Drapery Progress

I am actually making progress on the drapes.  I've finished the two narrow windows that flank the bed.  Now I just have to make two panels about three to four times the width of these for the window wall.

One of the two finished.

I used pleater's tape and four pronged hooks (bought from this website http://www.draperysewingsupplies.com/ ) to make the pinch pleats.  It's the first time I've made pinch pleats and the tape made it simple.  You just sew the tape onto the back side of the flat drapery panel, then slide those prongs up into the channels of the tape, skipping channels to make the spaces between pleats. 

I'm thinking the pleats aren't quite "pinched" enough.  Using the prongs makes them kind of loosely pinched.  I could remedy this by making a little stitch at the bottom of each pleat, but that's a time consuming task that may or may not ever get done.

On another note, Tom and I were discussing our bedroom area rug (which has been in our room for a least a year) the other night while driving somewhere.  He insisted that the rug is "tan".  Tan?  Really?  Granted, the rug has a lot of shades of brown in it - tan, chocolate, gold - but the basic color of this rug is blue/aqua (and even gray).  When we got home and he looked at it, he finally conceded that it was not tan, but that it is green.  I'm thinking that Tom doesn't see things the way I see them.  What do you think?

Ooops! Gardening Mistake

I googled "harvesting asparagus" last night and discovered that I've messed up.  All the sites I read said to harvest the asparagus in early spring, cutting ALL the stalks when they reach seven to nine inches.  Letting the stalks grow tall and get fronds will inhibit the growth of new stalks.  Harvest for about four weeks, then let the rest of the stalks grow throughout the summer.

And here I was thinking that I had to first let several grow up tall and get fronds before I could start cutting some.  I thought that if I cut them too soon, I would be stunting the growth of the plant.

Sooo, I might have waited too long to harvest any this year because, as shown in my Critter Gitter post, the asparagus is all tall and frondy.  Now my dilema is..should I cut the tall frondy ones off so that I get more shoots to harvest, or is it too late this year to do anything about it?

Preliminary Critter Gitter Review

The Critter Gitter is basically...a hose.  Heh.  One end of the flexible hose is attached to the exhaust pipe of a vehicle - car, truck, tractor, whatever, with the clamp provided and tightened with a bolt. 

The other end, which has a thick PVC-like pipe attached, goes directly into whatever mole hole that is discovered.  I found several while trying to plant some onions this morning.  I cleared away the dirt surrounding the hole and patted it down at the entrance to the tunnel so that it wouldn't cave in.  Then I inserted the pipe as far as it would go and packed the dirt around it to keep the exhaust from backflowing.

Tom started the truck and then we waited.  The most difficult thing about it was that the hose has to be kept almost perfectly straight.  If it's not straight, it will flatten out and/or kink and the exhaust won't flow through.  So we had to position the truck "just so" each time we moved to a new hole.  Another thing is that it is very time consuming.  Each tunnel that is found has to be treated for at least 15 minutes.  Since I don't think the mole that Tom gassed yesterday was killed, we made it 20 minutes for good measure even though the instructions said no longer than 15 minutes.  Since we couldn't go off and leave the Critter Gitter unattended and had to stand around waiting, a happy consequence of the waiting was that I got the rest of my onions, cannas, and sunflowers planted, plus to kill time, Tom helped weed the garden.

The verdict is still out.  Supposedly, the moles have peacefully died in their sleep, but we won't know until we see more mole mounds, tunnels, or damaged veggies.  Critter Gitter could possibly improve upon their design by using a hose like a vacuum house or dryer hose that can be bent but will still stay open and let the exhaust flow.

Garden 2010

Maybe I'm just expecting too much too soon, but my garden seems to be hobbling along this year.  I just planted tomato plants last week and one of them has already died.  So far, moles have killed two of the five broccoli plants that grew.  One or two of the plants died right away.  I noticed tiny sprigs of carrot coming up just when I had decided that the carrots weren't going to come up at all. 

When I was lamenting my lack of carrots to some other gardeners that we had just met, they told me that carrots don't grow here.  Hmm.  Tell that to my first season of carrots.  Granted, I haven't been able to grow them since the first time, but I did have a pretty good crop of them.  There are pictures on my blog to prove it.

This is a row of red cabbage and green cabbage.  Several of them died after I planted them, but we don't eat a lot of cabbage, so I guess I don't mind so much.  I would have liked to have more to give away, though.

This is the broccoli that I have left, except the plant in the lower left corner was taken out by a mole.

