Wow, almost 2 years since....

The Guerrilla garden went dark..
It went dark cuz I

Bugged Out!!

 The relocation started in the late spring, long about the time I was wrestling with starting the garden so, there was no garden in 2013.  Swinging a move and a garden just wasn't a doable thing that year.
Since there was no garden, there was no blog.
But, a lot changes in two years.  The Bug Out is a modest success.

We have established, base camp at Happydale.  It's not the ideal spot, but it will do nicely.
Last year was a busy year and time kept slip sliding away.  I took pictures, I intended to get the blog up and going....
I'm an imperfect being, and some things didn't get done.

But, I did take pictures...

I'm choosing to view last year as a dry run.  We weren't as organized as we could have been.  We added a lot new things all at once.  We're still adapting to circumstance.
But last year had some good things in it.
We found out what was already here...

These still need to be dug up and split out.  They were too crowded last year.  It's still on the list.

 The day lilies did quiet well.  Would like to thin these, and the patch by the corner of the house, and spreed them around.

We got our first chickens last spring.

The original Happydale flock.

 Then came the Pea Hens, our Indigo Girls.

Then came The Cracken....

We had six turkeys last spring.  This was a big learning experience.

Our birds free range and we weren't prepared with fencing, on either side.  The chickens weren't too bad.  Though they ate more of the strawberries than we did.  The Indigo Girls were selectively destructive.  They didn't mess with the tomatoes, but the yellow squash didn't survive them very long.  My house plants still haven't recovered from their short time outside.
The turkeys were like General Sherman marching to the sea.  They laid waste to the tomatoes.  Seems turkeys are fond of green tomatoes.  By the end of the summer the turkeys were confined to the pasture with the horses.

This year the turkeys need to be contained or kept out.
Kathy's been working on fencing the garden.  But it'll be a work in progress for awhile.

We got the basic layout marked.

We worked on it sporadically....

It did produce some...

We had some nice mild, wild garlic pop up.  I saved a lot of the seeds.

The strawberries did fairly well.  But, the chickens and the bunnies got most of them.

The blueberry bushes had an early setback and spent the summer in solitary confinement, cuz something was eating them.  They were doing fine at the end of the season.
 

This worked well for the container plants.  Most of them have survived the winter and will be back out in the garden soon.  Would like to use this pallet for herds this year and put down another one for larger container plants.

We got some tomatoes.  Had enough to make a really good batch of spaghetti sauce.  We got some for slicing.  Had a whole bunch of green ones, some of those went to fatten Nippy up for Thanksgiving dinner.  Which was all good.

We got two of the yellow squash, before the Indigo Girls took out the plants completely.  We did harvest some of the peppers.

And...

 We ate zucchini for days, many different ways!  I lost count of how many big, fat, squash those 2 plants produced.  We still have zucchini in the freezer.

 So, last year wasn't the greatest.  We weren't organized.  There weren't enough hands helping.  We didn't have all the supplies we needed.

But,

Even with determined opposition.

We managed to keep most of the plants alive.  We got some good veggies last year.  Froze some.  Pickled some.  Had some good homemade sauce.

And a tree.

We managed our own 40# turkey last Thanksgiving.

We're still getting eggs.  Production is starting to pick back up.

Got some niffty pictures.
All in all not a bad first year.

If you want to know more about Happydale, you can check out Wild Rambles.
Or for a more day to day view, and pictures, visit.Happydale Homestead. on FaceBook.
We have land and ambition.  We lack motivation and money.
But, I'm finding as spring advances motivation returns.  This place has potential.
With an eye to the development of that potential, we have the...

Hopefully, coming soon....

This year's snake...

Dusty caught the snake out sunning itself today.
I'm happy to say that both of them are doing fine.
And I got a few pictures...

I think this is the one that was out by the wood pile yesterday.

It looks smaleer than the one that was hanging around last year.

Ain't he cute!

It’s time again….

It’s time to start dealing with the garden again.

I’ve declared 2012 the lost year.

And that holds for the garden in spades.  Last year it was a rough start getting everything cleaned up and ready.  I had to buy new fencing and consoled myself that it was an investment in the future.  I got that only through the grace of a chance windfall.

I must confess, I bought plants at Walmart.

And I suffered for my sin.  They were slow to start and the tomatoes never really produced that much.  The cherry tomatoes produced, but almost every tomato split before it ripened, despite daily watering.

Last year I got the garden planted by the seat of my pants.  Then as soon as everything was established, the temp soared into the hundreds and everything just stopped growing.  I kept it watered, but everything went into a holding pattern for the weeks of hundred degree temps.

Then the heat broke and everything started growing and then a tree fell on it.  Mangling the fence.

So 2012 was not a good year for the garden.

2013 is not looking too much better.  I’m getting a late start.  I need to do something about fencing.

And I have no money.

But I’m gonna start working on it anyway.  I’ve at least gotta go out and clean up and mow, check to see if any of the plants that are out there are going to come back.  I’m not holding out much hope for the blue berries….

And I’ve gotta do something with the tree…

 That was here…

In the neighbor’s yard….

With the grapevine growing all over it…

Is now here...

What’s left of it, in my yard.

I had a deal with the neighbor that if he got rid of all of that tree, pulse the branches that fell off my tree on the other side of the yard, I wouldn't say anything about the fence.  They got rid of most of it, but left the trunk for the old lady to deal with….

