Year-end WIP 'n WOW

Trying to wrap some things up here before the new year. There are just three WIPs. Yes, just three. One on the loom (leno scarves), one on the needles (Christmas stocking - hey! It's early for NEXT year!), and one on the hook (Moorish Mosaic Afghan, yes, still, started it in October of 2009).


I suppose to be truly forthcoming I need to mention that there is one small project in hibernation, and this count does not include any of the mending, sewing, or stitching projects that are in various stages, or the house and yard projects that are somewhere between start and checking it off the list. I do not have a final tally for 2010, but I do know that there was a net decrease in stash. I did add a little fiber so I have something to spin on my new wheel! I guess I need to start tracking that by weight so I can monitor myself and attempt to keep it under control.

Temperatures in North Texas have been all over this place this month. It was nice to have the windows open, and you can see the cats fully enjoyed it as well. Unfortunately the screen really messes up the picture.

Norton decided he was going to help with some of the fiber projects. I'm still looking for my mini snowman he knocked off the shelf.

Independence Days July 13-27

I worked for three days, then we were gone for four-and-a-half days for the family reunion, so this is a two-week update.

1. Plant something: Planted asparagus beans for tunnel and bird house gourds for teepee. Transplanted tomatoes, peppers, basil, sage, rosemary, Mexican heather, rudibeckia, coneflowers.

2. Harvest something: Peach and cantaloupe. Rainwater.

3. Preserve something: Nothing.

4. Waste not: Eating leftovers. Weekly recycling & composting. Reusable cups/mugs and bags. Cloth napkins. Recycled bags for trash. Scrap paper. Using bricks from an old walkway on our property to border the three sisters garden. Used branches for stakes.

5. Want not. Secondhand shop finds: 1960s folding chairs in excellent condition; three Crazy Daisy plates & four mixing bowls; jelly jar glass to match the others I have.

6. Build community: Reconnected with family at the reunion. Long-distance community, but vital nonetheless.

7. Eat the food: Ate the peach and cantaloupe. Ate some homegrown items brought to the reunion potluck. Also enjoying some homegrown sweet corn given to us by one of Jeff's cousins.

8. Life-long learner: Reading The Rodale Book of Composting.

Here is the original information about the Independence Days Challenge.

Blurry WOW & WIPs

Had to include this picture of Frank even though I took it with the camera on who-knows-what setting. A good pictorial representation of how I feel today...

From the WIP post on the 14th, there have been no changes to #s 1,3,4,6,7, and 8. #s 5, 9, and 10 were frogged. The ends are woven in on the dishcloths, #11, and I finished knitting the Danica Scarf #2 -- it needs to be blocked and I need to sew the backing on it. I started the Swallowtail shawl on Saturday. Just did the third Lily of the Valley row, and need to tink 1/2 the row because I forgot a stitch. Using beads instead of nupps because I want to use beads and make sure I have enough yarn, not because I have anything against nupps.

Well, whaddayaknow. It just started raining here.

WIP 'n WOW

I know there is at least one hibernating project missing from this photo (Deciduous). And I see two things that didn't make it to Ravelry yet. Glad I'm starting to take a little bit of an inventory. Eventually I'll have to add in the non-knitting/crocheting projects, too.

1. Heroine Jacket -- 2/3rds of back done. May frog. Probably will not be able to match gauge, and not 100% sure the yarn & project go together.
2. The Scarf That Shall Not Be Named, aka The Scarf That Never Ends, aka if I'd just make it the pick up project I'd be done with the dern thing. (Danica is the pattern.)
3. Mallow Moorish Mosaic Afghan -- 6/30 hexagons, 20/20 squares, 0/18 triangles. Plus ends and assembly. I'm enjoying it, but I do have to pay attention to it.
4. something that was supposed to grow into a Kokeshi Doll. Someday.
5. Cool Beans that I now should just frog & restart because I will never get the same gauge. I love them and they were fun knit -- looking forward to doing them again
6. Headless Giraffe. Yes, this IS just sad.
7. USA hat was finished before the end of the Olympics, but the pattern is not yet written so I've included it in the pile.
8. Looks like I tried to knit some Patriotic Baby Socks. Maybe Monkey pattern.
9. Coquille. Yes, the pattern came out in Knitty a week ago. No denying this is a new cast-on. Not quite half-way through -- LOVE it.
10. Sock to be frogged. I want my yarn back.
11. Two Nine-Patch Dishcloths. Amazing how the ends are not magically weaving themselves in. Simply amazing.



