Mantis Tiller

I am thrilled to be the proud owner of a Mantis tiller.  Hubby and I went to the chainsaw shop the other day. Okay, Hubby went to the chainsaw shop and I was with him.  Then I saw it, the Mantis tiller.  

We had looked at a tiller when we were at the Cal Ranch store in town earlier in the day.  I didn't like it much.  It was a Stihl.  It was selling for almost $400.

This used Matis was $60.  Of course, I have Hubby who knows how to fix small engines and machines of various types.  He sure helps us keep the costs down around here.

That would be Rusty the Red Dog helping me with the tiller.

Why I Like Living Here

This afternoon the temp was up to above freezing so I went out to get a few chores taken care of.

I stopped by the little horse pen with my bucket of grooming supplies.  I got the little fella out.  He likes getting out of his pen.  I brushed him and cooed at him and combed his mane and tail.  I cleaned his tiny little hooves.

I gave him his senior food pellets and wheeled the wheel barrow in and started raking up the pen.

So peaceful and quiet and pleasant.  That's why I like living here.  Warm breath and honest work and soft sounds on a cold sunny afternoon.

Once I was done cleaning pens and feeding the horse and the goats, I fired up the hedge trimmer.  Another great reason to like living here.  Loud and obnoxious but making quick work of the grasses and brush in the back garden.  Next, raking it all up and having a burn day:)

  I have high hopes for the spring and summer to come.  The plants will be blooming and veggies will be bursting forth and the trees will all be getting taller.  Oh, how we gardeners love to dream the winter months away.

Worming

I bet you all thought this would be about having earthworms in the garden.  Nope, 7 years and we still don't seem to have earthworms.  We had some red compost worms last year that made it through the winter under some straw in the vegie garden but no sign of them this year.  It was too dry, I think.  Not a tiny bit of rain all winter and spring.  Oh, what an exciting day it was in Fernley when we found our first earthworm after only living there a couple of years.  Here in our sandy realm, so far not a one.

Nope, today we wormed the cat, the two dogs, the three goats and the miniature horse.  We generally do this in early June every year.  I don't recall why we do it in early June but we must have had our reasons when we first started this tradition.

We are worming the cat and the dogs specifically for tapeworms.  Penney had tapeworms a couple of years ago.  I thought is was shocking.  In all my years of dog ownership, I had never actually had a dog with known tapeworms.  There are no fleas here so we thought we were safe.  Turns out that if the cat or dog eats rabbits [and ours do] the rabbits all have tapeworms which the directly pass on to the dog or cat.  Isn't nature fascinating!  Yuck.

Any way, it is real and we are working to prevent problems.

I finally found a farrier that will come out our way.  I got a recommendation from the vet tech at the animal clinic we have been taking the dogs to occasionally.  Honestly, we worm and give the basic shots ourselves so unless your getting neutered or need rabies or are really sick, when you are a pet around here you don't see the inside of the vet's office.  Saves us a ton of money.

My Climate Sucks...So Why do I Live Here?

Yeah, I ask myself why do I live in this gardening hellhole sometimes.  Look at this.  The moon going down as the sun is coming up.  That is why I live here.  So beautiful some days.  Wide open spaces.  Plus, no fleas on the dogs and cat.

A couple of my domesticated pennestemmons. One in purple and one pink.  This variety is called Origami.

Speedwell or veronica in the front and alfalfa in the back.  Both a love purple blue.

Chocolate flowers.  Yep, they smell like chocolate.  They are a western flower and cannot take the humidity of the south and east. if I recall correctly.

Garden Notes

Yesterday was a busy one!

I got 40 feet of Russian Finger Potatoes put in the ground.  One feature of the Russian potatoes is that I cover a few hills with deep straw in the fall and then I can dig potatoes all winter.  Then, in the spring, I dig up what is left and replant then in a new spot.  We get plenty of potatoes for the next year without buying seed potatoes.

I am growing 4 kinds of garlic.  Silver rose, Walla Walla, Elephant and Italian Softneck.

I also put in almost 60 feet of onions.  I usually buy the onion deal from Henry Fields or Gurneys and I get yellow, white and red onions.  I think I need to buy some sweet white onions next year.  I am getting really boring with the onion varieties.

I got several shrub bases with roots out of the pathway areas.  One large one and two small ones were directly on the way to the new veggie garden gate and I knew that one of us would be tripping over it eventually if I didn't get those things out of the way.  The other  shrub base and roots was in the pathway to the new horse pen.  It was a wicked looking thing with pointy branches sticking out from where I had chopped them off a few weeks ago.  I sure didn't want to bring my new buddy in and have him spook at the goats or some such and then cut his leg on a branch stub.

