule on the grounds of safety of the hydro lines.
But the wee trees need the dead wood.
Kidding.
In London, the city designates weeks where you can put out green stuff, and they'll collect it and deliver it to a private company who will compost it and sell it back to you for about six bucks a bag.
Frequently, there are large enough pieces of branches or trees that are suitable for burning. I've often wondered if an enterprising person could take advantage of that. And of course there are two or three times a year when a storm will provide a bonanza of wood.
We have small backyard fires once and a while here. So far, what falls from the trees is enough to keep us in good supply, that and clean scrap wood from various sources. Last time, Snarfy the Wonder Girl and I took turns reading from "Lord of the Rings" by the fireside.
No wee trees that are pine are going to be allowed to grow on our property. We use the ash to mix with manure and other compost to build bigger gardens.
We have been busy planting assorted other tree and shrub species for hedges and shade.
Plus the wild blue berries, cranberries and saskatoons, in the yard, are growing in leaps and bounds since all the pine are pretty much gone, which is a huge bonus, no driving all over to pick enough. And next year there will be way more, and sadly we may move.
Finally got an answer to a question I've been asking for many years: there was an annuncement on the radio today about a public meeting regarding the road construction in Kegaska. After two hours with no announcements made, I finally went up to the Minister of Transport for Quebec and asked him directly: when will the road be completed between Kegaska and Natashquan? Answer: in three years. Geez, I'll be 63 by then.
True, I suppose - but folks here on the LNS were first promised a road connecting us to the rest of Quebec back in 1943!
Every government at every level has been flat-out lying to us for 60 years about the road. Why people here even bother to vote anymore is a mystery to me.
Bingo tonight at the co-op. I have been calling for 14 years. I like to say that I haven't won in 14 years. Tonight a new member (new Canadian family) came up after the first game and asked why I was always using letters when I called out the numbers.
I worked as a security pig at a huge BINGO operation in Miississauga in my student days, and I wondered the same thing. I was told announcing the letters with the numbers moved the game along faster.
I once annoyed a couple of avid Bingo players by dryly asserting that I had the perfect strategy for playing bingo. That caught their interest, and I lowered my voice in a conspiratorial tone, and said:
"When they call out the number, I mark it off on my card."
And winked.
Veggie Trader
http://www.veggietrader.com/
A place to trade, buy and sell produce online. Just USA so far, but we can ask them to accommodate us or make our own.
First frost of the year last night, fortunately I had taken the geraniums out of the ground in the afternoon and brought them (potted) indoors. I don't understand why people insist on buying new ones each year. The foilage is attractive year round... they will continue to bloom if you are fortunate enough to have a south facing window to put them in... and the plants are naturally long-lived. I kept one set going through 4 summers and they only succumbed because the sibling who promised to water them during a dry spell .... didn't.
Ya, I heard ya'all had black ice over in AB, that caused a major accident.
Covering our tomatoes tonight, even though we are expecting record breaking high temps this week, it is cold out and snow has gotten lower on the mountains.
Also, am trying my hand at writing a script. ;)