Three of the five little kittens in our backyard. We haven't seen them since June 20th. We were hoping to keep them close to hand tame them, spay/neuter, and find homes. We still see momma every day, so she still has them close to our house.

Independence Days July 6-12

A bit of a drive-by blog today. I won't take the time today to describe the Independence Days concept/challenge and my personal version of it, but will jump in with the first weekly report.

1. Plant something: Planted corn, sunflowers, summer squash. Transplanted tomatoes, marigolds, and lisianthus.

2. Harvest something: Swiss chard. Sunflower seeds. Rainwater.

3. Preserve something: Set aside a few sunflower seeds for next year.

4. Waste not: Eating leftovers. Weekly recycling & composting. Reusable bags for shopping. Recycled bags for trash. Scrap paper. Cleaned out pantry & took inventory.

5. Want not. Purchased more pots for buried clay pot irrigation (three sisters garden). Purchased perennials to attract hummingbirds & beneficial insects. Jeff changed the oil in the Element and performed maintenance on the motorcycle.

6. Build community: Nothing this week.

7. Eat the food: Sauteed the chard in a little olive oil. Remaining sunflower seeds went to the birds.

8. Life-long learner: Reading The Rodale Book of Composting. Small amount of online research about permaculture.

First Blush

It is so much fun to see things growing and ripening! I took these pictures this evening.


Is it a little bashful?


Perhaps I should have made a taller trellis. The chard seems to be at a standstill. The lima beans seem to be doing well for the most part. I'm not sure there is any pollination going on -- the cumbers are dropping flowers but no fruit is forming.


Getting closer to melon time!


Two eight-inch clay pots for irrigation. From front to back down the center, two each yellow pear, Amish paste, brandywine and beefsteak tomatoes. Along the edge I put in a few petite marigolds. In the next couple of weeks I will put in a trellis down the center of bed.

Rain

For most of the past week when I look out the window, this is what I see:














We had a short break and it was finally dry enough to mow and do a little digging, but as you can see it is pouring once again. I am certainly not complaining, although it REALLY makes me wish our rainwater catchment system was in place.














Pictures of the play garden from the 28th. Need to fill in a couple of sunflowers and morning glories that didn't germinate. The seedlings are really taking a beating in these downpours.








Even though these pictures are just from Monday, they seem old! The cucumber now reach the next tier on the trellis, and the melon is bigger!

We have a break in the rain, so I need to go put the pool pump back together.

Vine Is a Four-Letter Word

The pile of what I pulled out over the weekend. More to remove at this location, and at least two other spots in the yard.



Sometime a couple of weeks ago I commented on FaceBook that gardening was great except for the bugs that bite you and eat your plants. I believe I need to add "weeds that bite back when you remove them" to the list of gardening unpleasantries. In creating the play garden (it needs a better name, but for now, that's it), I needed to remove some vines, including poison ivy from the west end of the area. I was wearing gloves, but only a short-sleeved shirt. I thought I was doing okay except for the one branch that smacked me in the face. I came inside frequently and soaped up past my elbows to try to remove any oil that may have made contact. Apparently, I didn't get it all. I watched one disturbing looking spot all day yesterday trying to determine if it was a spider bite or a poison ivy rash. Today, as the spots have emerged on both arms below the elbow, one arm past the armpit, and the place on my stomach my arm touches while I sleep -- there's no question. I applied a topical gel to the one spot yesterday and Ivarest to everything today, but more spots are appearing. So far no itch. So far.














