hoses, hornets, and hillsides

 And you thought triple H was hazy, hot, and humid.  

It actually is those things right now; I'm cloistered in the house to avoid yet another heatwave.  What a shame, it's been glorious sleeping weather the last five or six nights!

The watering is still precarious.  I can't remember the last good rain we had.  At this point, we need three or four days of gentle, all day soakers to replenish the groundwater...maybe even more than that.  After that insanely wet spring, you'd think we would have water to spare, but not so.  I used the water in the 75 gallon stock tank that I collected from roof runoff earlier this year in one watering of the hillside and cottage gardens.  The soaking tub in the back yard was emptied into watering cans to water the tomatoes.  My onions are dying off quicker than I would expect, and some never even got past gumball size.  I dumped a bag of spuds to see how they were doing, and they were still like baby potatoes.  I had 6 baby Japanese maple trees that were coming along well this spring, but one has shriveled and died, and two don't look very happy.  Despite being a variety able to tolerate sun, they can't handle the baking conditions of my holding beds without consistent watering, so I'll need to pot them up and move them into a shadier area for the time being.  I have assorted perennials and shrubs that are in pots right now that need to be planted, but without a way to water them daily as they adjust, they'll stay where they are.   The beds that I had weeded last week are full of self seeded perennials that should be dug up and transplanted, but they're in the same boat.  As if that wasn't bad enough, most of the hoses and sprayer heads I have on hand have given up the ghost.  I went from heavy, awkward rubber hoses to the lightweight expandable cloth ones years ago, and they just don't last.  I can usually get two or three years out of them before they spring a leak.  The sprayer heads are just cheap plastic junk; I need to invest in some good ones that will last more than a season.  I gritted my teeth and laid out the money for a new lightweight, kink-free rubber hose for the back yard.  Hopefully that one will last a few years.  This morning I was watering the veg in the hillside garden and yet another cloth hose split, so I'll need to order yet another.  With all these water woes, I'm hoping we'll get cooler, wetter weather soon enough and I can be done with it.  

The squash plants are growing by leaps and bounds, though.  They love this hot weather and beating sun, and I think the fresh manure I covered the bank in retained a lot of moisture.  I had planned to spend the last two cool days before the heatwave either moving fence to give the mules new grazing ground, or continuing the mulching project on the squash bank.  After the mules had grazed for their allotted hour and a half, they went back to the barn to stand in front of their fans and piles of hay for the day and I reviewed the fence situation.  My plan is to create another dry lot where the downed pine sat for the last year; I've been keeping it mowed but haven't done the fencing yet, and I will need to get material in to smother the grass.  I thought, why don't I just make a short run from the current alley across to that area, and the boys can eat that down for now.  Maybe I can get enough money together to finish fencing the dry lot area and by the time they've eaten the short run, I can let them into the dry lot area and they can eat that down next.  My plan was to do one side of the short run with T-posts and no climb fence, and move the pipe panels to create the other side.  I started to take the pipe panels apart and immediately had a swarm of hornets buzzing around my head.  The little buggers found a hole where the panel weld had rotted out and built a nest inside the fence - and this isn't the first time that's happened!  You can see these photos, under the top bar is a hornet on the fence, and he goes up into the pipe through the hole.

UGH.  I didn't want to spray up into the fence because I don't want to use poison in my grazing area, so I walked away to stew on the issue.  The next day as Fargo was coming through the gate, he hit the bottom pipe with his hoof.  I heard it but didn't think much of it, but as I was swinging the gate closed I caught movement and looked up, and in the corner of the frame where it had been bent and was a little rusted and starting to separate, there were about five angry hornets looking down on me.  Are you serious?!?!?!  I can't even deal with this.  Again, poison isn't an option around the boys, so around twenty minutes to five this morning I was out there on a ladder trying to save my mules and myself from getting swarmed and stung.  I very quickly wrapped the area in aluminum foil twice around, crimped it, then quickly taped it up with all weather Gorilla Tape.  

I went around the area about five times with the tape, but for all I know those hornets are in there chewing their way through it.  I hate having to do thing like that, but it's the only gate and I can't risk the boys getting stung, especially if they can't really get away - the barn has no way to close them in thanks to Fargo's claustrophobia, so they'd be trapped with a swarm of angry hornets inside and out.  

I decided fencing will wait until after a few good, hard, killing frosts, which should end the hornet siege naturally.  I may try to fence the front pasture and create a chute from the dry lot to it.  I need to think on this, because part of the fence would need to be moveable during hay season, so trucks and trailers can jockey into place.  Electric fence would be the sensible solution, but I don't trust the mules not to bust right through it.  That's all I'd need...those two goons running amok up and down the neighborhood.

So with the fencing situation stalled, I turned back to the bank project.  Another two yards of bark mulch, as many cardboard boxes as could be collected, and I was off.

 

 

It's getting there!  I swear, every time I add more mulch, the squash plants double in size.  I would say I'm about 70% there, just a little more to do. 

