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Recent Entries to this Blog
not gardening rocks no more!
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CritterPainter's BlogVarious ramblings of a country gal
Not quite autumn? go figure!
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 5:31 am I'm sitting here in the quiet listening to the sound of a Washington State rainshower. It isn't a nasty rain, more like a gift washing down from the clouds, an offering of something much desired and wanted to the vines and leaves stretching gratefully up to receive it. Now, my chickens on the other hand, they aren't quite so appreciative. They seem to have forgotten how to duck into the henhouse, out of the rain. They stand in it with feathers dripping, heads cocked sideways staring at the falling sparkles, clearly straining to remember what and why this is. It's been a long dry summer. So dry in fact that I forgot completely to put a bit of gutter on the tin roof over my lawnmower. The roof also shelters Tim the Bunny. And as I put an apple in his cage today, the dripping down my neck only punctuated the hazards inherent in my forgetfulness. All my garden is rushing to put on a last hurrah of growth before chillier weather sets in, and the vines around my front door seem to be trying to come in through the windows with the cat! Even my miniature rose has put out a new bloom. Things just feel normal again, and word is we are in for a very wet winter. So glad I don't live in an area that floods, though my driveway does tend to get puddly. There's been quite a bit on the news about coyotes attacking household pets. Don't know why people panic about this. It's rough, granted, but basic biology teaches that populations have peaks and valleys. Coyotes and raccoons seem to be at a peak right now, that's all. Could be frogs or beetles next year. Shrug. Personally, I'm rooting for a population spike for the meadowlarks! This blog entry has been viewed 505 times
Thinking about autumn!
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 5:06 am Hello Blog! Just a quick entry tonight. But I had to cheer for myself, since I got a perfect, red tomato out of my garden. Oooo man, that was goood! It got so cold night before last (about 39!) I thought for sure I'd lose the plant, but it's hanging on. Might have to finally try those green tomato recipes I've seen, though. And pluck up all my romaine, too. It's gonna be so much harder to watch my diet when the cold weather rolls in! We have a nationally-awarded cider farm not too far from me. It's all back roads that even I can navigate with no worries. And it's cider time! We're going to head over there on payday and get a jug of fresh-pressed. Actually they are required to pasteurize it so it isn't quite like the stuff we made when I was little, but close enough. Besides, I have a friend who works there who may be able to score me a jug of the fresh stuff. Ok, this may run my blog a little long, but it's a great cider story. When I was in high school, I was in all the ag. classes. Just loved it. Anyways, we made cider one year as a fund raiser. Well, we pressed one batch on a friday and didn't properly mix varieties and it came out waaaay too sweet. So the ag. advisor stashed the jugs in his office and went home. For a 3-day weekend. So we came in early the next week, and all the cider had fermented. Big time. I mean, it turned green and blew the tops off the jugs. 3 or 4 of the boys offered to haul the jugs down to the river to dispose of them. They didn't show up for the rest of the day. And when they did, well, you can just imagine the condition they were in, lol! (egads, am I a hick or what?) This blog entry has been viewed 505 times
Oh what a lovely sound!
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 4:40 am Just a quick entry, I woke in the middle of the night last night to a strange sound I haven't heard in months- rain! Pittypatting on the dry, hard ground, pinging in the downspout, patting on the shingles. Lovely sound! Now I probably won't wax poetic about it come February, but it's sure nice now! Been setting up a little enameling kiln from a garage sale out in my cabin. Still need to pick up a few things to make it work, but since I'm using an inverted flowerpot for a lid and an unglazed plant saucer to protect the heating element, I figure it's fair game to write about on a gardening blog. Spent the afternoon with my aunt today so my uncle could go to a class reunion. My aunt would have loved to go once apon a time, she's a real people person and as nice as they come. But this doggone disease has progressed to where she can't talk coherently much at all. Came home and cried my eyes out. This blog entry has been viewed 510 times
Gotta love a man with a truck!
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:18 am My husband stopped on his way home from work to pick me up some bark from the woodcutter with the "free" pile. But he had no shovel. And the guy wasn't home. So my sweetie backed up to the pile, and scooped in the stuff. With his BARE HANDS!! After working on a holiday! Am I blessed or what?!? I get to finish my path tomorrow morning thanks to him! And, just to keep life from getting easy, I started reshaping my back garden bed, ya know, so the rhododendron wouldn't outgrow it's borders. Tsk, the lady's lost her marbles for sure this time. Anyone know of a really great fertilizer for an asian pear? mine isn't much more than a stick with a couple of tiny, stingy pears on it, and it's been in the ground for 5 years. Wed. am quick note- went out early and got all that bark spread. It's so cushy underfoot! I put it down thick, as alot of what's in it will compost down over a (hopefully) wet winter. Took pics but they came out too bright. Bee sting on my finger from yesterday morning itches something aweful! Last edited: Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:44 pm This blog entry has been viewed 493 times
I'm meeelllllttttiiinnnnggg, whatta world!
