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In my glory
May. 6th, 2023 09:49 pmIt's been a lovely couple days. Aside from Friday morning, when I had to catch some piglets, it's been largely gardening with some pottery and some socialization, plus organization-without-having-to-lead-things, cat snuggling during much-needed rain, and more gardening.
Thursday was supposed to be pottery day. We were going to be learning the kiln but the teacher cancelled on us and one of the volunteers also cancelled, so three of us opened the kiln (stuff looked good) and then one went home and the other organized the studio some while I (tried to) throw some pots. I was definitely off my game, which I've been expecting -- I've only thrown a couple times since 2014 and there's a strong curve from "first time or two back are good" through "lost everything and keep failing" and then back into "solid skill and also solid muscles" with almost everything I do. So I'm going to need to do a lot of throwing for the next bit to actually build my skills back to be able to do what I did the first couple times.
Anyhow, the other volunteer left and I got some time alone with the wheel and some music just to play, which was lovely. Oh, and my seed potatoes arrived.
When I got home I had a bunch of tidying to do and I was tired and slow, so I ended up doing animal chores at midnight. Amazingly for May there was a warm wind and the moon was full and very very bright. I didn't need a flashlight.
I had Friday off. I got a sunburn while catching piglets, and got the tiniest warning nip from Hooligan. It's the first time I've been touched with teeth by a pig, and we were closing the catch on a crate with a screaming baby in it, so I don't blame her at all. She also just barely touched, but the message was clear. She let me settle her with some scritches after so she doesn't hold it against me. It was a hot day, hotter than some of our summers have managed to achieve, made hotter by the fact that not a single leaf is on the trees yet. Weird spring indeed.
Friday afternoon was planting willows at the arts building. We'd planned to put in a basketry willow hedge in rainbow order: some willows are purple, some red, some yellow, some green, some almost grey. The plan was to line them up in coherent order to block off an area of path where people tend to walk, to make something pretty, and also to give us willows for making basketry in the future. Beyond that there didn't seem to be anyone particular planning it exactly: someone got the district workers to take the sod off the area, someone else got a grant and got the willow cuttings and irrigation line and then went on vacation, and someone else took over planting within the necessary window. I'm not sure anyone who was involved had planted into lawns before and of course I am a pro at it, having done it nearly every move in Vancouver. Luckily I noticed that it was just rock-hard subsoil the day before and we got a tiller sorted out, then some rebar to make holes beyond the depth we could till. Roughly 350 willows were planted, 19 types. I ended up with the extra cuttings, which I need to plant basically right now.
While we were working - I think 7 different people showed up to help by the end - there was a lovely lightning/thunderstorm with warm sprinkling rain so erratic that it would be raining on one person and not on the next five feet away.
Today was Saturday it had rained overnight. I spent the morning picking away at the raspberries and trimming dead out of them in the morning. After awhile doing that I raked the main garden so I could till, dug some extra raspberries, and then it started raining so I took a break. The garlic is finally coming up; I planted many different kinds last fall and somehow everyone else's garlic was up but mine wasn't, so I thought it had died. Actually, nearly overnight everything sort of started: alder catkins are falling everywhere, the haskaps somehow into leaf without ever swelling their buds, my plum tree flower buds swelling, grass everywhere, the clover seeded into my lawn showing cotyledons, willow blossoms everywhere.
With it overcast all day and not too windy this was the first day my tomatoes were outside all day.
The afternoon was cleanup and evening was going in to get the expired grocery store feed for the pigs, but I had time to catalogue the willows this evening.
