Chickens Love Tomatoes

Something I never knew until I had both a laying flock and a fairly successful garden, is that chickens love tomatoes.  In a totally bad way, if you have an unfenced garden (me!) and free range chickens (me!).  Along about the time that the tomatoes start to get orange on their way to red ripe, the chickens, without fail, rediscover the garden and proceed to help themselves to my beautiful almost-ripe tomatoes.  

Repeatedly chasing them out of the garden doesn't deter them; they just come back when I'm not looking.  

The only sure-fire way to keep them out of my garden (since fencing it would be a large expense and make it really difficult to work the garden with the tractor) is to keep the chickens shut in their coop all day long.  Or, for most of the day, until there's not enough daylight left for them to venture over to the garden.

But that's not really how I want to manage my chickens: shut in for 8 weeks or more.  This year, chasing them has been difficult, what with my knee being jacked up.  So sometimes they are shut in until a few hours before dark, and sometimes--usually a weekend--DH has to be on tomato guard duty, watching for the chickens to stealthily meander across the front yard and toward the far side of the garden.  Between you and me, I think he secretly likes chasing them out of the garden with his 4-wheeler.

Ironically, in a twist of fate, this year the chickens sort of planted their own tomato patch.  The terraced bed behind the garage and accessible from the patio, the bed I usually plant garlic in each fall, sprouted rather a few tomato plants this summer. At first, it was 2 or 3, and I didn't pay them much attention. I didn't think they would actually produce any tomatoes, being volunteer plants in a climate where tomatoes have to be started indoors months before the ground thaws outside if they're going to have any chance of bearing mature fruit.

And then my knee happened, so the terrace went to crap with weeds because I couldn't keep up and DH hadn't yet decided that he was going to have to pitch in.  And next thing we knew, we had a tomato jungle that crowded out the garlic crop. Not just big bushy tomato plants, but this whole trailing wall of tomato vines.

Where the heck did they come from?  It's not like someone spit tomato seeds off the deck and they landed in the terraced bed to sprout the next year, like has occasionally happened with watermelons.  The only thing I could think of was that tomato seeds must have been in the chicken litter that I'd dressed the bed with last fall in order to add lots of nitrogen to the soil.  You know, litter that had chicken manure in it, chicken manure produced by those tomato stealing chickens last summer.

So we started referring to that rogue patch of tomatoes as the "chicken tomatoes".  And left them there, hoping this tomato patch much closer to the coop might deter them from eating the ones I'd planted in the garden.

It didn't.  Now they had two choices of where to eat tomatoes.  And, interestingly enough, the chicken tomatoes have been prolific and ripe almost at the same time as my plants (started from seed in early March) in the garden.

Most of the plants are producing cherry tomatoes.  Very extremely delicious cherry tomatoes.

There's one plant that had made a few large heart-shaped reddish orange tomatoes, and another that has dark pink brandywine type fruits.  Which is interesting, because I haven't planted any brandywines in a number of years, and the coop gets shoveled out way way more often than that!

I'm not sure if I will allow the chickens to plant tomatoes in the future. They've been a really tasty bonus this year, but not exactly the best-behaved plants.  

Horse Update, September

 Unfortunately, I don't have much to talk about when it comes to progress in my riding goals.  I did ride Camaro a lot in July, and we cantered just about every single ride.  That there is progress.

On the other hand, I hardly rode at all in August it was so blasted hot and humid the majority of the month and I just didn't have the strength (or the stomach, high humidity coupled with heat seems to just liquefy my guts and/or make me nauseous, sorry to be graphic) to do barn chores and ride, plus do garden work and canning at home most days.  So, the riding, as the only activity on my plate that wasn't about saving money for the household, had to be lowest priority.  I did longe him at least twice most weeks that I didn't get in the saddle, and I have to say his trot to canter transitions on the longe line are pretty much instantaneous and balanced now.

So far in September, I've been in the saddle once.  We cantered that ride too, in fact, Camaro very calmly and willingly offered it (when I was actually wanting him to collect his trot more), so I asked him a few more times for canter during that ride.

Overall, though, I'm not very happy with the last two months.  So many lost riding opportunities I could/should/normally would have just pushed through.  

And then there's my knee.  My left knee has been acting up the majority of the summer.  Don't know what caused it to start, still don't know exactly what aggravates it, and finally I've been prescribed physical therapy by my primary care doctor (2x weekly for 4 weeks) to try to rebuild the muscles in and around it because for many weeks I couldn't even bend it at the walk, so of course certain muscles went unused or were torqued by an abnormal gait.  It mostly bends now, but not 100%, and I can't jog or run or hop or pivot on it. Stairs range from slightly slower than normal to "this hurts like hell and I hope I don't fall on my face" depending on the day.  So, sometimes just getting into the saddle even from the mounting block is painful and risky.

