Artichoke Update

 

I went outside today and took more pictures of the artichoke that I left to bloom. I found the center of the bloom raising above the outer edge.

 

From the top it appears that the individual stamens or pestles, which ever they are, are rotating around.

In this close up I noticed some white stuff I am thinking is pollen but not sure not knowing anything about artichoke flowers.

I think I will continue to take pictures as it develops just to see how it will end up looking.

Artichokes

                                 Have you ever seen an artichoke bloom?

I never have. I purchased this artichoke a while back because I liked the looks of the plant not because I like artichokes. So I let it grow and then harvested the fruit and gave it away to my neighbors who like them.

This year I was a little late in harvesting the artichokes and one of them was a bit past picking time. SO I decided to let it grow and bloom because I hadn't seem one bloom.

What a beautiful flower and I understand that the bees really like them too, although I have yet to see the bees on it. I think next year instead of harvesting any of the artichokes I will let them all bloom.

PLAY TIME

We let the little girls out to eat this evening since they seem to be adapting quite well to their new environment.

 

In this picture they had just finished eating there evening meal and were just milling around getting use to the surroundings.

Then Petunia decided it was time to jump and run. She ran and slid into the door a couple of times but was having great fun.

Then it was stand off time between Rosie and Petunia. Who is going to run and jump first?

Then Rosie decided to run, jump and play too. What fun. They got plenty of exercise this evening. Tomorrow we will try to take them outside in the pasture for a bit for more fresh air and exercise. Hopefully the sun will be shinning and warm again like today.

After playing a bit they decided to start checking out the hay that was laying around. They are to young to eat yet but they did taste a couple of bites.

TWO GONE AND TWO ARRIVED

We just took our two hogs in for butcher last week. We actually let them go a little long as the estimated live weight was 350 pounds each. They were milk, greens, and grain fed so should be good eating.

The above picture is of the two hogs about a month prior to butcher.

 

Today we went and retrieved a couple of Jersey calves. Nice little heifers, still need milk for a while and trained to halter and lead.

 

Today we picked up the fresh meat from the hogs, both weighed in the 250 pound range, hanging weight. We still need to pick up the cured meat in a couple of weeks.

 

 Both of the new girls are settling in today. They are licking their lips thinking it's dinner time.

The calf with the yellow chain is "Rosie", she was born June 30, 2013. The calf with the green chain is "Petunia", and was born July 2nd, 2013. 

Both of the little ones seem to like being loved on and petted.



VERY BUSY WEEK

This week was extremely busy. We started by picking our Current and Josta Berries. We got about five gallons of clean berries, which we juiced with our MEHU-LIISA 10L (Swedish Steam Juicer) and ended up with 2.5 gallons of finished juice.

One of our neighbors called and said they were away from home and asked that we pick their Raspberries, so they wouldn't go to waste or draw in a bear. We ended up getting about one and a half gallons of berries, and after eating lots we got one half gallon of great juice. Understand this juice is not that wimpy juice like you buy at the store, this juice could be watered down three or four times, but we like the straight juice.

Last evening we went to the local Bee association Meeting, so milked late (after 10:00 pm. Today we went through our Bee Hives, top to bottom frame by frame, they are looking great, should be able to rob one hive in about two weeks.

Later in the day we picked a couple gallons of cherries, Yum. We still have a couple of trees to pick, and we had been nibbling on them for a few days already. Actually all of our fruit trees are loaded this year after getting our Bee Hives, Pollination helps.

We still need to thin the Apple trees and Pear trees, these small immature fruit will also be juiced. Last year the thinned apples amounted to one and a half feed bags, which juiced made several gallons of really good Apple juice.



OK, I finally dug out some juice to take pictures of, the jar on the left is sweetened Apple juice from the little green fruit when I thinned the trees. The center jar is some of the Current/Josta berry juice, and the jar on the right is of Rhubarb. All juiced with the Swedish Steam Juicer, it works great

FUN TO WATCH ANIMALS

There are times when animals are just fun to watch,

 

Wow! look at that water, I sure am thirsty!

