Vole in the compost!

I have to admit, when the furry little creature's back appeared scurrying through a tunnel I had uncovered in the compost, I squealed.

The husband is replacing fence posts, and one that needs replacing happens to be behind the newer compost bin I put in the garden last fall, necessitating a move.  I lifted the bin and had a nice form of mostly dry leaves left behind!  So I began by just grabbing arm loads to transfer into the bin in its new location.  As I worked my way down things were a little more sloppy, so I switched to a shovel with one hand balancing the load on top.  Almost to the bottom, and thank goodness I didn't spear him with the shovel!  Of course now I want that thing OUT of there, and out of our yard.

I've seen evidence of voles in our yard before - tunnels in the melting snow, or in the top layer of sod after the snow melted.  Several years ago, come to think of it, a similar episode of stirring up a creature in the bin... I guessed that time that that was enough, because I never found one in the bin again... until yesterday. I did see one slip under the fence when I was messing with the compost a few days previously.  I hoped he (she?) was just passing through, and that my presence was enough to discourage any return.

But this thing was very reluctant to depart it's partly opened tunnel.  Uh-oh... does that mean... Oh I HOPE there is not a nest of babies!  The shovel did finally encourage it to leave the tunnel and hide under some loose leaves in the compost pile next to where the bin was. But I was still reluctant to dig much more into what was left of the bin contents...

I guess what I need to do is get out there on a more regular basis and keep stirring things up.  But on top of the wish not to send the shovel through the gut of a rodent, didn't I hear that these little things are now carrying the Hantavirus, which is shed in their urine and feces?  Should I wear a mask when stirring up compost dust? 

Anyone have a cat for hire?  I won't be chasing the felines from our yard any more!

Fairy Garden Tomato!

A tiny tomato plant sprang up right in the middle of my spring fairy garden, planted in compost. Eh-hem... Award-Winning compost! :-) One blossom, one tomato.

At risk of frost, I brought it inside to ripen. I think brother-in-law was right, it is a Roma, but growing in a fairy garden, it isn't exactly large!

It will be part of today's lunch. Yum!

If you have short arms, and have a son with big feet...

???
Okay.  If your arms get itchy from picking beans, but you'd rather not put a long sleeved shirt on.  And you have short arms and a son with big feet, who has worn a hole in his socks...  This is my solution.  I cut the toes of his old socks open, and voila, arm protection! As long as I don't mind the hole in one "elbow"!  And no, his feet really aren't particularly big, but it's a longish pair of socks. 

Fairy Garden No. 2

A new class in our Fall Fair this year was fairy gardens!  What a good excuse to make another one!  No. 1 had become a little overgrown, and then there was the tomato plant which volunteered smack in the middle from the compost-soil. Yes, there is a tomato on the plant, too!  

 I looked at fairy gardens on Pinterest for inspiration... and figured I didn't stand a chance at WINNING anything, as I was not up to anything as elaborate as I found there!  But I knew I would have FUN creating, and that I did.

One sister donated a few fairy baskets into which I stuffed some dried flowers, and another came collecting with me in the woods. All three of us visited the thrift stores where we found the tray, strawberries, and an egg-cup bird-bath.  The fairy-on-a-swing herself, her critter friend and the pond-dish were earlier thrift store finds, and all featured in garden no. 1.  Husband donated the golf tee, and the glass shooter marble gazing ball came from a box of out-grown toys in our basement (idea from a sister). The pathway is a mix of pea gravel and beach collections of years gone by. A few old snail shells and some tiny fresh flowers in a floral water tube and it was complete. 

Lo and behold! A blue ribbon! But most of all, it WAS fun to make.  I hope my fairy is up for more fun next year!  

Fairy Garden

Thanks to the inspiration of Carolynne and Cynthia at Shuswap Community Church, and the Kindale and Churches of Salmon Arm Thrift Stores...

A good year for apples!

The namesake of the blog didn't produce that well this year, but the Spartans are outstanding.

Well, that one was an anomaly, but the tree was heavily loaded with good sized apples.  More hours of baking ahead of me... Send your favourite recipes!

Fall Fair

Putting an entry in our Fall Fair gets one an exhibitor's weekend pass for the same price as one day admission.  And as a bonus, there is a chance to win a few dollars back, or a prize of some kind.  A few years ago (see my very first post on this blog) I entered compost and won a third prize.  I decided to enter three classes this year. 

One clean jar well-rotted compost

Carrot cake (frosted) small loaf-pan size

All white flower arrangement - greenery accepted

I really was surprised to get a first and two seconds!  My personal vote would have switched first/second on the flowers - I could not have argued if I had received third (there were only three entries), and I was disappointed with how my cake turned out.  There were four carrot cakes in all - no way for me to taste the others, but I made two cakes from my batter and tested one at home. The compost is probably the easiest class they have!  Only five entered, so it wasn't too hard to get a ribbon there, either.

I made note of a few other classes with few entries for next year.  :-) Might even branch into textile and needle arts division.

2012 Vegetable Garden

Yes, I did grow some veggies this summer!  

A grand total of four cherry tomatoes (the first didn't wait for the camera).  The rainy start to our summer might be the reason for whatever is wrong with the leaves, but it gave a valiant effort.

The Swiss chard is lovely, but unfortunately has only been a hit on one plate at the dinner table, that being mine.

I tried to grow some beans, but I guess they were just too old and tired.  Maybe I'll get fresh seeds next year.

More than one way to pit a cherry!

"Hey, did you keep your parents' cherry pitter?" "No, I think it went to the thrift store."

Oh well.  I got out the paring knife and pitted my first cherry.  Hmm.  There must be a better way.  I knew I'd find some alternative ideas online.  I watched one person smash the cherry, one use my paring knife method, one use a paperclip, and one DIY pitter made from a bent fork.  But somewhere in the back of my head ... the straw....  Not sure where I heard about it, but it worked well!

