If we were having coffee ... the end of July

 This type of blog post is for when I have a lot of little things I want to share, or when I feel the need to catch up. 

So, grab your coffee/beverage of your choice and join me. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd say I took a nap.  Well, not really, but this is what I tell myself that I did when I laid out on the hammock during my lunch hour today. Even though I had bug spray on I felt little insects bumping me and the chickens kept making noises. 

It must have done me some good, though.  When I was laying there, trying to focus on one thing and relax, each time I felt it was necessary to swipe away a (most likely not even there) insect my limbs felt heavy. Not from the heat either. 

Sidenote: My jerk of a roo may have his days numbered.  You can see him in the background of the photo above. 

"Why?" you might be asking.  Well, cause he's a jerk. For some reason he has decided he hates me and he didn't do his job this weekend. More on that later. 

Back to it: Can I whine about the weather again? I feel like I'm such a broken record about it. I've been in a bit of a funk the last several days, give or take maybe a week. Or a month. I've been trying to put my finger on it and it dawned on me that this is the first summer in a very long time that I haven't spent a lot of time outside.  Thanks to the weather. Maybe I've said this already.  I don't remember.  I'm getting older and the brain ain't what it used to be. 

So I have been trying to remedy this. Spending more time outdoors, I mean. Course now the weather is quite warm and moist. Currently the temperature is 87 with a real feel of 97. Last night when I went to close up the coop the air was so full of moisture I felt like I could open my mouth, take a deep breath and drown.

This year I seem to do okay with the warmer weather. I think my internal thermostat has slowed, or something. I can tolerate the heat better.  Don't ask me to do heavy labor.  I do everything slower when it's really warm out.  I do appreciate our a/c, however. Don't get me wrong. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd blather about the garden just a wee bit. The garden is liking the warm weather that we are (finally) getting and things are starting to catch up to where they should be. 

Calendulas in bloom.

Dainty bachelor button at the garden entrance. 

*sigh* I've come to the conclusion (stopped being in denial) that I once again have collard greens in the garden.  This was supposed to be cauliflower.  This makes it three years in a row that I planted collards. I thought I had fresh seeds this year, too.  It will have to be fresh greens for the chickens and Feffer. 

Volunteer ground cherry plant. Plant once and have them forever.  It's all right, I really like them.  I've been seeing baby plants pop up all over the yard.  The chickens see them too and chew them up to bits. I'm not to happy about that. I'd LOVE to see these growing all over the place. 

My pepper plants are taking off! Now they just need to grow me beautiful little peppers. 

Cabbage!  I want to make so much sauerkraut.

Some of our tomato plants. 

Pretty little zucchinis. 

I have cucumbers starting to grow.  I have to remind myself to get out there and water these plants every morning. 

Tomatos! 

Look what I found among the onions and violas.

I don't know if I've ever shared this. This is Furby's final resting place. 

And before you say anything about the amount of little statues on there, I did it to help pretty up the chipboard we put down to ensure nothing came and dug the space up. The squirrels keep knocking those statues down. 

If we were having coffee ... Speaking of chickens ... we had a predator attack on Sunday. I don't know if it was during the afternoon or in the early evening. We lost one of our younger hens.  I still feel sick about it when I think about it.  The predator got really close to the house and snatched her.  Right next to Feffer's enclosure. 

This guy ... didn't do his job. 

The only reason I keep him around is so he'll protect the flock.  I am not fond of him at all and the feeling is mutual. I have to keep an eye on him when I'm outside cause he'll try to sneak attack me. 

Getting rid of roosters is part of having a flock and deciding to have roosters. He's the meanest one I've ever had.  I know it's because I didn't hand raise him. 

If we were having coffee ... Speaking of our boy Feffer. 

Recently I mentioned how he's getting up there in years. My son realized Feffer's age and I think that he realized Feffer's time with us is very limited now. 

He's been spoiling Feffer something awful, ever since. 

My son went out to the woods and brought back patches of moss and all sorts of things that he thought Feffer would like, and help him feel like a "real wild and independent bun."

At least that is what I think.  My son has also been bringing veggie scraps home for him too, Feffer has been getting very spoiled. 

He thinks he's so hidden! 

If we were having coffee ... I had a thought.  Now I forgot it. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd let you know that I remembered what it was. I feel like I'm still in a very boring phase of the year/life right now.  Still not a lot going on, cause I'm not really doing anything. I have a feeling that will probably change in mid-to late August when garden produce starts ripening. 

My hubby and I did do a thing this past weekend. We've taken to watching a few YouTube channels together. About automobiles if you can believe it.  Now I'm not a motorhead or anything and really I have very little interest in car things, but I have been finding some of these channel's content interesting.  So when we are all settled in to watch tv in the evening I pretty much hand the remotes over to him and grab my knitting or cross stitch, or whatever I decide to do that evening. 

All that to say that one of the channel guys has a garage organization system that could make you green and owly. It's pretty nice and even I took notice. 

It inspired my man to want to do something about our garage. We ordered new shelving, pulled  everything down and went through it all and got rid of what we don't use, didn't want, or got trashed from the non-paying tenents who live out there and are very inconsiderate little jerks.  Mice. I'm talking about mice. And chipmunks.  Grrrr. It's a part of living out in the country. 

So, yeah, the hottest weekend of the season so far and we were out there.  Granted, he was out there before me and did most of the work, but I helped with what I could.  

And now the garage looks SO good. There's a place for everything and everything is in it's place.  

