Did I say summer WAS here...?
Ok, maybe I was a little too optimistic about things going green and summer actually being here. I think it was for less than 5 days total...then the rains came.
I just enjoyed two weeks off from work, although the enjoyment was a bit dampened by all the rain. Really, I emptied my little garden rain gauge several times; actually during the moments between rain marathons. There were several days of non-stop rain, the light stuff that accumlated less than a full inch in the gauge. Then there were days of total down pour that left over 4 inches in the tube. The last time I checked after a day of liquid sun it was well over an inch and 3/4's full. But despite the rain I did manage to spend most of my two weeks off out in the yard. Ric had to leave town for work, so no camping trips. As a consolation he arranged for me to have a slave-boy for three days of heavy labor. The younger brother of a friend was up from Kodiak for the the summer and in need of funds.
I definitely made him earn his $10 per hour. We put in an 80' x 2' path in the back yard. This required the removal of 2 inches of sod, two more inches of soil and BIG roots in almost every inch, then 6" trenches along both sides to place the edeging. After all the digging and lopping of roots, we laid down landscape cloth and the edging and covered the mess with "e" chip gravel. It looks ok, although eventually I think I want a boardwalk over the gravel. Young Billy also helped me gather flat rock (mostly basalt) to re-do some dry stack around 4 of my flower gardens.
Yep, everything was green, now going yellow. Our wet weather has cooled things down into the 40's and 50's. Without the sun, the blooms haven't bloomed, the veggies and fruit haven't produced... Actually before the rains my delphiniums reached almost to the eaves before they bloomed. Then the rain and wind knocked most of them over. I've one of the deep purple just glancing off the eaves and a shorter mauve blooming just above the window to the garage. The other delphinuims around the yard are just starting to bloom, so I've not given up on another flower fest if the sun comes out. And the daisys did ok this year, one of my pink monkshood is getting another stalk of blooms...ok, so it's not over yet. There are still some flowers in bloom.
So slave-boy Billy went home to Kodiak leaving me to use shovel and wheelbarrow to haul and spread the remaining 5 tons of "e" chip gravel over the driveway to freshen the surface. I got tired of waiting for a dry day so the lawn also got mowed wet. And yet wasn't all work and no play. Since I spent so much time out in the yard I got to keep an eye on the birds, squirrels and fish. The fish, especially the Koi have gotten bigger, the two female squirrels are busy raiding the bird feeders. The mom is pregnant again, her daughter from last year is building a nest in a spruce on the west side of the house. Baby girl was running back and forth with a peanut each trip...freezing in place if she found herself too close to my feet. After a while I left a bowl full in my rose and currant bed so she'd have a shorter trip of it. It's a difficult thing trying to find bulk raw peanuts in the shell in Fairbanks Alaska. We are only into the first week of August and I've gone through enough peanuts to feed an elephant. As brother Bob would say, I'm easily trained..by the local wildlife.
This week has been busy at all the bird baths, pond and feeders. We haven't seen much of the grey jays or woodpeckers, but the chickadees (both black cap and boreal), dark eyed juncos, fox sparrows, robins and various warblers have been daily if not all day visitors. We had a visit from a few others species this year as well, but just a quick meal and on their way. I noticed the red polls were back this week also. Brother Bob is lucky to get Stellar Jays visiting his house down in Anchorage, he's posted a wonderful photo here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47901510@N00/2736524439/ Speaking of Bob, he left me a comment about leaving some photos on here. The short story...my eldest daughter Heather changed my photo program into a german language version...I can't understand the program and most of the language any longer. So until I can delete the german version and re-install in english I can't download photos from my camera. Hopefully I will get the problem fixed and be able to put some nice shots here.
I managed to prune our apple trees into a more tree-like shape, although two have had to regrow from the base. The moose that pulled down a few bird feeders for the seed this spring also "pruned" all of the apple trees. This wasn't actually a bad thing since the trees were a bit "leggy" looking last year. This year they are fuller and have lots of little apples for the birds to enjoy thru the winter...none the less, think I'll put netting on them this year just in case. I do leave lots in the garden and even add pumpkins from the market for the moose, but so many mouths in late spring and they do love apple trees.
I really won't complain about all the rain we've had, it's been good for re-sodding/seediing the lawn and all the transplants and new plants I've put in this year. Knowing others are having horrible storms, flooding (yep, we've had homes lost up here from the flooding this year also) and fires I know that we could have had it worse. So I hope that all of you, where ever you are have improved weather, and a glorious late summer.
