Reznjun

the plants in my grow boxes are hanging in there with this heat. i have been watering them. i use a garden hose or i water from the rain barrels. the garden hose is easier to use but i get my steps in by using the watering can. i dont know how many trips i make from the rain barrels to my plants.

my field garden is doing good too. it is too big to water but so far we have had enough moisture to keep everything alive. i picked more green beans and new potatoes before breakfast.  gotta do that before the heat kicks in. it is suppose to be 100 degrees today. i do most of my chores in the morning or evening when it aint as hot.

i weeded all the grow boxes. i also added straw as mulch. gotta keep the moisture in when i water. i have been watering to keep my plants alive. that is paying off. it is getting hotter but my plants are healthy. they can stand up to some heat. i will keep watering them.

the ears are forming on my indian corn. it is tasseling and the ears have silk. thats good because the farmer on the next plot is growing corn and it isnt yet. that means mine wont cross breed with the field corn. gotta keep it pure white.

my habanero and bell peppers are forming. the jalapenos and anaheims havent yet. they will. i added epsom salts around the plants to encourage more fruit on the plants. i grow alot of peppers to use as seasonings. we use them in our cooking.

my kale is still growing. i use it in my juicing. we make kale chips out of it too. and we put it in our cooking. we add it to soups and fried potatoes. sometimes we add it to scrambled eggs.

i have tomatoes forming but none ripening so far. i might drive to topeekie to check on that place i bought from last year. we had some tomatoes to eat but not enough to can. i am running out of hot sauce. i want more. we also can salsa and plain tomatoes. i think i bought 4 flats last year. i would again.

i am noticing small trees growing in my yard, garden and grow boxes. they musta started from acorns or maple seeds. i havent pulled the little trees. i will let them grow. undecided on whether i should transplant them or not. i have good shade in my yard from trees i have planted for the past 35 years. i dont think i have 35 years to watch these small ones grow to that size.

i havent caught anything in the traps lately. dont know if my critter problem is solved or not. i do want to get some chickens. that farmer i talked to has some that are 4 months old. they would lay in a month or two. i can still get eggs this fall and winter. i suppose if i get some, i can still set traps. i am anxious to raise chickens again.

i havent been catching anything in the traps. dont know if i caught all the the varmints that killed my chickens or not. i wont get any more chickens until i am sure they will be safe. i do miss having chickens. out of habit i feel like going out there to feed them or bring in the eggs. but there aint any.

we are out of our eggs now. we will have to buy fresh eggs from some where. its a good thing that there are people that still raise chickens. like me they sell their extra eggs. farmers markets always have fresh eggs for sale too.

i recently upgraded to another phone. now i have a X S. it is not the latest phone but it is a new phone. it aint a pre owned.  i like the camera on it. it zooms out good. i need a phone that takes good pictures. it is nice to have a camera handy when that one shot presents itself.

it took some time for my old and new phones to transfer data to each other. i had almost 2000 pictures on the old phone. i backed them up to an external hard drive. i told the phone guy i didnt need them. he said they would transfer anyway. he missed the point of me not wanting to wait for that to happen. it took all day and it wasnt done. i finally had to power off the phone. then it started working after a day. now its okay.

my rabbit beans are doing real good. not so with my mattwaoshe beans. i only have one plant of them. i replanted after soaking some of those beans. they still didnt come up. i might not get any mattwaoshe beans this year. i tried to start some sage from seeds but they didnt do well either. nothing came up in this early heat.

i weeded my sema patch last night. it wasnt too bad. i have kept up with it. i will till in between the rows. that is so i can hill it up. that will prevent the rain or watering i do from running off. i have been watering my plants to keep my plants alive.  they are getting bigger. these plants thrive on heat.

i have been watering my tomatoes too. i have some fruit forming. thing is the temps will be in the 90s all week. the best temps for tomatoes to ripen is around 80. the heat may interfere with a good crop. gardening is a gamble. i never know what or if i will get anything.

i am lucky i got my early crops in. i have put away kale, strawberries, black berries, potatoes, green beans, cabbages, peas and onions. i still have bell peppers, jalapenos, habaneros, anaheim peppers, leeks and cucumbers in my grow boxes. and i have more onions growing. so far i am having good luck. hope that holds up.

i gotta do my chores before it gets hot.

