Heatwave Vacation

We interrupt our normally scheduled random garden blog post to tell you all about the strange and fun trip around the Southwestern United States.  We were on our way to Grass Valley, California, to visit family.  Gaerin's Mother and Sister run a bakery and deli in the Lake of the Pines area of Auburn.  They specialize in beautiful wedding cakes, and scrumptious breakfast treats. 

Oh... and if you ask for "Bam's special chocolate chip cookies" I think you get a discount!
Gristmill Bakery & Deli
We stayed up way too late watching the Mariners overcome the Cubs in extra innings at the Safe, and departed first thing Saturday morning.  It takes about 16 hours to get down there if we take it easy, and stop frequently.  Our daughter, Miss Kaila, was also traveling.  She had left Arkansas a day prior, was on her way to transfer colleges to Evergreen State College in Olympia, and was on track to meet us in Grass Valley on Saturday evening.  By the time we were in Portland, I begun to worry about her traversing the Mojave desert during the peak hours of the intense, record-breaking heat they were forecasting.  She decided to take a detour, see the Grand Canyon, and maybe kill a few hours in Flagstaff, before continuing on, so she would end up traveling the hottest part of California, during the cooler, evening hours.  Sounded like a great plan to me.  We were in Southern Oregon when we got the call from the hospital.  Kaila was in an automobile collision.  My immediate thought was, of course that the worst had happened.  I was driving, and Gaerin answered the phone.  After the initial shock, I tried to keep calming, knowing she couldn't be hurt too bad if she was talking on the phone. but Gaerin wouldn't let me actually talk to her, until I pulled off the freeway and came to a stop.  She was okay, for the most part, thank GOD!!!  Sore, tired, stressed out and quite bruised, but OKAY!  The next few hours were a whirlwind of calls, trying to figure out what kind of insurance coverage she had on her car, if the hospital was going to discharge her, and where she would go if they did, how she was going to get her dog, Cowboy back, and how we could get rid of this car, that was way too smashed up to try to take back to Washington. 
    The hospital discharged Kaila and put her in a hotel, where she could rest and recuperate for a couple nights, so we could make our way down to her.  She was an easy walk to the Walmart and plenty of dining options, (including delivery pizza and Chinese food), so she was in good shape.  We made it to Bam's (that's my Mother-In-Law's nickname) just before midnight.  We crashed for the evening and took the next day to rest a bit before headed down the Flagstaff.  Gaerin's buddy Josh came up for a visit that day, and Lex, my nephew Hunter, and Josh's boys, Hunter and Christian splashed and played and had fun all day long.
     We were up with the chickens (which I was already missing) the next morning, headed to get my baby girl.  Quick stop at the Bakery to say goodbye and grab a cup of coffee and a croissant, and we were on our way.  We took California Highway 99 down to Bakersville before heading over to Barstow.  We stopped at this cutest little place, it was called Bravo Farms .  They have a huge treehouse, which Lex explored, a little chicken coop, where I got my chicken-fix feeding the chickens, and they had a talking parrot.  I thought I made friends with him, he was saying "hello" very sweetly and moving slowly toward me, then out of nowhere he squaked and attacked my face!!  Lucky there was a cage there!!  They had several huge pork roasts on a spit in the middle of the outdoor seating area, and the salad I had, which had the roasted pork, was amazing.  We also picked up some wonderful cheese and pomegranate wine.  I haven't tried the wine yet, but I am looking forward to it!