Two kinds of ivy, both need to go. The picture on the right shows the largest tree in our yard. You can just barely see the root flare on the right side. This is not good. We need to remove the ivy, which has caused damage to the tree during the periods the property was abandoned, and dig away some of the soil to expose more of the root flare. Hopefully by doing that, removing a few of the large branches, and adding some soil amendments, we can avoid losing the tree.



The side of the tree (same one as above) facing the pool showing the ivy damage. I don't know for certain if the ivy caused the first split, removing about one third of the tree, but it certainly looks like it is trying to split what is left.















The unknown vine on the left is a weed and STINKS! Eeeewwwwww! On the right is Virginia Creeper. Not too bad, but it is in many places we don't want it and from what I understand is very difficult to kill.

But there are many more wonderful things happening here:



My gorgeous Apricot Brandy Hibiscus and a little cicada with a bent wing.

WoW #5

It's Thursday

No better excuse for blogging. We've harvested over 2.75 pounds of food since May 7th. That includes 13 ounces of blackberries, with many more to come! Our first watermelon radish weighed in at 2.2 ounces! I have not been good about taking pictures, so I went out this afternoon to catch things as they stand now.The amazing 2.2 ounce Watermelon Radish! I have a couple more in the garden now -- I'll try to remember to take pictures of the inside (which explains the name) before devouring them. I sauteed this and some other radishes with homegrown spinach and a little chard.

I found my thrill... we will only have a handful this year (provided the birds don't find them!). We planted four additional bushes for a total of six.


The citrus trees and stacking pots full of marigolds with the vegetable garden beds in the background. Looking forward to relocating the blackberries (where? don't know yet) and putting the citrus in bigger pots on the south side of the house. This is a location where we can erect a temporary greenhouse over them each winter, and not have to move the pots! Two Mexican limes (no fruit right now), two Satsumo Mandarin oranges, and one each Meyer Lemon, Lemon Drop, and The Valley Lemon.

This box has served as an orphanage of sorts. The fig was rescued from a backyard where the resident dog thought it was a tug-of-war toy. The wandering Jew came from the blackberry bed. It was in the yard before our in-laws rented the house six years ago. The beans in the pots are from the thinning of the bean/pea bed. The side of the box you can't see is also full of beans from that thinning. And the chard is in the box next to it. I'll take out the remaining chard soon to make room for the next planting.




TOM-TOM! And some (blurry) beanie-babies.








Baby zucchini (finally!) and a wee-baby watermelon!







This month we are "supposed to" plant melons, pumpkins, gourds, okra, and southern peas. I have a couple of special projects planned for the pumpkins and gourds, as well as some sunflowers, morning glories, and yard-long beans. Of course it requires more work of the digging and raking variety. I've spent the last two days clearing the weeds from the patio around the pool. I was too embarrassed to take before pictures, but really wish I had! Now my shoulders have had it, and my blisters got blisters, so I'm not sure how I can keep using a shovel unless I learn how to walk on my hands and hold the tools with my feet!

I'm also starting to do some long-term planning with the yard and finding a place for everything. We cleaned out the tool shed and the garage last week during Jeff's staycation, and he got the pool in swimming condition. We are hoping to have a good grasp on our vegetable gardens as we go through our fall planting so we can get our ducks next spring. I did well as far as not planting more than I could handle, but need to plant a little more for the bugs. Our organic methods are serving us well, but we could use at least a little buffer. For the fall garden we need a better watering system in place. I have made some clay pots for irrigation, and we may try to set up a drip or soaker system. We've been shopping for rain barrels...and the list goes on!

On the energy conservation front, Jeff has been installing soffit vents and a radiant barrier in the attic. The whole house fan will be next. With these changes we should be able to shorten our use of air conditioning by two weeks on each end of the season. I'm going to try to position the grapevines so that they shade our AC unit and the south side of the house. I still have to make the insulating shades. I keep thinking a rain day will come so I can do some housework and sewing projects, but the rain keeps missing us! Please come this way!