I finished getting systemic onto the trees.  We think  we have peach borers although we haven't managed to literally catch one of those little devils.  We had an apricot tree bleed to death and the next year another apricot tree died.  We have also lost a couple of crabapples and one or two apple trees to those monsters.  We have had attacks on cherry trees and another 2 apple trees but we dosed them with systemic right away and they survived.   We don't really like using systemic but we haven't much choice since the willows, peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, crabapples and apples are all susceptible to borers.   I've been using it on the Siberian elms, as well, since they have rough bark [which we think is what the borers like since we haven't had any attack our pears or other trees with smooth bark YET] and the elms get those annoying elm beetles that get into everything.

I watered the North Zone yesterday.  I watered the Front Zone and the Back Zone, both near the house, for three hours each.  It has been so dry this winter that I am already working hard to make sure the plants have water.  Spring is finally here although it can be a bumpy ride for 4 or more weeks.

The Kwanza flowering cherry trees are starting to bloom and the lilacs look fantastic this year.  Hoping for a good show.

It was chilly in the house so Hubby started a fire to warm us up a bit.  I called the burn line and it is a permissable burn day.  I don't want to spend much time on that but I might get a bit of the last stuff near the veggie garden in a pile and burn it.  We shall see.

41 degrees overnight.  Yesterday was 64 degrees and very little wind.  I hope today will be just as nice although it definitely looks cloudy, I am sure it won't rain.

I put the tomatoes and the artichokes [yes, I am growing artichokes from seeds] into the greenhouse and left them overnight.  Fortunately it was 52 degrees in there this morning.  Any time it stays over fifty I am happy since the baby plants do okay with that temperature and above.

Garden Notes

Looks like it really is time to start putting in the peas, potatoes, garlic and onions.  It should stay above freezing Although this is Northern Nevada and it is quite possible we will have a frost or two yet.

Certainly the soil has not warmed up enough for anything that is considered warm weather:)

Last night was 35 degrees.   Today's high  is predicted to be 62 degrees.

The nights are going to be warmer and the days are going to be into the sixties for the rest of the week if the weather gurus have it right.

Garden Notes

It has been above freezing for the last several nights although Wednesday night was 33 degrees.  Days 55 to 65 degrees.

Haven't gotten much done in the garden since we were busy building fence, working on the horse shed, hanging a gate.  This weekend I have a lot to accomplish.

We ran the wood stove in the late evening last night.  Toasty.  Cold and cloudy today so I may run it again later.  Love the ability to toast up the house without spending an arm and a leg.

Really windy yesterday.

Garden Notes

Overnight low of 33 degrees.

High of 74 degrees.

I watered the West side for 4 more hours today.  This time with the sprayers turned on.  I am watering the Fruit tree zone for 4 hours as well.

Supposed to start being windy again but today was the perfect temperature and overcast.  Loving it. To bad I had to clean a house instead of working on my projects!

Garden Notes

Overnight low of 26 degrees.

Yesterday's high was 68 degrees.

Today is a permissable burn day so I think I will work on that.

High noon and I got a lot done this morning. I cleaned the goat water trough and got them some sparkling new water.  I watered the North Zone.  I burned 4 piles of brush.  I got the asparagus in the ground along with some more compost.  I got some more of the compost fluffed up and turned over.  I got a bit of water on the compost pile.  I turned off all the water in the back and turned on the water for the front garden area.

The weather is nice with just the occasional puff of 10 MPH wind.  Break time and then I'll see what else I can get done.

Front and back zones watered.

Emitters replaced in West side or Street zone.  The old bobblers were wearing out and/or I put quite a few one gallon per hour drippers on that zone and that was a mistake since the last elm tree, way at the end wasn't getting any of the water.  The water just wasn't making it all the way to the end.  I already tightened up this zone a bit but it needed more work.

So, I tightened up the back half of the zone.  I took off a couple of more emitters off that weren't watering anything [the plant either died or got moved].  Five or six sagebrush were getting two half gallon emitters and they would be happy with one half gallon emitter so I changed those up.  When a bobbler [emitter] gets worn out the water streams out instead of dripping out and that lowers the water pressure on the line so I checked for that situation and replaced those that were a problem.  I replaced almost all of the one gallon per hour emitters.  I ran out of new half gallon emitters towards the end of the line.  I need to order some more.

I cut some more of the flat tubing.  I have 25 lines cut now and I need about 30.  Looking at the roll, I think we will have enough flat tubing for this year.  I am reusing the flat tubing from the old garden set up, as well.