It's a much more work-friendly space, and I'm so happy that he's happy about how it turned out. 

This was my project on Sunday afternoon. Sorting through the loose screws, nuts and bolts.  We ordered a drawer organizer and now we know where ALL the things are. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd say "When did knitting needle stoppers become a thing? I mean that in all seriousness. Back when I started knitting I think very few people used them.  Now they seem to be all over the place. I tried using DPN things from KnitPicks, way back when and I did not like them.  I ask because I'm playing the newest episode from Coggie and she mentioned her needle stoppers. 

Speaking of notions ... I got a few new notions.  About a month ago I had a really odd thing happen.  I got a sore nose and I have no idea how it happened.  It was like I got bopped.  My nose was tender enough that it was really difficult to wear the cheater readers for working on cross stitch. So, I decided it was time to get a magnifier that I could clip on to my Hope stand.  I ordered one off Amazon and was not pleased with it.  It was much smaller than I thought it would be. The item description stretched the truth a bit. Back it went. 

Whined to my guy about it and he said something I don't remember and I said "You find one for me." 

He did. 

I am really happy with this magnifier.  It's 10X so I am tempted to give evenweave another try. 

I put an order in with Sweet Autumn Stitch for some new needleminders.  I actually contacted the shop owner and asked if she had any porcupine graphics. All she could come up with was hedgehogs.  They were so cute that I couldn't say no and I ordered them. 

I guess that is my segue into saying that I have been diligently knitting, crafting and all the good things. I'm hoping to make a vlog real soon. I think it's been three weeks since the last one. I have a few things to share.  Just need to get my notes in order. 

Oh, one final thing. Does anyone recognize this bird call? 

Come see my garden

It's been pretty quiet around here the last couple of weeks. Nothing much going on and I feel like I've been faffing about, and not accomplishing much. 

Can I keep blaming the weather? 

Seriously, though ... 

The area had a week of warm weather.  I don't say hot, because it wasn't really *hot, hot*. Maybe hot for this year, perhaps, but it didn't really feel like it. 

Instead ... that darn humidity.  That is what was drying up my desire to spend any time outside. 

It almost feels like I've just been doing work stuff and then housework-type stuff. 

I've been so boring ... 

So lets talk about homesteady-type stuff. 

Well, ... This is not my year, it seems. I'm in a few gardening groups for my state and quite a few people are dispairing about their gardens. 

I thought it's good to have company for this. 

No garden tour videos this year, unless my garden decides to go wild in the next several weeks, which I don't think is going to happen. 

I've been admiring my friend's gardens when they share photos. Their gardens are further along than mine. They are also down south of me. 

Photos were taken last week.  

My two Christmas Cactus are in the greenhouse for the summer.  This agrees with them because one of them is blooming. 

The flowers are so delicate. 

This is probably my only coleus that grew this year, despite all the seeds I planted. It is also in the greenhouse. This time of year is should be huge and glorious.  Nope. So weird. 

My little mini field of violas.  For years I've wanted violas growing all over the garden and yard.  Last year I was successful with them growing and blooming.  This year they took over the onion patch. Yikes! I have a tentative idea of pulling them out when they start going to seed and tossing them along the tree line and see if they come back next year. 

My small patch of sugar snap peas.  My first decent crop in a few years. I tried an experiment this year and it was successful. 

Not my first broccoli head. Pretty. 

Raspberries trying to creep into my garden. 

My carrot patch.

The pepper patch. Insert a sad face.  The weather was too cool and wet for them this year. 

Brassicas.

Celery and a peek at the squash plants. 

A hollyhock that self-seeded and is getting ready to bloom. 

Tomato flowers.  These are a welcome sight. Definitely a bit behind schedule thanks to all the coolness. 

Mini zinnia. I had no idea they'd be so bitty.  They are a pretty little pop of color. 

More tomato plants. 

I think these are calendula plants.  I collected seeds last year.

Squash plant after I watered with a hose. I tried planting zucchinis in fabric pots this year.  This seems to agree with them. I got the idea from the Chicago Gardener. 

Pears! 

My SIL gave my hubby and I money to buy a peach tree a few years ago.  At the time there were no peach trees available for purchase in my area. 

This year we practically did handstands to get the pear tree pollinated.  It was a success and I'm confident we will have pears each year from now on, barring any major weather events. 

More violas. 

A calendula getting ready to bloom. 

Speaking of peaches, guess what else we have? 

YES! This year there were peach trees available for purchase.  We bought two trees and one was successfully pollinated thanks to our efforts. 

Last year we purchased a few (several) more apple trees. It was a pleasant surprise to see a few apples on some of the trees.  Fingers crossed this continues.

When I was weeding a particularly thick patch of weeds in the garden I found this when I pulled a handful of grasses up. 

I said I didn't remember planting marigolds. Another fun surprise. 

I thought it might have been a seed that dropped last year.  It looks like I planted a few in a row by the garden edge. 

Earlier in the month one of our cherry trees had a huge bounty. 

This cherry pitter was a great investment.

Have I mentioned that I've been dabbling a little bit in ferments? 

I decided I LOVE fermented radishes.  I'm in the only one in the house who loves them. 

Each growing season has it's lessons.  The main one this year might have been a lesson in patience and that a person isn't going to have success every year. I thought this was going to be *the* year to have all the things. I had a game plan, I had started seeds based on past years, etc., etc., 

Then life had other plans.  Mother Nature had other plans. ... I keep reminding myself that I will get a harvest this year and that's the main thing.