COOL DAYS

Mid-July -- and the weather is still unsettled

It’s just not as warm here as we expect July to be. At 3000 feet above the Clearwater River, lows are around 60 while highs are less than 75. I’m wearing jeans and a sweater. Keeping the house cool has not been a problem. In fact, Mike closed the dining room window as we ate supper last night. As I write, I’m watching dark clouds build. We might get a shower but probably not. Some other place will likely get this shower.

My raised bed gardens seem to be doing well. The beets and lettuce look happy. However, I will say that the beautiful summer squash plants are slow to set on as is the cherry tomato. Perhaps the on-again / off-again heat has confused them. Seems like it no sooner gets warm than another system moves through.

Mike and I spent last weekend in town. On Saturday, Mike cycled 65 miles with a group from Moscow through Deary and back. On Sunday, he and son Clint rode motorcycles to Orofino on Hwy 12 and back through Cavendish. He’s gradually cutting and stacking wood, too, and relaxes by watching the Tour de France.

We returned to the farmhouse on Tuesday (7-16). I had promised the contractor that we would clear our clutter off the sun porch in preparation for the new flooring, thereby saving him a trip. Mike and I accomplished that just as the workmen arrived. In addition to removing the old flooring and placing new underlayment, they performed various finishes around the house, including hanging new blinds in the dining room and master bathroom.

While daughter Hallie was here last week, we swathed the cherry tree with more netting, and I managed to pick a couple of dozen cherries this week. That’s that for this year. It’s tough to keep the birds from feasting on the fruit. Now I’ll remove the netting, and Mike and I will adjust the fencing for the growing tree.

Bess ----------- Kathy --------- Mike

We have seen seven rattlesnakes this summer. They like it hot, you know, so they seem rather lethargic. Bess located one under the boat at the pond yesterday, which Mike caught and removed to another locale. It pays to take care, but we suffer more from the wasps than the snakes. Mike got stung twice at his shed, and he has been miserable!

We had enough strawberries for several shortcakes. I considered that wonderful since the plants received no attention at all last summer, not even picking. My plants are ever-bearing, so we may have berries again before summer’s end.

We suspect a little more rodent activity in the yard. I must check that out. And we think the elk came through over the weekend, leaving calling cards that don’t quite look like deer. KW

THE SAGA OF THE COSTCO WINDCATCHER

As we were leaving my sister Harriet’s house one day last summer, Mike noticed the windcatcher in her front flower bed. “That’s cool!” he exclaimed. “Let’s get one for the farm.”

“Oh, but there’s a problem,” I said. Harriet had told me that it kept coming apart in the middle.

“I can fix it,” Mike said.

Let’s see, long story short, on his first trip he super-glued it. A few days later Harriet messaged that it had come apart again. This only served to strengthen Mike’s resolve. Now it was him against the windcatcher, and he meant to win. On the next trip, he took his drill, but the windcatcher broke his bit. This meant war! Mike borrowed a super-duper bit from a friend and was then able to drill a hole and insert a screw. And that worked. Now Harriet can see the beautiful windcatcher whirling outside her living room window.

By way of thanks for the fix, Harriet gifted Mike with this year’s windcatcher from Costco. (Apparently Costco offers a new design every year.) So, we assembled and installed it, but to our dismay it refused to whirl. It took a 15 mph gust to turn that thing, which Mike deemed unacceptable. So, we carried it back to Costco and they gladly exchanged it, even though we had already tossed the box. It was around Mother’s Day, and they didn’t have any in stock, but the customer service person said they would receive a shipment of 120 sometime after May 20. So, before we came back to the homestead, we picked up our Windcatcher at Costco, and today Mike assembled and installed it.

 

And here it is. It whirls gently in the breeze and with gusto when the wind picks up. We planted it firmly where we can watch it and where it’s not in the way of the mowing.

The sun is warm but the breeze sometimes feels like it comes off snowy mountains. The forecast is for the upcoming weekend to be hot, but I notice they keep pushing the hot days out a bit and trimming degrees off the predicted highs. KW

APRIL SHOWERS BRING MAY FLOWERS

We knew it was going to rain, but we decided to go to the farm anyway. We arrived late forenoon on Friday (April 22). We checked to be sure our internet was connected, and then set to work.

Mike sprayed ground sterilant on the lane and our drive – several hours of tiring work. It’s a never-ending job to keep the weeds down in the road.

