More vegetable garden

Daffodils are coming on in the forest, but still no color in the new beds. With 60+ highs today peak viewing can't be far away.

I put in the first new raised bed in the vegetable garden yesterday. These raised beds are constructed made of rough-cut lumber, 2" x 8" and 10 feet long. Rough cut means it is at least 2" x 8" and 10 feet, not the shaved down dimensions of finished lumber. White oak is resistant to rot from moisture so it will work nicely in the garden beds. I pre-assembled the beds in the basement, and drilled pilot holes for the screws and nails as oak has a tendency to split. I used "L-shaped" corner brackets on the inside corners of last year's treated lumber raised beds. They really hold the boards together. The white oak boards weigh a lot--I can carry one 10 ft board alone, but to carry the assembled bed made out of three 10 ft boards would take 2-3 able-bodied men, so I disassembled the beds and drove them out to the garden.
The garden surface is sloped slightly downhill, so I used the pick ax to cut back the uphill side and build up the downhill side. I then put the boards back together and tried to get the whole thing level before I tightened the screws and hammered the nails.
One frame is still in the basement ready to be moved to the garden, but I have to do more pick ax work to make that happen. With the temperature around 65 today, the pick ax work can get a person warmed up pretty quickly--wouldn't want any warmer weather.

The weekend was beautifully cool but sunny so we moved the boxes that Paul built for the lavender garden and the bluestone slabs for the front and rear entry by the asparagus plot to function as raised beds.  Of course we had to pick rocks so we have 6 more feet of rock wall base on the property line.

First order of business is to plant some garlic and onions to winter over.  Then in the spring we'll try out growing potatoes. We have 3 beds and we can rotate our crops. Luckily we had 3 boxes to play with.  There is still room for one or two more boxes, perhaps for peppers and tomatoes and things.

The other big job was to plant 1.5 bushels (300 bulbs) of mixed daffodils and some muscari in the rock-free beds Paul prepared. They are from VanBourgondien, and come in real bushel baskets.  We need another bushel to finish off the beds.
Sir Rooster led his girls to help; Paul laid fencing on top to discourage them. He's a beautiful bird, except for his feet, but he's getting a bit too territorial and protective.  I watched him and a barred rock fight for over a minute.  Both had their capes raised and claws looking for blood.  She had him on his back for a second; he tore a beakfull of feathers.  They called it a draw until next time, I guess. He's beginning to put up his dukes at me, daring me to fight.  That isn't acceptable, Bird.  you may be seeing the inside of a crock pot before the winter is over.

Reading: The Perfect Crime **** by Peter Abraham from Stephen King's list of well written books he's enjoyed. (library book!!!!)

Bugs and Bird Spa

The war against lady bugs has begun for the season. Today was warm after the last 2 frosty nights and the house was covered, inside and out, with them. The Baron sucked up 100 in the living room and when I turned on the lamp by my computer several plummet down to the heat. A small wad is tucked into the corner of the wall and beam. We'll try not to let that grow to the fist-size it was our first Christmas here. The war is on.

As the colors change across our valley, deer are bulking up for hunting season. At least a dozen were in the meadow when I went down this morning. I could easily have hit one near Waddle as she stood in the foggy dark, on the damp and leaf-covered road, at a curve in the road; not a good safety combination. Five or 6 were chowing down on the azaleas in front of the house at (our) dinner tonight.

Now that we have opened up the vegetable garden by pulling out the peppers and tomatoes, the turkeys have discovered the Barony Bird Spa. They cooed and chortled as they splashed compost and dirt all around their bath. Some indentations are 4" deep where they dug in. See Red watching, perhaps protecting his girls from the big boys and girls or perhaps wondering what would happen if he got naked with them.


Look carefully for the snood, the red worm-like protrusion, above this turkey's beak. (above)

What a beautiful beard on this big boy. I've named him Thanksgiving Dinner.