I decided to plant my herbs in a tub this year because of the invasive nature of some herbs.  Besides, it's nice to have it closer to the house so I can just run out and pick some while cooking.  I've got oregano, rosemary, sage, lavender, mint, dill, cilantro, and basil.  Maybe I'll make a little fairy garden in there.

Enjoying the Beauty of Another Man's Labor

The previous owner of our property must have loved azaleas because he planted them everywhere.  I haven't been able to do any landscaping or flower gardening of  my own yet, so I'm enjoying what is already here.

They haven't been cared for in several years, so they are barely making it and some are dying.  But this year must be a good year for azaleas because the ones that have survived are all blooming profusely.

There are several varieties/colors.

This pink one is lagging a bit behind the others and most of the blossoms have not opened.  It looks very much like a Nelly Moser Clematis to me.  I had a Clematis planted at my other house, so the new owners will be enjoying it this year.  Oh, and my peonies!  How I miss my peonies.

Garden Sprinklers

Don't buy this kind of sprinkler (above Vigoro brand, not to be mistaken for Viagra brand).  We bought several and they barely lasted a season.  Whatever it is that makes them go back and forth stops working and they get stuck in one position.

  I got some new sprinklers and set them up yesterday.  So far they are working well.  Gilmour brand and the package says "lifetime replacement".  Whatever that means.  Perhaps they consider "lifetime" to be one season.

Instead of going back and forth, shooting the water up high over the tops of tall plants, they go 'round and 'round and don't shoot the water very high.  That might be a problem when the plants get taller.

Casualties of the Mole Invasion

Tom got the Critter Gitter out yesterday morning to gas my garden moles, but he couldn't find their hole and I was leaving for Dallas, so he gave up.  In the meantime, Mr. Dead Meat Mole has been busy.

This is a potato plant that was perfectly healthy the evening before.  The roots have been eaten off and when I removed the plant I found the mole tunnel right under it and leading in the direction of the other potato plants.  I guess the mole got tired of broccoli.

The potato plant in the middle of the picture shows some signs of damage also.  This morning I showed Tom the tunnel and we put the Critter Gitter hose into it.  Tom gassed it for 15 minutes.  I had to go milk the goat, but Tom said that exhaust was coming out of the ground in other places, which must have been the mole's exits.  Hopefully, the mole died down there and didn't sneak up out of the ground for fresh air.

The Moles

OK, it's time to get serious about our mole problem.

When I was out in the garden this morning, I noticed one of my broccoli plants looking kind of wilted and sad.  I thought maybe it wasn't getting enough water or something.  Then when I went back to the garden this afternoon, the whole broccoli plant (and it even had a little head of broccoli started on it) was completely gone!  Poof.  Disappeared.  So I dug around a little to see if there was even a root there and what did I find?!  A mole tunnel.  That stinkin' mole had pulled the entire plant down into it's tunnel. 

Tom ordered a Critter Gitter ( http://www.crittergetteronline.com/ ) off the internet a week or so ago and it arrived last week, but is still sitting by the front door, unopened.  I came across the Critter Gitter while surfing the net for mole solutions.  It is a gadget that hooks up to the exhaust of a vehicle - truck, car, tractor, whatever.  It has a hose and a probe thing that you poke down into the mound or tunnel.  Theoretically, it gasses the mole and kills it under the ground...or, if it pops up out of another hole, we can have Harry and the cats ready to pounce.

I think mole extermination needs to be priority number one around here, or I won't have a garden left this year.

I'll post a review of the Critter Gitter after Tom uses it.  Wish us luck.

Goat Spaghetti Sauce

Spaghetti for dinner tonight.  Made from our homegrown tomatoes stewed and frozen from last season, homegrown goat, homegrown basil and oregano.  I thought about running over to Grand Saline to the biggest salt mine ever and scratching up the salt for it, but it cost more money in fuel to get there than to just get my salt shaker out of the cabinet.

Spilled Milk

I got nearly a quart of milk from Hyacinth this morning, but spilled about half of it all over the kitchen counter and floor.  I'm pretty sure Nubians are supposed to give more milk than Hyacinth does.  Maybe she's not a good producer, or maybe I'm not doing something right.  I only milk once a day, so that might have something to do with it.  But milking twice a day is so much more difficult.

This is the milk pail that I squeeze the milk into.  It has that lid with a cut out on one side that is very useful for keeping debris (like Hyacinth's foot) out of it while I'm milking.  The lid is a bit tricky to put on and take off, so I usually just lay it on the top and let it rest there.  While I was pouring the milk from the pail to the quart jar that I use for milk storage, the lid suddenly fell off onto the jar, knocking it over and the milk went everywhere. 