Did dishes.  Cooked dinner.  Yeah, that should be the other way around but I didn't do dishes earlier today so I had to do dishes and then cook dinner which means now I have to go do more dishes:)

Garden Notes

Nineteen degrees!  Geez, that is cold.  Any hope I had of the cherry tree flowers surviving to make pie cherries is gone.  This is the third really cold night in a row and is the coldest yet!  At least it isn't supposed to be windy today.

The house was a bit chilly at 66 degrees.  Of course, with the wood stove we have higher standards for warmth than we did when we were running the propane furnace.  Hubby got a fire started about 5:30 am and I got up and kept it stoked.  Now it is a toasty 75 degrees in here.  I love that wood stove.

The good news is that I haven't planted any cold weather crops yet.  I felt kind of bad for not having the garden tubing set up and running for the peas and potatoes but now I don't feel badly about that.  A late start is just what I needed.

Yesterday morning I got 15 or 20 flat tubes cut to 40 feet for the veggie garden before I had to leave.  I want to make sure we don't have to order some more since I have to get an order for bobblers in by April 30th.  They are having a 10 % off sale and I need a bunch of them so that is a great sale to take advantage of.

I still need to keep working on the veggie garden area.  I have a few more roots to pull out and some grasses that need to come out as well.  We also need to spread out the compost and rototill the  garden area. The most important goal I have is bringing my little horse home.  Preferably next week.  We shall see.

Garden Notes

Overnight low of 24 degrees.   Not as cold as last night but still pretty darn cold.

Yesterday the wind was within reason and today it is not windy at all.  At least not yet.  Looks like tomorrow won't be windy either.  I hope not since I am going to see my new little horse.

 I wish I had more time this morning to survey the yard.  However, I have to go clean a house.  How do you think I am paying for this little horse?  Sure, Honey Bunny bought the wire fencing and the posts and rails but I am buying the actual horse and cart :)  We make a good team.

The Miniature Horse Can't Eat That????

Looks like I have to move a number of plants that the little horse will find toxic.

Yesterday I traded about 20 sand cherries from the back area for about 20 silver buffalo berries from the front area.    It seems that horses cannot eat any form of cherries.

I also moved two oak trees, although I left one in the corner where I figure it really won't be too near the new [purely imaginary, at this point] little horse.

I moved the thornless honey locust as well.  They are listed as toxic by some people.  I am trading them out with the hackberry trees in the front.  They are saying that horses should not eat Ponderosa pine trees.  I have a few small pines in the back pasture and I think I will simply move them and be done with it.

Oh, I also have a number of black locust which are very toxic so I am moving them to the front area.  I don't know if I will replace them or not.

For good measure I will be moving the purple robe locust from the back pasture.

I also have one sad looking black walnut that is getting moved again.  That poor thing has been in about three spots already.

That does leave me with the poplars, the staghorn sumacs, the Colorado spruce [which is really not doing that well.]  I started with 5 or 10 and I am down to one or two.  The Siberian elms and the one Chinese elm can stay.

My options are limited on trees with the idea of a pasture with a horse in it.  There will be a paddock with a shelter, too.  So, I think it is best to make sure all the toxic plants are well away from the new horse areas.

One other issue is the silver maples.  I am concerned that they are actually red maple or silver maple/red maple hybrids.  They never have looked right for silver maples.  Apparently red maple is extremely toxic to horses and wilted and dried leaves are especially toxic so those either have to get moved way up front or just taken out altogether.  They are probably seven feet tall so it is a shame to be messing with them but I just cannot take a chance on a super toxic tree being near the new little horse.

So, poisonous plants in my yard?  Plenty of them.  Yep, and most of them will be staying but they will all be moved to the front yard.  We will simply have a firm no letting the horse eat anything when he is out of his area rule.  He'll be tied up or on a lead or pulling a cart anyway since we have no plans to let the little goober wander around on his own.  It is simply impossible to get all the fruit trees, sand cherries, locusts and other toxic plants out of the yard.  We wouldn't have a yard left.

Winter Watering

Sure, a lot of you out there don't worry one bit about watering your stuff in the winter.  I bet you have had snow or rain, too.  Watering in the winter is really important out here in our desert.  We have had literally no precipitation from snow or rain since early October.  What's a garden to do?

I managed to water a fair amount until around Thanksgiving but it has been tough since then.  That is over 4 weeks of barely getting any water on the garden.