The show I wanted to go to this month has come and gone, without me.  There's no way I could have taken care of Camaro at the show, or ridden tests well (damn knee).  Honestly, I'm rather bummed out over that.

Well, that's my downer of a horse-related update for this month.  Not even a single picture to share.

Sewing Update, September

 I actually finished one sewing project in late July/early August (honestly I don't remember the exact date, but it was before Aug 2nd), and then started a stitching project in mid-August.

The finished one is the red-white-&-blue wall hanging (banner? decoration?) that I wanted to make to hang on the door that goes between our garage and mudroom.  That is the door we and our family and friends use the majority of the time, so it is the one I'd rather seasonally decorate than the front door. The only people who typically get close enough to my house the see the front door, but don't actually go in the house (via the garage-to-mudroom door) is the Amazon, UPS, or Fedex delivery drivers.  I doubt they're much thinking about whether or not my front door is decorated.

So, anyway, I now have a nice Memorial Day through ?? Day (haven't decided yet, probably Fall equinox) decoration for my garage/mudroom door.

On August 10th, DD1 and the other teachers in her school district had to report back to their classrooms to do some PD and get ready for the start of school on August 16th. This school year, I will be babysitting Faline on Tuesdays and Thursdays (at her home, more often than not), and I wanted to have a small, portable stitching project to take with me to work on during Faline's afternoon nap.

It took me until the second week of school to settle on what that project would be.  I chose the Mill Hill Nordic Santa kit that I'd purchased in late Spring with the intent to make it and gift it to my Mom for Christmas this year.  It is going very quickly and I will probably be done with the cross stitching by the end of next week.  My plan is to do the actual beading at home (in case I drop the tiny beads; they'll be much easier to see on my hardwood floor than in DD1's carpet.)

I have a few more different Mill Hill Santa kits, so my plan is to start stitching a new one on 'Faline days' while finishing the beadwork at home in my spare time.  Now that we've only got maybe a month left before killing frost takes out the garden for the year, my spare time should increase exponentially pretty soon.

Knitting Update, September

 Another month gone by just like that.  I think the best description for my August is "overheated, overworked, overwhelmed".  

So, here's to September with (hopefully) cooler weather and no more nights with a low temperature of 80 degrees with humidity running between 70-95%.  Also, the promise of the garden coming to an end (and less canning) sometime in the next four to five weeks.

I knit a little bit in the latter part of August. All on the stocking (#2 of 3) for DD1's family.

This stocking MUST GET DONE in September so that I have all of October and most of November to knit the third one and then stitch on the embellishments (like star buttons on the tops of the Christmas trees and colored beads for ornaments) on all three.

I did manage to do a fair bit of reading, mainly because I've been having continuing problems with my left knee and my dr ordered me to elevate and ice it at least twice a day for several weeks.  So, what can you do while laying on your back with your leg in the air for up to an hour each day?  (Well, what can you do in front of others, anyway, for those of you whose minds wandered in that direction!)  READ, of course!

These are the books I read while icing my knee:

Amish Midwives by Amy Clipston, Shelley Shepard Gray & Kelly Long.  My rating on this is "meh".  I wasn't too impressed with the quality of the writing by any of the three authors of this compilation of short stories.

Bone Canyon by Lee Goldberg.  First book I've read by him, and I now have a new addition to my Favorite Authors list.  If you like mysteries, you should read this one!  Well, being as this is the second in a series, you (and I) should read the first one, then read this one.  

Tin Camp Road by Ellen Airgood.  I've been looking forward to reading this second adult novel by this author, and it didn't disappoint me at all.  It's gritty, and heart wrenching, and so very true of life in many communities in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

A Simple Murder by Linda Castillo is a compilation of short mysteries involving Kate Burkholder.  Not set in any particular chronological order, they don't give away anything going on in the series, so don't worry about reading this new one before you read all the Kate Burkholder books.  If you've read the first one, you're good to go with this newest publication.

Four Legs Move My Soul by Isabell Werth and Evi Simeoni. I've been slowly reading this one for a while as my horse-related book from my own personal library, and finally just sat down and read solely on it until it was finished.  It was an interesting book, as I've been an off and on follower of Isabell Werth since we were both young dressage riders in our 20's back in the early 1990's. (Well, she was a famous dressage rider and I was a young mom with ambition to get into the show ring again someday and hopefully make it to her level of riding before I'm done.)  Lots of memories brought back to me reading through her tales of her career and the people she's trained with as well as competed with as well as the horses that have been her partners.

