A Guiding Hand....

We live in what feels to me an arboreal oasis. Our land was once a cedar forest - the swampy bottom land type, and the rolling 'hills' that flow through the neighborhood influenced the location of our house and outbuildings. Deer, a wide variety of birds, squirrels, skunk, possum and raccoon venture onto our property and we are surrounded by wood lots and out right deciduous forest. Hawks frequent the sky over our house and a family of Bald Eagles has their summer nest in a cottonwood tree just a few yards beyond our back property line. It is a peaceful retreat that offers a lot if one has the patience to watch.

We have had an injured doe living in our back yard since late August or early September - when the first apples started to ripen and fall from the trees. I had thought perhaps she had been grazed by a car. Josh said it looked more like she had been shot. Either way there was an obvious injury to her shoulder. We often saw her hobbling along, being careful not to put much weight on her left foreleg. She wasn't too spooky most of the time, not even when we took the dog out.

It made me feel good to see her, and feel that we were providing her a safe haven. I even saw her bedded down one afternoon under a big cedar tree behind the house. I was looking forward to spring to see if some buck had considered her worthy despite her lameness. A fawn frolicking in our back yard would have been delightful. Sadly, very early this morning she was hit by a car. Unfortunately, she wasn't killed instantly. But by some miracle of providence she literally came knocking on our back door.

I woke up about 2:30 AM to use the bathroom. While I was there I heard something banging around the basement. I wasn't scared, but didn't know what to think. At first I thought perhaps one of the local wildlife had somehow gotten into our basement. But as it happened again I realized the banging was on our basement door. (Because of the shape of our land, we have an exterior basement door - a little like having a daylight basement.) This door is directly below our bathroom window. I quickly went to get Josh. Someone had tried to break into the house this way in the past (with no success).

When he came to investigate he didn't hear anything at first, then it became obvious that someone or something was beating on the basement door. As he was getting dressed we heard a very strange sound - not a growl, not a moan, but alarming nevertheless. He went to investigate in the basement first and as he approached the basement door from the inside he heard the strange noise again. He then went outside while I waited anxiously within. When he returned he sadly reported to me that it was our doe and that she was bleeding and in very bad shape. In her disoriented state she had been banging into the basement door. The strange noise we heard had been her cries of pain.

He was going to go out and relieve her from her misery when we both thought better of doing it ourselves - the sheriff was called for advice (we didn't want to break any firearm or hunting laws) and a deputy arrived to assist. Just an hour ago an animal control officer came and removed the carcass.

She was such a symbol of perseverance over adversity for me. That she was able to survive her initial injury - most likely a botched poaching attempt - and recover as well as she did was amazing. That she ended up at our back door instead of lying in the woods or along the side of the road for hours or longer is nothing short of miraculous. I am saddened by this tragic end to her life, yet grateful that we were able to shorten her suffering.

Christmas and other things.

It has been a while since I shared anything. Suffice it to say, this year was a bust with very uncooperative, cool and damp weather well past the time for planting. We've put it behind us and are planning for next spring already, with a nice tunnel house for tomatoes their family members on the must acquire list.

I spent yesterday afternoon taking trimmings off the fir, cedar, and spruce trees and holly around our place to start making wreaths and swags for Christmas. The Blue Spruce is especially tough and prickly this year, my scratched and poked hands are proof of that, but the holly is lovely this year with lots of berries.

I used to make wreaths a lot - by the dozens - for a church fund raiser for several years. I haven't made any in awhile, not even for myself, so it will take a small search to find all my supplies - wreath frames, pine cones, outdoor ribbon, and such. I know they are here, by like all things that we don't use on a regular basis have gotten pushed to the back of some shelf, drawer, or shed.

The cold is not very kind to this activity, but I'll have to persevere. I'm planning to make a few for far off family, and if I get back into the rythm of assembling them, hope to have some for sale by the 5th of December. They're really lovely, if I do say so myself. Lush, full, and fragrant. If the weather holds - cold but dry - I can hang out in the yard to do this.

