New Projects and Old

Wow. Lots has happened. Last weekend the SB was home for a spur of the moment visit. On his very short "break" he mowed the lawn, pruned the apple trees, put up my ground hog fence, hauled a bunch of poop around and generally made himself useful-like. He is a little less than thrilled with the half assed way that I installed the bees (I neglected to level everything up before I set it up) but he is very excited about the prospect of ducks. Yes, ducks. Specifically, this kind of duck. This is an Indian Runner Duck. I love them because they are so upright and I just want to give all of them little baseball caps and have the follow me around in the yard. The are Asian in origin and are used to help weed and keep the rice paddies varmint free. I figure they will fit right in our wetland. A good sturdy fence will be needed, but the SB is working on that - the design of the gate and the duck house.


This will be in addition to the chickens and the wild fantasy of a dairy goat. I think the ducks come after chickens and before the goat. I am not sure what other livestock I might be able to shoehorn into the property, but I am sure I will think of something. There used to be a cow named Inky that lived here in the 1960s. So the property is at least used to livestock.

In garden news, I almost lost my tomatoes to stupidity. Forgetting that our garden swale is a few degrees colder than everything else. I had a few sparkly tomato seedlings the other morning. Frost and tomatoes do not blend. The basil was worst hit though. I may have to start over there. But, seeing how I had about 85 more tomatoes than I actually need - the loss of two or three tender souls, though distressing, was not disastrous. The vast majority of the seedlings I spent my weekend transplanting into larger pots also made it. Which is very rewarding indeed. With luck, I will have Black Prince snapdragons in the fall!