Tomorrow is supposed to rain. I really want to get this lower garden tilled but I don't want to harm the soil by tilling in the rain. So my menu is:
Till the lower garden in order to:
-plant favas
-plant onions
-plant kale
-plant lettuce
-plant other garlic
Plant elderberry cuttings
Plant willow cuttings
Plant seed potatoes
Start hardening off TPS potatoes
Figure out 3rd incubator
Feed out loop/grocery store food
Start raking/tidying upper garden
Load truck with garbage
Separate doubled tomatoes and put some in the aerogardens
Move some stuff into the storage container
Plant raspberries outside the fence by the electric poles
Cut back the spruce hedge
Cut back the cedars
Cardboard the south hillside
Manure the asparagus
Set up nests for geese
Thursday was supposed to be pottery day. We were going to be learning the kiln but the teacher cancelled on us and one of the volunteers also cancelled, so three of us opened the kiln (stuff looked good) and then one went home and the other organized the studio some while I (tried to) throw some pots. I was definitely off my game, which I've been expecting -- I've only thrown a couple times since 2014 and there's a strong curve from "first time or two back are good" through "lost everything and keep failing" and then back into "solid skill and also solid muscles" with almost everything I do. So I'm going to need to do a lot of throwing for the next bit to actually build my skills back to be able to do what I did the first couple times.
Anyhow, the other volunteer left and I got some time alone with the wheel and some music just to play, which was lovely. Oh, and my seed potatoes arrived.
When I got home I had a bunch of tidying to do and I was tired and slow, so I ended up doing animal chores at midnight. Amazingly for May there was a warm wind and the moon was full and very very bright. I didn't need a flashlight.
I had Friday off. I got a sunburn while catching piglets, and got the tiniest warning nip from Hooligan. It's the first time I've been touched with teeth by a pig, and we were closing the catch on a crate with a screaming baby in it, so I don't blame her at all. She also just barely touched, but the message was clear. She let me settle her with some scritches after so she doesn't hold it against me. It was a hot day, hotter than some of our summers have managed to achieve, made hotter by the fact that not a single leaf is on the trees yet. Weird spring indeed.
Friday afternoon was planting willows at the arts building. We'd planned to put in a basketry willow hedge in rainbow order: some willows are purple, some red, some yellow, some green, some almost grey. The plan was to line them up in coherent order to block off an area of path where people tend to walk, to make something pretty, and also to give us willows for making basketry in the future. Beyond that there didn't seem to be anyone particular planning it exactly: someone got the district workers to take the sod off the area, someone else got a grant and got the willow cuttings and irrigation line and then went on vacation, and someone else took over planting within the necessary window. I'm not sure anyone who was involved had planted into lawns before and of course I am a pro at it, having done it nearly every move in Vancouver. Luckily I noticed that it was just rock-hard subsoil the day before and we got a tiller sorted out, then some rebar to make holes beyond the depth we could till. Roughly 350 willows were planted, 19 types. I ended up with the extra cuttings, which I need to plant basically right now.
While we were working - I think 7 different people showed up to help by the end - there was a lovely lightning/thunderstorm with warm sprinkling rain so erratic that it would be raining on one person and not on the next five feet away.
Today was Saturday it had rained overnight. I spent the morning picking away at the raspberries and trimming dead out of them in the morning. After awhile doing that I raked the main garden so I could till, dug some extra raspberries, and then it started raining so I took a break. The garlic is finally coming up; I planted many different kinds last fall and somehow everyone else's garlic was up but mine wasn't, so I thought it had died. Actually, nearly overnight everything sort of started: alder catkins are falling everywhere, the haskaps somehow into leaf without ever swelling their buds, my plum tree flower buds swelling, grass everywhere, the clover seeded into my lawn showing cotyledons, willow blossoms everywhere.
With it overcast all day and not too windy this was the first day my tomatoes were outside all day.
The afternoon was cleanup and evening was going in to get the expired grocery store feed for the pigs, but I had time to catalogue the willows this evening.
Tomorrow is supposed to rain. I really want to get this lower garden tilled but I don't want to harm the soil by tilling in the rain. So my menu is:
Till the lower garden in order to:
-plant favas
-plant onions
-plant kale
-plant lettuce
-plant other garlic
Plant elderberry cuttings
Plant willow cuttings
Plant seed potatoes
Start hardening off TPS potatoes
Figure out 3rd incubator
Feed out loop/grocery store food
Start raking/tidying upper garden
Load truck with garbage
Separate doubled tomatoes and put some in the aerogardens
Move some stuff into the storage container
Plant raspberries outside the fence by the electric poles
Cut back the spruce hedge
Cut back the cedars
Cardboard the south hillside
Manure the asparagus
Set up nests for geese