 That plant in the foreground is a bull thistle, and the bane of my existence.  I spend a day every spring carefully picking through the pasture and surrounding edges looking for them as they just begin growing, and painstakingly pulling them up by the roots.  I put them in my big garden bags and take them to the local dump, where they end up on the mulch pile.  With their razor sharp thorns, they are incredibly painful if you get tangled in them or brush up against them.  As much as I love the beautiful flowers and I know the goldfinch love the seeds, I cant afford to have them near the mules (or me!).  Obviously, I miss a few here and there. The things you do to keep your babies safe...

 

May showers bring June flowers

 And still, it rains. The most astonishing part about this incredibly wet spring has been how dry the ground remains.  The wet weather has certainly pushed certain plants to show off in the most spectacular way, especially the iris.

 

I'm so happy to discover I can photograph some of my garden during the Golden Hour; my previous house was positioned perfectly to capture the beauty of my gardens as the sun waned, and I had thought I lost that magic light here.

Other perennials in bloom at the moment:

bleeding heart

columbine

catmint

ragged robin

clematis

I forget...

 

 

I'm astonished by how quickly the peony I planted by my little fence in front of the house established itself.  I really didn't expect it to bloom this year, or be quite this full!  I'm debating whether to plant another cream colored one on the other side of the gate, or a pale pink.

pale pink in the hillside garden

 Vegetables are doing well, too.  The lettuce is small, but it's growing.  The cabbage seeds have begun to push through the dirt.  Peas are growing well, and the potatoes have begun to send leaves through the soil.  My leeks are doing very well and the carrots are coming along.  I'm still moving perennials out of the hillside beds and to locations here and there.  

Finally, Nugget Watch 2025 has begun.  The old hen and an auntie hen have been hanging around the pasture for about a month now, and the other day I spotted the old hen with two nuggets!

 No sign of auntie hen, so I'm not sure if she was able to hatch any chicks yet.  Fingers crossed these two little ones are able to make it through the summer.

And once again, I'm holding my breath and allowing the boys to go on pasture.  Flea's insulin was within normal range, the lower end of normal, in fact.  I was so happy I cried.  I cried again watching him and Fargo race around the grass track yesterday.  It finally feels like I have my boys back. I can't wait to get the rest of the track done now!

the late autumn rush

 Although it's been uncharacteristically mild of late, you can feel the winter in your bones.  It'll be here any moment now.  Time to clean up, lock up, and hunker down.  

I have a list of pre-snow chores about a mile long, but I'm fairly certain they won't all get scratched off.  I've pulled all my annual plants, brought the herbs inside, planted any late season perennials still in their pots, put away flower pots, pulled garden hoses...all the usual garden tasks.  My neighbor gifted me a couple loads of mulched leaves, so I fashioned a quick leaf compost area from leftover fence panels and lined it with chicken wire.  Mom added a couple loads of her mulched leaves, as well.  This will probably rot down to 1/3 the size, but leaf mold  is an excellent compost and mulch, so I'm very excited about it.  It's conveniently located on the forest side of the garden, and you can see my not so excellent compost bin at the top of the hill behind it.

I'm doing an experiment that I'm praying the mice don't ruin for me.  On Gardeners' World, Monty Don is always setting up potted spring flowers in the autumn, so all he has to do is set the pots out in the sun once the time is right, and up pop tulips, crocus, daffodil, etc.  I filled the bottom of a pair of large plastic flower pots (we can't all afford terracotta!) with potting soil mixed with sand for drainage, then put some Rip Van Winkle daffodil bulbs in the center of each.  A layer of soil, then some woodland tulips, another layer of soil and some hyacinth, a layer of soil and some crocus.  I put the pots in the old barn, and tried to cover them as best I could so the mice won't dig in there and eat the bulbs.  We'll see how it turns out.

I had Corey the Tractor Guy out one last time.  He did some last minute things like filling in the old stone well that the tree guys uncovered in the woods (dangerous!), leveling the landing the tree guys created (future manure storage area!), setting my garden ring, and the big project - new footing in the mule paddock.

First, the ring...I love it.  

I know it doesn't look like much right now, but once everything is green again and this thing is covered with squash or cucumber or pumpkin vines, it's going to look awesome.

Now...the paddock.  

So when I had this paddock made, I had asked for a stone dust/pea stone mix as a footing.  What I got was pure stone dust.  This is fine for a limited use paddock, or a riding ring, but for a 24/7, 365 living space, not the greatest.  My biggest complaint is that it doesn't drain very well.  It packs so tightly that sure, it makes a solid footing, but water tends to sit on top and in the winter, it freezes into giant ice slicks.  Not fun.  This also causes the massive amounts of urine the mules produce to sit on top of the material, bake in the sun, and stink to high heaven.  You can see how well packed it becomes:

I will say the stone dust definitely prevented any grass from growing through it, though.  That was perfect.  For the first few years it was  fairly firm underfoot, but lately it's been churning in with the soil underneath in thin spots, creating muddy areas.  Anyone who has livestock will tell you how much of a pain frozen mud ruts are for both caretaker and the creatures who have to walk on them.  Also when I body clip the little guy twice per year, the stone dust packed in his coat from the rolling he does dulls my clipper blades in minutes.  What's that?  Give him a bath first? lololololololololololololol...be my guest.  I know better than to poke that bear.

