Back by Popular Demand: Garden Journal #4

A dear friend hinted the other day that not much gardening has been posted. In fact, the last time was at the end of March... So much for staying accountable for all the individual acts of planting and growing with Ginny this year. Let's have a little review of the Spring and Summer then. Of course, everything was unseasonably warm ridiculously early and I should have planted seeds even earlier than I did. But those frost dates do give me pause. Here is May 12. In my former winter garden we have bean seeds ready to sprout. Behind, an entire bed devoted to cherry and grape tomatoes that came up in a friend's garden.

Fast forward to June 10. The grass is already crunchy. It hasn't rained in two weeks, won't rain for another three. This was the day that I left for Europe. I went away for 24 days... Hence, no garden update.

I had a wonderful garden waterer, however. My next door neighbor, who is 18 and always looking for spending money, has excellent watering skills and brought the garden to the next level. (Picture below still from June 10!)

The garden lives, but the grass is dead... We are now looking at last week. Recent rains are making the lawn look better again, but the back area was hit hard. What are we looking at here? The front right bed is overflowing with the grape and cherry tomatoes. I made the mistake of throwing my Rottweiler one while I was picking... He instantly figured out how to pick and eat great quantities by himself... To the left we have beans under netting (to keep the bunnies out), 4 pepper plants, and 6 tomato plants that my mother raised for me from seeds.

The winter garden, left, is filled with green beans. The green bean plants have been flowering like crazy, but producing very few beans. I think they won't grow in temperatures above 90F. As it cooled a little, I have been able to pick more, but I have to admit that I am underwhelmed by the amount of green beans a 4x8 foot bed produces. Maybe it was the seeds. They did not come up in the numbers that I planted... To the right I have a giant zucchini plant, a very small cucumber plant, and a watermelon plant. The zucchini is producing well (6 of them in my refrigerator as of last night), 3 cucumbers, and several watermelons are working on growing. The edge of the most right bed shows some of the 6 remaining tomato plants. The memory of 2006 and eating a giant tomato salad daily for 2 solid months is making my mouth water... Fingers crossed, though the drought has made most of the tomatoes develop very tough skins. The flesh is very tasty!

Amana Orange tomatoes that I ate Thursday and Friday!

Delightful peppers, harvested last night.

Veggies harvested in the dark on August 3rd.

One of the zucchinis disappeared into this divine lunch today... Hello new comfort food! Another will disappear into this tomorrow morning. Check out other links on that page. My zucchini will be enjoyed with great variety - hooray!

How about another flashback to May 12? My lovely pea plants. In between the rows was a lettuce mix that we enjoyed just about every night for a month. The peas eventually grew as tall as me and produced delicious pods. After they were finished, I pulled them out and replanted with two types of carrots. Only two plants came up... Drought? Bad seeds? Anyway, I plan on starting some fall veggies here tomorrow: spinach, chard and beets.

Till next time, my dear Sweet Peas!

"YELLOW!"

"Yellow!" was the first word that my niece #3 enthusiastically exclaimed when she opened her early birthday present from me last Thursday. I knew that yellow was her favorite color after my visit with her during Spring Break. I brought her a coloring book and she delighted in saying "yellow" over and over again, demanding a yellow crayon, marker, or pencil in turns. So when I was shopping for souvenir yarn in Innsbruck, Austria, in June, my eye drifted to this luscious pale yellow yarn, and I knew this would turn into a perfect little sweater for her. The yarn is Lana Grossa's Linea Pura Latte. What a mouthful! It is a cotton/milkfiber blend, which was a little more comfortable to knit than regular cotton. I used size 5 and 7 needles using three out of four skeins of yarn.

The next step was looking for a pattern. I searched Ravelry under "child, sweater, worsted" and this lovely short-sleeved pattern named "Lucia" popped up. Someone else had also knit it in pale yellow, so it was not difficult to imagine my own finished product. I also thought it was perfect with short sleeves for summer and easy to layer a long sleeve T-shirt underneath for cooler times of the year.

Project started on July 18 and finished July 25. Very easy knit, though the yarn was splitty. I really enjoyed the easy lace pattern.

Photo above shown with long sleeve T-shirt layered under sweater as well as fun plaid shorts. T-shirt and shorts are a birthday present, compliments of a loving grandmother!

As you can see, it was NO PROBLEM getting the child into the sweater. She insisted on putting it on right away! (I love that!!) These pictures are a more true representation of the light yellow color.

Silly face!

I am joining up with Ginny today. The book I am reading is "Where Are You Wearing," by Kelsey Timmerman, which is the Freshman required reading book at the local university this year. It is a very eye-opening commentary on where our clothes come from and by whom they are made. I'm sure a knitter's group would have a lively discussion about this book! I highly recommend it.

