jennycatar's Blog

Peas! and other stuff
Sep 18, 2007 | 9:36 AM PST
Tags: Peas , Mice , Weather , Hummingbirds

I've got sprouts! At least one in each of my plant buckets. I wasn't expecting to see sprouts so fast, but there they are. 

The weather has been quite lovely the past week. Not cold, but pleasant with no humidity. The lack of HOT has made it so I have not had to water the pea buckets since I planted them. Why? Well the buckets are in my pool garden, and the pool is still full nearly to the top with water from the previous week's rain. So the soil in the buckets is staying nice and moist, and I haven't had to do a darn thing to them. Gotta love it when Mother Nature actually does all the work for you.

 I believe I have stopped the mouse invasion. I woke up to #7 in the trap (well, we trapped 6 and I got that lucky ricochet shot with a seventh) and I've not heard or seen signs of another one. The landlord was up here today and I told him about the mice. He's checking the outside of the house for signs of where they may have been getting in, he replaced the screening over the dryer vents (even though there were no signs of holes), and is putting down poison in the crawl space under the house to hopefully prevent any more from getting in. I'm just glad that's over with. I can actually take the groceries out of the rubbermade storage boxes and put them away now.

The hummingbirds have returned! I'm so excited about that. I love being able to sit here at my desk while I work and watching them buzz back and forth between my feeders and the neighbor's feeder. Once in a while one will sit on my herb 'trellis' or the trellis support for my Hyacinth Beans and just chatter away. Since the weather is cool enough, I can keep the door open and listen. I was a little worried that I wouldn't see them anymore since there is a lot of noise coming from the gas drilling operation on the back property. Most of the birds left in the spring while they were cutting down all the trees and burning all the brush.
 

The nice days won't last
Sep 13, 2007 | 7:45 AM PST
Tags: weather , hummingbirds , Humberto

Tuesday and Wednesday were gorgeous weather-wise! After nearly a solid week of rain we had bright sunny skies and cooler temps ... well cooler as in low 90s, but that's much better than triple digits without the heat index eh.

So on Tuesday I managed to yank up the dead plants, stir up the soil in the buckets (some was quite compressed, I had a hard time getting a couple of the tomato plants to let go), and plant my two varieties of peas. Meant to do the radishes yesterday, but ended up doing housework instead. While we were gone on vacation, and then off at Rick's parent's house sitting and taking care of his son while his parent's were at the hospital with his nephew, we had some mice move it. At least three of them, probably coming in from the rain. I got a lucky shot with a pellet gun and took one out on a ricochete but the buggers are eating SOMETHING (can't figure out what though) and are clever enough to trip the trap without getting caught. I WILL win!

The hummingbirds are back too. Of course all my hummingbird flowers are pretty much dead now, but I've still got the feeders. Had to clean them up and make more food for them, but that was easy enough. Trying to hang the first one back out and I had two hummers flying around my head as if to say "Hurry it up there" ... hopefully they'll let me get pictures.

 It's already clouding over again, we're expecting rain from Humberto I guess today and tomorrow. One station says one thing, the other says something else. Wish they would get it together.

 

Too late the rain
Sep 5, 2007 | 6:19 PM PST
Tags: Rain , peas , lettuce , radishes

We went away for a little vacation this past long weekend. I left everything but the tomatoes were pretty much dead, the heat wave was not kind, even with me schlepping water every day. Came back, the tomatoes were done too. Yesterday started much needed rain, heavy at times, but steady. It's rained off and on today as well. Too late to save my plants though, but the grass and trees need it too, so I guess it's good.

As soon as the rain stops I'll be pulling up the dead stuff so I can plant peas in the pool garden. I've got two kinds: Oregon Sugar Pod, which I know I can use/freeze in shell; and Thomas Laxton, which says on the package is a heavy producer. I'm thinking from what I'm seeing on the package that these are a pea that I'm going to have to shell these before I cook them and/or freeze them. Anyone know if this is true? I'm also going to plant another batch of radishes. I'm not going to bother with the mixed lettuce/salad greens seeds I planted in the spring, as I wasn't really happy with them. Next spring I'll probably just stick with a green leaf lettuce and skip the other mixed stuff.