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To: greeneyes

I managed to get out to my land this weekend. The fishing line fence worked great! You can see the trail where the deer came up to the fence, then turned and walked around it. If they had run at it, they would have broken through, but if they approach slowly, they get disconcerted by strings they can feel but not see, and avoid the area.

I had brought another spool of fishing line to repair breaks, but there wasn’t a single broken line there!

I have pictures, but I need to get them uploaded. My first planting of corn is doing well, the silks are starting to dry down. Several stalks are doing the “octo-corn” thing, which multiplies the harvest but would make it impossible to use machinery to pick. My second planting of corn is about a foot tall, not bad for 2 weeks old. Everything is up except the tobacco.

I also transplanted some of my surviving strawberry plants out to the land. They’re hardy enough not to need much tending, and I’d like a big strawberry patch when I finally move there.

Closer to home, the peas are drying down faster than I thought they would. I took a sturdy needle and some upholstery thread and strung them up by the stem end of each pod, that should help them dry down completely. As the plants dry down, my one nuna bean is filling in the space, I hope it flowerrs soon. It’s from the pack the seed bank sent me. They would only send me 10 seeds, and of the 7 I planted only one grew.

Today I canned black raspberry syrup, mulberry-plum sauce, and chunky cherry syrup. There were odds and ends from each type, so I also have one jar that has all of them mixed, along with a few diced strawberries. I didn’t want it to go to waste.
(They were all small batches, so this wasn’t as much work as it looks like. Everything fit in a single canner load.)

I finally got my new grain grinder unpacked and cleaned up. The guys at the factory didn’t wash it, there was a greasy fingerprint right in the hopper! The burrs are taking long enough to dry that I’ll have to wait before I can try it out. Oh well.

Melons have blossoms, tomatoes are getting bigger but still green, and my chickpeas have little pods on them!

My grandfather’s caretaker is planning on unloading her extra produce on us this year, I’m looking forward to having too many tomatoes. Last year I didn’t have enough!


110 posted on 07/20/2014 5:45:33 PM PDT by Ellendra ("Laws were most numerous when the Commonwealth was most corrupt." -Tacitus)
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To: Ellendra

It sounds like you accomplished a lot this weekend. I am glad your fishing line worked to keep the deer at bay.


111 posted on 07/20/2014 6:01:27 PM PDT by sockmonkey (Of course I didn't read the article. After all, this is Free Republic.)
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