     After our beautiful little lunch break, we were off again.  In Bakersfield we turned off on California Highway 58 toward Barstow.  Near Tehachapi, we saw a train wreck!  There was a freight train that had just derailed its center cars.  It appeared to be livestock cars, so I sure hope they were empty.  It must have just had happened because shortly thereafter we passed BNSF vehicles headed toward the wrecked train.  Right before we arrived in Barstow, deeply entrenched in the Mojave Desert by now, traffic came to a halt.  We were twenty to thirty cars behind the scene of an automobile collision!  The first helicopter landed, then the second, then as they were landing the third, I jumped out and walked up to see what was going on!  As I walked passed all the cars parked on the roadway in the 113 degree heat, I noticed all of them were standing with their vehicles.  They looked at me oddly, like I was from another planet, like I was breaking some unwritten rule about minding my own business and staying with my own vehicle.  I must have, however, liberated them because after giving me the strange looks, they all started following me.  A little boy of about 12 joined me, because his mother said, "just be careful, and stay with her."  Anyway, by the time I made it to head of the boiling column we had three helicopters down and completely blocking my view of the accident.  There was a California Highway Patrol Officer chilling in his SUV, no doubt blasting his air conditioning.  I knocked on his window and asked what was going on.  He told me that it was a head on collision.  One car was trying to pass another car, without enough distance.  One person was dead, but that there was three helicopters was actually a good sign that it could have very well been much worse.  When the helicopters took off, I had just enough time to get back to the truck before traffic started moving again.  Of course I had to stop at every third or so car when I was asked over and over again, about what happened.  By the time I made it back to the truck, I was seriously sick.  I thought I was going to throw up.  The heat was super intense and I didn't really feel it, well until I did, it came on very sudden.  Gaerin said I was dehydrated, but I didn't understand how I could have been dehydrated when I never sweat, and he laughed at me and explained that in the desert, in 113 degree heat, your sweat actually evaporates faster than you can feel, so you dehydrate super quick.  I guess I am just so spoiled to our beautiful wet mild Pacific Northwest Marine climate.  When we drove past the crinkled up tin cans that supposedly used to be passenger cars, I felt very grateful that my daughters wreck hadn't been worse, and also grateful that we had been 30 cars back.
     The drive to Flagstaff drug on.  California is a really big state.  Seriously.  Shortly after we passed the Arizona border, we went through Kingman.  Off in the hills to the immediate south the mountain was on fire.  There was a red glow from afar, and as we got a little closer we could actually see the fire lines coming down the mountain.  It was a eerie.  I had just read about 19 firefighters who had recently parished in the Yarnell fire, which wasn't too far away from this one, in fact, at first I thought this was the Yarnell fire.  It was strange going through this area, knowing this is where my Father grew up.  When I was a little girl I remember visiting my Grandparents in Yarnell, and Kingman. 
     We arrived at Kaila's hotel around midnight.  She must have been watching us on Friend Finder because before we even had the truck unloaded, she came walking her dog right up to us in the parking lot.  I was so relieved to see that she was okay, and to have her with me, safe and sound.  We were introduced to Cowboy, her very sweet and well-behaved terrier-esque doggie.  Misty wasn't thrilled with the idea of another canine traveling companion.  We got a room at the hotel she had been staying, it wasn't the Ritz, I think it was a Quality Inn in fact, but it was clean and really late so it sufficed.   