Hunting and Gathering

First hunting...













...then gathering.The red-shouldered hawk was in our backyard for a while before flying up to the neighbor's telephone pole for a look around the field. The radishes are our first harvest for 2010! Two White Icicle, two Early Scarlet Globe, and the fifth is either a Cherry Belle or a French Breakfast. The White Icicle on the right isn't icicle shaped because it was right up against another, which I have left to flower so I could see what it looked like. More pix soon!

WoW #4

Try not to drop your laptops. Yup, an actual Whiskers on Wednesday... on Wednesday.

Too Old for This

Most of the seeds went in three weeks ago tomorrow. I thought all of my seeds were from 2007 and took a calculated risk that many would not germinate. At this point if it was going to come up, it would have, so I'm clearing the weeds to put in new seeds today. In the meantime, I found several sources with estimations on how long properly stored seeds should last. These seeds were anything but properly stored, and seeing as they didn't germinate I began to go through the stack to throw them away. Upon further examination, I saw half the seed packs were from 2004 with a few from 2001. I must have looked at the handful from 2007 and thought they were all together.

The fact that I missed these dates does not bother me. I checked a couple of dates and went ahead with the project rather than just sitting and waiting for it to be perfect or happen on its own. That is a good thing. What concerns me is that some of those seeds were transported from the house we sold to the rent house, half-way across the country to Virginia, back across to El Paso, back to the rent house here, then into the house we are in now. Packrat? Hoarder? Unrealistic dreamer? Completely unorganized? Those things frighten me. To be burdened with things that are useless. Pointless. There's a declutterin' a comin'. A big one.

Four planted beds and a potato box on March 24. All reclaimed lumber and no, none of it is treated. If you ignore the ugly chain link fence you can see two pear and two plum trees in the background. The fifth bed was planted later, and three more are waiting to be filled with soil. I need to relocate a couple of the beds for better light.

Yellow

First, a double date. It is definitely spring around here, and "love" is in the air.

Next, at the risk of inciting an earworm... well, you know where I am and what these are.The roses are reaching about five inches in diameter. We only have one red rose for now.Our blackberries are doing well. I'm already dreaming of cobbler.The rain has driven me inside today to tend to some long-neglected projects. If I get down to the yarn cave today I should have some fiber photos to share.

Tax Man

I thought a somewhat patriotic picture would be appropriate for paying taxes. The "I'd rather be knitting" quip has crossed my mind more than once today, but not as much as "I'd rather be weeding." It may sound strange, but it is an absolutely beautiful day and there is just something wonderfully satisfying in digging out those nasties by the roots.

The bags are reversible project bags I made for the Sisters of the Wool Ravelympics team. Yes, we had a knitting competition right along with the athletic competition. Four of us finished what we set out to do. I need to wash & block my hat before I show it off properly. I have "medals" that say "Captain," "Hat Half-Pipe," and "Designer Original Dance." Those are just clip art, but I did buy the pin with the same artwork and 2010 written on it.

Brief note on the homestead front: the vegetable garden is struggling a bit because there is too high of a clay content in our soil. As soon as the taxes are done I'll be working on a better mixture for the three boxes that were not planted, then fixing what we can on the first five. The potatoes that were planted on a lark from some store-bought fingerling potatoes (in red, white, and blue, of course!) are doing really well. I'll post a link to the design instructions for the potato box in a later post.

Two and a Half Months in a Nutshell

....hmmm... don't think I can do it. Not when it includes the biggest snowstorm in North Texas in decades AND the beginning of spring, along with knitting and the work we are doing around the homestead. But I need to start someplace!
Two months ago, this little female goldfinch was dodging snowflakes for a meal. (May be a warbler instead, this is quite the angle for identification!)
Last week, this little male goldfinch was showing off before heading north.
Yes, both were a bit uncooperative in posing. The sassy Carolina wren was a bit more cooperative.I need to make sure I catch the garbage truck this morning, so I will have to continue this later. Wherever you find yourself, enjoy the spring!