Thanks to a student's family, we had cherry cobbler this evening! Yummmm!

Guess what hubby turned up in the basement while looking for something else after the cobbler was cooked...  Yup!  What timing!

Pine Tussock Moth Caterpillar

 Dasychira pinicola   

Found this furry fellow while nibbling berries.  By the time I'd identified him via Google (here) and went back for another look, he'd disappeared.  Not sure why a pine moth would be on raspberries... Not sure where the closest pine is.

First raspberries

We ate our first handful of berries from our yard today.  I was worried when an offering of berries appeared in the Idaho kitchen, and then on our way home in my sister's kitchen... was I missing my berries at home?  No, they were still waiting for my return before ripening.

The Easter Bunny?

This little critter showed up on our street in early March.  Spotted him in our yard once, then didn't see him for a week. For the last week we've seen him in our yard - front or back or side - almost every day. Did he choose our place because we don't use weed-killer, or because we don't have any other outdoor animals?

He (?) is very cute, but rabbits are not native to our area, and we really hope he's a he and not an expecting she.  He may have been someone's pet, but he doesn't let us approach him, so it's more likely he escaped from someone who breeds rabbits for meat.   He is clever enough to find his way around the plywood which keeps the little neighbour dog from wiggling under our gate. Or possibly hitched a ride up from Kelowna's feral population.

First sighting in our yard

For now he's nibbling on grass and weeds and maple keys, but more tender vittles are due to be sprouting from the flower bed soon... If no one responds to the "found" poster, and if the SPCA doesn't trap bunnies, we may have to devise our own trap.  Any suggestions welcome.

Autumn weekend work

We have had some wonderful weather Saturdays in these parts lately, helping to motivate me to take care of fall gardening. I would be interested to know just how many leaves are on that maple tree! Not finished raking yet!

The raspberry canes which fruited last summer and the smaller new canes have been cut out, and the strong healthy first year canes which will give us next year's berries have been cut to a manageable size.

The flowerbeds haven't all been tackled yet, but it feels good to have a good start anyway.

Thanksgiving Harvest

Happy Thanksgiving to all in Canada today!

We had our turkey dinner last night, but today I reaped my fall harvest.

I anticipated a heavy load on the apple tree this year, as we usually get every other year, but we had a cold spring... So even though there were a lot of blossoms, the bees weren't very busy.

I picked a couple apples last week, and these today. There are still about three on the tree which I couldn't reach, and some had already dropped to the ground. These, the main harvest, will make a few nice apple coffee cakes or something.

Summer of '11

End of July - is it summer yet? It's been cool and WET! We haven't had a long hot stretch yet. Not that I mind, too much. It's nice to not be sticky. And I've only hauled the sprinkler onto the lawn once this season so far! That's usually a twice-a-week ritual.

We have had a good share of summer storms. Here's one rolling in July 16.

Spring

A week ago I took the camera out to shoot signs of spring and document my compost (yes, someone asked!). Today I went out without a jacket for the first time this spring!

Early Stardrift

Lilac

Raspberry

The yard is full of these maple seedlings every spring.  Unsure what the other one is.

The composter was full last fall, mostly of maple leaves. (It is now about 2/3 full.) Kitchen scraps have been buried in the leaves throughout the winter, and they are now starting to break down along with deeper, now slimy, leaves.  Working to get the air in by weekly stirring.  I didn't get a leaf bin made last fall, but we do have a heap next to the Earth Machine composter, plus some in bags, so we can add as needed throughout the summer.

Wait!  Didn't I just find all those signs of spring?  We were surprised by this the next morning, April 18!

Snow on snow on snow

Do you compost in the winter?  Some years I've decided to just forget it, because I'm so bad about taking the compost out: going out in the cold, trekking through knee-deep snow, the lid being frozen on the bin...  But this year I decided to try something different.  I decided to keep a mini-bin outside the basement door where it can remain in frozen state until emptied into the larger bin (where it will start truly composting in the spring).  This would mean fewer trips to the Earth Machine, and make taking out the compost a pretty easy task. 

Surprisingly (?) the compost still sits on the counter longer than it ought to. And I think I need a larger mini-bin.

Because it's full, and, well, WHERE is the real compost bin?

One more picture, since I named the blog Raspberry Cello.  Here are my raspberry canes.  They volunteered along the chain link fence. When our house was built our neighbours had raspberries on the other side, instead of the cedar trees there now.  I thought I'd move the volunteers to a proper row, so I could pick from both sides.  You can see them between those posts.  But I never could dig out all the ones along the fence, and some which were moved didn't live long and prosper.  So we now have a little here and a little there. They don't look like much now, but just wait. We are due for a large crop of Spartan apples from that tree in October, too.

I took these pictures yesterday.  Today it is snowing again.  Maybe I'll just start a second winter bin outside the basement door.

2010

The last day of 2010. Highlights?

• One of my students won the grade 1 strings scholarship at our local music festival.
• Number 2 son bought his own car.
• Many toad sightings - I figure that means we're living on a healthy lot. (That and we unintentionally built a toad trap when we added a basement entrance!)
• My compost won 3rd place in the local fall fair. I didn't GROW much, but I'm pretty good at making things rot! :-)

Doesn't take much to excite me!

Twenty Eleven

Happy new year!  Happy new blog!

The raspberries (background) were picked in our back yard in July 2010.  They were delicious.

The cello (below) was made in Braeuningshof ueber Erlangen, (West) Germany, in 1970 by  Franz Kirschnek. Couldn't find any current pictures which show the cello well, so these are a few years old.  The bottom one shows the colour best - no flash.  Time to go practice.

Countdown to 2011!