 Now this little car, a 1995 Mercury Tracer, was sold to her near her 16th birthday, for $600.  She bought it from a friend of mine, who happened to be our super-talented body tech at the former Twin City Collision, in Stanwood.  I knew she could trust Pete to give her a great first car, but I never dreamed that she would drive the car for three years, and across the country, and that it would eventually save her life.  I will always be grateful to Pete.  Amazing little car, purchased from an amazing guy!
    

Climate northwest

Research the specific attributes that make growing things in the own so different

While everything is turning brown and dying across the country here is so green and lush.  Rainforest of the coast and Olympic peninsula. Stark contrast to across the Cascades. Orzo graphic lift. Cliff mass book reference. 

They may not respond animatedly, but the garden listens, and the chickens talk back.  

Should you get chickens? Eight most common questions, ANSWERED!

My egg count is getting out of hand.  I need some egg recipes, and soon.  Please send them to me.  I try to keep my neighbors well stocked with eggs too, but these girls are just egg machines.  You can either comment your recipes below, or send them HERE .

When I first began contemplating this crazy idea of keeping backyard chickens, I had so many questions.  Are chickens legal to have in a small area like my backyard?  Do hens require roosters to lay eggs, or does having roosters boost egg production?  Do they smell?  Are my neighbors going to murder me or my chickens because of the noise?  How much space is required?  How do you build a coop or run?  Where do you get the designs?  How much do they eat?  How much to they cost?  The questions seemed to go on, and on, and on.  It took about a year to get all the answers I needed.  Many of the answers came from BackYard Chickens  and My Pet Chicken .  My sister is raising chickens so she was also a wealth of information.  In case any of you are considering an urban or backyard chicken coop, I will try to answer the common questions I know I had. 
1.  Q:  Are chickens legal to have in a small area like my backyard?
     A:  Before purchasing anything, check with your local government for ordinances regarding chicken keeping.  I live in unincorporated Snohomish County, in Washington State.  Snohomish County Code does permit small farm animals without any special permits or licenses for non-commercial use.  However, I know that if I have a rooster that little bugger is going to be crowing  at all hours, and my neighbors might shoot me, if they don't shoot the bird first.  Since I live so close to my neighbors, I decided a rooster is out of the question.
2.  Q:  Do hens require roosters to lay eggs or does having roosters boost egg production?
     A:  Not at all.  In fact according to what I read through the posts at Backyard Chickens over-aggressive roosters can actually interfere with good laying.  The only things a rooster is really needed for (other than as a good meal) is fertilizing the eggs, and providing the chickens with some protection. 
3.  Q:  Do chickens smell bad?
     A:  When their coop is kept clean, there is no smell.  I fully clean their coop about once a quarter.  I use straw and pine shavings as their substrate, and I just dump it in to the compost heap and replace with new.  It takes me all of about 20 minutes, quick and easy.  I am sure I spend more time cleaning cat boxes than cleaning up after the chickens. 
4.  Q:  Do they make noise? 
     A:  With no rooster, they make virtually no noise.  Once in a while I hear some clucking coming from the egg boxes.  If too much noise is coming from the yard, that is usually a sign of trouble.  Last summer the neighbor's cat kept coming over the fence and harassing the birds.  They would cluck very loudly, which was good because it got our attention, and we were able to scare away the kitty.  This year, neighbor kitty hasn't come in to our yard.  I wonder if our girls are so big now that it might be scared of them?
5.  Q:  Are my neighbors going to hate me?
     A:  Not if you keep them well stocked in fresh eggs.
6.  Q:  How do you build a coop and run? 

     A:  There are a gazillion plans, designs and ideas out on the web.  Gaerin found this one . It was actually free and very customizable.  if you are building a coop, and have specific questions, email Gaerin, he will tell you all about his experiences.  I won't lie, the materials cost a bit, but we didn't want to use cheap materials and it was such a fun project it was worth it. 

7.  Q:  How much do they eat?
     A:  Not much.  We buy a 40 pound bag of layer crumble for them at Skagit Farmers about every 4 to 6 months.  We allow them to roam the backyard when we are home to keep an eye on them (since we have a nice 5 foot fence around the yard) and they keep the pest population under control.  I no longer have a problem with slugs in the backyard.  They will patrol the fence line, looking for insects under the fence boards.  When the sun is out, they keep to under the trees or shrubs to stay cool, scratching at the dirt and eating any critter they find.  A lot of people feed their chickens table scraps.  I don't, but they do have access to the compost pile where they can find whatever they want. 
8.  Q:  How much do they cost?
     A:  To buy them as babies, they are less than $4.00 each.  But when you factor in the price of the coop, run and their treats, it will be a while before I break even in what I don't have to spend on eggs or pest control anymore.  Like any pet, we don't keep chickens for financial reasons.  However, their benefits do, in my opinion, outweigh the costs. 
     After we compiled the answers to the questions and Gaerin finished building their little home, we brought home our beautiful little baby chicks.  I settled on two Araucanas, because they're supposed to be friendly, a Buff Orpington, because of their gentle disposition, and a Golden laced Wyandotte because they are so pretty.  We kept them in a large plastic tub, with a red light to keep them warm, for the first couple months, until they were well feathered and able to move out into their coop. 

It really didn't take long for them to become a cherished part of the family.  Kaila played with them daily and which seemed to make them very sweet and friendly. 

 

 

Margarita + Garden = Bad Decisions

We have POTATOES!!  Well, the plants anyway.  They have begun to emerge from the soil in both the Yukon plot, and the fingerling tower.  I am very excited about this.  In a week or two I will start hilling them up to promote tuber development.  I tried to do some weeding today, but I don't want to disturb the tiny little plants, so I didn't get them all. 