Xenophon: the Art of Horsemanship translated by M.H. Morgan.  Another horse book of mine.  Not exactly what I expected, but it was interesting from a historical perspective and to see how many tenets of horsemanship have been around since at least the fourth century B.C.

Currently I am reading Murder at the Cherry Festival by Richard Baldwin. The writing is a bit simplistic for my tastes, but it's not a bad book.

Knitting Update, August

( Oops, forgot to post this yesterday. )

August knitting update:  I have actually been knitting, a little bit, lately! Yay, me! 

In progress is the second of the three Christmas stockings I'm making for DD1's family.  I'd say I'm halfway to the heel on this 2nd stocking currently.  I'm really liking the fair isle aspect, although it's not knitting I can do away from home.  Just too much to keep track of with floats, and changes of color, and not messing up where I am on the chart. . . 

So I had to start another project to be my portable one.  This will be a pair of cotton socks for my Dad, who is allergic to wool.  It's been several years since I made a pair for him so I figured it was probably about time for another.  I'm doing the Rubia pattern in a gray and blue.  Sort of Detroit Lions colors, DD1 said to me when I showed her what I was working on.

 

I've actually read a couple of books lately too! 

Till Death Do Us Tart by Ellie Alexander, another of her Bakeshop mysteries.  I'm slowly working my way through this series, just 2-3 a year, so I don't read them up faster than she's writing them.

The Wife's Tale by Aida Edemariam; I truthfully only picked this book because I wanted to fulfill a box on the library summer reading program checklist (read a book about someone from another culture) and it was available to checkout the day I was looking for something to fit that requirement. But I'm really glad I did because it was an interesting look at a woman from Ethiopia not just culturally , but historically and in terms of religion too. (I guess I wasn't expecting her to be Christian? Although her Christianity differed a lot from my Lutheran religion.)

Her Amish Wedding Quilt by Winnie Griggs was a book in a Grab and Go Bag from the library (another box on the summer reading program checklist--read a book from a Grab and Go Bag).  I wasn't sure I'd like it, as I've tried numerous authors of Amish fiction in the last 20 years or so and have only truly liked maybe a handful of those authors, but this one I actually read all the way through and might try another book of hers.

Currently I just started another book that was in the Grab and Go Bag; Letters From Home by Kristina McMorris.  I'm not even through the first chapter yet, so I really can't give an opinion on this one.

(In case you're wondering what a Grab and Go Bag is, last year when our library was closed for in person browsing, they came up with the Grab and Go Bag program.  You request a bag, give the age range you are looking for--young child, early reader, juvenile, young adult, adult--and 5 topics or genres that interest you. The library staff then peruses the shelves in your local branch and chooses 5 books for you. Even though we can finally walk in the library in person and look on the shelves as of June this year, in late July I decided to ask for a Grab and Go Bag again. My request was for adult level reading, with interests in history, mysteries, Amish fiction, quilting, and homesteading or farming.  I was given a book set during WWII, an Amish romance, an Amish fiction, two mysteries, and because one of the long time librarians who knows me must have filled my bag, there was also a (sixth) book of quilting patterns thrown in!)

K3 and Toad's Big Adventure

 Subtitled: We took the oldest grandkids to Colorado.

Not ones for much spur of the moment stuff, DH and I began planning a 'big' vacation with K3 and Toad several years ago, back when they were our only grandkids.  The idea honestly came about when Toad was in preschool, and I babysat him several afternoons a week.  DH had recently left for a work trip (out to Colorado), and Toad asked where Papa was.  I explained that he was out in the mountains, driving cars for work.  Toad asked how he'd gotten there, and I said that he'd flown on a plane.

That afternoon, Toad used some small pieces of scrap paper, and some stickers, to make plane tickets for himself, Papa, and I.  He told me he wanted to fly on a plane too, and those were the tickets we'd need.

Of course, when DH checked in later that night (when traveling for work, he tries to call me at the end of each work day, if it's before 11 p.m. here when his day has finally wrapped up) I told him about Toad and the 'plane tickets'.  And an idea for a vacation was born.  A plane ride.  And mountains!  Big, rocky mountains unlike any K3 or Toad have ever seen.

