Winter Chores

While it looks like spring it could still get cold. In fact there is a fire in the stove right now as it is going to be around 40 degrees tonight. We have heated our house with a wood burning stove since Lyn and I were married almost 32 years ago. Same stove too, it's a Fisher, and has really done it's job. When we built this house we designed it around the stove, putting it as close to the dead center as we could. While it is stingy with wood, you still need wood to put in it. It's a winter chore that I have never minded as Lyn and I make a good team getting the wood to the house. We have always been lucky to have a place to cut wood, making for a very cheap heating bill every winter.

 The cold months are the perfect time to cut and haul wood. You know, the old heat you twice thing, but you don't sweat your butt off either. How ever you need to plan to be ahead of the game on your wood and I like to be about two cords ahead. That's a whole winter's supply for us and it's good to have in case one of us is injured and can't get the wood in. So now we are essentially cutting next year's supply as well as a little for this year. Lyn swore she was up to it after her back surgery last year. She looks to be nearly 100% to me.

She does most of the picking up and putting into the trailer and I do the cutting.

Looking at that pile, I think she thinks it's time for a break. No matter, I just keep on cutting. I'll pick up when I run out of gas. I always take two saws, each full of gas and oil, and cut until they are empty. Cuts almost exactly one cord of wood. I just don't abide by refilling a hot saw, they won't last if you do that much and that oldest saw is 25 years old and still cutting like a new one.

I found this guy under some of the logs in the brush pile we were cutting in. It was cool and he could hardly move. I dug a little hole under a big log and put him in it and covered him with leaves. I think he will make it OK.

When we got home I went out in the garden and cut some lettuce and kohlrabi. I've never grown kohlrabi before and now I know why. It's not all that good. Sliced thin, it went into the salad. Winter means cutting wood and growing cole crops. I better go put a log on the fire now.

 

Winter Invasion

I always have some Henbit. Not a lot mind you, just some. Usually it grows in the pebble walkways of the vegi gardens. However, there is so little as to have never been considered  a problem. It is a bear to pull up though, with weak stems and a mass of very fine roots.

I'm not sure exactly what caused it but this year it has just exploded. It is every where to some degree but most prolific in the raised beds of the vegi garden. Even with the near perfect soil there, it is still a problem to pull up. Some beds were just solid side to side and end to end. It was growing in amongst the winter growth of Butter Crunch and Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce so I knew I would have to hand pull those.

I planted one bed with what the seed companies call Mesclun. It's a mix of seeds that is supposed to grow you a mix of salad greens. I've never tried it before because I just didn't think you could get a whole mix of palnts that would all grow at the same rate. I was right. This bed came up with several different types of greens but one type took over the whole bed. I'm not even sure what this plant is. Does any one know? I know it didn't taste very good. And, of course, there is Henbit sticking out every where there was a little sun light. I just pulled out the entire bed to make room for late winter/early spring greens.

I tried pulling Henbit with out much luck. The plants were just too close together. I finally got out one of the little bent tonged forks you get with a garden trowel when you buy the set. It worked much better but the plants were so thick that I just couldn't get enough pull on it to pull very big clumps. I went up to the shop and built me one with a long handle and it worked perfect. I'm not sure it will work very good for any other type weed but it made short work of the Henbit.

A New Year

I'm so glad that 2011 is over, it was not a good year here at Draco. After Lyn fell and broke her arm in March, a compound fracture that required plates and screws, her back started to bother her. After months of agonizing pain and many doctors visits and finally surgery, she is almost a hundred percent again. During this time I had to step up and do all the cleaning, washing and cooking and still try to make a living. I didn't realize how much that little woman does around here. I always wondered what the two big white cubes in the shop were for. You can actually wash and dry clothes in them. Who knew?

We have been married for 31 years now and Lyn has exercised every one of those days, always wanting to lose a few pounds. Well, after several months of laying on the couch, getting no exercise and eating my cooking it appears she lost 12 pounds. If her back problems had persisted for much longer I would have starved her to death.

Just when I was able to sneak a post in during September we found out her Dad had lymphoma and would have to start chemo. A few weeks later her mother found out she had cancer in her liver, originating from her breast cancer 16 years ago. While it seems an ingrained tradition to hate your in laws, that is not my case. I have the best mother and father in law that a man could want and feel I should do every thing I can to make their problems better.It's made things a little slow here on the blog but things are starting to perk back up a bit.

The gardens took a pretty big hit this last year with the drought and me not taking very good care of them but it can be fixed. The damage  to the country side around here looks to be permanent. A drive just before Christmas shows the damage.

These are not trees with fall colors but are dead trees. The next three pictures are driving along CR 258 going toward Tejas Camp.

It seemed that the Spanish Oaks were hit the hardest with the Cedar Elms almost as bad. This is a view from Ronald Reagan just north of Hwy. 29.

The damage here at the house wasn't as bad but I will show that here in a few days.

Hill Country Natives Nursery

I went to the Hill Country Natives open house today. I had a great time, visited with friends and met some new ones as well. The owners, Mitch and Kathy Mitchemore, are the nicest people you would ever want to meet and oh so knowledgeable about native plants. The nursery is around their house and extends out under the big oaks in every direction. There are trails winding through the trees and little alcoves and sitting areas are plentiful. With little ponds and creeks and garden art, it is just a very enjoyable place to spend some time. Even though it is mainly a whole sale nursery, I think us commoners can still buy from them.