This time around, I made sure to specifically order a 50/50 mix of stone dust and pea stone.  Here's what it looks like in a pile:

And here's what it looks like in the paddock:

It's a little deep in spots, but it was no easy feat getting it in the paddock and spread with the tractor.  Fargo nearly shot over the fence a couple times, and both mules got a pretty good workout running around like chickens with their heads cut off.  It was easier than me shoveling it into wheelbarrows and spreading it by hand, though!  Fifteen yards would have taken me a week or more to spread alone. We're supposed to get a good rain tonight, so I'm hoping it helps tamp it down and settle it in.  This is the stuff I should have used for my gravel patio...live and learn.  I feel better knowing the biggest chores have been ticked off my list.  

Behind the house my new turtlehead plant in the bog garden, the dogwood tree, and most of the surviving crimson clover have all been eaten to nothing by the deer.  My first project next spring is definitely going to be that cat fence! For now I plan to settle in for a long winter and try to come up with some kind of design for my gardens. 

February Thaw

 As of today we are at 10 hours and 24 minutes of daylight.  The sun is definitely stronger, and the 40* temperatures have been helping to settle the snow pack and even melt some of the 2-3" thick ice floe that is my driveway.  Here's one days worth of melting.  Gotta love seeing that dirt!

 

With the sun and the warmth, it's hard to resist starting some seeds.  I don't want to start my veg too early, so instead I'm working on catnip, cat grass, and seeing if some echinacea seeds collected a few years ago are still viable.  I've also started a small batch of salad greens that are coming along nicely.

Most of my herbs are still alive, which is amazing.  As much as I love gardening, I'm really not good at it.  I have lost my rosemary, and I'm fairly certain I've killed my lemon grass.  The rest seem to be struggling, but still alive.  I have my pepper plants that I'm overwintering in the basement.  If all goes well, by next month they should be showing signs of life.  I've never tried this before but I'm hopeful. 

I'm not sure if it was from the potting soil or the garden soil that the herbs came in with, but I had an insane infestation of fungus gnats this winter.  They look like fruit flies and apparently they emerge from the soil in damp conditions.  According to a YouTube video I watched, one adult can lay 300 eggs in the soil and they're constantly hatching.  It's almost like a flea infestation - you have treat to kill all life cycles, not just the pesky adults.  The video suggested a dedicated water bottle that has a chunk of mosquito killer, like Mosquito Dunks, in it.  Drop a chunk in the water, let it sit for a day or so, then whenever you water your plants, use that water.  It's the best way to kill off the larvae and the eggs in the soil.  For the adults, there are these wonderful little sticky traps you can put in your plants.  They work fantastically well!

After a couple weeks of this two-pronged approach I'm happy to report there are significantly less gnats.  I'm still using the treated water and have put out a new sticky trap, but at least there isn't a massive cloud of these buggers around my herbs anymore.

 I'm also happy to report that Flea has been doing terrific this winter.  He is moving sound, hasn't had any signs of winter laminitis during even the coldest temperatures, and has been seen cavorting and sprinting around the paddock.  

He's come a long way from the crippled up little mule he's been for the past four years, that's for certain.  He's been on the drug Invokana to regulate his insulin resistance for just over a year now.  There were small signs of improvement within the first four or five months but a few backslides, too. The last six or seven months have just seen him get better and better.  Invokana is a relatively new approach to IR in equines, so we're not sure what the long-term effects will be.  One of the side effects seen in horses has been high trigycerides, which can be life threatening.  In these cases, horses are given a less stringent diet.  This means I can relax a little on the amount and type of hay he gets.  I still have to test any hay to keep it within recommended guidelines, but the hay can be at the upper threshold of percentages for sugars and starch.  When we first started this journey of PPID/IR, Flea would typically do well all year until around the end of January, when he'd start to show signs of being footsore.  He would remain sore and have difficulty moving until around April, when temperatures would start to rise.  I'm holding my breath to see if he makes it through to May this year without issue.  If he does, I'll be elated.  The one thing he's lacking currently is exercise, so getting the track system completed is my #1 priority this spring.  I'll be happy to see both mules moving more, and I'm sure they'll appreciate being able to move outside of a tiny paddock after all these years.   

Ode to a Mule

Happy 20th birthday to my giant baby, Fargo.  I couldn't imagine my life without your goofy...

      handsome...

 expressive...

 fashion forward...

 party animal self.

 You weren't the prettiest mule in the pasture...

 but with time, age, and the help of your friends...

you blossomed into a total bad ass.

People can say what they want; in my mind and in my heart, you are the mule of my dreams.  

Here's to 20 more, my little wingnut.

💗