My parents will be arriving tonight, so I don't expect to post much until next week. Hopefully while they are visiting we will get lots of little projects done around the house and property, and I'll have lots to blog about next week.
Hopefully I'll also have some pictures of the spadefoot (formerly spadefoot toad) that I found in the garden while digging a row for my bean seeds earlier this week too!
Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Foggy Ontario Days in the Smokey West
When I woke up this morning, I could barely see the mountains out the window. I was surprised, it isn't the season for controlled burns, and with the wet weather we have been having the last few weeks a forest fire from natural causes seems strange. I know now that it is smoke, from a distant forest fire, but it still reminds me more of humid Eastern Ontario summer haze. Since this morning it has gotten smokier and smokier, until the mountains were completely obscured, and even the hills on the far side of the main valley were looking pretty pale. Its now spitting rain lightly, and after finishing up some mowing as the rain started, I am back inside.
This sort of day reminds me of the humid hazy weather of my younger years, and it makes me miss Ontario. I'm sure the fact that my best friend (who still lives in Ontario) got engaged (YAY!) last weekend has nothing to do with it, nor does the fact that my parents are coming to visit next week. :)
While I was mowing I thought about how things ended up like this - me so far away. When I moved out west, I had no intentions of being out in BC for much longer than to get my master's degree. I even had a PhD project all lined up back in Ontario when I was close to finishing my MSc. But right after I finished school, I met my now husband. Shortly into dating him I backed out of the PhD, just a couple months before I was supposed to move back to Ontario and start it.
Instead I moved down to the US, and within a few months was pregnant, married, and we closed on our first house. With my best friend getting engaged last weekend, and doing a home inspection on their first place this weekend, we're finally both settling/settled down. But I never expected it would be so far away from each other. I think we always imagined having homes close to each other, with woods out the back, and spending lots of time together. Obviously we would each have our own families, including kids or not (they still aren't decided on whether they want kids, obviously we do! :D). But we would be around each other constantly.
I obviously have good friends down here, and my husband and I love where we live, and I am very happy with him, with the life we have set up for ourselves here, and she feels the same there, but times like this, when important things are going on in her life, or in my life, I wish we lived way closer! However, even with the distance, I am still SO VERY HAPPY for her and her (now) fiance, and can't wait until their wedding!! In the meantime, I'll enjoy pretending it isn't smokey out and instead is summer humidity :)
This sort of day reminds me of the humid hazy weather of my younger years, and it makes me miss Ontario. I'm sure the fact that my best friend (who still lives in Ontario) got engaged (YAY!) last weekend has nothing to do with it, nor does the fact that my parents are coming to visit next week. :)
While I was mowing I thought about how things ended up like this - me so far away. When I moved out west, I had no intentions of being out in BC for much longer than to get my master's degree. I even had a PhD project all lined up back in Ontario when I was close to finishing my MSc. But right after I finished school, I met my now husband. Shortly into dating him I backed out of the PhD, just a couple months before I was supposed to move back to Ontario and start it.
Instead I moved down to the US, and within a few months was pregnant, married, and we closed on our first house. With my best friend getting engaged last weekend, and doing a home inspection on their first place this weekend, we're finally both settling/settled down. But I never expected it would be so far away from each other. I think we always imagined having homes close to each other, with woods out the back, and spending lots of time together. Obviously we would each have our own families, including kids or not (they still aren't decided on whether they want kids, obviously we do! :D). But we would be around each other constantly.
I obviously have good friends down here, and my husband and I love where we live, and I am very happy with him, with the life we have set up for ourselves here, and she feels the same there, but times like this, when important things are going on in her life, or in my life, I wish we lived way closer! However, even with the distance, I am still SO VERY HAPPY for her and her (now) fiance, and can't wait until their wedding!! In the meantime, I'll enjoy pretending it isn't smokey out and instead is summer humidity :)
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Planting Peppers
Yesterday morning Little M and I planted out 8 of our pepper plants. I had been hardening them off on the porch for the last week, although they hadn't stayed out overnight yet. I was running out of space under the grow light & right beside the window, and the peppers were starting to outgrow their pots.
Peppers are a plant that you really want to avoid having them get pot bound, because if they start to slow down their growth, it takes them a while to get sped back up again after then get more room to grow. So I really wanted to avoid that happening, but I didn't have enough larger pots to transplant them all into the right size pot. I potted up one of each of the largest types, and then put 2 of each of the 4 types I am growing this year out into the garden! I still have at least 2 of each type (and more like 8 of the Jalapeno's!) in the sunporch, just in case the ones outside don't do well.
After I planted the peppers I mulched well around them to keep the moisture levels up. We have good irrigation water, but as we are planning to be away for 2 weeks in early summer I don't know how much water they will get during that period. This way they will have a better chance of doing well while we are gone. To the left and right of the mulched peppers are a row each of fingerling & russet potatoes.
While I was down in the garden I planted out some of the tomatoes, as they too were getting pot bound. I only planted 4 of the tomato starts, although I have space for 2 or 3 more plants.
Little M and I then checked on the pea plants, which are doing really well!
Peppers are a plant that you really want to avoid having them get pot bound, because if they start to slow down their growth, it takes them a while to get sped back up again after then get more room to grow. So I really wanted to avoid that happening, but I didn't have enough larger pots to transplant them all into the right size pot. I potted up one of each of the largest types, and then put 2 of each of the 4 types I am growing this year out into the garden! I still have at least 2 of each type (and more like 8 of the Jalapeno's!) in the sunporch, just in case the ones outside don't do well.
After I planted the peppers I mulched well around them to keep the moisture levels up. We have good irrigation water, but as we are planning to be away for 2 weeks in early summer I don't know how much water they will get during that period. This way they will have a better chance of doing well while we are gone. To the left and right of the mulched peppers are a row each of fingerling & russet potatoes.
While I was down in the garden I planted out some of the tomatoes, as they too were getting pot bound. I only planted 4 of the tomato starts, although I have space for 2 or 3 more plants.
Little M and I then checked on the pea plants, which are doing really well!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Escaping beyond control (grass, that is)
It rained again this weekend, making our fields grow greener, helping the trees and my few garden plants that are in, and bringing the water in the river up almost to last weekend's first peak. In the past 2 weeks I've managed to get some of the copious areas of grass (weeds) mowed, but not everything.
We've never mowed everything since we've been here, although we've managed to keep the upper areas mostly cut at least once. Now I'm in that stage where I will, by over or under achievement, determine how much will be kept regularly mowed this summer. It's exhausting, just looking out across the greenery and thinking about getting it all mowed.
Oh, did I forget to mention that this mowing is done with a walk-behind mower that isn't self propelled? Yeah...
The fields look so nice when they are all green and evenly cut. They also look nice when the grass is long and the wind blows through the leaves. Minus all the weeds, and minus the cheatgrass that dries and gets in our dogs' ears and requires vet visits and anesthesia to get out... Oh the grass...
We've never mowed everything since we've been here, although we've managed to keep the upper areas mostly cut at least once. Now I'm in that stage where I will, by over or under achievement, determine how much will be kept regularly mowed this summer. It's exhausting, just looking out across the greenery and thinking about getting it all mowed.
Oh, did I forget to mention that this mowing is done with a walk-behind mower that isn't self propelled? Yeah...
The fields look so nice when they are all green and evenly cut. They also look nice when the grass is long and the wind blows through the leaves. Minus all the weeds, and minus the cheatgrass that dries and gets in our dogs' ears and requires vet visits and anesthesia to get out... Oh the grass...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