Was delighted yesterday to be able to actually be outside and be comfortable without boots or a heavy coat. The brief period of sunshine was wonderful. Raked some of the overly abundant leaves out of the flower beds - and was chewed out by my four year old for doing so. She informed me that raking leaves is her job, then thanked me for starting it for her while she was using the bathroom.

I wish the leaves would compost faster. It is always aggravating to have a huge pile of leaves still decomposing when spring arrives. We are due for a new mower this spring though, so hope to get one that is especially good at mulching. That would help a lot.

It is always so quiet around here in the winter. Not too much to do but dream of spring planting and make sure the animals have plenty of food and water and stay warm and dry when it gets really nasty. My horse is approaching what is considered 'senior' in age and the llama is of unknown age, but she has been on the farm about 20 years, so it is important that they both get the care and shelter they need.

Funny chickens - hardly an egg all summer, and now we are averaging two a day. Still not great for what we put in to them, but we do have one egg eater. She would end up in the oven if we were a little more hard hearted, but we'll be finishing up a nice poultry run in the spring and get her separated from the rest. Her little problem doesn't seem to have spread to the others, thankfully. Our goose is tending to two eggs, but this seems like an effort in futility for her. The third time they have had a clutch of eggs and most likely they'll give up on these before too much longer as well. They'll be getting their own space this spring too and hopefully a nicer area to nest will make them more comfortable in tending their eggs.

Lots and lots planned for spring and sooner - I'm looking forward to a busy and productive year next year. Hope everyone has a joyous and peaceful Christmas.

Good Day, Sunshine

What a beautiful and productive day! The sun was shining and warming the earth: The sort of day that just begs one to get out and enjoy. This morning my daughter and I went to a MOMS Club meeting, an enjoyable and needed break. She played with her friends while I got to chat with mine, and ooh and ahh over my friend Jen’s new baby girl. She is adorable and how appropriate to welcome spring with a beautiful new life.

This afternoon Josh and our nephew, Jacob, moved some old equipment that had been “parked” on the side of the garden we want to expand. Our daughter helped me build three new portable compost bins, and Josh finished them while I started dinner. Now we can get all those leaf piles out of the yard.

I’ll have to look around and see where I can find a source for more ‘green’ fuel for the compost until we start mowing the lawn though. Most of our compostable kitchen waste goes to the little biddies in the henhouse – they need and deserve the fresh greens and peelings. Not to mention they love it.

It seems like we have gotten a few necessary things done this week. Started on Saturday - and finished on Sunday - planting 100 strawberry plants. They’ll need a year to really get settled, but then we’ll have plenty of strawberries. We ordered these from Raintree Nursery and they were all nice, healthy plants. Our order from Johnny’s Seeds arrived yesterday. Hoping we’ll have lots of corn and at least truckload of beautiful pumpkins come October – that is a hint for anyone looking for a pick your own experience that is a little (or a lot) closer to Bellingham this year.

One disappointment this week though. We’re going to have to start over with our green cabbage starts. They got much too leggy trying to find adequate sunlight before we installed a grow light and aren’t able to support themselves. One of the drawbacks of having piggy little house cats that like to eat fresh greens every chance they get is not being able to place our seed flats in front of just any window.

Everything else is doing really well however. I can hardly wait until they’re big enough to plant out in the garden. I’m glad for the sunny days, especially since rain was predicted. Also very happy for the longer days and moving into the growing season. Out in the garden today I discovered some little red lettuces pushing up where we let some go to seed last year. It is a pleasant surprise to know we are a just a week or two away from some fresh salad from our own garden.

Everywhere spring is popping out. Daffodils are beginning to bloom, trees are getting new green buds, and I can hear the over abundance of local frogs serenading each other from early evening until late at night. Tonight they are especially noticeable as today was our first real ‘leave the windows and doors open’ sort of day and the front door is still hanging open in the cooling evening air.

Little Green Spears

I love seeing the little harbingers of spring popping up every year – the little green spears that start poking through the ground in late winter. It means once again spring is on its way and the weather will soon be warmer. The little corner bed that I cleaned and wasn’t able to completely replant last fall is giving forth never the less. The Snowdrops I planted have come up, as well as dozens of mystery daffodils. I must have collected over 100 bulbs last fall yet here they are still poking through, the sunny yellow buds beginning to form.

