Bits

Fog has filled the valleys every morning this week.  It's thick and lasts until 1000 or so.  Today, like magic, the leaves burst into color on the hillsides.   At sunrise this morning I saw a golden fire in the leaves of the forest.
Our clematis vines are browning on the bottom, maybe too much rain or too much chicken attention, but the white one has a nice blossom.
I mowed the meadow on Friday and Saturday down to about 4 inches in height.  The bed of the bush hog collected the cut grass from the previous pass so I had hay mounds across the meadow.  Since the hens really like fresh grass for their nesting boxes, I filled the RTV  and put several handfuls of grass in the chicken coop.  The rest of the cut grass I dumped in the compost pile.

In preparation for additional raised planting beds in the garden, I cut the weeds with the tractor and then used the blade of the bucket to scrape an area for the beds.  I spread a load of compost over the planting bed site.  I'll have to get some more boards to build the raised beds.

The new log splitter continues to work well.  I sawed the logs into wood stove sized pieces so that I'd be ready for the splitter.  For the past 3 mornings I have split wood for about 2 hours each day.  It's very noisy, even when idling so I have my shooting ear protectors on. I finished the pile of cut logs today. We have about 2 cords drying. The new pallets where I stack the split firewood took some additional engineering to keep the sides standing upright, but they now seem to be holding up well.  Time to retrieve more logs from the forest. The chipmunk hiding spots that the dogs check out are dwindling.

Reading Innocent Monster ***Coleman Sashi Bluntstone, the 11-year-old Next New Thing on the New York art scene, has been abducted, and Moe Prager—former NYPD cop and former PI—is asked by his estranged daughter, Sarah, to join the search. He expects only tragedy; Sashi has already been missing for three weeks, and Moe hasn’t been a PI for seven years. Now a well-to-do wine merchant, Moe agrees, primarily to attempt to restore his relationship with Sarah. He quickly learns that nothing increases the value of paintings faster than the death of the painter. Suspects abound: wealthy, self-important collectors; greedy gallery owners; odious rival artists; even the victim’s parents. But Moe abides. This sixth Moe Prager novel is pretty much note-perfect. Coleman’s take on the art world as a den of iniquity is priceless, as is Moe himself—intelligent, street smart, and tough, especially for a sixty-something. He’s also sophisticated, despite seeing himself as a “poor schmuck from Brooklyn.”  Booklist

Holly and more

 After a trip to Wheatfield Nursery in Centre Hall, we planted 6 pots of switch grass: 4 with red/green leaves (Panicum virgatum 'Ruby Ribbons' #2 pot); 2 with green/blue leaves (Panicum virgatum 'Haense Hermes' in a #3 pot and 'Northwind' in #2 pot).  It took us 90 minutes to dig the holes in the ground--mostly driveway rocks and hard, compacted clay from construction.  We used pick axes and chipped out a layer of rock at a time. We mixed some sifted, rock free top soil with compost and used that mixture to plant the grass clumps.  It was a hard day's work, but the result along the patio rock wall is what we were hoping--an accent of the wall's curve.

The other plantings from yesterday, the 3 winterberry  (Ilex verticullata 'Raritan Chief' and 2 'Winter Red' all in #5 pots) and 2 clematis ('Multi Blue' and 'Henryi'--white) around the main entry are looking like they survived the transplant process.
Jennifer told us we didn't have nearly enough basil so we also planted a bunch of basil plants in the herb rock garden alongside the main entry. Next step if we can keep the chickens out of the basil beds: basil and garlic scape pesto for the freezer.
We have enjoyed to cool summer weather; we've been sleeping with the windows open and a blanket.  The blueberries aren't as happy.  So far we've had a handful.  Last June 28 blog entry showed a colander full.
Our Ameracaners are about 5 weeks old. They can now fly up to the roost bars but don't very often. I open the door to their tractor but they seem to prefer the security of home except after dinner when they venture across the trail in a mob.  The old girls dance right in and chow down on the starter crumbles, while the littlest girls cower in the far corner.  No one seems to miss the rooster. The black maran's back isn't as red as it was but she still doesn't have any feathers.
We found Colorado Potato beetle larvae on the plants today.  Bt works but so does popping them between thumb and finger; they spray red though, so point your hand carefully.
The 2 chestnuts that we planted in 2007 are growing well.  One is 15' tall and 2" dbi; the other about 2/3 that.  We cleared out competing red maples and some aspen to help the taller one along;  the other is north of the coop and is shaded by big oaks.  It isn't crowded so there not much we can do to prod its growth.

Reading Hybrid ** Brian O'Grady. Story had potential if it had been written by Stephen King.  Terrorists engineer a virus and attempt to release it in the US.   Victims become violent but some people survive and are able to reach into people's minds and control them.  The book needs some editing work to be more than moderately readable.  I think that's a problem with many of the kindle freebies.