The new nest boxes that have been sitting in my living-room for three weeks have at last been installed in the Coop. I don't expect any eggs for a couple of months yet so the girls have lots of time to pick a nest. They were checked out almost as soon as I left the coop and I think they met with approval. The pin-up posters were provided by my friend Pat we share a similar sense of humour.
What used to be my dinning room has turned into the seed drying and preparation area for a new Blog and Hobby Project that I will be launching later this fall. For a sneak peak at the Blog which is still under construction click this link:
freeopenpollinatedseed.blogspot.com/
If you are a seed saver and have extra that you would like to add to the exchange check back a little later and I will have added the addresses where you can send them or request seed.
Right now we are not forecast to have a lot of damaging wind but we are in for a tropical rain storm that will dump several inches of rain on us and a sudden glut of rain at this time of year will cause cabbages to swell up and burst open. You can still eat the cabbage but it has to be used immediately or it will spoil. Mine will be stored in the basement for a few weeks until cooler weather arrives then turned into sauerkraut.
I had this grape for many years growing on an arbour over my front door but eventually it winter killed one year. About 3 or 4 years ago I found it growing up a large pine tree on my property , the birds must have spread the seed. I've been watching it ever since and this is the first year it has had fruit and it is loaded.
I made these pickles last year for the first time and now I can't imagine ever making any other kind, they are fantastic and very easy to do. So crunchy and full of flavour. This is a link to a video that I made last year on the process: youtu.be/i6fNfpNA9tI . This year I added a few baby carrots to the mixture just for the colour. I would have preferred to use smaller cucumbers but mine got a bit large in the garden while I was waiting for my dill to mature. Lots more dill in the garden so hopefully there will be more cucumbers to make another batch or two before the season is over. I'm going to order a second picklemeister and these can be transferred to litre jars once they have fermented. Very pleased to say that all of the ingredients , this year, came fresh from my own garden picked an hour before I took this photo.
The seedlings that I transplanted into the raised bed only a few days ago have already grown and what was even more surprising they didn't even wilt after being transplanted, perhaps because of the humidity. The temperature has been going into the 30's everyday that the sun shines.
I re-potted my two Fig trees into much larger pots and have dreams of ripe figs next year. I have had many green figs in the past but very few ripe ones our season just isn't long enough. In the past I have always brought the fig trees in the basement for the winter once they have lost their leaves and gone dormant. After a conversation with a flickr friend in Spain I'm now considering an experiment and leaving one of them in the hoop house to see what happens. She tells me her sister in Switzerland has a fig and gets lots of frost, snow and cold temperatures, last winter as low as -17 and her three is loaded with figs this year. Well I have a digital thermometer which records minimum and maximum temperatures and I just checked, our coldest day was -21 last winter. So I just might give it a try.
Rest in Peace little guy. Died August 16th after an attack by an Osprey.
I haven't seen one of these in action in years. I used to play on them when I was a kid, when they are not in use they pull them up on the beach. The hammer driving the large pole(stake) into the ocean floor is called a pig because it is made of pig iron and the floating platform is called a stage they are building a fence for a Herring Weir (Pronounced wear).
August is always the busy month in the garden everything seems to mature at once and there are cucumbers to pickle and tomatoes to can and sauerkraut to make and this year it looks like a good crop so far. I'm very pleased with the cabbage, broccoli and Brussels Sprouts I guess the cool wet spring must have got them off to a good start. So far just green tomatoes but there are lots of them and I plan to make Green Tomato Chow Chow this year so they are a welcome sight.
I have made a good start on putting up my new Hoop House which is 16X20 and 8 feet high. Right now it is just the frame while I wait for some lumber to be delivered for the base board once that is installed it should progress quite quickly.
I have also started a lot of cool weather fall crops to grow in the Hoop House, it will be interesting to see how long our season can be extended with an unheated greenhouse, I hope long enough that I get a harvest from most of these seedlings of Brussels Sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Chinese Cabbage, Kohlrabi, parsley, spinach, lettuce and Swiss chard.
