FishinBC's Blog

Weekend Here We Come!
Aug 30, 2007 | 3:16 AM PST
Tags: FRIDAY , Fall Garden , Veggies , Camping , Fly Fishing

Today is my Friday and our Daughter arrives this evening!  We are taking tomorrow off and will just spend time enjoying her visit.  Some friends invited us out on their boat Saturday and Sunday we have a BBQ to go to.  Should be fun and Meggie is looking forward to it.

My seeds are up already!  Spinach is a little behind the lettuce and radish and others but all are up and doing well.  The tomatoes plants look pitiful.  I think I will pull the last green tomatoes and take them out and prep that area for some more fall greens. 

Was just checking weather.com and it looks like we are going to have lots of rain the weekend of the 7th when we are going camping and fishing.  And something we haven't seen in a long time...high temps in the 70's!!!  Fall is coming!! 

The popup camper is cleaned and ready to go.  Rob Dog is chomping at the bit to go fishing with me.  He hasn't talked to me in three days since I put the trailer back in the garage.  He is mad because we didn't hook his camper to the van and leave.  Trying to convice him we are going soon but like any kid he wants to know, "Are we there yet!?!"

 

 

 

 

Counting the hours
Jun 29, 2007 | 6:41 AM PST
Tags: zucchini , Cukes , elephant ears , Critters , Squirrels , July 4th , racoons , veggies , tomato

Went out to check the veggie patch and pull a few green tomatoes to send to my mom.  They are still off vagabonding in their RV and she loves fried green tomatoes.  I have zukes and cukes all over the place.  Wow.  I put in a few extra plants just to be sure at least a few would take well, all of them took well!  Also now that everything in there has matured, I am seeing my errors of where I planted and being able to maneuver around in that fenced space is getting more difficult.  I can hardly wait for next year, now that I have learned these important lessons I have big plans!!  Hubby is probably going to grumble about building more raised beds but if we get them up now I can work on the soil in them for next spring, right? And…still might be early enough to have a fall planting…more ideas!

My elephant ears are going crazy with all the rain and heat they are loving it!  I think I will put in a few more next year; they really break up all that brick from the wall of the garage.       

Will get up early tomorrow and get the lawn mowed and things spruced up outside, do the regular housekeeping when it is too hot outside.  The house full is coming and I can hardly wait to see them all!!  Two of the kids are leaving California this evening and should hit Arkansas Saturday night or Sunday morning.  They are going to switch off and drive straight through.  One more kid flies in on Sunday afternoon and my best buddy from Seattle gets in Monday night.  I am so excited I haven’t been able to sleep.  Like a kid on Christmas Eve.

The squirrels and I have worked out a great schedule with the feeding trough.  They come for breakfast every morning and are gone the rest of the day.  This allows me to fill it the night before and it’s all ready for them when they arrive.  Thankfully it has kept them out of my herb pots and other flowers on the deck. 

The coon has been coming nightly and I leave him a treat of peanuts and apple slices and he stays out of my bird feeders.  He does continue to use the bird bath as his wash bowl, so that must be emptied and refilled every morning.  Plan to camp out in the dark diningroom by the sliding glass door and watch for him Saturday night while I am waiting for the kids to arrive.  Hopefully I can get some shots of him. 

            The chipmunk that I have been feeding at the back of my pond has planted his seed stashes all over my flower beds.  I am still finding sunflower sprouts coming up all over the place.  No more sunflowers in the front yard please!  So sadly I have stopped feeding in that area of the yard. 

            The black and white brigade will get their baths and frontline tomorrow morning too.  They need to be pretty and clean when their kids arrive.  Rob to this day goes nuts when he hears a VW Beetle drive by.  He is so sure that his girl is coming to see him.  I feel so sad for him when he finally realizes it’s not his Shannon coming.  Now we are all just counting the hours till they arrive!

Summer, July and the decorating madness
Jun 7, 2007 | 11:40 AM PST
Tags: veggies , dogs , hawk , tomato , Squirrels , Bird Feeder , decks

Summer is coming on fast here.  We have been pushing toward the 90’s all week.  Expecting severe storms tonight with wind and hail.  Hope things don’t get too bad. 

 

Finally beat the squirrels to some of the ripe strawberries; they were few but very yummy.  The squirrel trough is working wonders and they haven’t been in my pots all week!!  Of course I had to make a run to Wally World for more seed.  But that’s okay. (posted a photo in my profile of the trough) 

 

My best friend and two of the three Calif kids are coming for July 4th week!!  Our younger daughter can’t make it because of summer college classes.  (boohoo) I am so excited and have begun planning for the week.  When I planted the petunia bed I was hoping they would be coming so I put in white, blue, red, red & white and blue & white petunias.  I am still the crazy holiday decorator and the kids will get a kick out of it.  I have been picking up little things here and there to decorate with also.  Flags and buntings and patriotic garden stakes.  I am going to replant the pots and baskets on the deck with red, white and blue this weekend so that they are well established for the party.  I can’t wait to see my friend and the kiddos!!