The Perfect Birth Day

Happy Birthday to Bella Oak's new cria girl, Cassidy, born on July 15th, 2012! The animals and humans at Shady Grove Alpacas have been eagerly awaiting her arrival since late June. Especially stressful was the fact that I was not home until July 4th and we had a family vacation planned from July 7-14... It has been hot hot hot here this summer and Bella was not going to let go of her cria until the weather shifted. After a joyous homecoming on the evening of the 14th, we enjoyed a terrific thunderstorm. The storm brought the temperature down just enough for Bella to decide that it was time. When we arrived in the barn on Sunday morning, we found Cassidy lying next to her mother. Cassidy immediately stood up and walked around, was nursing well, and was rolling in the dirt by early afternoon. We are a little worried about weak legs and are supplementing with some vitamins, and she seems to have developed some intestinal distress. However, she was born at an even 18 pounds and weighed in at 23.3 Saturday night. She is thriving and we hope that the little set backs will resolve themselves soon.

Checking out the new pen mate.

Hello Darling!

Crias are born in a thin sac that the mother apparently does not lick off. Cassidy must have been alive a few hours because the dried membrane was stuck to her fiber.

All clean!

Check out the bowed front legs...

Bella and Cassidy on July 15th.

Cassidy is one week old!

Mom and Cria

What big eyes you have!

To contrast the tiny half sister is last fall's cria, Darkstar, who is looking large and wooly!

I am dreading picking the hay out of his fiber before showing him this fall.

Not to be forgotten is our faithful guard dog, Tenny. (It took me 15 tries to get this photo. She just wants lots of hugs!)

Baby Sweater on Two Needles

In the upcoming months, there will be a PARADE of baby sweaters arriving on this site! Three siblings/siblings-in-law are expecting or recently had a new arrival. This little item goes to my niece, due in August. The baby shower was yesterday, so I thought I would reveal the present today! Details:Baby Sweater on Two Needles (February) by Elizabeth Zimmermann Yarn: Darlaine Sport Wool in Cream, two balls (picked up by my mother at a yard sale) Needle: Size 4 Begin: June 1, 2012 End: June 8, 2012 Modifications: Started with 60 stitches to make up for small needles and yarn. Sleeves started after 4th repeat of lace chart instead of third. One additional lace chart in sleeve, but NO additional increase to body of jacket under the sleeve. Additional rows of garter at beginning before increases to account for small row gauge of sport weight. Clearly my lack of command regarding buttonhole placement makes these ladybugs look "whimsical" walking up the sweater! And who can resist the delightful two-sided cloth gift bag as a delivery vehicle? Watch out Little One, Auntie E is ready to spoil you! Don't let your Mom and Dad forget to send me a picture of you wearing your new garb!

Shearing Day

After 13 months of growing their fiber, it was shearing day for the alpacas today. Instead of traveling to another farm like last year, a young shearing team came to us. They set up their athletic mat in the barn, strategically placing chains, ropes and pulleys around some of the posts. Then the animal's feet were secured and it was lain on its side. A classic game of "locate the head" ensues. Moonstar starts the action.

Moonstar was not a fan of the procedure. She made a high-pitched crying sound throughout. I felt terrible, but The Farmer had a grain treat waiting for her.

First cut into the "blanket." One reason Moonstar was not too happy: her fleece is so long and thick and a little matted. The man shearing really needed to pull the fiber apart to get started. I'm sure it felt like rough combing through tangled hair.

Unbelievable mass of fiber. Her total weight loss via hair cut was 7.7 pounds!

Greta takes a turn.

Bella cannot stop spitting so she had to have a towel on her mouth. Several men had a lot of green stuff on them... The shearing team also trims the toenails and makes sure the teeth are the correct length. Bella needed a little teeth trimming, which she took with a surprising amount of understanding.

The final result: Far Side Cartoon #2

Good news about Dark Star's fleece! He has been taking dirt baths and getting a lot of straw in his fiber. It looked like it had gotten weak and broken. However, such was not the case. Everything was perfectly normal and he just needs a little hosing off and getting the hay picked out before showing. Hooray! And now, we have 18 pounds of fresh fiber to process... On top of the 12 pounds of fiber from last year. Who's coming to help??

2012 Garden Journal #3

This was my view from the driveway last Tuesday! Glorious bulbs, plum and crab apple tree in full bloom.


Busy Bee on plum blossoms



I have done almost nothing except admire Spring's progress in the last two weeks. My one major development was putting up some stakes and putting some bird netting other it to protect this garden from the giant rabbits. This is last week's growth.


This is how much the peas and mesclun grew in a week: (Time to do some thinning...


Progress of apple blossoms over the last week:




Today the daffodils are already finished, BUT do you see the abundance of salad greens that re-seeded themselves? Some of the seeds waited for spring after all. I am excited for upcoming salads!


The gooseberry shrubs are blooming, and surrounded by beautiful yellow flowers. I will have to look up the name of that plant... We had a frost scare on Monday night. I covered the peas with floating row cover, but not completely, and one of the gooseberry shrubs with some plastic. Either the protection worked well, or it did not get cold enough to do damage. I left too early in the morning to assess frost on the ground. I'm sure we will have more of these adventures in the coming weeks.

Joining up with Ginny again today! Thanks Ginny!