I just enjoyed two weeks off from work, although the enjoyment was a bit dampened by all the rain. Really, I emptied my little garden rain gauge several times; actually during the moments between rain marathons. There were several days of non-stop rain, the light stuff that accumlated less than a full inch in the gauge. Then there were days of total down pour that left over 4 inches in the tube. The last time I checked after a day of liquid sun it was well over an inch and 3/4's full. But despite the rain I did manage to spend most of my two weeks off out in the yard. Ric had to leave town for work, so no camping trips. As a consolation he arranged for me to have a slave-boy for three days of heavy labor. The younger brother of a friend was up from Kodiak for the the summer and in need of funds.
I definitely made him earn his $10 per hour. We put in an 80' x 2' path in the back yard. This required the removal of 2 inches of sod, two more inches of soil and BIG roots in almost every inch, then 6" trenches along both sides to place the edeging. After all the digging and lopping of roots, we laid down landscape cloth and the edging and covered the mess with "e" chip gravel. It looks ok, although eventually I think I want a boardwalk over the gravel. Young Billy also helped me gather flat rock (mostly basalt) to re-do some dry stack around 4 of my flower gardens.
Yep, everything was green, now going yellow. Our wet weather has cooled things down into the 40's and 50's. Without the sun, the blooms haven't bloomed, the veggies and fruit haven't produced... Actually before the rains my delphiniums reached almost to the eaves before they bloomed. Then the rain and wind knocked most of them over. I've one of the deep purple just glancing off the eaves and a shorter mauve blooming just above the window to the garage. The other delphinuims around the yard are just starting to bloom, so I've not given up on another flower fest if the sun comes out. And the daisys did ok this year, one of my pink monkshood is getting another stalk of blooms...ok, so it's not over yet. There are still some flowers in bloom.
So slave-boy Billy went home to Kodiak leaving me to use shovel and wheelbarrow to haul and spread the remaining 5 tons of "e" chip gravel over the driveway to freshen the surface. I got tired of waiting for a dry day so the lawn also got mowed wet. And yet wasn't all work and no play. Since I spent so much time out in the yard I got to keep an eye on the birds, squirrels and fish. The fish, especially the Koi have gotten bigger, the two female squirrels are busy raiding the bird feeders. The mom is pregnant again, her daughter from last year is building a nest in a spruce on the west side of the house. Baby girl was running back and forth with a peanut each trip...freezing in place if she found herself too close to my feet. After a while I left a bowl full in my rose and currant bed so she'd have a shorter trip of it. It's a difficult thing trying to find bulk raw peanuts in the shell in Fairbanks Alaska. We are only into the first week of August and I've gone through enough peanuts to feed an elephant. As brother Bob would say, I'm easily trained..by the local wildlife.
This week has been busy at all the bird baths, pond and feeders. We haven't seen much of the grey jays or woodpeckers, but the chickadees (both black cap and boreal), dark eyed juncos, fox sparrows, robins and various warblers have been daily if not all day visitors. We had a visit from a few others species this year as well, but just a quick meal and on their way. I noticed the red polls were back this week also. Brother Bob is lucky to get Stellar Jays visiting his house down in Anchorage, he's posted a wonderful photo here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47901510@N00/2736524439/ Speaking of Bob, he left me a comment about leaving some photos on here. The short story...my eldest daughter Heather changed my photo program into a german language version...I can't understand the program and most of the language any longer. So until I can delete the german version and re-install in english I can't download photos from my camera. Hopefully I will get the problem fixed and be able to put some nice shots here.
I managed to prune our apple trees into a more tree-like shape, although two have had to regrow from the base. The moose that pulled down a few bird feeders for the seed this spring also "pruned" all of the apple trees. This wasn't actually a bad thing since the trees were a bit "leggy" looking last year. This year they are fuller and have lots of little apples for the birds to enjoy thru the winter...none the less, think I'll put netting on them this year just in case. I do leave lots in the garden and even add pumpkins from the market for the moose, but so many mouths in late spring and they do love apple trees.
I really won't complain about all the rain we've had, it's been good for re-sodding/seediing the lawn and all the transplants and new plants I've put in this year. Knowing others are having horrible storms, flooding (yep, we've had homes lost up here from the flooding this year also) and fires I know that we could have had it worse. So I hope that all of you, where ever you are have improved weather, and a glorious late summer.
posted by anita at
8:08 AM
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