I'm Back

You thought it would be weeks, didn't you? Admit it. But no, here I am only a few short days later.... Well, maybe a week, but who's counting?

It has been a busy weekend. Friday I had to take off work early so that I could go snorggle some baby ducks. A lady out by the airport keeps runner ducks and she has some ducklings. She let me hold them even though I was very clear that I was NOT going to purchase any. Not even one. Not even all 5 of them. I got to check out the duck layout and see some runners in action. They didn't seem terribly messy, but the 7 ducks have free roam of the yard, and the goat pens, so there is lots of space. They have a solid enclosure that they are comfortable in and I got to watch the ducks put themselves up for the night. Man those baby ducks were cute. Pocket sized. If they were mine, I would make myself a duck apron so I could pop them in there and take them out to the garden with me.

Saturday I skipped the market all together and went straight to the harvest festival in the rain. I thought I was bein' all sly by going in the rain thinking no one else was that crazy. But LO.... Wads and scads of crazy gardeners. Wandering in the downpour. I thought I would have lots of time with the speakers to ask questions and tap into their knowledge, but things were hectic because of all the changes and people were coming and going and everything was crowded. I got a great handout though on winter vegetable gardening and I am scouring it to see what I still have time to put in.

Later Saturday I went to the parent's for a neighborhood potluck. I was sort of all social-ed out by that point so I didn't stay long. Though I had lots of nice garden/chicken chats with my neighbors.

Today was spent puttering in the garden, doing some weeding and trying to figure out where I might be able to put some of those winter vegetables. I washed all the potatoes from last weeks harvest and picked out some to try to save a seed potatoes. We'll see how that works....Clearly, it has been done, I just don't know if there is anything special that has to be done... I cleaned the front bed and planted some kale and arugala. I have teeny spinach coming up in one of the pots that (until this AM) contained my persimmon tomato.

And speaking of fruits, I had the rapturous experience on Friday of tasting my first ever paw paw. I bought some at the market on Wed and forgot about them. They were almost too far gone on Friday when I remembered them. After trying them, I raced out to my paw paw tree to see if mine were ripe, but the are still hard and green. I checked again today and still no. But I am watching them, as I am sure the squirrels and raccoons are. Hopefully, I get there first.

The rest of today was spent with the bees and my bee mentor (who rocks). The bad news is that there is going to have to be some serious feeding to get these guys up to speed before storage activity shuts down in October when the weather gets cold. Like, I have to be ON IT and be sure that their feeder never runs dry. He tells me I am going to have to feed 30-40# of sugar in the next 6 weeks. So tonight, I went grocery shopping and came home and made dinner for the bees. I filled the feeder and took it out at dusk without the smoker, but with my gloves and veil on. That time of night things are pretty quiet so there were no problems. Other than they forgot to tip the delivery person. Ahem. Makes me feel sorry for the Dominos guys.