I’ve got some ideas for these.  We’ll have to wait and see.
Yesterday I got out and got the branches and twigs cleaned up.  
With the trees....

 

and Dusty...

Whose main past time is draging branches off the brush pile.....

This is more of a job than you might expect.
And I got the back yard mowed.  So front and back have had their first mowing of the year.

YEAH!

But it's still not pretty.  Seems like I take one step 1 step forward and 3 steps back with this yard.  With all the little carp left over from the tree, it's gonna be worse than the first year to get it all cleaned up and tilled.
We've gotten a lot of rain lately, getting time out in the yard hasn't been the easiest thing.
I'm not real excited by the prospects this year.  But I do have some ambition and seeds to plant....
Over coming the obstacles is gonna take a while.
The next door neighbor asked if I was attached to the trees around the shed.....

I am not fond of these trees.  The one growing in front of the door keeps me out of the shed when it rains.  The only reason they are still standing is, I don't have the money to get rid of them.  Well, it seems they are interfering with the power lines to his house.  And he waned to cut them down.  He'd take care of getting rid of them, yadda, yadda, yadda...
 Well, they are still in the garden.

There used to be blue berry bushes behind there.  I'm not holding out much hope for them.
Both of these are too heavy for me to move as is.
So I've either got to kick up the fire under his ass or, get out there and dismember them myself.  Not the most attractive option.  But still something to be done.
The fence is in bad shape.  Dusty jumps it with no problem.  Keeping her out of the plants is gonna be difficult this year.
Which increases my motivation for all the work to do, to no end....

The flower beds are a complete disaster....

The one good point on this front is that the rose bushes are doing very well.
One of the butterfly bushes is coming back strong.
I can't find the other butterfly bush.
I'm not sure that the lilac bush is going to survive.  When I dug it out of the clover yesterday, it didn't look very good.  But there are some tiny signs of green.  So I'm gonna wait and see.
I don't think the hydrangea bush has survived.  But it's kinda hard to tell right now.
I saw a Grater Snake, yesterday.  It looks smaller than the one that was hanging around last year.  Don't know if it's a replacement or an addition.  Dusty didn't seem to all fired up to mess with it, so maybe she's learning to leave them alone.
The Cardinals are back.
I think the Wood Chuck got run over.  Saw one in the road the other day, don't know if it's the one that was coming around the last couple of years.
It's raining today, so there's not much I can do right now....

It's been awhile...

I just did something I haven't done in over a month.  I went and sat on the back steps for a few minuets.  An old friend commented in a FaceBook message that my yard looked like a peaceful place to sit.
And I realized that, actually, was true.  My yard is a peaceful place to sit.  I just haven't done much sitting in it.
This last month has been a bit depressing as far as the yard and garden go, so I haven't been paying it much attention.  That, and I have been busy with many other things, so the yard has been neglected, a little.
I've been keeping up with maintenance, and that's about it.

But, sunrise was beautiful this morning:
And while I was out there enjoying the sunrise, with my friend's comment echoing in my thoughts, I realized it wasn't all bad.

The month started off good...

The peppers were doing really well.

There were some big green tomatoes.

 

The cucumbers were doing very well.

Then the squirrels started in on the tomatoes.  I tried a spray made out of pepper and hot sauce and some other stuff.  I think it worked, a little.  But I think Dusty killing one of their number has more to do with the recent lack of squirrels in the yard.  Even still they got more tomatoes than I did.  For all the bushy growth, the tomatoes haven't produced much.  I got a couple good ones, but I haven't seen anymore out there.
It was hot in July, but about the end of the first of week of August the weather changed.  We've had days in the 90s but nothing like the heat wave in July.
And that's when everything started dying.  I don't know if it was the change in the weather or what.  But, first my pepper plants wilted and dried up, even though I was watering every day.  Then all but one of the large bottle gourds died.  One of my sage plants withered and died.  Now the cucumbers are looking really sad.
I've got one bell pepper plant left.  And it's still looking OK.

The small bottle gourd is still holding it's own.

The bottle gourds have white flowers.




The one large bottle gourd is mixed in with the cucumbers.

The cucumber vines don't look all that good but they have lots of flowers on them.

So, I'm hoping there might be some cucumbers in the near future.

I did get some veggie goodness out of the garden at the beginning of the month.  I've dried some sage and oregano, and the cherry tomatoes have been good.
The volunteer tomato plants have green tomatoes on them, but I don't know if any will be ready to pick before the end of the season.  Right now I'm watching the cucumbers and the bottle gourds.

Not much is happening in the flower garden.

There are a few of these pink flowers blooming, but that's about all.

Not many yard visitors.

This little guy was hanging out on the door, one day.
And one day I had a visit from a ground hog.



I had to take the picture through the window.  He was very shy and surprisingly fast.



That little shadow by the big planter on the left side of the picture is the ground hog.  That's as close as I could get.  I didn't know that wood chucks were ground hogs.  Didn't find that out till I went looking to see if he was going to be a destructive addition to the yard.  He would have been, but he didn't hang around.  I only saw him the one day.  I guess he figured out that my yard wasn't a real good place to set up housekeeping.
The Cardinals are still hanging around.  I hear them all the time, but don't see much of them.
Last week I saw the garter snake.  Dusty was trying to play with it.  I made her come in and the snake beat a hasty retreat under the house.
All in all, August has been anti-climatic.