Weekly Garden Thread - April 24-30, 2021

April 24, 2021 | Diana in Wisconsin/Greeneyes

[Ladysforest]

I must vent.

I tried to get the new garden fence up LAST year, it involved having the old one torn out, and trying to find supplies for the new one. (The old fencing had turned hot mess, and the ground hogs had “doors”)

Well, after bugging Mr.L with no results, I hired a collage kid to do the tear out. Best $150. I’ve spent in years! Mr.L did help move the old fencing stuff to the edge of the yard though.

That kid got most of the posts in, and the repurposed chain link panels in place - but we were short 4 posts AND garden fence and chicken wire. Covid last spring meant a run on all such things, so we couldn’t finish.

I did find the posts and the fencing after a few months had gone by, BUT it took until TODAY to finally have the last post put in. I don’t get seriously pissed too often, but I was really close over the long delay in Mr.L putting those last posts in. Man!

Now I also have to replace the garden fence on the back end of the garden. Because a few months ago, late on a winters eve, Mr. L saw that a herd of deer were bedded down in the garden (fenced on 3 sides/one end open) and so he crept quietly across the lawn ... then he started hollering like a fiend at the deer. Well he was standing in the unfenced end of the garden - so you know which direction the startled deer ran at! At least I know that my fence took the force of multiple charging deer - but it looks like crap now, and after all this work, I want it to not look like crap. Fortunately for Mr.L he jumped out of the way safely when the deer turned around and came out of the unfenced end.

Oh, and I brought a bitty Honda tiller. I ain’t waiting on help getting the soil turned. Not from Mr. L!

[FamiliarFace]

I don’t pull them. I cut them near the base.

Today I went back to the spot where I found them last year. Not sure if it’s an ash or an elm. I’m not good with tree bark. At any rate, last year we had a pretty wet Spring, and I found 3 dozen morels,

Today I found 6.

We are about to cook them up with some filet mignon that I found in the freezer.

[FamiliarFace]

Nobody has responded yet, but I have to say, if blackberry and cheesecake could be flowers, that’s exactly what it should look like!

[conservativesister]

What a visual you painted, I sat here and laughed with tears streaming - Not laughing at your situation, but what a picture - !!!

[FamiliarFace]

Oh man! I just have to update. Even 6 morels properly prepared are the highlight of our dinner tonight. I wish I could find several dozen more of them!

[Ladysforest]

LOL!

[Cleebie Grums]

This was not a good week in our valley. The first pic is Wednesday, The second pic is Thursday. I’m afraid the buds on my quince tree have frozen.
https://i.postimg.cc/02303Q3C/IMG-1839.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/jS74rTYY/IMG-1840.jpg

[metmom]

Oooops......

I know the apple orchards in CNY have to deal with stuff like that regularly.

Once the fruit trees set their flower buds, a freeze will kill them and they have no crop as the trees will not set new flowers. So they have giant burners and fans to try to keep them from freezing during late season freezes and frosts.

[Ladysforest]

Ugh! That’s awful! With plants we can kind of plan for that, but trees - nope.

[Pollard]

Jumping into the weekly garden thread from a news thread because I have a long reply about meat goats that fits here better.

curdogmen said: also live in southern missouri..also raise meat goats ( we have kiko bucks )..we raise them because I'm afraid of working with big animals. all my neighbors think im crazy for breeding goats in cattle county. Never any problem selling buckling’s to eat. Be a bunch pissed off men, if he cuts off their meat supply around these hills and hollars.

I've got a 15/16 Boer, 1/16 Kiko buck and two full blooded Kiko does, one of them has straight New Zealand lines and one is USA so the papers I could get for another $100 would be different registries. I'm not worries about papers though.

Got them all last year as yearlings. The woman I got the 15/16 Boer from is a spoiled little thing. Every kind of farm animal you could think of and all very nice looking, including the dozen or so mini Scottish Highland cattle she had which run around $10-15K each.

I'm with you and her. I've always been afraid of huge animals.

Got the mostly Boer buck because they tend to add weight/thickness to the kids. Each doe only had one kid and the NZ doe is small so that wasn't too surprising. The USA doe is plenty big so I expected twins. We'll see what happens next year.

Little NZ Kiko doe had a buck, New Years baby and that little thing is chunky and pretty and will be bigger than her in a few months. I don't think I can put him in the freezer. Pretty sure he would be grade #1 at the sale barn but you can't just bring one to the sale barn. I think I can get 350-400 from a private sale.

Gotta do something with him before he impregnates momma or the other doe. With his fast growth and chunkiness, I'm half tempted to get rid of the original buck and let him have at momma and the other doe. One kid per doe makes me wonder if the big buck doesn't have slow swimmers or low sperm count. On the other hand, one doe was small and it was the first kidding for both.

The USA Kiko doe had a doe kid 10 days ago. Black, brown and white with markings on the head that make it look like a Spanish meat goat. Odd.

This is the buckling a couple of months ago? My conundrum. Keep him and breed him back to momma and the other doe or sell him.

Here he is with mom and dad.

Dad has the markings of a Boer but in black instead of red. This is a couple of weeks ago.

I'm using a High Tensile electric fence, of New Zealand design, so to keep with the unintended NZ theme, I'm wanting a breeding pair of Kunekune pig. The only true pasture pig breed. Minimal land damage with Kunekune due to their small size and short snouts.

How are you liking the dogwoods this year? Just going gangbusters here. Bright white and long lasting. Love it when they're still white while other things are turning green.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Fillet mignon...not something found on my freezer!

