Call of the Wild

With the road construction going on, the wild life is on the move. Night before last the security light came on in back of the house while Tom was in the kitchen, and when he looked out the window, he saw a good sized black bear checking out the bar-b-que! When he called me to come see it, the bear looked at us a while then went back into the woods, but I know he hanged around a while because the security light periodically went on and off. That was a big bear and I wonder if it is the same bear we saw two years ago. Then, when Tom went to check his deer stand, he came up on a flock of about 10 wild turkeys and the dog almost caught one! But the biggest happening was when Tom let the dog out she surprised a doe with a fawn in the woods in front of the house. The doe went one way and the fawn jumped over the 4 foot fence and into the chicken run! I thought that fat old rooster Chin Lee was going to have a heart attack. The chickens were all making a racket while the fawn jumped all over the place until it finally jumped over the far side of the coop fence and dashed into a stand of balsams down by the north marsh, its white flag of a tail standing straight up. Oh Brother! It was a good thing the dog listened to me when I told her to "stay". I told Tom we can't let her chase deer. Then, somebody's male yellow lab got loose and was out in the front of the house. It was a good thing that Sandy was not out. I wonder whose dog that was.

Yesterday, Tom cut the grass along the hay road and I cut back a lot of the tree branches as far as I could reach so the road is passable. There are several low areas that need to be filled. Then, I put down my organic fertilizer mix around all the veggies and checked the potatoes for potato bugs. Only two plants had bugs so I spot sptrayed those two with Bt and squished all the bugs I could find. Ed and I finished putting in bamboo stakes for the tomatoes and we built our cucumber trellises. The garden sort of looks Japanese with all the bamboo, but it is pretty. The pole beans are looking good and hopefully will start to climb their teepees soon. The other beans I planted for dry beans are all growing well. It is cloudy today and rain is expected so hopefully we will get enough rain to get the new seeds I planted going. Where the oats were I put in rutabegas and white egg turnips, St. Valery carrots, Forellynschuss lettuce, French Breakfast radishes, Cilantro, dill, mustard greens, Bulls Blood beets, borage and calendula and LOTS of Provider green beans. The green beans will be the main green bean crop. I have just one small section that was left unplanted and I want some buckwheat to plant there. The wheat/oats section has a lot of weeds in it, but what grain there is is growing nicely. Guess when it's time to harvest, I'll have to separate the grains by hand, but it is a small patch and hopefully there will be enough for us for the winter. Anyway, with the flowers starting to come on many of the veggies, fruit and the farmers market won't be far away. I'll have to start checking my market supply bins and making ice.

Well, I want to do some reading on community kitchens so I talk to you later.