I planted a banana peel at each lilac bush – six in all. You know, I’ve been trying to grow lilacs here for 15 years with only moderate success, meaning some of them are still alive. They say that the homesteaders grew lilacs because the deer don't eat them, but mine have suffered any number of setbacks because of the deer. Finally, with the installation of a simple fence, three of them in that garden are robust and showing great promise. (I count that fence among the best things my family has done for me.)

Some of the pictures here were taken last Sunday / Monday. A few days makes a lot of difference in the spring, but because of the rain, I was unable to take many this trip.

Friday afternoon, Mike helped me weed the raspberry patch. The plants aren’t making a great showing, but Ken has new shoots to share with me, so the bed must be prepared. I’ll bet the job wasn’t half finished when we got tired and quit. I hauled a yard cart full of weeds to the dump place, and then we took the dogs for a walk.

Happily, the apple trees in the lane, though charred by last summer’s fire, are making a comeback. And my favorite “pine apple” tree, though not yet leafing out, appears to have some life. We’ll see. I especially love those apples. They’re quite small, a beautiful red and green, and I see few worms in them. It’s a lot of work to peel them for a pie, but they make great sauce or juice for jelly.

 

The old pear tree is wearing her best white gown.

 

 

The pie cherry tree looks good.

 

The apple tree we planted last spring recovered from the heat stress suffered last summer and is leafing out. It remains to be seen if she bears fruit this year. If not, she needs a companion tree nearby.

 

The sweet cherry tree broken by the falling pine tree is also blooming. I'm disappointed that probably two-thirds of the tree was lost, but at least our efforts in planting it were not entirely in vain.

So, it commenced to rain Friday night about 10:00 and continued well into the next day. The good news is that rain water collects in the cistern. I’m not sure what the farmers think. Planting has not occurred yet, and low places in the field stay wet a long time.

Oh! And the horses. Yes, the horses are still here, doing what horses do. Another call was made to their owner.

Thanks for reading. KW

A SHORT TRIP TO THE HOMESTEAD

Our last stay at the farm concluded on Monday, July 27. I hated to leave. I had put much effort into the raised bed gardens this summer, successfully growing tomatoes and summer squash. We were just at the point of fruition and now I had to leave. Knowing I would be away for more than two weeks, I put extra water on everything, as if it would possibly be enough. I also purchased four sets (16) of “plant nannies,” clay spikes that support 2-liter bottles of water, allowing the water to seep slowly into the drying soil. It was the best I could do.

See Bess?

Looking southwesterly from the house

Yesterday (Thursday, Aug. 13) was our first visit to the farm after our trip. First thing in the morning we packed food, supplies, our electronics, and the dogs and headed up the Clearwater River. Naturally, we knew of regional wildfires, but as we traveled the radio told us of the fire in Big Canyon. Our farm sits on the edge of Little Canyon. Big Canyon is just over the next ridge, so we quickly realized that air quality at the farm would be poor. Arriving at the farm, we decided to return to town and the air conditioned house after completing some chores.

The farmhouse was hot and stuffy. I unpacked the cooler and the produce to keep it cold, my point being that I just had to pack it up again when we left in the afternoon – and unpack it again back in town. I put the supplies away and did two loads of laundry, but my major job was to water the stressed garden and vegetation.

A plume of smoke rises

Overall I was encouraged by the appearance of the garden beds, though everything was stressed by heat and lack of water. The plant nannies had done their work. All the bottles were standing empty in their holders. The “Early Girl” tomato plant seemed to have suffered the most damage, but I picked a number of ripe and edible tomatoes nevertheless. The “Champion” tomato plant fared better and also had healthy fruit. The four summer squash plants were still alive, though the fruits were hard and over-ripe and new fruits had not set on. Perhaps with care they will still bear into the fall. The strawberries, however, were thriving – blooming and sending runners all over the bed.

I hope we don’t lose the apple tree. It was badly wilted. The cherry tree was okay. The raspberries really need more water than they ever get. Even the lilac bushes were drooping so I watered them, too.

 

Little Canyon barely visible

And what did Mike do? Well, it’s a long story. In a nutshell, the old John Deere mower he bought had insurmountable problems in its electrical system, so the seller exchanged for another rebuilt machine, a Murray. Again, there were problems, but Mike was able to correct them, we think, and after lunch he mowed the lawn. The lawn didn’t really need mowing, of course, but he likes to knock the heads off the weeds and then trim the edges of the yard.

We returned to the town house by suppertime, and I fried a nice fish, a gift from Ken. KW