Frogs in the Garden

I'm not sure why but lately I seem to be finding a lot more frogs in the yard/garden. It's that time of year of course, the rain season but I usually don't see this many.

I photographed a rather large frog (for around here) in mid October, hiding in the worm bin. But this guy was right outside the back door, truth be told I almost stepped on him. I had him in my hand but he jumped onto the sleeve of my jacket and proceeded to nestle in for the long haul. I considered for a moment doing my morning farm chores with a ride along guest, but ruled it out on the grounds if he slipped I might step on him.

Cute little guy huh?

Black Morel?

My Mom called me yesterday and said "I think I have a morel growing in my yard." This morning I went over and picked said mushroom, I would have to agree with her. It is, I think past good eating age since it's rather rubbery and has obviously been out of the ground for a while.

I've never been morel hunting or eaten them for that matter... since I don't know what I am looking for or really where to look at all. I digress, having done some research on morel's and false morel's I am pretty sure that this is a black morel... (all the pictures get bigger if you'd like a closer look)

The inside is hollow and the mushroom is all one piece (meaning cap and stem are one unit).  I am pretty sure that the only morel look alike is the false morel, but that should be squat and not hollow.  This mushroom stands about 5" tall but I realize morel size is subjective. So any shroomies out there? And if it is a morel.... seriously? It's all by itself in the bark next too my mother's house in the middle of the city.

What a weird spring.

Double Rainbow on Mother's Day

I know I should've Posted this a week ago but seriously it's finally spring time and the chores are piling up! Anyway last weekend between rainstorms Jake and I were working on the front spiral garden when two giant rainbows appeared. I've posted a ton of videos as of late but guess what here comes one more..

Full double rainbow..


Ive never been able to see the end of a rainbow, it's always way off in the distance. But this time I was able to take a picture of the end.

It ends right there in the field across from our house. How Awesome Is That!?!? I went and looked but didn't find a pot of gold, I was hoping but maybe being able to see the end was my pot of gold?

Happy Spring everyone!(or Happy Fall for those at the other end of the beach ball) :-)

Arbor Day

Last Saturday Me, Jake, Mom and Neighbor Kara all went to the compost fair in Spokane.  They hold the fair every spring and fall. Their are demo's of what to put in compost and what not, types of bins, worm composting and such. It's all very fun and informative, most of which I know since I've been composting somewhat successfully for a while now. The fair was the day after Arbor Day so lots of info, and they were giving away free trees. One stand had maples, oaks, and deciduous type trees. But another gal for the Idaho Forestry Department was giving away Colorado Blue Spruce's which look like this as adults:

The lady gave us each 2 and then asked if we had room to plant them and more, we said yes (because we will eventually) and she gave us a bag of 10, we ended up with 16 trees total. I brought them home and planted them in 1 gallon sized pots, then buried the pots in the ground. I figured this would regulate the root temperature and they would be happier. Thus begins our wind and privacy wall even though they are scarcely 8 inches tall and we have no land yet, oh well no one ever said that I don't plan ahead. 

I have several tree farm spots in my yard that look like this:

Decidedly less impressive than their glorious adult counterpart, but they'll get there... in 10-15 years. *sigh*

adult picture from here.

B-day weekend plans

Over my birthday weekend Jake and I are taking a small vacation. Just a small one considering we can't leave the crops or the livestock for that long 2.5 days seems reasonable. My mom is going to come over and keep and eye on the green things and the chickens water. It's going to get into the mid 90's* today and for the rest of the week. UGH!  Our other purpose for the mini vacation is huckleberries, it is one of the few things we recognize and can forage. I've never been morel mushroom hunting and wouldn't feel comfortable without a guide, but huckleberries I have down.

We are going to a small town in north Idaho just outside of Sandpoint called Clark Fork. I found this lovely place called Huckleberry Tent and Breakfast. We'll be staying there, hiking, swimming, and yes in search of hucks. Should be a ton of fun and a much needed break from all the city noise. It will be a full moon on Sunday night, I love being in the woods during a full moon!

This is the "cedars" camp site and where we will be staying for our duration.

image from here.

Garden grows and sparrows have lunch

We have a sparrow issue, they have decided to eat the chicken feed. This weekend Jacob is going to build an automatic chicken feeder, thus closing off the sparrow feast. Hopefully they will then leave my crops alone, but we'll see... more drastic measures may need to be taken, like a bb gun. LOL.