I have done several projects for them through the years and every time I go they have added new additions to enjoy. This is a gate I built for them several years ago.

As you can see it's still swinging just fine.

This year I added some metal picket fence, a drive through gate and a walk through gate on the other side of the house. They were starting to have deer coming into the nursery here so a fence was needed. They wanted it to look nice and I think we pulled it off nicely. I built the big gate with a sun flower medallion in the middle and built sun flowers to go in the middle of the fence panels as well. In a normal year there are sun flowers that come up all through the nursery and they just let them grow. It's way cool.

I built the small gate to match the rest of the fence but I built a grape vine climbing up the open end of it. The grape vine is actually the latch for the gate as the top two foot or so is not welded and flexes side ways to pull the leaves away from the vertical of the big gate. It came out well and they really like it a lot. I'm just glad there are people that are willing to let me build things like this.

While the gates look good, they are only accents to a beautiful nursery. The rock work, by Larry Hullems, is just stunning. The man has serious skills. But again, accents to the whole of what Mitch and Kathy have done. Here is some pictures of a beautiful self made nursery.

 The tall plants in this picture are some kind of canna that likes shade. I want some.

Just this last year they added a creek system and it is something. I really liked it a lot. All the plants were native and were just perfect for a little stream in Texas.

There were little ponds tucked into the gardens every where and they were all beautiful.

It was just a wonderful day all around. If any one needs native plants I would certainly give them a call. It's kind of hard to find but so worth it if you need native trees or plants.

http://www.hillcountrynatives.biz/

Man It's Hot

It's not only hot but it's dry as well. I have only had 1 7/8" of rain here since the first of the year. I'm praying that the well holds up so we have water to the house. Having the 24,000 gallon rain water collection system makes me feel better about watering the plants. This being the first year to really use it I haven't been watering any more than normal. Normal for me is letting a lot of plants die as I am a real water miser. I am down to four tomato plants left and one still puts on a tomato every week or so. That particular plant is in the shade from 10:00 until 6:00. I am wishing I had more shade and am thinking about shade cloth for next year now.

I finally decided to get a ladder and take a look inside the water tanks and see how much water I had left. They were not full at the first of the year but were very close.

This picture may not make much sense but it is looking down into the tank through the top portal. You can see the reflection of the pipe running across the top of the tank and the hole the water flows in. The little dark place on the bottom is dirt that has washed in. Not much at all, it tells me my home made roof washer system is working well. It appears they are down about one third as the water level is on the 2000 gallon mark. Times eight tanks, I have 16,000 gallons left and have used 8000. I feel better now.

I have been building a metal building lately and working in the heat all day. I just don't feel like working in the garden in the evenings. I may pull a weed here, prune a little there but I'm watering every where. With this kind of heat I'm just trying to keep plants alive until fall now. It is a learning experience though. I know now what plants will hold up and maybe even bloom a little.

I always have zinnias in my garden. They are descendants of plants that were seeded years ago. It may be time to buy new seeds as they seem to be displaying with less and less color every year. They don't mind the heat though, if they get a little water. Unfortunately they never seem to come up where I want them to. These came up in a tomato cage. The tomato didn't make it but they did.

While neither Lyn or I, are big fans of egg plant, I always plant a couple plants for my neighbor. He doesn't garden but loves egg plant. He swears they are the best he's ever eaten. I don't really know what kind they are. I just buy what ever I can find at the nurseries. I just don't tell him that, he thinks they are some special kind.

I got lucky this year and got a great heat tolerate plant from my buddy, Philip, at ESP. It was just a little thing in the spring when I got it but has grown well and is about to bloom despite being eaten down to the ground by a rabbit once. I don't know the name for sure as I think Philip is pulling some good ol' Scottish humor on me about the name. When I mention to him that the Pearls of Opar is doing well, he says no, it's Jewels of Opar. If I say Jewels of Opar then he says no, it's Pearls of Opar. I am fairly certain that it is one of those two. Either way it is a great hot weather plant and doesn't even require that much water to do well. I think I picked the perfect place for it if the rabbit stays away.

While working on a ranch last year I happened to notice a tiny, purple, little bloom on a plant by the ranchers drive way. With the bloom and the spiky little leaves, it was enough for me to tell that it was a Wooly Ironweed. I've wanted one for a long time and asked the rancher if I could dig it up. In a typical rancher response he said "You want to dig up a weed? Sure, go ahead and dig it up if you want it. I think there might be a few more down in the lower pasture if you want some more." I could tell it had been mowed over it's entire life. It is a happy plant now and has just started to bloom.

Temperatures over a hundred for months, like we have had this year, will take it out of most plants, but if a person has ponds and pond plants, then you know you will have plenty of green in the garden.

The upper pond has just about been covered in Lotus and Arrowhead.

The middle pond has Pickerel Weed and Umbrella plant with miniature lilies in it.

The big pond has lotus, lilies and Red Stemmed Thalias. The Thalias are a little behind this year and are just now big enough to start showing the red in their stems.

There have been more blooms on the lotus than in any year in memory.

As the leaves die they make for interesting patterns in the garden.

At least I have some green even if I don't have many blooms.