Another Toasty Day In Paradise

Hail the ever blooming and almost prehistoric in size zucchini. But just now in mid July establishing edible squashes (is that the term?) yet to come to ripeness. I am hoping since this round three or is it four comes to a positive conclusion. Perhaps zucchini bread, zucchini latkes , salad fixings and all those things one does with zucchini. I have a vision of public acclaim and perhaps my own website bearing the awesome title California Woman Who Can't Grow Zucchini. All when for years I have thought that zucchini could take over the world simply by tossing the last of the crop into a unsuspecting compost pile. 

Then there are two of the largest of all the potential Rocky Persian cucumbers. I love these little guys . I originally purchased Persian cucumbers at Trader Joes many years back. These are gentle on my tummy and apparently a good variety for pickling, 

A good number on the plant at various stages of maturity. Getting anxious!

 

Another Patio Eggplant coming on. This little gem of a plant produces a mini eggplant that is 2-3 inches long when harvested and has a very tender edible skin. I enjoy them cut in about 1/8 inch slice and sautéed in olive oil with whatever other veggies cross my mind. I have harvested for almost a month at this date and enjoyed a couple of times a week. Even sent home some for my sister to try out. This great little plant will be in my garden next year!

  

Another little bell ringer is the Indigo Rose Tomato. The VW Bug of the tomato family. Compact and more like a bush the tomato's are about the size of a small apricot when ripe for eating and very mild . 

It is very prolific or just likes it here.

 

 

The standby Sun Golds. Prolific and very nice balance between sweet and acid. Sorry the fruit in the photo is not that lovely gold hue but at my garden those don't linger on the vine for very long. 😊

Itsy bitsy radishes coming up . 

I have several itsy Honey Dews growing. It will be interesting as they grow to see what kind of support system I come up with . I am hoping for those large spectacular  melons I get at the summer farmers market. Perhaps I shall give Miss. Dolly Parton a holler to see if she can send me any of her unmentionables to support my melons.

East side of front porch latticework done by my handy man on Friday.

Since we worked with as much of  product I had on hand a bit of creative thinking came into play.

The large rocks in front aren't holding up the add on . But at photo time hadn't been removed.

The far side of steps on back porch. the fronts of the top two are purchased redwood and the lower face was a redwood board in my shop stash left by the previous owner. The paving steps were there already just rearranged. The last one was installed this morning after photos yesterday. 

 

Same porch only SE view. The blueberries live in the pots . I got a nice little first year crop. The berry plants will get larger pots this summer to give room to go. Due to the gopher issue here I will continue to grow my blueberries in pots as I did in Shasta county. Only up in Shasta the goal of the pots was to be able to grow on my deck with more traffic so the birds became shy about cleaning them off lol.

The other project this weekend was my handyman's uncle hauling over his large wood splitter and making short work of the seven trees that PGE took down at their cost in October. The arbor company that did the harvesting kindly left them cut in 24 inch long logs and stacked them for curing. The trees are white oak and the curing is more rapid than the live oak we had in Shasta. Now that they are split in August and September we will be moving them to the new log area into a temporary storage situation. Unless I somehow manage to get the wood shed put up before then. 

It is toasty today but I have managed to limit the use of the air conditioner by closing up all windows and blinds angled to provide light but discourage blazing sunlight. On the back of the cabin I have the same lovely shades we had in Shasta. They deter 96% of the UV rays and drop the house temperature by six degrees or more. Right now it is 102 outside with 17 % humidity and 6mph SW winds. Inside it is 83 with 30% humidity with my three ceiling fans one in the kitchen dinning area, living room and top of the stairwell which influences the rooms upstairs. So far I have only run the AC mid June three very  humid (for us) and hot days. And  only a few hours setting it to go on only after it hit 80 degrees and then maintain that temperature. I try to keep all my windows open at night and until about 8 AM to 10 AM in the morning. 

So much for this and that. Have a great weekend and make time for a day of rest.

Blogging Is Becoming A Challenge

This is a fairly old photo of Helen about two to three years back. The bottom of the laundry basket was always Helen's go to place when she wasn't feeling well or when she was just done. I am beginning to think about looking on Amazon to see if they have laundry baskets in my size. I am about done with a laundry list of things but life was easier when producing a blog was more comfortable.

