Berries continued

With a forecast of a killer frost over night I put some cover around and over the new berry bushes.  Some of the new bushes have not yet started to bud out, so frost protection was probably not needed.  However, at least half of the new bushes have buds and new leaflets appearing, so I decided to get them all under cover.  The skies cleared at sunset and the winds dropped down to calm so the temperature hit freezing about the time we went to bed.  When Leslie went out with the dogs this morning it was 27 degrees; it was prudent to get the bushes under some protection. The long range forecast is for lows to stay above freezing for the next 2 weeks, so this may be the last time I have to get out the old bath towels, tarp, and blocks of wood to fashion frost protection for the berry bushes.

Berries for the back hill

We decided to move the vegetable garden to the meadow and replace it with a garden that looks better in all seasons and will require less time walking on the hill.  Paul planted honeyberries, currants, and gooseberries.  He's planning a few more grape vines too.  He has them mulched with Envinity chips and barricaded against chicken scratches.
The other side of the hill has his hazelnut garden; 5 bushes have catkins and a couple are starting to root sprout.  Hold on for nuts this year.

Doug brought out the Home Show table that he built.  The live-edge top is butternut and the legs are from the same tree that holds up our house. It's very pretty, although a little tall (36") for comfortable dining on regular chairs.  Next task: taller chairs or chair cushions.  I especially like the butterfly insets and the imperfections in the wood grain.

a la George Nakashima

 

Turkey hunter

Gambol caught and retrieved a fully feathered turkey poult today. It wasn't much bigger than a blue jay. The unlucky bird and its family were behind the sand mound when Gambol found them, cut one out from the flock amid a lot of squawking as the hen watched from 30 feet up in a tree. It all happened so fast and the birds are so camouflaged that we didn't get a count of the birds, nor did we even see any other poults. He proudly gave it to the Baron. It looked a lot like a grouse. I'm amazed that Gambol can contain himself to an occasional tear through the chicken flock, rousting them, but not hurting them.
He also tried to pick up a box turtle buried in leaves for me, but I told him he didn't have to.
We now take berry walks in the evenings. Blackberries are coming in strong; low ones are for Gambol and high ones are for me. That sharing method works out well.

June Review

From the Baron:

The month of June was pretty exciting for us. Right out of the gate was the birth of Shawn Devin Puri on June 8. The Baroness drove out to Illinois June 18-24 to play "Oma" and watch Shannon and Raj settle in as new parents.
We are making some progress on the new construction of our main house. On June 5 we competed the loan application with a local bank. We attended a design meeting between our architect and our builder, mostly to tie things together and cover any disconnects between our design, which is focused on conventional framing techniques, and the actual building, which will be use timber framing and structural insulated panels. The appraiser came out to our property on June 24 and I gave him the grand tour; I think that visit went well and the appraiser has all the information he needs. We hope to get the loan closed in mid-July so the builders can start on the basement foundation before the end of the month.
The three grape vines are 5-6 feet high now and we installed the second trellis wire at the 6 ft level. Two of the vines had the tips of their leader branch nipped off, which slowed their growth. I thought it might be deer browsing the tips, but the damage may have been caused by birds perching on the end of the vine. I put up some plastic snow fencing in a circle around the vines to give them some additional protection. Now that the vines are at the 6 ft level, I will tie them to the trellis and as the season progresses, the vines should start hardening up with woody growth, replacing the green stems that are present now.
The new hop vines are wrapping themselves on the strings that I put up. Out of the 4 hop roots that were planted, 3 have survived. The fourth root put up shoots twice and seemed to be going fine, but the shoots died off when they got to be a foot or so long. I put the strings over the roof of the chicken coop, so as the hops grow they will move up to the roof top. The tallest hop vine is now almost 9 feet tall and just now approaching the lower edge of the roof. Soon the main shoots will form side branches and those will produce the hop cones. Since this it the first year for the hop vines, the cone production will probably be pretty sparse.
Yesterday we harvested our first 4 tomatoes--the small yellow cherry tomatoes. Our new cherry tree produced some cherries, but the birds were quick to clean them out. We managed to salvage 3 cherries, the first fruit we have had from the new trees. We also picked some of the first blueberries of the season. We have a half a dozen cultured blueberry bushes and this year's crop seems to be a very good one--the first good one we've had with these bushes in 3 years. Our other tomato and pepper plants have fruit on them, but harvesting that fruit is still a few weeks away.
We started mowing our meadow last weekend. With all the rains we have been having up here in Pennsylvania, our meadow has been too wet to drive the tractor over it. Because the deer drop their fawns in mid-June, we normally hold off mowing until the 4th of July, so we are not really too far behind schedule.
The Baroness's 14 new chicks are growing quickly and are mixing in with the older laying hens without too much trouble--just an occasional pecking order adjustment. The chicks sleep in the chicken tractor and the hens in their coop, but during the day the hens and the chicks will go into the other's residence and check it out. We definitely have a few males in the new flock (they are beginning to crow), so those guys' days are numbered and will they get processed for dinner fare in September.
We are still working with Gambol, our year old Brittany, attending his novice training class. Gambol has a routine when we let him outside. He sits at the door and after we open the door and give him the OK, he runs out the door, under the bird feeder hanging from the tree right in front of the house, runs in a circle to scare up chipmunks or squirrels, and then heads back to us.