The decks still are not restained!  Every time we go to start on them it rains again.  At this rate they will never get done.  Got them cleaned and sanded but can’t stain until they are completely dry for a day at least.  I am ready to give up and just paint away. 

 

We took the black and white brigade for a long walk last night.  Old Buddy is noticeably slowing down and that kind of worries me.  He is a dear old soul and I knew at his age taking him into our pack would not be forever.  At least he is loved and comfortable and will enjoy what is left of his life.  Think we will go for a check up just to make sure he is doing okay.  As long as he let’s me know life is still worth living we will let him enjoy what is left of it.  (You can read Buddy’s story under my profile.)

 

The veggie garden grows and grows.  I have one mater starting to blush!  I can almost taste them as I check the plants for more fruit.  I know it sounds crazy but I love the smell of tomato plants!! Lots of squash blooms and noticed a few cuke blooms last night.  Got the rest of my bean starts out last night when I got home.  Noticed that one bell pepper plants dropped three peppers.  The whole stem of the peppers were yellowed and laying at the base of the plant.  I am hoping it is only the result of the pounding rain we had and not something else.  The banana peppers are all doing well though.  Next year definitely calls for a larger veggie garden, that is all there is to it.

 

Harrison paid a visit this morning.  He roosted on the tomato trellis and sat watching over my garden.  I thanked him and wished him a good day before I left for the office.  Couldn’t ask for a better scare crow or squirrel patrol than a red shouldered hawk!

If you can't beat them, feed them
Jun 5, 2007 | 10:19 AM PST
Tags: Squirrels , Veggies , containers , Shade , Fungus , elephant ears , Bird Feeder , maters , Tomato , Bell Peppers

The battles with the bushy tailed beasties over my bird feeders and potted herbs on the deck continued until this weekend.  I had been putting feed and bird seed on the railing for them to try and deter the ravages to my herb pots.  The mess they made with the seed shells on the deck was driving hubby bonkers.  While I was out in the garden he went to work on a solution to our problem. 

 

He built them a squirrel trough!  It’s a six foot by six inch platform with a 1 inch rail all the way around.  The whole contraption is hinged so that it can be dumped out for cleaning and has a guard chain so it doesn’t flop all the way down.  The trough sits on long shelf brackets on the outside of the deck railing so any shells fall down to the ground.  There is a steep slope down to the lake on that side of the house so no harm cleaning it out there.  It works great!!  I can fill it with enough feed and seeds to keep them happy all day and out of my pots!!  The jays love it because they are too big for my bird feeders and the titmice love it because they can pick all the peanuts out of the seed.  Everyone is happy, especially Hubby who doesn’t have to go blow the shells off the deck everyday.

 

Gave the maters a feed yesterday.  I was up to 53 tomatoes but there are too many to count now. I love it!!  Yummy!  Squashes have blooms all over and the cukes are trying there best to start too.  Pulled out the last of the lettuce and spinach, it was pretty much done and our last pounding rain did them no favors.  Peppers are starting to get a little bigger.  Now that we have sun and warm maybe they will think about growing, you can see the little peppers on the plants, they just haven’t done much with all the rain we have had.  Going to put in more beans where the lettuce and spinach was, I have some starts that I will put out this weekend.

 

Got all the containers watered last night because we are up in the 90’s today.  Thank goodness it is not humid yet.  My daylilies I put in a couple of weeks ago now are doing wonderful; one that was about a three fan size is thinking about blooming, it is called “Go Figure”.  The others are all late bloomers.  I have a Masquerade Ball daylily that is getting ready to bloom, I put it in right before the freeze and it made it.  All three elephant ears are up at the back of the pond.  The leafs are huge and it really filled in that side in front of the garage.  The new willow that took the place of the Japanese maple we lost is doing great.  Lot’s of new stems and foliage.

 

And best of all my dinner plate dahlias are all about to bloom!!!  I have had to stake a few of them they were getting so tall.  But soon they will all be flowering.  I will take some photos as soon as they do.  The sunflowers have all bloomed.  I think I will plant some more of those on the hill side just for the birds.  They really are pretty.  

 

The shade bed has really filled in.  I was watering a container near there last night and notice this fungus growing on the mulch.  Looked kinda yellowish and spongy.  I gave is a squirt of the hose and the whole thing exploded in a big brown cloud!!  So great, I can just imagine the whole shade bed is going to be covered with this fungus from all the spores I released by hosing the thing down.  So how do I get rid of that????

Almost there...for now anyway.
May 21, 2007 | 12:30 PM PST
Tags: Birds , Deck , Daylilies , veggies , dogs

What a beautiful weekend!!!  Lot’s of sun, perfect temps and best of all no humidity.