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 3:27 am It's so hot and hazy here! Then it gets cold at night, which makes the yellowjackets grumpy when it gets hot again. In short, I haven't been able to do much at ALL in my garden, hrrrumph! But, I did find a tree removal guy who keeps a pile of woodchips at his place, with (the best part) a big FREE sign on them. Hey, even I can afford that! So hopefully I can get some work done when the kids head back to school this week, woohoo! I recently found out that it's illegal where I live to cut down an oak tree. Now, I love the oaks so this isn't a huge issue, but the fact that those who monitor such things have taken aerial photos and circled the oak trees out here is, well, more than a little "big brotherish", dontcha think? And someone took me to a website where satellite pictures of my property are. Creepy! But with the weather patterns changing so much here, who knows how long they'll be growing. My pine trees are drying out, and I've lost some very old branches off one of them. I do miss the rain! Guess I should be looking at xeriscaping, eh? Got an enameling kiln at a garage sale this weekend, and have grandiose visions of brightly colored enameled-copper windchimes for my garden next spring. If I actually get anything decent made, I'll be sure to post photos here. This blog entry has been viewed 479 times
Another thursday photo, my garden shed
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:56 pm well this is going well so far! Guess I'm having a good brain day. This one is my studio/greenhouse. The greenhouse side gets way too hot this time of year so it stays blocked off. You can sort of see the path to the left, going between the birch and the maple back to the toolshed. OK, enough playing with the computer, that path isn't going to build itself! 
This blog entry has been viewed 608 times
Thursday and it's Windy!
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:11 pm Here's my attempts for the day to upload more of my artwork. The bunnies is a painting from several years ago, but I still have the bunnies! I'll try a bigger rooster, but if it doesn't work I'll have to get my tekkie husband to resize it for me. 
OK, gotta go dig out for a new garden path. Ya know, I suspect I'm much more into garden construction and design than I am weeding, ya think? This blog entry has been viewed 639 times
rocks, sand, and bunnypellets
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 1:26 am I got my fuschia in the ground today finally. It's in a great spot, exposure wise. My painting cabin will block the winter wind and the hottest of the summer sun. But I raked out a wheelbarrow full of potato-size rocks, and man am I sore! I beefed up the remaining sand, soil, and smaller rocks with lots of bunny compost. I used the stuff from under the cages. Just scraped away the least-aged stuff and used the fertilizer underneath. Since it's a fuschia, I'm not TOO worried about it being still a little acidic. I had to move a small maple tree that was in an awkward place beside the cabin. I soaked the daylights out of it in the spot where I moved it, but won't hold my breath that it'll make it. Another strange thing about the ground out here is that there is just no knowing what will do well. I planted a rhodie, and it barely struggled along for five years. Then it suddenly took off and has turned into the most beautiful bush ever, even though it's just the standard pink. On a wild hair, I planted a clumping birch tree quite near it (they aren't so fond of acidic soil) and the silly thing is flourishing! I can pretty much throw the rule book out the window around here! Like, my well is 125 feet deep, yet a stones throw away there is a bush growing that one usually sees in swampy areas. Keeps life interesting, I think I have about 7 different biomes on my place. I still haven't worked out all the details of getting any pictures up. I'll just put in this disclaimer- I had a traumatic brain injury some years ago that really fried my left hemisphere, you know, the one that controls math and technical stuff. So techie stuff is NOT my forte! OK, I follwed a link to imgspot, lessee if I did this right. Should be a tiny image that I tried to make an avatar out of. Last edited: Thu Aug 31, 2006 1:56 am This blog entry has been viewed 489 times
bunny fertilizer, and sand?!?
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:43 pm I weeded out the site by my cabin to plant my new fuschia. Apparently, that's where a bunch of sand leftover from a construction project got dumped. Huzzah, another garden challenge (grump) Think I'll just beef up the area as best I can with bunny fertilizer before I stick any unsuspecting plants into it. All my bunnies are shedding like crazy right now because of the hot weather. Garnet actually let me pick him up and cuddle him a bit, and I came away with a white angora shirt from it. Garnet is an albino minilop, and has the Worlds Softest Fur! Unfortunately it would be a royal pain to gather enough to spin a decent amount of yarn from, but it crosses my mind every time I pet him. His mother, Esther, produces a most prodigious pile of pellets for my garden, bless her little bunny self. Bunnies produce a "hot" fertilizer, though not so hot as chickens do. I either let the pellets age under the cages or pile it behind some trees to let it mellow a bit. In the winter when the garden is asleep and it's raining constantly, I just take wheelbarrow loads and spread the pellets throughout the garden. It works down through the shredded bark mulch and makes a good bed for the spring growth to get started in. This blog entry has been viewed 534 times
day 2
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:22 am OK, so here's where three of my paintings are on the web, I'll try to post more http://windygate.home.att.net My animal inventory stands, for the moment, at 7 bunnies, 4 chickens, 2 goats, 2 dogs, a cat, outdoor goldfish, and 2 parakeets. I've pared waaaay back from what I used to have! Anyway, the grocery store in town had hardy fuschias for 5 bucks, so I picked one up to plant by the little cabin/greenhouse where I like to paint and where I start seeds. Now I just need to get the weeds out of the patch where I'll plant it, and try to convince my old-timer doggie that it isn't a good place to take a nap! I think alot of the wildfires I know about don't make the news. I hear the engines tearing by every few days now, they are probably getting the fires out before they amount to much. One came within a few feet of my neighbors house a couple of weeks ago, and I've seen the fire department roll down there a couple of times since, probably checking for hot spots and such. It's so dry out, a bit of glass magnifying sunlight onto a bit of dry grass can start a blaze going. ugh! This blog entry has been viewed 505 times
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