I managed to water these last few days but the East Side Windbreak is giving me fits.  There are some ice chunks in there since some of the tubing is buried and they don't want to melt.  The cloud cover hasn't helped me a bit.  The place hasn't gone below freezing overnight for the third night in a row.  Yahoo!!!  In fact it was 36 degrees at dawn.  This is my third day of trying to water the East Side.  Looks like the water is flowing through the irrigation tubing with a few minor problems that are ironing themselves out as the morning progresses.  I am going to leave the water on for at least four hours.

Freezing Temps and Fire

Tonight is the first night for freezing temps this year.  I have all the irrigation and hoses off the faucets as a precaution.  Once the hose bibs freeze your dead toast.  They only freeze if you don't take the time to unhook the hoses.

Fortunately, we got the new wood stove up and running today.  It is a Kuma Wood Classic and it is wonderful.  We built our first small fire to cure the paint and sat by it for an hour.    Hubby is getting all the credit for this one.

Hubby cut a hole in the ceiling, got all the roof flashing on and the support box in.  He got the triple wall pipe in.  Then, he got the stove centered and the double wall interior pipe on the stove.  Really, an all day event.  Although we did take an hour or so off in the early afternoon.  Hubby can do anything and I am very proud of him.

I, on the other hand, have reached the point of exhaustion.  Tomorrow is an absolute day of rest.  Nothing, and I do mean nothing, is getting done.  I really over did it.

Yeah, I have a lot left to do and I will still have a lot left to do on  Friday but until then I am resting up tomorrow and cleaning a house on Thursday and that is it!

Garden

The end of the season is definitely here.  I pulled the last of the veggie garden irrigation tubing today.  I picked the last green tomatoes.  I cut the tomato vines down, chopped into smaller pieces and put them on the compost pile.

I moved some more dirt away from the greenhouse since I know Hubby is impatient and will not wait to split wood until I have more dirt moved.  We are going to split wood where the road base for the little driveway up the little hill to the hay shed ends.  That will help keep the sand from moving through there.  But I need to get the sand lowered first or we'll never keep the doorway cleared for me to use the greenhouse.

I started cutting rice grass for the goats.  It will take all winter to get most of it cut back.  But we do have the best rice grass in the area so it will be worth it.  Maybe I'll get the goats out into the North 2 acres and let them have at it.  That would save me a lot of work but cost me a lot of time.  We shall see.

I have been working on the compost pile, trying to get it turned.  Looks like I am having a lot of success in making compost since I have been sprinkling it on a regular basis.  Fun!

Gardening and Painting

It is official.  I feel bad!  I have so over done it that I don't know if I can do one more thing today.

I got the second coat of gold paint on the living room/dining room walls.  That was another 3 hours of painting on top of the hours of scrubbing and painting I did yesterday.

I got a lot of the winter cover crop on the garden and tried to rake it in.  I don't think I did a very good job but it has to get done yesterday.

I got the dishes in the dishwasher.

That is it.  I am all done in.  I am going to hobble to the couch and desperately hope I feel good enough to get 22.5 sq.ft. of slate tile mortared into place tomorrow.

Late afternoon.  I took a break and then decided that it was now or never on finishing up the tar on the roof.  I really only had about 5 feet by 10 feet left.  I crawled up there and got it done but have reached the "I think I am going to be sick" stage of physical labor.  I have a couple of movies to watch and I think I will do that and stop playing Wonder Woman.

I really shouldn't have done it but this is the last day of the year that we will have weather close to 80 degrees.  This was a top priority until Hubby decided getting a wood stove was a great idea.  Which it is.  I just had other things to do so I am trying to prioritize.  Which isn't easy to do when you have a wood stove coming on Tuesday and fall cover crop that has to get in yesterday and painting and tarring the roof to finish and putting in a fire hearth and shopping your butt off to get all the things you need to get all these jobs done.

I think I' ll go now.

Fall

Fall is well on its way in the garden.  The last of the tomatoes are ripening slowly.  It is amazing that we have any tomatoes left at all.  Usually there has been a good frost by now.

The maple trees have really turned a beautiful scarlet color this year in anticipation of dropping its leaves.  The green ashes are all very vibrant yellows.  The mountain ashes are a bright red.

It is quite satisfying to walk around the yard or pull up into the driveway and see the results of 5 years of hard work plainly displayed.  The shrub poplars on the edges of the property are a good 12 feet tall.  The green ashes went from miniature to about 5 feet tall.  One day we will be parking in the shade.

The Barker cypress are another foot taller and have filled out since two years ago when one side got burnt to a crisp in the winter.  Same with the Leland cypress which actually look pretty good although two of them died that fateful winter two years ago.

