The first is an update that I wish was not necessary and that is that Alida's pet chicken Forsythia died at the beginning of this month. Alida was very upset a few days before her death when it appeared unlikely she was going to get better. Alida had the foresight to grab the camera and take a few selfies of them together, which we are now grateful to have. There was no formal funeral this time around, but there were some tears shed wondering if she would remember this particular chicken friend. I think there is little doubt she will, even as she moves on to tame additional birds! Alida has become a very integral part of the chicken projects at Tangly Woods and is eager to be part of most (all?) breeding discussions/decisions. A recent family meeting has us moving towards combining two of Jason's breeding projects - the Cub Run Crele and the Black's Run Brown. I know it's very enjoyable for Jason to have some enthusiasm from kiddos who are eager to be involved, even if it can add some complications or a slowing down of some processes. It feels very good and healthy!
One of several garden projects that needed doing before we departed was getting the rye and wheat threshed and winnowed. It's not a project I got in on (other than photographing it), but threshing seems to be something that draws Terah especially so she hung out with Jason a fair amount. While a somewhat tedious and long job, it is so very clear how much Jason enjoys it!
A previous job up on the concrete pad had been processing the winter peas. Any that were not harvested for the seed supply, Tala rescued from the vines and put to good use making multiple delicious pea dishes to give us some ideas for how they might be used in the future (that is, if we can inspire some kiddos to help with the harvesting/processing!).
The racks are now set up in the garage again as the summer harvests commence. First up was getting the garlic in before we left. Sadly, it as a pretty horrible garlic year - bushels less than last year. We have learned that the rotation of the root patch the garlic was in this year is also where some underground wet-weather springs appear to be. We had water seeping up in that spot in the spring when everything was saturated. We'd love more of that rain now, but it appears that maybe it was too much then and the soil may have become somewhat anaerobic. Whatever it was, we did not have an abundant garlic harvest so I'll be back to cooking with cloves of garlic rather than bulbs!
While on a depressing gardening note, I'll just add two more things and then shift to happier updates. The squirrels, chipmunks and ground hogs seem to be really hungry, really abundant in numbers and/or a bit greedy! It seems there is no end to their appetites this year and we are feeling it. Right now the chipmunks and squirrels are the focal point of our frustration. The squirrels have more or less cleared the best apples from the few trees that had apples - they are spotted scampering from woods to tree and then back to the woods with green apples in their mouths. And the worst infraction to date was the chipmunks coming and helping themselves to our Green Arrow pea seed right as it was ripening - we came out one morning to find the aisle littered with pea shells. So no Green Arrow seed for us this year, which means a chipmunk-proof cage for growing out seeds is on the short term project list for us this fall/winter!
And, finally, on the animal front - our goldfish of a good number of years now (bought when Jason was on his 40th birthday trip to see the sandhill cranes) died a few weeks back. Our best hypotheses are that a buildup of rat feces in the gutters may have washed into the barrel and gobbled the oxygen for decomposition, or else the fish simply outgrew the rain barrel. It seemed fine until a number of weeks back when the goldfish would hang out at the top of the water kind of gulping for air. We replaced much of the water and tried to aerate it, but our remedy didn't last long. It seems it needed a bigger area and/or more constant aeration, or to block out or trap the rats. Why do they love to hang out in the gutters? So goldfish are probably not the long term solution, as we don't really want to buy them knowing that in a few years' time they won't be able to survive life in a rain barrel. We'll need something that stays smaller or doesn't need much oxygen. For a quick solution before we left (so we weren't breeding mosquitos in our absence), I caught some minnows in the stream near our home. Jason and the girls seemed dubious about my abilities to catch minnows with a net, so you can be assured I didn't come home until I got some! Sadly only 1 (we think) of the 3 have made it this far. So while early on in this experiment, I'm assuming it will be a failed one! Next up might be a small blue gill from a neighboring pond. Or maybe a frog?
On a more positive note, we are enjoying blueberry season! It's coming to an end fast, but we are savoring having lots of fresh berries! We didn't get to the patch as much this year with our trip in the middle of the season. Also I realized we had gone overboard last year and still had gallons in the freezer!
All three of them put on a little show the evening Jonathan and Christen came over to celebrate Christen's bday around the fire! Alida is working a lot on her arm moves, to the point where she had bruises on her arm from throwing the hoop in the air and catching it.
Two other news flashes! The first is that Alida has officially accomplished her goal of surpassing Tala in height. And we aren't sure when/how it happened as the last time we checked she had a little ways to go. That girl is just shooting up rapidly right now!!
Well, it's time to put the final touches on brunch, so I'll get back to sharing about our week away at another time. I'll end with our July 1 picture of the Tangly Woods' bunch because, well, I just love them!
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