Fowl

The husband spent some time yesterday morning re-installing the fencing we use to separate the chicks from the big chickens after they get transferred from the brooder to the coop. Baby and Dave now have separate spaces in the chicken yard, with separate entrances into the coop, although they can see each other. I put a few hens in with Baby. This isn’t a good long-term solution, but it will keep them apart until the fall.

I put black plastic down in another section of the garden. I am supposed to be part of a garden tour at the end of August and I feel bad because I don’t think there will be much to look at. However, the garden tour was scheduled after I decided that this year would be a “rebuilding” year for the garden. What is out there looks great—except for the corn—so I will just have to explain what I’m doing. The tour organizers said that people will want to see the pigs, too.

[I am not sure what is going on with the corn. I have a few theories, but I need more information.]

There are a few sections of the garden that are going to get infusions of chicken manure this fall, now that I have the tractor and wagon and have a good way to transport it over there.

I also watered the fruit trees in the front yard before it got hot—there are half a dozen young trees that we just put in this spring that need regular watering, but I watered the established trees, too, as they’re looking a bit stressed. The State Fair tree only has about a dozen apples on it after not producing any last year. I did prune it pretty heavily this spring, though. The two Honeycrisps have apples, the Lodi has apples (yay!), and the Red Wealthy is loaded. The Golden Delicious is taking a year off. We still have that one tree whose variety is unknown—and one of the tree maps shows it as an apricot—but it has fruit on it this year and they look like apples to me. WHO KNOWS.

We’re waiting for Amazon to deliver another fence energizer like the one that powers the electric fence on the chicken coop. The husband is going to put up a temporary fence around the fruit trees soon so that the bears and deer can’t get to the apples.

This group was wandering around while I was out working:

I counted 12 baby turkeys. They are going to be surprised to find out they can’t get to the grapes this fall. I have a plan to protect the bunches of grapes as they ripen.

At least I don’t have to shoot ground squirrels anymore. That problem has mostly disappeared.

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I cut out four more T-shirts yesterday afternoon. I will assembly-line them through the serger and coverstitch machines. A big purge of the closet is on the schedule soon, too.

The husband asked me over dinner what’s on the sewing schedule after I get all these T-shirts made. I just laughed. I told him that that is up to the universe. After all, I had no idea that I would be teaching serger classes this summer. I do want to get back to designing and making quilts, but it’s nice to be able to make myself good-fitting clothing, too.

I finished and bound off a prayer shawl while watching a meat-canning webinar yesterday afternoon. It just needs the fringe.

Has anyone else seen this yarn from Lion Brand?

I am tempted to pick up a skein and try it out (if I can find it locally). The last 100% hemp yarn I knitted with was some that I spun myself. Hemp is still one of my favorite spinning fibers.

[I made myself a vest with that yarn and some woman tried to buy it off of me at an art festival in downtown Kalispell.]

One skein would be enough for a knitted washcloth or two. I haven’t made any of those in a while.