On gardens, and spinning and some bits and pieces

DH has been in his happy place lately.   Finally his wood supplier, dropped off 2 small dump truck loads of logs.   The loads were definitely smaller than normal, but were maple and a size which was easy to slice up.  Then he got a call that they were in the area, and did he want a 3rd load of Locust wood.   He said sure.  Locust wood is very hard, but slices and splits easily.  Because it's so hard, it takes longer to dry.  However it burns really well and for a long time when it's mixed with other hardwoods.    It took him only a couple of days to have it all sliced and ready to be split.   He does enjoy doing the wood, which is nice since we use it for heat.   

I've been seeing this little guy in the garden for weeks now.   He was just barely a handful when I first saw him.   He's still around.   We had a couple of larger rabbits around for a couple of years now, but I haven't seen a large bunny since last autumn.    This guy though is all over our garden.   He's in the front, the back, and this picture is from in the fenced off garden. The last time I had bunnies in there, I was planting on the ground and my whole crop of kohlrabi had bites out of them.  Not a single one was harvestable.  However with the beds now being so high, my veggies are safe from bunnies at least.  I put in some of the solar lights, some sticks,  some really tacky dollar store spinning decorations, and a lot of straw mulch to try to protect the plants from other hungry garden pests.   So far it's kept the robins and grackles away from my young, just sprouted seedlings.   

We finally had some rain too, so I've not had to water the garden for days.  It's been cool though, so many of the plants have just stalled.   Nothing has grown much over the past couple of weeks except the lettuce and kale.   They love this weather.   I've been harvesting fresh salad every 3 days.   I planted a green leaf lettuce, red romaine, buttercrunch lettuce and kale.   It makes for a lovely salad.  In other garden news, something ate my pumpkin seeds before they sprouted, so they've been replanted.  It's been so cold though, that they haven't sprouted yet either.  

I wish I could say I've woven lots of things.   I've done a bit of spinning.   I thought I was spinning superwash for a pair of socks, but nope, just regular Blue Faced Leicester, so while it's nice yarn, not what I was looking for.  I do have some superwash merino that I can card up for socks though.   I have been weaving off the project on my table loom.  It's a bit sucky because it's a 1/3 twill and the sett is such that I need to use a stick shuttle because the boat shuttle falls though.   Since I'm alternating the twill, there are always 3 shots in a row that I can't used the boat shuttle.   The stick shuttle is slow.   I'm a lot faster with it because I usually use a stick shuttle with the rigid heddle loom, but I'd planned to use the boat shuttle, so it's taking a lot longer than I'd anticipated.

I started dressing the rigid heddle loom with a scarf.  I'm not sure why but I definitely chose the wrong reed, so will have to pull out the yarn from the reed, change it out and rethread the whole thing. Maybe this is why I don't weave nearly so much during the nice weather.

I've been doing lots of research on Circular Sock Machines.   They are expensive.   I don't want to make a mistake.   I may have a line on a functional antique one, but I'm getting impatient waiting, although it's really not that long a wait.  It would still be faster than waiting for a new one and at least I could afford it  more or less, and have a larger fund for yarn available.  New csms cost thousands of dollars, plus they are either coming from the other side of the world, so take weeks to get here, or come from closer, but have months long wait lists.   I'm still hoping for the antique one though.   Hubby thinks the antique one would be best, or if I need to get a new one, to get one from the US, with a long wait list, but more accessible parts.  Plus there is the whole political issues locally with people having had bad experiences with the ones from the other side of the world.   I don't want to get involved in that stuff. 

I was at the Marr shop at Westfield Heritage Village.  Because the day started off very slow, I didn't bother to untie the great wheel.   That was a bad decision though as it turned out really busy.  As well, a lady from Maryland I think, came by.   They were visiting for a few days.  She brought her drop spindle and some flax that she'd grown in her garden.  It was lovely stuff.

I had to make Dion kitty some kitty kickers so he'd leave my baby wombat stuffy alone.   We're both happy now.   I did make baked donuts, filled with jam.  They were delicious.  We ate half of them before I found some ants on them.   I thought they'd be safe in the glass cake stand.  It has a domed cover and keeps baked goods fresh for days.   Obviously not safe from marauding ants though.   I'll also have to replace the sugar as they're in the bin too.   Everything at risk will now go into the cupboards for the summer and not on the counters.    They don't seem to find the ant traps inviting so I'm not sure what options I have other than putting things out of reach and wiping down the counters every time I see an ant.

 

 

Great Blue Heron surprise, and garden stuff

 One of the trails we like is a circle trail, in that you start, and walk the whole trail and end up back at the entrance.  However half of the trail is fairly open.  It's a nice enough walk, but not nearly as nice as the rest of the trail which meanders beside the river.   This time of year that part of the trail feels like you're walking through the happy part of a fairy tale.   The trees reach across the path creating a green arbour in places.  Huge swaths of wild flowers flank the sides of the trails.  Right now it's Queen Anne's Lace and Dame's Rocket, with just a pop here and there of Buttercups.  It's stunningly beautiful.

It's just on the edge of a fairly populated area, so it's amazing that there is quite a lot of wildlife which wanders through the trail too.   Of course there are song birds.  There were young robins looking for treats and hopping ahead of us as they weren't quite confident at flying yet.   There were squirrels and chipmunks and a big old raccoon wandered across the trail in front of us, down to the river, without a care in the world.

We had walked to the end of the river side trail, and turned back to walk to the entrance, thus avoiding the
other half of the trail.  We were close to the riverbank when there was a bit of noise coming from the few ducks on the water.   This great blue heron landed right in front of us.   They are very large birds and usually fairly timid.  This guy though, let us snap some photos and watch him for a few minutes.  Eventually, it was either the ducks, who were still making a bit of a fuss, or maybe he tired of us watching him, or the very noisy, loud kids who were just tromping into the area scared him off.  Regardless, it was a lovely treat to be quite that close to a blue heron.  They are majestic birds, although the noise they make doesn't quite match their looks -  GRAWK!

The garden is almost all planted.   There is some space for a second planting of beans and some space that I left for succession planting of greens.   However, they aren't always successful with the way our summers have been so hot, so I'm second guessing myself now and thinking that maybe I should plant something else in that spot.

My spinach and arugula went weird this year.  I'm guessing it's the late frosts we had.  Both of them went to seed before they were even large enough to eat.   I've replanted the pots though.   In one I've put some summer savory, since the chooks scratched through my last patch and in the other some catnip.  It used to grow wild, but there was none around last summer.   Everything has been watered, fed and what's large enough to have a straw mulch, has been covered.   If I can find a replacement pepper plant for that tiny pepper that hasn't grown since Easter, then I'll replace it.   It feels good to have most of the work done.  Now it's just watering, feeding and weeding if necessary until harvest.... yay!