I got my milking tips from a goat website called fiascofarms.com.  It is an excellent site and most of the goat people that I come across know about and reference this site (not that I know a lot of goat people, I'm just sayin').  I've used her sterilizing and milking procedure since last year and it seems to be working OK.  Except that last year, Hyacinth had a bad case of mastitis.  Hmm.  I don't know if it had to do with anything I did or didn't do or if it was just something that happened.  Anyway, things are going well this year.  The whole procedure, in detail, is here:  http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/milking-sanitation-equipment.html

But, in short,

I use this yellow pail to carry a quart or two of water mixed with bleach (2 Tbs.) and Dawn dishwashing liquid (1 drop) down to the barn.  I wash Hyacinth's udder with it before milking and I use a little Dixie cup filled with this solution as a teat dip afterwards.  When the milking is done and Hyacinth gets off the stand, I pour the rest of the solution onto the milking stand to clean it.

The stainless steel funnel looking thing in the picture is the strainer.  I have little round filters that go in the funnel part and I pour the milk into the strainer that I set on top of a mason jar that has also been sterilized in a bleach solution.  Everything gets sterilized before and/or after they are used to keep the milk as pure as possible.

This is what is left of the milk I collected today after spilling.  I write the date on the side of the jar with a Sharpie and then store the milk in the freezer until time to use it.  The date washes off after going through the dishwasher so it can be used again without confusion.  I've read that the milk will last up to a year in the freezer, so I just stock up as much as I can. 

Strawberry Dog

Family's visiting from California this week.  First time to the farm.  Kathy and Krista think that Harry Dog is a sweetheart...slobber and all.

They decide that Harry could use a bath.  So, I armed them with water hose and Strawberry Suave.

Harry thinks not. 

And he tries to sneak off undetected.

They bribe him with a cold drink.  He likes that.

"Help me."

Time to dry off.

"Strawberry's for sissies.  Where's my dead hog?"

Udderly

Finally, a successful milking for 2010.

Again, thanks to a helpful reader (Tonia) and, perhaps, to my usual practice of "do as little as possible and let nature take it's course", Hyacinth's udder has recovered from it's congestion and is producing enough milk for me to harvest.

I followed Tonia's suggestion of giving the goat 1,000 mg of vitamin C twice a day and otherwise just left Hyacinth alone with her kid.  All is well in goatland.

Rockin' Tomato Cages

Tom and I put our heads together and came up with this design for tomato cages.  The first year, I used store bought tomato cages and they were so flimsy, the tomato vines just bent them over.  At the end of the season, it was a nightmare trying to untangle the dead vines from the wires.  The second year (last summer) I didn't have any cages at all.  That was a mistake because the tomato vines became one solid mass that I had to tiptoe through.  I couldn't reach the tomatoes and and lot of them rotted on the ground.  I was determined to come up with something sturdy for this season.  Of course, there may be some unforeseen problems with this design, but at the moment, I've very excited about them and can't wait to get my tomatoes in the ground.

All we did was take pieces of hogwire (that were laying around our property so these cages are FREE) and bend them into a U/V shape.

Then we put them along the rows over the place where the tomatoes will be planted.  The holes in the wire are large enough for me to put my hand in and , hopefully, pick the tomato and pull it out through the hole.  The hog wire is very thick and strong, so it should be able to hold the vines up easily.

Also...

The asparagus that I planted last year is coming up.  I was told not to harvest any the first year, but I should be able to harvest some this year.  Can't wait!

These will fill out and be all ferny later in the season.

See, here's a perfect asparagus...just like in the grocery store.  I'm constantly amazed at what will actually grow when I plant it.  Not everything grows, but it's exciting when it does!

101 Uses for Duct Tape

Thanks to a tip from a helpful reader, my torn up hen problem might be solved.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with rooster procreative behavior, they jump on the hens back and hold onto the top of their head and/or comb while they fertilize the eggs.  Now that the roosters have become more mature and have their spurs, they are scratching up the hens' backs, ripping feathers out until the back is bare, red, and raw.  For some reason, they seem to concentrate on from one to three hens at a time so that only one to three hens have raw backs at a time and it gives the other hen's feathers time to grow back in.  At the moment, we have one hen that has been especially ill treated.  Maybe she's the cutest or something.  She's one of the smaller hens and her back is really torn up.

One reader told me that she used duct tape on her hens' backs.  In theory, the duct tape won't stick to the skin, will protect the back until the feathers grow back in, and will eventually fall off on its own due to dust and debris getting up under there and loosening it.  Or, maybe the roosters will be turned off by the tacky tape stuck to her and will turn their attentions to another hen.  So, I finally got around to taping up that little hen this morning.  She doesn't seem to mind having duct tape stuck to her and has been happily pecking away in the yard all day.