Well thank you, I will have a drink, since you just refilled the fountain.

DONE

I got busy this morning and decided to finish the center garden. With Don's help I got the blocks in place. I am really happy it is done. Another project complete now

 

It really does make the whole garden. All I need to do now is harvest the broccoli and the herbs that I planted with them, clean up the area they are planted in and get some fresh compost in and tilled up so I can replant with some carrots. I really like to have canned carrots around in the winter time when I make soup.

After I finished the center garden I sat on the deck and had a sandwich and some water to replenish the water in  my system, as it got very hot working on the blocks.

While I was taking my break, the pigeons were flying around us and decided to roost in the trees next to our property. You can barley see them but they are there. Just a couple of specks. In the above picture towards the top there are two branches that kind of make an X and one of the pigeons is sitting about half way up.

 

They really are fun to watch and I love to hear them cooing.

I am done with the heavy work for today, so now I am going to pick my peas and do some watering. Then dinner and done for the day. After chores that is.

First Step Done

Well the first step is done except for the clean up of the weeds. I will be loading them into the tractor bucket and hauling them down to the dump site. Now it is ready for the laying of the blocks. I will have Don haul them down with the forks on the tractor.

 

Hey what do you know there really is a garden in there. If you look in the last post about half way down you can see what this garden looked like before the above picture.

The broccoli looks ready to eat.

The cabbage is growing nicely. Should do better now that the weeds aren't getting all the sun, nutrients and water.

 The picture below is actually asparagus. I had planted some about two years ago, then last spring I planted some root stalk and also started some seed. I heard it was hard to start and get planted but so far it looks like they are all doing well, especially now the they are freeeeeee.



 You can almost see them above. the oldest ones are the ones you can see the best.

Above is a picture of some fennel that I planted last year and didn't harvest and I sure wish I did. When it goes to seed it goes everywhere and plants start up like dill. I will be hanging it upside down in the basement where it is cool and dry to let it dry out. I will then grind it and put it in a jar to use in my cooking. It is really good fresh in salads also.

Finished Product

We finally got the block wall done with a lot of help from my son's and grandson and a couple of their friends.

It really does look good as far as I am concerned. It was a lot of hard work but well worth it. The picture below is from the back side showing the Shasta daisies that usually bloom late in the year.

 This picture is from the greenhouse end showing the corner. The Wigalia is going to be a lot happier with its roots all covered up.

 This picture is from the bottom of the yard looking up. Although we do need to mow the lawn.

 Below is my next project, to finish the center garden. We ended up with, I think, enough block to do it. I have been wanting to get this one finished for some time now and just haven't had the time or money to get the block needed. No excuses now.

 I enjoy seeing the flowers blooming that the deer don't get. They like Roses and Fuchsias but I have them sort of fenced so they can't get to them. Although they did hit my strawberries in the pots pretty good.

 The Fuchsias look good with the Calendulas around them. At least I think so. The deer don't seem to bother the Calendulas.

My Hostas are also starting to bloom now. I have flowers that seem to bloom from early spring till late fall. I like to see flowers all season long.

 

Hope everyone enjoyed seeing the wall go up. Now on wards and up wards.

FOR SALE BY OWNER

Live in a secluded location only 4.5 miles to Town (2.5 as the crow fly's), 1500 foot elevation, up two miles of county road and 2.5 miles private gravel road.

Take your time and look through our blog and you will see all of the amenities this place has to offer. We have landscaped with food in mind, many fruit trees including Apples (7 varieties), Cherries (3varieties), Plums (3varieties), Pears (2 varieties ea. Asian and European) at least 23 trees total. Blue  Berries, Currents, Josta Berries, Hardy and fuzzy Kiwis, 10 foot by twenty four foot greenhouse on 2.5 foot raised bed. I forgot the nuts, about thirty filbert trees, one pecan tree, and one walnut tree. Lots of landscaping, river rock wall, stack block walls, etc.





