Do not disturb

Shhhh

Sigh

I'll probably make a hash of trying to get my thoughts onto the screen in a logical manner, but here goes.

I recently came across a blog that I really enjoyed. Their farm, animals, hard work, and homeschooling were all interesting (and lots of pictures which makes it fun). The sticking point was the politics. I'm not a fan at the best of time of anything political, and while I could always skip those posts, having them in my blog list bothered me.

Something else I've noticed is that topics seem to come and go in waves; example: with all the scary and important news available to discuss lately, I've seen various blogs bashing feminism in the last couple weeks. Either the posts or supporting comments always contain digs about 'unshaven hags' and men-haters.

I don't understand why someone picks out the extremists of a group and uses them and their actions to deride and mock all the rest. Just imagine if nobody could say they were Republican without having to endorse and support every statement made by Michele Bachmann?

So, do I consider myself a feminist? Yes. Do I think women are better then men? No. Are individuals of either gender better at some things than others? Absolutely. As for the insults: my legs are clean-shaven and sometimes I'll wear earrings (unless I need the noise-cancelling headphones on at work because 'ouch') and I quite like men of all types. From John Candy to Mark Owen and John Barrowman to David Marciano, men are delightful.

And that's pretty much all for tonight.

Too hot!

Even the simplest tasks had sweat dripping off my face today. Hot with very high humidity = bleah.

There was good news though; today the new electrician came to gather the information about the updated solar circuitry so he can make an estimate of time and cost to get it all hooked up. The way his schedule looks, I'll be up and running by the end of September. Yay! It's been a long time coming.

Some things won't run off the batteries; the hot water heater and window air conditioners are just too power hungry. But those are luxuries anyway and not something I'd bemoan when everything else works when the power is off.

I did spot the tiny tassel of an emerging ear of corn...woohoo!

The town has been invaded by a wagon train today. It's heading to the threshing jamboree this weekend. We drove past where the participants are camping tonight and admired the beautiful horses. One family had their pet rooster along!

Improvising

Last week we got rain! Definitely a shock, although we should have expected it since the weatherman predicted a 20% chance. ;)

I had to do a very quick onion harvest before the showers arrived and left them sitting in mud. It's been very humid in the meantime and I haven't been able to put the onions out on the deck to dry as I normally would.

My improvised drying rack is a childproof gate in the living room. This may not look like much of a harvest to some of the bloggers I read with their hundreds of onions, shallots and leeks, but for us it's an abundance. If these store well we will be set for the whole winter which is great news because store bought onions don't keep well at all for me. The last two years the onions either rotted in the ground or didn't attain any size so I'm tickled with this.

Something different

Last night I saw a pigeon with leg bands on my garage roof. Today, when it was hanging around in the yard I was concerned; we do have four cats besides the others in the neighborhood. So, after catching it, I googled the leg band numbers and learned it was a registered racing pigeon. One email sent and I soon received a phone call from the owner living forty miles away.

Pretty little guy, isn't he? He should have made it home Tuesday and was thin, but otherwise fine. Happily reunited with his home flock.

We won!!!!

Chickens triumphant! We are all celebrating the town council giving in to our request to change the ordinance against chickens. The lawyer told them the next step would be a public vote (which obviously we would have won based on the petition response) that the town would have had to pay for.

I'm having a hard time believing it's over and I don't have to fight anymore.

Weathermen!

It sounded so promising: 80% chance of rain, up to 1 inch overnight.

What did we get? Nothing! Again!

This is the first time I'm growing corn in the garden. I had a small patch to fill and Truckers Favorite seeds so I thought I'd give field corn a try. This is an heirloom variety and is just now beginning to tassel which is great because it makes it unlikely to cross with the gmo crap in the fields (which is long past this stage). What is startling is how it dominates the appearance of the garden and looks like it takes up a lot more space. I expect the chickens will love this treat.

The tiger lillies are doing great this year. Such a nice, hardy plant that reseeds easily.

The flowerpot

I have a haphazard approach to filling flower pots with annuals and they don't always work out.

This one delights me. Every plant settled in and flourished and the bursts of color continue.

The Monarchs have struck

And left behind gifts...

There are six caterpillars munching away on the dill plants in an earthbox. None in the garden or on the milkweeds. Such cool critters.

Zinnia love

I planted an entire row of zinnias in the garden, both for the bugs and my pleasure.

Earthbox review

This is my first year growing in Earthboxes and I kept my regular gardens as well.

The concept is that the box has a water reservoir that wicks up through a high quality potting mix and fertilizer, ensuring that the plants can't be over or under watered. The cover keeps weeds out and moisture in. The pipe in the corner is used to fill the reservoir and the indent in the bottom is the overflow slot. When water dribbles out there I know the box has enough.

This box holds three bell peppers with a pea fence around for extra support.

Now that the gardening season is well advanced I can offer some opinions. The only things that didn't thrive were the peas. It's best to plant seedlings instead of seeds which limits the usefulness to plants that can be transplanted. Lettuce and broccoli grew like crazy and drank a lot of water every day. Overall, I'm very happy with the performance and look forward to trying different crops next year.