Gimpy

One of the little brown ducks is limping. We caught her and looked but couldn't find a wound (I thought maybe she had gotten cut on some of the glass that turns up in the creek.) We are letting her be and hoping that she improves on her own. It came on suddenly, so I am hoping it is just a sprain or pull and will heal up on its own. Poor critter.

And more with the summer...

I think we are getting toward the end of the summer heat. Not that we had much of it this year, but in the same way that having a long vacation doesn't actually make you want to go back to work, having a cool summer doesn't make you glad to see the heat. In reality, I could deal with the heat if it weren't for the voracious mosquitoes that stalk me now day and night. I have to slather myself with stinky bug spray before even attempting the simplest of garden tasks. There is so much to do out side and it is brutal. Last night the bugs were biting me through my pants. Pretty underhanded. Oh, and we have yet to turn on the AC this year. Not that I mind really. I just feel kinda butch.

Things have gotten frisky in the duck pen. There is a great deal of cavorting and flirting and ... well, I am sure you can imagine the results. Two boys, nine girls all reaching sexual maturity in the summer around a pool. It is no less dramatic than you might - who is flirting with whom, who has his/her advances accepted or rejected, etc etc. The boys aren't actively fighting though, which is good. Sampson chases Cyrus, who seems happy to run rather than confront him. He is a lover (every chance he gets) not a fighter. Duck eggs in about 3 weeks I think.

I have been making tomatillo sauce. We have lots of peppers and tomatillos. I planted sugar snaps yesterday. Still waiting on other things to come up, though the mustard and kale are going great guns, as is the rutabaga. A few other less identifiable things as well.

Tomorrow, I think, must be a day to visit the bees. They have been sorely neglected and I have to see if 1) there is any honey and 2) if I need to do anything to get them ready for winter. Wish me luck, I am a little out of practice.

The SB and I spent about a week digging and moving 4 ENORMOUS boxwoods from a yard a mile or so away. THAT will set you back on the housework.

I have been making watermelon agua fresca lately. Fill the blender container with watermelon chunks, the juice of a lime, about 1/3 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water. Blend until smooth, run through a strainer, add more water or seltzer and some more lime juice and/or mint. Mmmm. I'll even give you some if you come mow the lawn.

The Season

So this is an odd time of the year when I am both putting things up and planting. Over the weekend I made three batches of tomatillo sauce. The SB and I went blackberry picking at a friends and hauled home 6 pounds of blackberries after 30 minutes of "work". An amazing year. Hoping for more of that tomorrow and possibly some blackberry jam. I am getting lots of jalapenos which go well with the tomatillos, but the squash bugs have pretty well done in the summer squash, though I am considering one last planting. I have planted August 1 before and harvested before frost. The SB built me a trellis for fall sugar snaps and I am currently trying to cool the soil with a heavy layer of straw. I have put in seeds for lettuce, spinach, kale, beets, turnips, rutabagas, and some other things. I have a flat full of cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts seedlings. The SB also built me a frame from bamboo garnered from the CHO house so that when all these goodies get going, I will be able to cover them with remay for the winter and prolong whatever harvest we get. Assuming we can figure a way to keep the ducks out.

They were great company in the yard yesterday. I took off work early and came home to sort through the potatoes (which I had noticed some fruit flies in earlier in the day - a bad sign). I took everything out that we had harvested and washed and sorted through them all to find the "eat soon" ones that wouldn't store and the ones that were suitable for longer term storage. Let me just say there are a lot in the "eat soon" pile. But I LOVE home grown potatoes, so no worries there. The ducks kept creeping up on me. I think the sound of the water I was using to wash the potatoes in an old dishpan was attractive to them. Though when I offered it, they ran away. They eventually got bored and started nibbling on the SB's old Chevy truck in the drive way, and chasing them away from that was akin to playing with a boomerang.

The ducks are, undeniably, insane. I have named another duck. She is Aretha, duck of many colors. In the filtered sunlight her black feathers have eggplant purple, mallard green and peacock blue colors. Stunning. In direct light she is quite ordinary.

More Duck Pictures

The duck in the foreground is Cyrus. He is the other male (Sampson was pictured in the last post). The are both good ducks, but Sampson really is the better of the boys. He watches while every one else, including Cyrus head full throttle into the food dish in the morning.
These are some of the girls. Hard to tell who is who here, and only some of the ducks have names. Gloria, Gladys from New Jersey, Josephine and Louisa. I can only sometimes pick Little out of the group. She has to be standing next to the other small brown ducks in order for me to tell them apart. She is the one with the slimmest neck.

Here is everyone alert to noises. It is funny, if they are startled by sounds like a hawk or something far off, they tighten up the herd and come toward me if I am out with them. It is about as much affection as I am likely to get from them.

Wanna check out someone else raising runners in an urban setting? Check out this guy. He is sooo much more reliable at blogging.... They just had a duck party. We were hoping for something similar. Of course, we may have to do it to celebrate our first egg (in September if all goes well) rather than any of the other milestones that we have passed.

These are not ducks, in case you were wondering. This is the first of our potato harvest. This happens to be about 11 pounds of LaRatte, which is a delightful fingerling potato that we grew last year. These are actually from seed potatoes that we saved over the winter.

This is the weekend to plant fall stuff. I have a small patch of carrots doing well so far, but that is all. The SB helped me haul horse poop down for the beds and I dug in lots of amendments. I am hoping for a reasonable season.

Summer

It feels like summer now. We have had some heat, though overall, the weather has been merciful - cool evenings and mornings make ALL the difference. The mosquitoes are just starting to get bad. We are eating pasta with tomatoes, garlic and basil twice a week, at least. I have yellow squash for miles which I started to cook and freeze. Yesterday I put seeds out in the garden for carrots, leeks and parsnips (at least 2 of my neighbors have told me the difference between store bought and home grown parsnips is worth it... I figured I would give it a shot as I didn't like beets until I grew them myself). In a flat I have sown broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and kale. I plan on more things, but I need some more space in the garden. Soon I will put out more chard seeds, beets and start the spinach and salad greens. I want more fennel too. My okra isn't so impressive and I have been getting only a few cukes, but they have been delicious. The tomatillos are still growing. If that all goes well it will be a big year. I am harvesting potatoes plant by plant - restraining myself from digging up the whole bed. My garlic harvest was satisfactory and I am holding back heads for planting in October/November... My house mate says you plant on the shortest day of the year and harvest on the longest. I can't wait that long... When the weather gets nice I want to be out there. The SB and I are considering the garden expansion - maybe in time for fall crops....

The ducks have decided they are afraid of the creek. When we let them out of the pen, they race toward the swimming hole and then stare at the water. When they get back to the pen, they fight over who gets to stand in the water dish. No idea what this is all about. We will likely be getting them a pool as soon as we can figure out how to make it work. Dumping and filling a pool is a lot of water and a lot of work, so we will need to figure something out.

And here they are.... Along with the first 11 pounds of fingerling potatoes from the auxiliary


And this is Sampson. Handsome, isn't he?

Hala-freakin'-luja

Ducks are in the duck house. Still details to work out but they are safe and out of the basement. Could we ask for anything more?

Pictures this weekend. Rilly.

Eventually

I am a total loser. But here, in brief, is some of the last month or so in a list (because SHG loves a list and I miss her).

1. The SB is home. Woo hoo.
2. The ducks are still in the basement. It is like the Peabody Hotel around here in the evenings. Absurd.
3. Hopes of finishing the duck house over the long holiday weekend - dashed.
4. Harvested delicious varieties of potatoes, some fennel, yellow squash and lots of basil and parsley. Some jalapenos, some blueberries (unfortunately these are a fav of the ducks).
5. Working my ass off on the duck house and garden. Rest of house and garden going to hell.
6. Unbelievably fantastic weather. I wore a sweater ALL DAY. In July. Gimme a shout out people, this rocks.
7. Roasting a chicken with some beets and potatoes now. Woo hoo. It is 10:25. Boo.
8. Not as social as I used to be.
9. The ducks rock. They were out grazing all day today.
10. Haven't talked to the bees in months. Wondering if there is honey I should be collecting.

Soo much more, but need pictures for the rest. Soon. Rilly.