Good morning, I find it interesting how a lot of folks need to be distracted all the time. Whether it is constantly on the phone, listening to music or any other distraction. It seems they can never be alone.
Myself I prefer just observing everything around me. For me this is the best kind of distraction.
As I work in the garden I can tell what time of day it is by the fussiness of the hens. As the morning progresses and the hens are getting into an egging way, if a hen appears to be taking too long to lay her egg she is ever increasingly harassed by the hens that NEED to lay an egg RIGHT NOW!!!. Some how there are only a few PREFERRED nest boxes and depending on the size of the nest box, there may be hens stacked up like cord wood laying their cargo. This peaks around one PM and then gradually diminishes. I am glad they have only a few nest areas, it helps when collecting eggs.
We have several mockingbirds that are regular visitors to the garden. Most days the cat is shadowing me as I do garden stuff. For what ever reason mockingbirds get a "thrill" at taunting the cat. I have not seen any mockingbird nests in the garden so it is not like they are defending a nest. None the less they seem to get close to the cat to catch her attention. They then seem to play a game of catch me if you can. All the time just being out of reach. Oh but the cat just knows she will get lucky.
When I lived in Kentucky we had a cat that was also relentlessly taunted by the mockingbirds. They would always be just out of reach. This really ticked the cat off. One day the cat was in a tree and a mockingbird landed a few branches down.The cat thought this was the moment and leaped. Well the cat missed except he did manage to get a mouth full of tail feathers. This seemed to only enhance the mockingbirds duties. It was hilarious seeing the tailless bird harass the cat.
One day I was giving a garden tour and all of a sudden the ducks were dead quiet and beating cheeks for cover. My guests were perplexed and wondered what was happening. I told them it was a hawk. Sure enough and when the roosters saw it, they let out their calls and ALL of the girls headed for cover. Shortly the roosters let everyone know the coast was clear and all the usual barnyard conversations started anew.
One last interesting note and it is like the question, "what came first the chicken or the egg". A good rooster not only keeps an eye towards the sky but will always be looking for tasty treats that the girls would enjoy. Once found he lets out a cackle that all of the girls know there is a treat and start runnnig towards the rooster. This is exactly the same noise that a hen makes when she is teaching her chicks what to eat.
Yes there is too much good stuff going on to to distracted by "noise".!!
This week I harvested: char, kale, green onions, lettuce, beets, chilies, eggplant, cucumbers, summer squash (yellow and green), okra, and in storage garlic, bulb onions, butternuts and sweet potatoes. Please email for availability.
The new bean bed is starting to bloom, peas are blooming and finally I am seeing blossoms on the tomatoes.
All of the fall crop seedlings are up. I am hoping that I can get fully stocked beds this year. My experiment with germinating appears to be working. the first seeds to germinate have been sown. They are being directly planted, tap rooted plants do not transplant very well as seedlings ( makes for very strange roots). Like peas they seem to be better adapted to more northern climates. I think one of the problems with parsnips is the length of time it takes for them to germinate. Directly seeded it takes 2+ weeks to germinate and very much like carrots the have to remain constantly moist. The more wet and dry cycles and the number of sprouting seeds is greatly diminished. it is my hope that germinated seed will emerge much quicker.
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