It has been a busy spring. It's funny how, myself included, all the blogs I read drop of the face of the earth for much of May and June. To much to do outside getting everything ready.  Here's the back garden, looking good in it's early stages. To the left the garlic is HUGE! The strawberries and raspberries are both going gang busters. But my snap peas are being eaten alive. I finally put up that row cover cloth so that the sparrows can't land on the pea trellis and have a snack! I doubt I'll get much of anything from them, but I might try again this fall.

The two white buckets in front are squash, a pumpkin and a winter squash called queensland blue. I plan to train them over the fence and let them take over the grass. WOOT!

It's hard to see from the deck all the tomato plants in there. I need to go out and get a better, close up picture of them. I have all the tomato's and peppers in the ground, and the weather is getting consistently warmer. We've yet to move downstairs though because the seed starting room is still set up.

The bee's are doing good. About 2 weeks ago we did a hive check and noticed 1-2 swarm cells on every frame and they hadn't started using the second box. We weren't sure why they didn't notice the 2nd story addition to the house but?? who knows? So we decided to take frame numbers 3-5-7 from the bottom box and move them to the top, then adding the top 3-5-7 to the bottom box. Hopefully triggering a "wow... look how much room we have...." Jake checked all the swarm cells to see if there was any larva present and she hadn't laid in any of them. I think they were "just incase" preparation cells. Jake collapsed the wax starter cells and we closed up shop. This week they have built a TON of new wax on all the frames, nectar must be flowing because our bees are actively making comb. Plus we only saw 2 swarm cell starts, both empty, and only on the upper 3 and 5 frame. So the moving frames around seemed to work and cancel out the "swarm" trigger.

Hoverflies

All summer long I've been seeing these "fly bee's" and didn't have any idea what they were. They react like flies when you get close to a plant, by jumping off and moving. Where as bee's don't give a hoot about you and continue on doing whatever they are doing. Also the markings on these fly bee's are similar to an Italian honey bee but they have giant eyes like a fly. I was most confused because I have never noticed them before.

My mother did some sleuthing and found a wonderful website about these guys. They are called hover flies and that is the perfect name for them! Garden Safari has great information and pictures about hover flies. The pictures are even better than Jacob got with our little camera.

They seem like excellent little pollinators hopping from flower to flower. All of the pictures can be clicked on for a bigger image.

Bumble Dinner

Wouldn't it be weird if this looked like dinner?

Seed thieves

This would be why are buckwheat hasn't filled out.

Mason Bee Block Update

Well they've been up for several months now. Many bee's have laid and covered babies for next year. We'll definately have to add more of this size. So far the giant 3/8" (thumb sized) has no bee's in it. All the other sizes do, the most active being the 5/16" size.

All of the images are clickable for a closer look.

Bead Lake Day Hike\ 30th Birthday

Sorry about the hiatus it was my birthday last weekend and we took some time off (sorta). Jake, Me and the munchkin all went for a hike. The big "30" went over smoothly!

Here are some highlights.

Pretty Dragonfly

We saw this little guy hanging off our deck. Isn't it pretty?

The first bee tenant

I noticed we have our first mason bee tenant. I went out today and there is a second one covered in mud as well. Mason bees, cover the opening with mud to seal the larva inside.

Nature at its best.

Mason Bee Blocks

Since the beekeeping dream must wait one more year, Jacob and I decided to make bee blocks. Bee blocks are for mason bees of all shapes and sizes. These bees are solitary and docile and they need a place to lay their young, enter the bee block. Most mason bees nest in old beetle holes, but you can manufacture them a home.

We opted to do many different sizes to accommodate different bees. We drilled 3/8", 5/16", 1/4", 3/16", and 1/8" for those who don't speak "boy" this means almost thumb sized to pretty tiny.

Here's how this works, Take a piece of wood, usually a 4x4 or a 2x4 and measure some holes in varying sizes mark where you want to drill. Remember this isn't rocket science, don't get too caught up in perfection, seriously the bees don't care.

Now if you have it, take a clamp or two blocks and stuff the wood block into it, so you can hold it to drill. Bees only like a front door, so make sure when you are drilling you stop about 1/2" before the back of the wood. In this picture we are drilling 1/8" sized whole, very tiny.


Jacob is using our little air compressor to blow out some of the wood shavings from the bee holes. You don't have to do this, but make sure to knock it out on the ground to empty out those shavings.

We opted to use some wood glue and secure a roof.  See all the different sized wholes?

Close up! Left is 5/16" size and right is 1/8".

The roofs stick out about an inch over the top of the block, you don't have to do this but the bees do appreciate a rain blocker.  Make sure to place these guys holes facing east to catch the early morning sunshine.