Mt. Lassen from my deck on Ash Creek. Yesterday my sister and I had lunch at a sweet little restaurant up the mountain a bit in a small town that is shrinking as years go by but seems to keep reinventing itself. We then took almost the rest of the drive to the entrance of Yosemite turning back a bit before the entrance as we knew we couldn't get into the park without a reservation per the new restrictions. But a nice day none the less when on the way back my sister asked the $50 question.

 Did I miss my life in Shasta? I think some what to her surprised I answered yes. I miss the topography. I miss my land and my fiber friends. I assured that her that I really do value and enjoy my new land and home . But there are some things that just can't be replaced. Such as living on a large acreage in the middle of free range cattle land. Or barely getting started on a journey that was in in the future for so long and suddenly wasn't in the cards anymore.  I shared with  Emily the second oldest Grandgirl after she asked "why didn't you stay there and were you scared?" I didn't stay because it wasn't practical and it wasn't fair to my family to be so far away. That sometimes you have to just , as Susan says, pull up those PGP and press on. You have to do what is best for herd and not what you want . And you get past the scared part when you get to the other side of the journey when you realize you can do it and you survived. And while  thinking about all this I think I tripped right over why , at least in part, blogging has become hard to do. 

I am finding my way in this new journey and just like the fourteen year old  who is still growing into their new size 10 boots life sometimes just gets uncomfortable. Getting used to the new protocol of blogging isn't helping my cause. Pictures won't load to my account and all the new icons feel weird. Like anything else a tincture of time will cure all the ills real or imagined and things will flow again. 

Just a shot in the dark when it is "normal" feet will fit into those boots that seemed so big and a rhythm will take place. 

 

Chicken Nuggets Arrived!

Two Buff Orpingtons

One Plymouth Barred Rock

Gardening 1 A In The Central Sierra Nevada Range.

Good Morning Froggy. This little one was sitting on the screen on one of my bedroom windows this morning in a small space of  sunshine on a 51 degree morning.  48 hours earlier he wasn't there as the low temperature for Saturday at 5:30 AM was 72. I am certain he was out and about looking for breakfast. Today he just wanted to stay warm.

I thought about blogging on the new generator but since gardens are the number one topic in blogland I decided to jump in with the rest of you .  I am grateful to be able to pick the brains of multiple seasoned gardeners and/or homesteaders to bounce ideas off of. I as some of you know was not the gardener of our family. I dappled and did a few small gardens on Ash Creek (the off gird homestead) the last year or two prior to Geoffrey passing. I also did two small raised beds last Spring of 2019 to occupy myself while selling our 42 Acres of Paradise after he passed. But Geoffrey was the official "master" gardener for  all the years the children were at home and after. I was the "master" food preserver and goat herder.

Last Fall I got a wild hair and grew some snap peas, kale and spinach. With fairly decent results and since our winter was without snow on the ground and no days of continuous freezing I pretty much had fresh goodies through until mid spring when I evicted them with thoughts of a summer garden taking their place.

During a long weekend visit with a my friends middle daughter Moriah we constructed these 2X8 foot above ground containers of shelving the seller had left in the shop when he moved out. They went together nicely. I put a layer of hardware cloth on the bottom to gopher proof them before I filled them with soil. I also put to use the two 60 gallon stock tanks that were left behind as they didn't hold water well .

In the beginning when the plants were littles.

A cart that was used on the left behind riding mower became a herb garden when the mover died and it was left by the side of my barn road since I could no longer pull it to move yard waste and more. 

There has been funky weather periods of Spring is here and no it is not . Winters back wood stove is chugging along and then opps summer is here. Another several combinations there of until we pretty much have stabilized in  a moderate zone or so "they" say. Let us not forget the most recent 21 degree differential in only 48 hours.

The plants went in late April and early May. So were are we now almost in July? 

Tomatoes Indigo Rose getting bigger daily and the plant is full of different stages.

A stock tank full of happy mixed beans. Life is an experiment! 

My favorite basil Lavender and it grows in a perfect dome shape. Co-existing with a honey dew melon . I may have to move the basil soon to give the honey dew more room. Another crazy experiment.

Lemon grass a first for me and I guess I need to brush up on my Thai recipes.

Sun Gold plant loaded and the first almost fully ripened tomato.