An 18x20 goat barn with milking area (could be used as shop or garage), wired for electric, another 10x10 buck barn (new roof) with separate pasture for the boys, 10x13 chicken coop wired for electric, 16x20 two stall horse shelter with fenced paddock, Also good sized pasture with a seasonal pond (part year round). a small 13x30 shop, home is three bed rooms, 2 bath, with a full basement and a two car, car port along with a single car garage. The woodshed has a new roof and holds 3.5 cords of wood. The ocean can be seen from several places on the property including the house (from the house in winter only unless trees are removed).

Look over the blog and you will see what is here. We are asking $429,900.00 and if you are good people we will leave some equipment and or stock. We are in no great hurry to sell so don't Low Ball the price.

GETTING IT TOGETHER

OOPS, I forgot to put in the pictures of the finished wall. The first picture is of the wall from the deck looking toward the greenhouse  and the second is the end toward the greenhouse.

The only thing left is to put down weed barrier along the filbert trees and cover with compost. Therefore this edit has to be put up so you can see where we are.

Well the last couple of weeks has really gotten a lot of things done that we needed around here. Weekend before last our eldest son and family came over and helped us on the block wall as well as repairing two spots on the ceiling that were damaged when the shower up stairs leaked, he also repaired the shower drain. I have already posted pics of the wall when he was done, and I will get pics of the ceilings soon.

 

This last weekend our youngest son and kids came down with one of his friends and two of his kids, wow what a houseful.

We had sold our D-2 Caterpillar to the son's friend and they came to pick it up. Prior to loading the Cat on the trailer they had to play with it, which was to our advantage. As you can see from the above photo, we can actually park our truck under our car port.

 This is looking across the pond at the largest log removed from the pond and placed to catch soil.

 This is another view of the same log.

 This is a second pile of logs also removed from the Pond, they are braced against an old growth stump.

They used the cat to pull several logs out of the pond and place them as eco-logs to catch runoff and stop erosion.

After placing the logs both of the men cleaned out our Goat barn and used the bedding for a filter layer next to the logs, after which they hauled about half my dirt pile down onto the top of the bedding so the horses would not eat the alfalfa that was waste from feeding the goats.

All of the kids helped in ways they could depending on age and size.

This is what the area on top of the first log looks like, at this point I have also planted grass seed on the soil. during the seed planting we received a lot of light rain that wet things down but didn't dislodge the seed. 

Really looks great now, Janice and I went all around the place planting grass seed, about 75 pounds in total. We covered the horse paddock first.

 We are really hoping with the rain this seed takes off and grows well, but as you can see below, the horses were not confined off of this area.

 As you can see by the next two pics the horses are really glad the rain has stopped. I am hoping that the churning of the soil by the horses will help make better soil to seed contact and improve germination. 

At one point Everyone was gone from the place and I got ambitious and stacked a half pallet of blocks onto the wall.

 It really is starting to look pretty good!

 Janice went out today and started curving the ends around toward the drive way.

 Today the Honey Bees are happy, happy, happy, the rain has stopped and they are working their little selves like crazy.

 Janice went out yesterday while I was seeding the paddock and cut the grass in the bee yard by hand, no easy task.

 This is an area in the trees in the pasture that we seeded, due to it being almost totally bare.

 I also seeded up the hill under the log there. I had already seeded above the log a couple of weeks back. I did walk up and check above the log and new grass is sprouting there.

This is a bare area in the pasture where the horses really like to roll. Actually it previously had grass growing there, but that's horses for you.

We hired our neighbor to cut, split and stack our firewood this year. Holy Cow does it ever feel good to know that chore is done.

 Janice picked the last of the Turnips and Beets out of the greenhouse, maybe time to plant more outside.

 The sweet Peas, Green Onions, Green Beans, more Radishes, and a little lettuce is doing well.

 We really didn't think these pigs would have grown this fast. The area they are laying across is eight feet, that means they are in the four foot range. Makes me think Pork Chops are in the not too distant future.

Janice has finished this end's curve, now onward! Oh shoot, now she wants me to sharpen the shears she uses on the grass. She can't use the weed eater due to the Shasta Daises and the Filbert Trees being too close.