June 15, 2015 A Busy Weekend & A Cougar

Yarrow & fire weed near the hen house.

Our swale after three days.  Now we just need to
cover it with dirt.

Friday 6/12. Had a good trip Down There, although I would have much rather been working Up Here.  Our high for the day was just 68 with a cool breeze - and we are enjoying the cool.

When I got back home, I finally transplanted the two tomato plants that Elsie had given us on Sunday.  Can't wait for home-grown tomatoes!

Saturday 6/13. Our temperature was a lovely, cool 50 this morning with clear skies.  I was outside by 8:30 to do the annual cleaning of the hen house and coop.  I had on long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a scarf and a respirator mask over my nose and mouth.  Cleared all the shavings out of their nesting boxes and raked out all the straw.  Then I put in all clean shavings and straw.  When I was done with that, I shooed the girls inside so I could clean their outside coop.  Even when I was done, they did not come back outside for more than five hours!  Too busy checking and their "remodeled" house and re-arranging the straw.

After breakfast JB got on the tractor and we put another layer of branches and two layers of mulch on the swale, using up all the the mulch pile.  Now we just need to top it off with dirt and the chicken poop I just cleaned out of the coop.  At that point we were both badly in need of a shower.

After cleaning up, I headed down to Larry and Elsie's in Miss Kitty to let their dogs out and feed them.  Their youngest grandchild's birthday party is this evening, so they won't be home til after 7:00 pm.  I also picked up our mail.  And on the drive home, I saw a cougar!  It was a young one and ran ahead of me for about 30 feet before disappearing into the foliage.  So exciting!

Clouds had begun to drift over about mid-day and our high for the day was 66.  A very pleasant day, with clear skies again at sunset.

I do owe a debt of thanks to my brother for our new permaculture focus.  He always had big plans for his land and now a good friend of his, who has a degree in agriculture with a leaning to permaculture, is going to help RJ realize his dream in the most natural and efficient way.  And it is rubbing off on us.

Sunday 6/14.  This morning was a bit warmer, 68 and clear with possible rain in the forecast for the end of the week.

Before breakfast, while it was still cool out, I used the wheel barrow to gather the kindling-sized pieces I had thrown out from the branches JB put on the swale.  I took six loads and dumped them outside the wood shed.  Then sorted out the short ones and stacked them in the shed.  It will take some time to cut and break the rest of them to the right size.

It is so nice to be able to look across the driveway from the house and not see a huge, unsightly pile of branches.  It must have been at least 20' X 30' and 4' high.  And the six-year-old compost pile of grasses and weeds is gone too.  That had grown to about five feet tall over the years.  The dirt under each pile looked so fertile that I thought for sure I could have planted a seed in it yesterday and it would have sprouted this morning.  It is going to be perfect for the swale.

Dinga caught a chipmunk on their morning walk.  So glad I wasn't there to see it.

After lunch, JB went down to help Larry pour the concrete floor in his root cellar.  Gridder was also there to help.  Sure looking forward to when we can build one.  While he was gone, I outlined a smaller swale we will build about 100 feet up from the large one.  There is already a small rise there that we can build on, and we still have plenty of pieces of rotting wood for it and a small pile of branches.

I also started a new book I found at the Dollar Store by Carrie Vaughn, entitled After the Golden Age.  I have never read any of hers before, but this one is great.  And the Dollar Store is actually a great place to find good, cheap books.  I have learned to check them out every time I am in there.  It is also the only place that I buy cards now, if I don't make my own.

My friend, Pat, who was also one of my Mom's two best friends, called this afternoon.  She turned 90 last year and my Mom's other best friend just turned 99 in February.  They both have such a great sense of humor.  Pat was talking about how she just can't get around like she used to and commented, "So much for the Golden Age.  It's more like the Rusting Age!"

The color for Rose Camp and the rest of the mountain now is green.  Most of the wild flowers have gone to seed except for a scattering of paint brush, yarrow and a purple stalk flower that is a little like lupine.  Well, and of course, my fire weed that seems to be blooming only at Rose Camp right now.  The only disappointing thing about the wild roses is that, depending upon the individual bush, each bloom only lasts a couple of days or so.  We still have quite a few lining our driveway, but the bushes along the road have very few blossoms left.

Our high for the day was 70, which was just perfect.

Monday 6/15. It is 58 and mostly clear this morning with a few light clouds on the horizons.  We plan to work on the swale again today, scraping and molding the ground to gently persuade water to flow where we want it to go, and dumping the dirt on the swale.

Thought for the day: In wilderness is the preservation of the world. Henry David Thoreau