In 2019, DH asked the kids if they would like to fly on a plane out to the mountains for vacation the next year.  We'd hike, and ride horses, and with the words "plane" and "horses", they were hooked.  So DH and I began planning dates and location for a 2020 trip with K3 and Toad to Colorado.

But then, as you all know, 2020 was the year of Covid and lock downs and nobody going anywhere that summer.  Our big trip would have to be postponed.  

Honestly, this year they were probably a much better age for this type of trip than they would have been last year.  They weren't always patient waiting (in the airport, on the plane at the arrival gates, driving in the car), but at 9 and just turned 7, they didn't whine or fuss about it.

We had to drive to Detroit, where we had a non-stop flight to Denver.  On that flight, we only had one window seat, so K3 got it first, then half-way through (when she needed to use the bathroom) DH had her and Toad switch seats so that Toad also got a turn.  They were both very good on the plane, and were excited about the entertainment screens in the backs of the seats in front of them.

In Denver, we spent the night, swam in the hotel pool--which became a nightly tradition--then got up the next morning and drove to Breckenridge (last Fall, DH and I took a trip to Breckenridge that was a scouting mission for this trip with the grandkids).  That drive was a little rough, as the kids had spent most of the previous day sitting, plus K3 had altitude sickness with nausea and a headache.  When we got to Breckenridge, we checked into our lodge, did a little walking around the downtown, and then after dinner DH and the kids went swimming in the pool.

The main focus of the trip was hiking.  Hiking, hiking, hiking.  The first day we did a short and pretty interesting hike to a waterfall (as a way to get the kids exciting about hiking). They grumbled at first, but fairly quickly got interested in seeing what was around the next bend, over the next rise, through this clump of trees. . . 

And then big rocks!  They loved climbing up the big rocks to get to the waterfall.  DH took them, one by one, out to the edge to look down at part of the waterfall.

On the drive back from the waterfall trailhead, a yearling cow moose ran across the road in front of us.  K3 was delighted to be the first one to spot it.

Near the end of another hike, which took us through downtown Breckenridge on foot, Toad spotted a Lamborghini.  This kid has been calling every sports car he spots a Lamborghini for two years, but this time he actually found a real one. A red one at that. So I took his picture with it.  I wish I could draw his grin as huge as it actually was.

We hiked at least part of everyday.

Sometimes the hiking mojo ran low.

Other times they were happy wanderers along the mountain trail.

They discovered that peaks are chilly and windy at the top, and there was always higher mountains in the distance.

Sometimes, at the tops, there were meadows with streams to investigate.

Another trail didn't have a lot of elevation to climb, but had an interesting surprise.

There were two mornings we didn't hike.  On one, we took a guided trail ride instead.  K3 and Toad were very excited about that, and a little apprehensive too.  As Toad confided in me on the way to the stables "Grandma, I've never been on a horse.  They'll give me a nice one, right?"  I assured him that I would let them know it was his first time riding, and they would give him the nicest horse.

When the ride was over, Toad had another great big smile.  "I rode a horse!  She was a good horse!  I love riding horses!"  He exclaimed.  K3 had a little bit less reliable horse, as she told the wrangler that she'd had a few riding lessons.  But she did a good job staying on even when it wanted to take a slight detour through some small trees that I thought she might get rubbed off on.

Another morning we drove to Georgetown and rode the steam train that goes from Georgetown to Silver Plume and back, including over a tall trestle.

On the final night of our vacation, we tried to drive up to a good spot to hopefully see the Alpenglow.  Unfortunately that day had been very hazy from wildfire smoke, and there was no Alpenglow to be found.  We did, however, see a young mule deer buck, a great blue heron, fish jumping in a small lake/pond, a red fox, and a moose cow with her calf.

Did You Know?

 Did you know that you can smell corn in bloom?

I'm guessing probably not.  As, well, corn is a vegetable, we don't think of it as having flowers, and you have to be near a big field of it at just the right time to pick up any aroma at all.

Several years ago, in late July, I noticed a really lovely flowery smell one evening as I was driving home from the horse farm I was boarding at at the time.  I can't really describe it, exactly, but if I say kind of like the sort of smell that lilacs have, or hyacinth, hopefully you'll get an idea.

It took me a few days, and a few more exposures in the evening as the sun was going down and the night air is coming in, to figure it out.  The corn was fully tasseled, and the delightful smell was coming from the cornfield!

Now I look forward to that smell every summer; I eagerly await the night that the corn first smells like the best floral perfume you've ever experienced.  This week, that night happened.  And for the last several days, when I go out in the evening to shut chickens in their coop for the night,  I take big breaths and savor the smell of the corn in bloom.