Several of the Austrian pines are as tall as I am.  That would be 5'8".  The rest of the pine trees have all put on at least a foot of growth.  The new guys out in front of the Secret Garden are alive and doing well [of course, I had to replace the one that was closest to the house due to accidentally not getting any water on it but the little new guy looks great and he's only a little behind his friends].

The Jeffries pines and Douglas firs all look fantastic and are growing like gang busters.

The hackberries have languished as teensey weensey trees until this year.  Now they are still very small but working very hard and have grown to aout 18 inches high.  I bet they put on several feet a year from now on.

All the mountain ashes look great and are 2 to 3 years old.  The one for the back yard is a bit slow to get bigger but maybe next year it will put some size on.

All the locusts [black and purple robe] have grown tremendously and really make the yard look like it has trees when you drive by.

The tree poplars have finally hit their stride and should be growing fast for the next few years.

The fruiting mulberries have been a real challenge.  Gophers got some of them.  We keep replacing them and some of them finally got over 3 feet tall this year.  A few are still pretty small.  We thought they would grow really fast but those little guys have taken a surprisingly long time to get established.

The buffalo berries from 2 springs ago are as tall as I am and the ones from this year are still small but very healthy.  I am looking forwards to my hedge around the veggie garden.

All in all, gardening is more or less done for this year except for the hard work of clean up and hauling in manure for the veggie garden.  We are also, hopefully, going to haul in some more flat rocks to finish up the pathways.  Of course, we still have to finish home improvement and get out there and cut some firewood.  One thing at a time, I suppose.

Vacation

The big camping trip is just around the corner.  I have some lose ends to tie up.  I did my last cleaning job for the next couple of weeks.  I have the garden pretty well cleaned out.  I do have to get rid of some more melon and squash vines over the next few days.

I still have to make sure the food is in order.  I do have a good start on that.  I have to run to town for a couple of things tomorrow.  I have my clothes packing started.  We are definitely on track!

I'm hoping to give away some onions, tomatoes and potatoes tomorrow.  We'll see.

Melons

Yep, the melon season is winding down with a bang!  I got six watermelons today and froze them all for smothies this winter.  Also, 2 Eel River melons and a couple of Swan Lake Honeydew style melons. The Rocky Fords are nasty and I fed them and their vines to the goats.

The kitchen was a sticky mess but thanks to the nice tile and the really big stainless steel sink we put in this spring it was really  easy to clean up.

The goats are sick of melon rinds so I took a big bucket of rinds straight  to the compost pile.

I got the camping gear out of the shed and parked by the breezeway but I haven't managed to sort through it so I guess I will worry about it tomorrow.  I have Tuesday and Thursday to work on cleaning up and organizing the gear.  Maybe tonight I will organize the first aid kit.

Borers

I was out looking at the fruit trees with Hubby and I am concerned that one of the cherry trees may have borers.  The flowering cherry also seems to be having issues.  So, it was on my list of things to do but today is the day to get the systemic on the trees.

We generally don't use a lot of insecticides around here but the borers are tree murderers and have to be dealt with.

Seems like all of a sudden I have tumbleweeds taking over the far corner in the front but no time so I will have to pull them out and burn them later in the fall.

I can feel the chill in the air in the mornings and many of the trees are just  starting to turn color.

We picked a couple of Lilly Crenshaws.  Delicious.

We froze quite a bit of melons, so far.  Can't wait to be drinking smoothies this winter.

Systemic:

All the fruit trees in the orchard
Two apple trees south side garage
Crabapple, ornamental pear and apple, front of the house
Crabapples along driveway
Mountain ash, curly willow in the secret garden
Two flowering cherries by gate
Two crabapples with ovre sized fruit by street
Two crabapples, flowering cherry, medlar in backyard
Four willows in the fenced out area near goat pen
Willows, mountain ash, street side, behind garage

Double darn it!!!!  I didn't have enough white paint to do the job so I had to settle for painting white everywhere that is close to where the green trim is so I can at least get the green trim done.  Drat!

That also means I have to buy more white paint which I thought I would but I am kind of tired of spending money on  this project.

I got all the green trim color painted [probably needs a second coat but it sure looks good when the neighbors drive by].  Hubby kicked it into high gear and got his own lunch for work, got the bacon cooked and froze up some watermelon.  Yeah,  I took a break from painting, threw biscuits in the oven and whipped up some scrambled eggs.  Delicious.  We had an Eel River melon with that.

I ran outside to finish up the trim and Hubby got himself out the door.  I will have to close the gate later.  Wow.  I love that man.

So, am I tired.  I think it is break time.  Tonight I want to work on getting the house caught up a bit.