The rest of the daylilies I ordered came Friday night by the UPS man.  The dogs were out front with me when he delivered the flowers. He gave them all a cookie, said he keeps them in his truck because some dogs aren’t very nice to guys that they think are mailmen.  He got a big kick out to the black and white brigade, all three sitting at the same time and looking up at him when they realized he had treats.  He said he wished all dogs were so polite to him!

I got brave and decided to give the dogs their lion cut for the summer.  Left their manes, front leg feathers and tails.  I hate doing it and hate how they look but I know they feel better with all that hair off.

I got busy at 7AM Saturday morning prepping the bed I put the daylilies in.  Put some more mulch around the pond where it was wearing thin from the traffic to the hose bib.  Hubby cut the grass and then we gave everything a good watering. 

The veggie patch is growing, we had our second salad out of the garden and there are loads of maters.  Yummy.  I staked and tied of the green beans and caged the tomatoes that I have in containers because they are starting to get big.  My carrots tops are growing but there isn’t a lot of activity happening under ground.  Is that normal?  Never planted carrots before.  Lot’s of blooms on the bell peppers and a couple of peppers well on their way.

The pond is off and running again.  Everything is coming in great.  The lotus is filling in and the four leaf clover is ALL over.  We had one lily and my hyacinths are making little hyacinths already.  No blooms yet on the cannas but they are growing nicely.  All but one of the 25 cent gold fish dozen made it.  They are growing fast and giving the four big fish a run for their money.  We had zillions of tadpoles a couple of weeks ago but no signs of tadpoles and no little frogs at all.  I think the fish have been eating tadpoles; the new fish sure are growing fast!

After doing some shopping I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the birds between loads of laundry.  The blue jay pair has three fledglings and their wings and beaks are busy keeping their brood fed.  The whole family spent most of the afternoon in the trees near our deck.  I never realized that they would feed their young from my feeders.  I guess I would use any resource I could if I was in their position.  The young were certainly demanding.  I also wonder if they are teaching them to come to the feeders.  I guess that is possible.  The cat birds are actually visiting my feeders as well.  That is a first, normally I see them down in the blackberries but they have never come to the deck before.  The rest were the usual crowd.

Sunday afternoon we started in on sanding the deck and prepping for re-staining.  I am very sore this morning but the hard work will pay off.  Just a bit more sanding to finish and we will be ready to stain.  I am taking Thursday and Friday off this week and will start on the lower deck.  Hubby is off Friday and will help finish up then.  Other than the decks and the shed cleaning, which still needs to be done, I think we are almost ready to take a break from all the work and finally sit and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Where the heck did spring go??
Apr 12, 2007 | 12:13 PM PST
Tags: freeze , birds , garden , vegetable garden , veggies , Pond , Lotus , japanese maple , sod , containers

Another night below freezing last night and another to come Saturday night, will spring ever come back???  They even said the words “snow flurries” for Sunday!!  Whaaa!!!

Okay, still waiting on the extra 20 yards of sod to fill the patch and trim out the rest.  Rain again is keeping them from cutting the sod.  The rest of the grass we have put down is looking great.  What a difference in the front yard it makes. 

All my container plants were hold up in the garage again last night.  I will take them out again for the day as soon as it warms up.  We have given up on the rest other than the tomatoes and peppers.  Containers in the garage, veggie bed covered and filbert covered.  For all the good it will do.  But at least it isn’t the 20 degrees or lower 5 nights in a row. 

I asked Treeman about my very sad Japanese maple, the news is not good.  I will wait a bit and keep an eye on it but odds are its toast.  Thanks, Treeman for breaking it to me gently.

The birds are back at the feeders, this cold giving them an urgent need for fuel.  Some of the birder talk I get emailed to me is saying that this warm spell we had bringing everything out and now this freeze is going to hurt the birds pretty badly as well.  The new tender foliage is now brown and crunchy, leaving the insects nowhere to do their thing and that means no insects for the hungry birds sitting eggs or feeding young.  Not good.  I don’t know how much good it will do, but I will keep a close eye that my feeders are filled and have water there for the birds.

Hoping we get a bit of a break in the rain we are suppose to get this weekend, so that I can pull up or cut back damaged flowers and access what to do now in my flower beds.  Most of the annuals are toast.  I planted those just for instant gratification.  I really want to get serious and plan out some nice perennials.

The pond is doing well.  The lotus was trying to put up shoots when the freeze happened.  I had sunk it deeper in the water to protect it and checked it last night and it is still okay.  The lilies slowed down but are okay and the four leaf clover is doing well too.  The cannas slowed too but are fine, since I threw them in a cooler with the pond grasses and stuck them in the garage.  The pond nursery said they would have hyacinths by the end of this month, so I will head over there to get some to add to the pond soon. 

I really want spring to return soon, and not go straight into 100+ degrees with humidity.  But I am sure my wish is no different from any of us.  Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm.