Diary 5/23/13

It was a beautiful day.  Clouds came and went and so it was great for transplanting. I am trying to get the rest of the plants I have started into soil so I don't have to take care of them in planters anymore.  I also transplanted Delicata winter squash.  I put a plant and two seeds in five holes.

Trimming the tops off before transplanting makes the little onions less topsy turvy.  I saved the greens to use in the fried rice we ate for lunch.

Dill and rows of baby onions

15 Delicatas should be more than enough for over the winter. The onions were coming up in the beds where I thinned them to plant individually outside.  I have Walla Wallas, red and white sweet Spanish.  I did not attempt hard yellow onions this year as it is already too late to get them to finish up.  I still want to plant some more potatoes and I read an article about planting late potatoes last year, so I know there is still time.  I hope I still have some seed potatoes that haven't totally shriveled up, but I did look into it yet. I put a few dill plants in with the onions for pickle making eventually.

Diary 5/22/13

Though it was not entirely a a wet day, it showered on and off most of it.  More substantial moisture was falling this evening and we need every drop of it.  I am sad that weather can humble us all and remind us of its power of destruction.  The floods last week, the tornadoes this, and earthquakes elsewhere are all forces we cannot control. So sad when children are involved.

Diary 5/20/13

The guys are getting the last of the poles for the rafters for the shop.  They are 34 feet long ones and not as easy to come by. While they were wandering about the forest looking for suitable candidates, they were joined by this guy(gal), a Spotted Owl.  This is the famous endangered species that stopped logging on federal lands(someone had to) and in other forest habitat special to their existence. This one was somewhat tame, maybe from some oldtime visits by biologists feeding them voles to watch their behavior and get a count of how many are in the area. Vole manure and decayed parts in owl poop have a special enzyme that rots Douglas Fir wood.  It is all a very unique cycle. Before the forest fire in 2002, there were 19 pairs in the range around us. This, I think is a female whose front feathers show a sign of separation where babies are being covered.  Her beak is bloody as either the guys served an easy meal when they were falling trees, or interrupted a feeding she was engaged in or maybe just peaked her curiosity.  Lunchtime came, and the owl got a break for the rest of the day, as it was time to peel the poles.

Diary 5/19/13

The new tips on the Douglas fir tree show how much new growth it has.  The weather has been great for the early growing season. The Madrone trees are suffering from what looks like a fungus.  Not sure what is going on.  They really had a couple rough years when the web worms attacked.  Last year wasn't so bad for them.  Now this year, something is going on with their old leaves.  The trees in our yard are blooming like never before, and I worry it is their last hurrah. Will keep my eyes on them and check about fungus and maybe a virus they may have for whatever reason.  After 90 degrees a couple weeks ago, we are expected to have a cold spell this week with temperatures only getting to 60 during the day and close to a frost at night. Beware fellow gardeners in the PNW.

Diary 5/18/13

Three generations of lettuce.  The red leaf on the left is beginning to bolt, the batavians in the middle are getting transplanted everywhere, and I am passing them out to friends with gardens, the romaines on the end are almost ready.  Meanwhile, the snow peas are coming on strong.  I have one other little row of them for later, but with beans almost the same size, we will many choices to eat soon.  None of the areas are large enough for a round of canning.  Ask me if I care, ha-ha.

My lovely assistant standing in the runoff of a downpour off the roof tests her rain hat to see if it is fully operational.

Diary 5/17/13

Got my last piece of tile cut last night, so maybe I will have a chance to grout soon.  Looking forward to it as I think it will be much easier than mortar and fun to see the result as you do the clean-up. Pulled a few carrots to see how they were sizing up.  It is OK to do so especially if you have not totally thinned them.  If you did not thin them, it is best to do so or you just don't get any size to your carrots and they will twine around each other which makes for interesting anthropomorphic looking carrots sometimes, but just not as useful.  I ended up chopping some of the tender tops and putting them into the elk hash I was making.  They tasted like carroty

parsley and no doubt full of vitamins.

Diary 5/16/13

We have been slowly eradicating scotch broom, these lovely yellow bushes, from our hill.  I don't know if we can ever get ahead of them by the creekbed, but here by the house, they stick out and are growing in rocky areas where chopping them out is enough to set them back substantially. This strip of them has been advancing as we have thinned the trees and made a "defensible space". This is probably our least defend

ible side. See the dead  branches hanging down from the firs?  Big no-no.  That and the bushes all around become "ladder fuels" that carry a fire from a slower ground fire up into the trees , "crowning"  into a serious wind driven event.  Seen it, didn't like it, trying to be ready for the next time, because there will be a next time. It is the natural disaster of this area.  Just as other parts of the country have tornadoes, we have wildfires. Well and volcanoes, but we hope we are not witness to that.