Did I mention that I thought I killed my entire garden about a week ago?  It was time to fertilize, I knew this because my corn was too light and it has been over a month since I planted my tomato starts, so I brought out the veggie food, mixed a few handfuls with some planting compost and put a scoop around the base of each plant.  Oh, and THEN (after I was done) I read the instructions.  Really, I think we are supposed to read the instructions first.  After I read in the instructions that I should have put the fertilizer no closer than three inches of the plant, I panicked, and brushed as much of it away as I could.  I figured in a few days I would see the dying leaves, marking that I had burned my plants and my garden would be lost.  Luckily, the garden loved the food.  I have seen no evidence of burning, and if anything, I might have too much nitrogen, which might stunt fruit, but that has yet to be seen.  I am just so relieved that everything isn't dead!  Also, I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have had that margarita before I started playing in the garden... but it was so tasty! 

A  few years ago, maybe 2007 or so, I planted a rose bush in the front flower bed.  It only ever bloomed a few little blooms every year and stayed pretty small.  Well this year, it has decided to stand up, and be seen. 

Along with the Peonies that are so showy and beautiful every single year.

All this color in the front yard has inspired me to buy a couple more beautiful roses.  We want to picket the front yard with a fence, so until those plans are figured out, they are confined to their buckets.  I am really looking forward to getting them in the ground they are so beautiful.  Although I usually shop at Smokey Point Plant Farm, I got these roses at Orchards Nursery in Stanwood.  They were more than $10 cheaper, and the quality of the plants and the selection were amazing.  I will be returning or Orchards soon.

 

Welcome to my backyard... lets get dirty!

The garden is growing.



I have all four plots working hard. I keep reading that corn isn’t supposed to do well in the Pacific Northwest, especially if you don’t have very much of it. I planted four corn plants and they are growing up, but we’ll have to see if they actually produce any, well, produce. The four pumpkin plants have settled in for a nice long summer of sprawling, and my surprise onions that accidentally over-wintered last year look like they could be ready any day now. With the early spring we seemed to have this year, it really fired up my motivation to get things started, and started they have. I have only been gently experimenting with vegetable gardening, but it is so much fun, that every year I become increasingly brave, and plant more things. This year I have even started a few things from seed myself, instead of just buying starts at the Skagit Farmer’s Supply or Smokey Point Plant Farm. Last month, when my daughter Kaila came home for a visit, she cooked dinner one night, and fried up some brussel sprouts to add to the pasta. They were so good, and since it turns out that the Pacific Northwest is the perfect climate for growing brussel sprouts, I planted some seeds. The sprouts have sprouted, and things are about to get exciting for our little brassicas.

Another new item to appear in our backyard this year is potatoes. Naturally, I tend to leap without looking, and I bought my seed potatoes, at Skagit Farmers, on a whim, before I knew where I was going to plant them. I already had starts planted in all four of my raised beds, but I knew I could figure something out. I read in “One Magic Square,” by Lolo Houbein that you can plant potatoes in a tub or a barrel or almost anything that holds dirt. I purchased Yukon Gold and Rose Fingerlings. After I got my seed potatoes home, I did a little research, and was disappointed to find out that the Yukon Gold are an early variety and the fingerlings are a late variety, thus having two very different optimal growing conditions. Yukon Golds apparently fruit up all at one time so having a plot of dirt works nice, whereas, the fingerlings will continue to fruit during the growing season, so growing in a container, or a “tower” works well.



Gaerin was kind enough to build me a little box for my fingerlings, that is actually stackable so as the plants grow, I can keep adding soil, and with any luck, the potatoes will have a larger yield. The only option I had for the Yukon Golds was to use an abandoned flower bed at the back of the house, that I hadn’t quite figured out what to do with yet.



I suppose the potatoes will give me more time to think about it too. 

At this point, I have had the potatoes in the ground for about a week and a half, and no signs of sprouts yet. I planted them a little late, but I am not going to panic. All they need is ample water, lots of good sun and plenty of faith. I also sprinkled some carrot seeds along the front of the bed, since that soil is so soft, deep and loamy, I figured it just might be perfect for the carrots this season.

        For Mother’s Day this year, my beautiful family took me to a Mariners game, which I loved, and then we met up with my parents and my sister at Salty’s for brunch. Salty’s gave all the Mothers little baby tomato plants. I had just transplanted six gallon-sized tomato starts into my garden a few days prior, so the timing couldn’t have been better. My sister gave me her start, and the two Mother’s day tomato babies are in the center of the tomato plot, quickly catching up. I don’t see any blooms on them quite yet, but I have faith.



I have absolutely no idea what variety they are, but I have a feeling they might turn out to be the best of the bunch!