Below is the top of the same plant just going skyward.

What I didn't picture a fully loaded eggplant, zucchini, cucumber and a pumpkin. I figure I will get what I get but learn a lot and spend some quality time with the plants. So much fun to go out in the morning and see them grow exponentially overnight!  I am finally beginning to understand the Jack and the bean stock concept lol!

I Intended To Write Another Post But It Wasn’t This One

This is the SE end of my front porch. At least the top part of it. 

Look more familiar now?

Oh wait what is that at the top. Chinking ? 

Nope. Not cabin chinking but garden burlap dipped in peppermint essential oil. 

Scratching your head “Boy this gal has lost her mind. Poor dear.”

Let me share my morning coffee on the porch. Coffee check, cinnamon toast check , glasses check and phone. About half way through coffee whoa Nellie what is all over that end of the porch? If those are mice they are big poopers . Just so happens a few days ago I was scanning an article about how many folks think they have mice but on closer inspection you realize not rodent poop but the darling of the fertilizer world  quano more specifically bat quano.  

There are days I adore my iPhone not many but this was one of them. I learned today that bats aren’t crazy about eucalyptus oil. Frantic search of soap making EO stock yikes all out. However recalling another article that said mice and bats share some preferences. So with a backlog of info fighting mice in my barns I grabbed the bottle of peppermint EO. Added it to a dilution of about 1:10 with water in my garden sprayer and marched back to the porch hollering “it is Evac time 🦇.”

It began slowly. Then in earnest they came large , small young, and old. By the time total Evac was achieved I felt at least 100 numbered this colony. One of the young ones got a tiny wing caught between two porch boards. I worked gently with the soft end of a broom to help free it. I relocated a few of all sizes who were too stressed to leave on wing to a darker cooler area to wait out the day. My goal was to move them out not kill them. Yes bats can transmit disease but my goal was to discourage them from colonizing on my porch. Also they are very helpful in many ways. 

I have had a long list since I moved in that includes bat boxes . After this morning that will be sooner than later. The burlap is a stop gap measure and may not work . But until I can get another body up here it is all I can do.  Ultimately I may need to get a snap board in place plus the bat boxes we should be good.

Oh the other post? Next time soon and I mean in the next day or two. Pinky swear 🙃

2020 And We Just Finished Off The First Half?

Am I the only one who feels like "I can't believe half the year is already gone?" And am I the only one who feels like we have spent at the least double time in those 6 months feeling more like 12 months?

And "Holy Goat Bat Girl " the amazing thing is  I keep thinking back to last year this time. I was living in a time warp. In nine months I became a widow, lived through lots of weather , put a house on 42 acres on sale, sold same with 45 day escrow (it was the livestock clause lol) , purchased a house I had never seen in person but my family had . Everyone needs a good posse bless them :-). Moved this entire farm for the third time  in 13 years. All in the same amount of time I could have brought another child into the world. Just a comparison mind you.

So I also feel very absentee here in blog land. I know I have kicked  a few "shorts" out to y'all and blathered about just wait until you see what is next. But I will be darned if I ever got that far. And I am now at the other side of the tunnel and still am not sure what caused my lack of follow through. I can compile a list of reasons  excuses but what the heck no.

I even contemplated riding off into the sunset on Longfellow ( my 12 year old still stunning as ever buck boy)  but it never happened. I could see the news with photos at eleven . Gently geriatric woman and aged LaMancha ride into sunset during pandemic and OMG  both sans mask ! But it gets quiet enough around here and what would I do without you all? I even tossed social distancing and started occasionally posting on Instagram. But I felt as if I am cheating on friends. Sigh. . .

So I will pick up where I left off and sort out photos while I tackle the last 10 months which encompassed three major projects although I believe I pretty much did justice to the huge fencing project . I will begin with the whole house generator  have even had to use it twice since it was put in place. I love it <3

I promise to then regale you in the log cabin restoration , moving of the laundry room from the bedroom closet to the shop. The chicken coop and coop yard you have seen but a few doodads  have been added as recently as last Sunday.

Helen 2005-2020

Blind but brave the most amazing cat I have been blessed to share life with.

Little one you certainly proved by how you lived your life that attitude is everything. 

Inspired all who knew you and your story.

❤️ We Shall Over Come One Day 💙