[FamiliarFace]

Sometimes I luck into a great price for certain things, so I snatch them up and wrap them well, then freeze. CoVid and shortages have taught me to really utilize my freezer to its fullest. On evenings like this, it can be a game changer.

[curdogmen]

wow the dogwoods are unreal this year...i just sit in a chair near a hollar and day dream and nap and talk to goats and dogs and stare at them trees.

wish i understood how to post a picture. we always keep at least 2 bucks or more so we can breed the offspring back and forth without to much inter breeding. have no problem breeding a son to a mom. I get very attached to the bucks we keep

Went to sales barn in buffalo and got 4 dollars a pound for bucklings a few months ago.

Have one all black nz buck and a all black with a few brown marking american kiko buck and too many does.

we also run electric fence. we run 4 hot wires. Have to use another type of wire having to sometimes pasture horses with the goats, love my 9 joules charger thinking of upgrading to the 27 joules.

This fence also keeps my hunting dogs from crossing over into neighboring farms. But most of all it keeps coyotes and such off the pastures. Been knocked to the ground by the fence so many times my hair turned blonde.

old joke “ only way to test a goat fence is...splash water against it and if any water crosses to the other side of the fence ... fence its NOT goat proof “

i understand about not wanting to register your goats but we do ours. Last time i looked at nz kiko does they ran around 2000 dollars which i will not pay .

we are at 140 days since first goat was bred. am a very very excited old man we run only one buck with our does after does are bred we throw the other buck back in with the herd along with his wether playmates. when babies drop well pull the bucks out.

[Cleebie Grums]

You’re right about the burners and fans. The problem here was that we had temps in the mid-20’s for two nights. Much worse than a frost. We are praying for all fruit growers in this area!

[metmom]

I do the same.

Their livelihood depends on that good crop.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’ll see if I can get a picture of her this week. She looked SO much like her Mama, ‘Emma,’ right from birth (same markings and face) that I HAD to name her that; the other females in that litter looked more like their Daddy, ‘Gunner.’ If they look like they’re going to be good hunters from a young age, our dogs then get a Native American name; Beau’s tradition. ‘Emma Jolene’ is an exception. Beau says she comes from the ‘Dolly Parton’ tribe, LOL!

We’re getting another puppy in a week or so; another female and if she fits her name, it’s going to be ‘Kachina’ which means ‘Spirit’ in the language of the Pueblo, Hopi and Zuni Indian Tribes. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The F350? Something to do with the fuel line. Beau thinks he may have gotten some bad diesel. We went to visit her last night and he tried some feature it has to get water OUT of the gas, but that didn’t work.

He’s borrowing a friend’s truck to tow it to his mechanic this week. The owner of the property where it’s parked is being very nice about it. It looks like some of his equipment, anyway - it’s a service for digging new water wells and such. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

‘Martino’s Roma’ is a good one, too. I’ve grown it.

My Roma-types this season are: ‘Italian Roma’ from Botanical Interests and ‘La Roma III Hybrid’ from Jung’s.

I’m not messing around this year - PRODUCTION above all else. I’ll have 24 tomato plants, minimum; probably more. Lots of peppers, too. Our Pantry needs some serious re-stocking of Salsa, Tomato Soup, V-8 Juice and Bloody Mary Mix. :)

[Qiviut]

My brother had to park his long trailer in the upper pasture because the ground was SO wet, he couldn’t get it in the back field or behind his shed where he usually parks it. So I’m mowing along, came right up to the back of it & I don’t know what I was thinking (actually ‘not’ thinking is more like it) & I hit the top of the structure that holds one of the front mower wheels on the trailer corner. ‘Something’ went flying through the air - luckily, I saw where it landed. It was the cap off that strut - you take it off to grease/lube the wheel so it rotates, etc. Anyway, no harm done - I popped it back on, but it scared me. I hope Beau can fix your knob - what a freaky thing to happen!

Baby shower on Saturday & rain was coming in too, so no gardening. Yesterday was sunny, but chilly. I decided to spray my beds for weeds before I plant anything so the tomatoes will go in today. I bought a little gallon sprayer (boy, is that easier than a spray bottle!) at the hardware store & picked up two different kinds of radish seeds (I have some old seed already planted & coming up). To my surprise, when I mentioned I had radishes growing, my dad was telling me how much he likes “those little red and white things .... kinda’ spicy and they’re good”. The man hates anything even slightly spicy so this was a shocking revelation that he likes radishes! I found a good looking recipe for radish skewers too, so extra radishes will be a good thing this year.

I was going to put up my fencing around the beds, but I’m out of zip ties - thought I had some, but can’t find them so I’ll have to go buy some today.

Made an ant moat for my SIL’s hummingbird feeder - It hangs off her porch & for the first time ever in years, she has an ant problem. I made a moat last year for one of my feeders & it worked great so hopefully, the one I made this morning won’t leak when she tries it out. All you need are 2 cup hooks, a wine bottle cork, super glue, and the top off a spray can or cut the bottom off a small plastic bottle. Screw one cup hook into one end of the cork. Screw the other cup hook down through the bottom of the cap/bottle (I used a small drill to make the hole first), into the cork - super glue around where the hook goes through the plastic so it won’t leak - I also put some on top of the cork where it touches the bottom of the cap/bottle. Works like a charm & saves some money instead of buying a commercial moat.

Here’s the radish recipe if anyone is interested:

Keto Grilled Radish Skewers with Herb Butter
https://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/keto-grilled-radish-skewers-garlic-herb-butter/

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Or, the GMC? Well, for starters - it’s a GMC, LOL!