Posts in: Gardening

Trickster Squirrel

George Hansen, The Trickster and the Paranormal: the trickster is a character type found in mythology, folklore, and literature the world over; tricksters appear as animals, humans, and gods. They have a number of common characteristics, and some of their most salient qualities are disruption, unrestrained sexuality, disorder, and nonconformity to the establishment. They are typically male. Tricksters often deceive larger and more powerful beings who would thwart them; they may be endearingly clever or disgustingly stupid—both cultural heroes and selfish buffoons.

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Appalachian beans

Having read the beans section of The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery, I went in search of heirloom seeds. Behold, the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center. After a bit of poking around, I settled on Doyce Chambers Greasy Cut-Short and some Pine Mountain Greasy. The former because they have a solid reputation and the latter because Pine Mountain is not all that far from my ancestral Kentucky counties. They both should be good for either cooking in the pod or drying as soup beans.

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A quick search of my posts reveals that I am excited at this time every year when the tree frogs start their ruckus. Dear reader, it has begun.

Projects update: The Green Man’s Patch; Firewood

The Green Man’s Patch That, by the way, is the name Rachel and I have settled on for our yard/garden/micro-homestead/thing. Thanks to John for the “patch” inspiration. All the serviceberry trees are now planted. The one to the right is in the former location of an ornamental sand cherry tree we planted several years ago in our normie yard period. I kept a chunk of the sand cherry trunk to see if I can carve something from it.

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Rachel got a nice picture of our chives in bloom. Edible and pretty!

A survey of the fruit on the Green Man Micro Homestead (just made that up! maybe a bit overstated?):

  • Concord grapes. This will be the third year of grape harvest. The first harvest was great. The second, not so much, probably due to 1. too much rain and 2. not enough pruning.
  • Strawberries. We’ve scaled up the strawberries this year, using a milk crate vertical growing method that allows for many more plants than we’ve had in the past.
  • Serviceberries. New this year. Two of the three trees are now planted. We may get a bit of fruit this year from the two larger trees but I don’t imagine it’ll be a lot.
  • Gooseberries. This little guy struggled in the front yard for the first two years of his life. Rachel moved him to the back and he seems much happier. Still, it might take another year or two for there to be any harvest.

Projects update: F150 and gardening

A few small tasks completed on the F150 this week: Sticky tailgate handle just needed some WD-40. Bolts for the tailgate mechanism access panel are marinating in Evaporust. Door panel clips replaced on the passenger side. Door striker replaced on passenger side. I had hoped that replacing the door striker on the driver side would fix the not-fully-shutting problem. It didn’t. Looks like it may be that the door hinge pin and bushing are worn out, making the door sag.

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Today in the garden

Garden phlox is always one of the first things to bloom: Bleeding Hearts. This is a plant passed down through three generations of women in my wife’s family: Lilacs are just starting to bloom. In the next day or so there will be enough for me to harvest for syrup. Honeysuckle. This was one of my requests for the garden because I associate it with summer in my childhood. We got this gooseberry three years ago but it never seemed to take off for its first two years in our front yard.

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A neighbor cut down what appeared to be a perfectly healthy, mature maple on Tuesday. In response, Rachel is planting three serviceberries and one juniper. Answer foolish destruction with a quadruple investment in future life.

Signs of life all over the yard!

Blooms on the lilac bush:

Native honeysuckle

Rachel transplanted the gooseberry bush last year because it seemed to be struggling. Looks like it survived the move.