Yesterday I was surprised and pleased to see Forsythia, flowering cherry, Crocus, and other spots of spring color showing along streets that were still bare and brown less than a week ago. Typical of spring to jump out and shout “Surprise!” when you don’t catch it sneaking up on you.

Today is supposed to be strawberry planting day. We’ll see. At the moment it is pouring down rain. Planting in the mud is not my favorite thing. I’m not sure the space is big enough either. It seemed rather big last fall when we placed black plastic mulch to get rid of the grass, but now I’m not so sure how well one-hundred strawberry plants will fit. The mulch did make rototilling the soil quite easy though according to Josh.

It will be on to the garden after that. Fence posts need to be pulled on the east and south sides of the garden so we can expand our space. It won’t be a huge increase as we’re just adding about eight hundred to one thousand square feet. Then the fence will go back up, with sections being replaced by wood posts and woven wire fencing as we can. This seems the only fool proof way to keep the livestock out of the garden year round. It wouldn’t seem such a big deal in the winter if it wasn’t for the horses thinking it is such a good place to roll around. Winter is hard on the electric wire tape, and it always ends up destroyed by spring.

I ordered seeds yesterday too – lettuces, corn, carrots, and of course the lovely ‘racer’ jack-o-lantern pumpkins we grew last year. Okra, bell peppers, cabbages and pickling cucumbers are already sown in little peat pots in the house, and I’ll be adding tomato seeds today. Seed potatoes are in at the local farmer’s co-op. We’ll be growing the same varieties as last year, Yukon Gold, Lasota Reds, and Norkota – a variety I found comparable to russets, but tastier and they stored really well. I’m considering adding some sort of fingerling this year, but haven’t decided yet. Little seed packets waiting on warmer weather include peas, beans, summer squash, kohlrabi, slicing cucumbers, giant pumpkins, sunflowers, beets, radishes, winter squash – and that’s all I can remember right now. I’m looking forward to having a great garden this year.

Mid-Winter Yucks and Yeahs

One of my favorite times of year has arrived – spring seed and plant catalogs have started arriving in the mail. Two that I prefer, Johnny’s Seeds and Raintree Nursery are here. We have ordered from Johnny’s before and have been very pleased with the results. Raintree is more or less local to us, located in Morton, WA. They have test growers in our climate zone so we can pick varieties that we know have done well in our area. It will be nice to add some other types of fruit to our orchard.

I have a huge list of seeds I want to order, but I guess I can’t have it all, so will have to narrow it down. We’re certainly ordering more of Johnny’s mid-sized ‘Racer’ pumpkin seeds. We got 20 beautiful medium to large pumpkins last year out of just 5 plants. The Musque de Provence we planted was interesting and grilled well - especially with some fresh rosemary, kosher salt and olive oil brushed on- so we will be planting that again too. I want to add pie pumpkins and a few varieties of winter squash this year to round out our fall harvest.

I’m considering adding ‘dry’ corn this year. It could be interesting to see how we do making our own corn meal, and how much can be produced from a small crop. I’ll just have to make sure that my corn patches are far enough apart and at the right orientation to the prevailing summer winds so that there won’t be cross pollination between the sweet and dry corn. Popcorn would be fun too, but I have to remember to take baby steps and not overwhelm us with a garden three times as big as last year’s. We need to work up to the level of production I would like to reach over a span of a few years, not all at once.

There is, of course, the drawback of having several months to wait before we can actually get out and start working the soil. It can be frustrating to look at all the glossy photographs of fruits, vegetables and flowers when the weather is so miserable. There is nothing but mud this time of year – when the ground isn’t frozen. The most irritating part of this winter so far has been the frozen crust of earth on top of the mud. A deceptive mess when you have to be outside.

For now I will have to content myself with dreaming about how nice the vegetable garden will look this year and all the flowers I want add to the beds around the house.