No Rest for the Wicked

 Johnny and I must be very wicked because we sure haven't had much time to rest. Johnny, especially, is a workaholic. He is out mowing places with his push mower right now where I cannot get with my ride around mower. He spent months clearing the ice storm damage and even opened up the main trails in the woods that had been completely blocked by downed trees.

And he has brought many loads of compost to the garden after I dumped many loads of horse manure on it. Then he tilled it all in over and over and over. Meanwhile I transplanted tomatoes from their flats in the greenhouse into pots, then yesterday moved them into the garden tires. I'll wait for warmer weather to plant corn and other warm weather crops. 

The raised beds have lots of volunteers from last year plus new I planted recently. Parsnips have moved themselves all over the place and we eat them often. For so many years I couldn't get parsnips to grow: now they reseed themselves everywhere.

Daffodils have finally mostly given up. Until now I have deadheaded them daily. We have a lot of daffodils. They spread like wild things. I have planted new trees in various places, and then had to water them since our weather has not been its usual April drippy. Johnny got a load of barkdust and replenished our paths. I stole some to mulch my new trees.

In this strange weather year, burning was not allowed for weeks so when we finally got a little rain and burning was again allowed, Johnny lit his two enormous piles of debris he'd collected from the February ice storm. It was a perfect weather day for burning with no wind and the piles burned fast and well. That was a relief.

 

 

Here's what one pile looked like before the burn...

 

 This week Johnny worked at getting the downed and broken pines out of the ponderosa pine grove in the arboretum. I helped one day hauling stuff to a new burn pile in a different field. We also now have a huge amount of pine logs for firewood. We will never run out of firewood again.

Occasionally, I sneak off to the coast for bird surveys. Most recently, I scouted for Black Oystercatchers at Road's End. Those stories with photos here: https://bloymonitor.blogspot.com/2021/04/2021-roads-end.html and here: https://bloymonitor.blogspot.com/2021/04/2021-roads-end-revisited.html

In bird excitement at home, the pair of Kestrels that nested last year in the South field nest box, have moved their operation to the nest box in the hay field next to the arboretum... visible from our kitchen window! Here they are before she started setting on eggs, which she apparently has done now.

 

 And today, when the male apparently brought something to the female inside the box.

 

 

It will be fun to have a closer way to watch the nesting activity.

Lots of flowering in the greenhouse which I will save for another post... when I need another excuse to sit down and rest.