...Oh What a Beautiful Day, I've Got a Wonderful Feeling...

...everything's goin' my way.

Today is a beeee.u.tiful day.  Sunny, warm, true blue Texas in springtime.

I took advantage of the good weather and did some yard and garden work.  For fun, I went to the nursery and bought some flowers and plants to go in the pots around the front of the house and some herbs for my herb tank.  Maybe some day I'll get myself together and plan ahead, starting some in the garden shed so that they'll be ready when spring arrives.

Needless to say, there was no curtain sewing going on here today.

These kinds of days heal the soul from it's aches and pains, or, at least it makes it easier to forget them for a while.

Inside Projects

In addition to taking the truck around the edge of the mini forest to pick up branches so Tom could mow and cleaning out the goat stall, I did this little project for myself this morning.  It was quick and easy.

It's a place to store my earrings - a picture frame with wire strung across it that the earrings hang on. 

And here are the bedroom curtains that I'm going to replace.

I think these are the original curtains that were hung when the house was built in 1978.  I'd say somebody got their money's worth out of them.

Good Fences Make for Good Neighbors

Our acreage is currently fenced with barbed wire except where we have the wood slat fencing around the front and sides and where the previous owner had installed "no climb" fence.  I don't know why it's called "no climb"  It's a wire mesh fencing with wooden posts and a strip of wood across the top to keep the horses from mashing the fencing down between posts.  Tom has decided to replace the barbed wire with field fencing.  That's a wire mesh that is good to use for keeping goats in.  The wire squares at the bottom are something   like 2x6 and they gradually get bigger towards the top of the fencing.   We need something other than barbed wire to keep our goats in and to keep Harry off the neighbor's property where he steals their belongings, brings them home, and chews them up.  We've apologized and offered to replace said items, but our neighbors insist that they love Harry and don't mind him coming over.  Personally, I think that after having to replace several items over a period of time, that love will wane.  Harry needs to stay home.  Period.

This is a section that Tom has already installed.  This extends from behind our barn out to the road that runs along the side of our property and is between us and the neighbors behind us.  That small section of wood fencing was installed by the neighbors during our previous owner's tenure in which there was a bit of tension over the fact that neighbors could see previous owner's unsightly burn pile.  Maybe the wood fence will be coming down soon?

So, here's Tom's fence installation process.  First, he takes down and rolls up the old barbed wire, then he pulls up the old metal t-posts which have been bent in towards our property because the neighbor's Longhorns subscribe to the belief that "the grass is always greener on the other side".  Then he takes the tractor and levels out the fence line, measures nine to ten feet apart for the t-posts and lays them out.  The house in the background is the neighbor's house out behind our barn.

Then he uses a level and pounds the post in with a couple of knocks with the small sledge hammer to get them started straight.

Next, he hefts the t-post tool, which weighs about 50 lbs. way up over the top of the post....  Aaaaarrrrrr!

...then he lets it drop to pound the post into the ground.  Ooofff!

Lift again.  Aaaaarrrgghhhh!

...and pound!  Ummmph!  It usually takes three or four pounds to drive the post in far enough.

And then we have a row of poles ready to attach the fencing to.

Curtains, Here We Come

Blah.  I finally started on the curtains for my bedroom.  Pinch pleat drapes...I've never made them before, so I guess I'll just figure it out as I go along.

My floor is my cutting board.  Hard on the knees and back.  I've cut all the lengths of fabric except for a couple of lengths of lining because I ran out of it.

So now to turn this pile of fabric into drapes.

EEEEEEKKKKK!

Brown Recluse!  Fiddleback!  Whatever it's called!  In the HOUSE!  This is just NOT right.

I started on my bedroom curtains yesterday and when I finished cutting the lengths of fabric, I took the leftover roll into the back closet to stash away.  When I moved a roll of white lining, I saw this spider on it and wasn't terribly concerned because it looked sort of like the big harmless wolf spiders that we see frequently.  But it occurred to me that this might be a good opportunity to see if Tom's new insect zapper would work on a spider, so I went to find the zapper.  I went back to the closet, dug around til I found this ugly bug and zapped him.  It sparked, but didn't kill him on the first touch.  By that time, I could tell it wasn't a wolf spider and was determined to eliminate him...or HER **shudder**.   I had to do a bit of searching and chasing, but I finally got it.  When I was sure it was dead, I looked at it very closely and, sure enough, it has a perfect little fiddle on it's back.  LOOK!

I enhanced the picture a bit so the fiddle would be easier to see.  Double click on the image for a larger view.

Here's the spider with zapper.