Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the Middle of a Wisconsin winter part 2

[jvls1942]

i am having fits with the computer ,
even the typing is delayed action.
it takes over ten seconds for each letter to appear
i will try again, later.

 

[jvls1942]

it is later. had a long post typed out . it didn't send and I lost it.
see how this one goes.

 

[jvls1942]

good morning.
going to try again.
I tied the tomatoes up once more. lots of tiny tomatoes and blossoms.
have baby beans. should be picking them about on Sunday.
tiny jalapeno plants are blossoming.
the skunks and coons seem to have moved on.
the deer have moved in. they are eating the lower branches/leaves/green apples from the big tree.
that's OK , there are plenty for us higher up.
the other tree, we call it the apple sauce tree, is loaded with apples. they are yellow and soft. they taste OK, but I like a firmer apple to eat.
i took Ollie and rolled the chip pile over. I figute there are at least 2o cu yds there. it is all decomposed and black. nice soft dirt. I should not have to steal dirt from Barby any more.
let's see how this one sends ......

 

[jvls1942]

yesterday i watered everything really well.
then last night it rained very hard. that's OK.
the beds have good drainage. and i won't have to water today.
had some sort of spicey chicken over rice for lunch
Annie used a pkg of mixed veggies in it.
it was very good. i like spicey anything.
the baby jalapeno plants have decided to stand up and become more like adults. mayby now they will be able to support the peppers when they form.
the bean and green pepper plants continue to grow.
their leaves are of jungle proportions . i hope they are not going to be all bush and no fruit.

 

[Callender Girl]

There's no need to water here, either. Yesterday morning's rain was pretty well dried up by mid-afternoon. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be dry, so I have a date with my lawn mower.

Glad to hear your baby jalapeno plants are becoming grown ups. My Anaheim plant has two pickable peppers that I need to harvest. My sweet pepper, once again, is all leaves and no peppers. Mere feet away from each other, and treated exactly the same, two totally different results.

It's a good thing I planted more green beans outside the garden (in the 20-foot-long ruts that the electric company's truck left) because the ones inside the garden have No Leaves left. I have used neem oil and hardware cloth to protect from evil bugs and hungry bunnies, without success.

And, as if I didn't have enough to do, I am now trying to keep a baby robin alive. Late yesterday afternoon, I found the almost-fledgling -- who looks like it should be able to fly, good sized and plenty of feathers -- plopped on the ground, under a large tree near the coops.

I hustled all the ducks into their pen and looked for a nest. Didn't find one, but I found robin parents who didn't want me near their kid. Mom and Dad yelled at me from a safe distance, but stayed fairly close. It wasn't hopping or fluttering, so I worried that one of the stray cats would eat it.

I knew there was a fallen robin's nest in the front yard (with a tiny, unhatched egg beside it), so I grabbed the nest, which I put inside a cut-down plastic planter that I suspended from a reachable, lower tree branch. Honestly, the little one slipped out a couple of times before I tweaked the design. During one of its spills, it stood up a few times.

I was told by a rehabber a few years ago that young babies only eat live food. So, armed with tweezers, I rounded up several worms that hide under my stepping stones, and the open-mouthed youngster gobbled them down. In fact, it was pretty demanding! On one of Baby's trips onto the ground, I noticed fresh poop behind it, so I figured it's digesting the meals I'm offering.

This morning, wearing my night-vision head lamp, I went out prepared for the worst. Twelve hours after I found it, Baby is still alive. No parents near the makeshift nesting creation. So, today I will again be a worm collector.

Although I am not a Walmart fan, I needed a single onion and a green pepper (if only mine would grow!), so I stopped in yesterday morning. In their greenhouse, many of the half-gallon perennials were marked down to $3. I left with four, including two daylilies because a person simply can't have too many daylilies!

 

[Callender Girl]

Update: After two worms and half a blueberry, Baby -- who fell out of the nest repeatedly yesterday -- intentionally hopped out and immediately headed for the cover of some tall motherwort and catnip, growing by the propane tank. Yesterday, it couldn't or wouldn't walk at all. I can hear the parents, and I think my job as nurse maid is over.

But, I will still have to worry about predation And, I put my incredibly entitled goose girls back in their pen so they wouldn't stomp on or bite at Baby.

 

[jvls1942]

Barb, i truly hope your foster baby robin lives to peck holes in your strawberries.
now that the skunks and coons have left, a woodchuck has taken their place. he is digging tunnels along the garage foundation. it took him only one day to accomplish that. i think a trap and trip is in order.
my green pepper plants are huge and with leaves larger than my hand. but they do have blossoms, so maybe we will get some fruit.
i picked a flat pea and ate it. it was very tender and sweet. i am tempted to set a chair at the planter and pick and eat.
bro Dave's wife loves to do that.

 

[Callender Girl]

Ah, Jim, the robin is Way Too Late; something else has already decimated the strawberries. Perhaps it would be interested in the gazillions of pretty red cherry tomatoes?

Bon voyage to the skunks and coon. Woodchucks can be incredibly destructive critters; hope you can send it on a far-away journey.

I got some mowing done yesterday, but there's plenty left for today.

No more sightings of the robin baby, so I'm going to believe it's living its happily ever after.

 

[jvls1942]

monday, july 14
update on the wildlife zoo.
yesterday at mid day there was a skunk eating the cat's food. when he saw Annie, he ducked into the wood chuck's hole. i am afraid the wood chuck will destroy my tomatoes. i want to catch him, but there is the chance i could catch the skunk instead,.
this is all taking place right at the small door into the garage. we have to be care to not surprise the skunk if he is close to the door. that is where we feed the cat. Annie closed the door and put the cat's food at the top of the stairs. we will see how that goes.

 

[Callender Girl]

Yesterday started out as a good day, but took a terrible turn early on. One of the commercial/residential buildings my sister and brother-in-law own caught fire while they were out of town.

One of the tenants is still unaccounted for, and fire departments from a half dozen surrounding communities were called in. The building, which was built in 1890, is a total loss. Spectacular photos and videos were all over the news and online.

News organizations descended like vultures -- and appeared to be more interested in being first than in being right. As a former journalist, I was embarrassed at how they handled the situation.

At this point, it's unlikely the missing woman got out; the fire probably started in her apartment. State fire marshal is coming today.