they are finally cutting the hay on my misho’s allotment. the farmer that rents this land musta been in a patriotic mood. he wrapped the bales in a red, white and blue covering. we were coming back from our two mile walk and i wanted a picture by a bale.

i get a small check for my share of the hay taken off this land. i dont get as much as the renter of the land. indians get a small pittance compared to them. the government protects the interests of the farmers instead of the land owners. things havent changed much.

we have been walking 8 miles a week for the past 4 weeks. we did 6 miles the week before these weeks. we have been logging some miles. this morning we went walking before breakfast. we wanted to walk while temps were in the 70s instead of the 90s.

there is an old country saying about corn  being ‘knee high, by the fourth of july’. mine is there and then some. it is about 5 feet tall. it is already tasseling too. they are predicting a 60% chance of rain tonight. that would be good for my corn. it needs that rain when the ears of corn are forming.

my vines crops are spreading out. the watermelon plants have little watermelons on the vines. i will prune some off. it is better to have a few strong melons instead of many smaller ones. my cantaloupe plants have vined out all over. the mexican kickapoo  squash is doing good too. i like the taste of that squash.

i picked a big pan of fresh green beans. we ate some and froze some. we put away not quite a gallon of them. we will get more pickings of them. i also dug up some new potatoes. they were the red ones. the yukon gold didn’t do well. we will get some of them though.

i havent seen any menashkuk in the ditch. it is usually flowering by now. i pick it when it is ready. i use it when ever i have a sweat. i havent been doing them that often. i wanna redo my lodge over. the willows are ready to be cut. i was waiting for the hay to be cut. thats another chore i have to do.

we ordered propane. the gas company said it was the cheapest price they had in a long time. it was $1.15 a gallon. when i was young we didnt have electricity. now i cant live with out central air. the heat is coming and i want to be comfortable in my home. if i am working outside it is nice to come in and cool off when i am done.

i will mow the yard today. the grass isnt that high but it needs cutting. i am not sure of how much gas i have. i might have to run to nation station. it will take me an hour to mow. i want it done before it gets hot. we are having a cook out late afternoon. i want the lawn mowed. it looks nice when it is.

gotta get busy.

we went blue berry picking yesterday. the day before i turned on my computer and seen the berry place had some slots open for picking. this was an hour later. i added my name as fast as i could.  i got in. the time slots fill up fast. during straw berry season i didnt see sign ups until 15 minutes after they were posted. all times were full by then.

i was lucky i got a time to pick. not only that but the day was cloudy. the temperature was in the mid 70s. it was cool while we picked. we didnt even break a sweat. the weather man has predicted that we were to have 90 degree weather that eventually turns into 100 degree weather for the next 10 days.

we took my great niece kekakwe.  i had the honor of  giving her an indian name.  long ago a namer and the one named used to have a bond. i try to follow that. i am close to my niece because she was the first one i named. she hung out with the old people for half a day. we visited thru out our time together.

usually they transported pickers to the field in a wagon pulled by a tractor. sort of a hayrack ride. that was part of the experience. now they are practicing social distancing. we wore masks around other people but not while picking. we were outdoors. we had to walk to the fields. no big deal. mary and i have been walking as much as we can.

we had a row to ourselves. the blue berry bushes werent real full. they had a previous picking on monday. we picked for a couple of hours. i picked 5.4 pounds of berries. my berries cost me $24. i also bought two pints of pre picked black berries and a dozen blue berry donuts. the grand kids will eat them up.

i have starting juicing again.  i juiced regularly then i fell out of my routine. fresh vegetables are in season. i stocked up on them. some say you dont get the benefit of roughage by juicing. maybe. but i dont eat as many fresh vegetables as i should. i can drink a glass of them with no problem.

i upgraded my phone to an X S. it isnt the newest one but it is a new phone. the 8 i have isnt loading my music. i have to have my music. no music good bye phone. i missed my play lists when i mowed. and when i drive. i have to go to town to have the sprint store upload all my data to my new phone. i copied my pictures to an external hard drive. my music is already gone.

the grand sons are coming for their week end visit. i suppose misho will have to buy fireworks. they get a kick out of them. that will cost a few bucks. they dont like the kiddie stuff. they wanna see the sky light up. that aint cheap.

i gotta head to town to get my phone switched over.

i picked some of our new potatoes and green beans. mary cooked them with some bacon and chicken broth. the broth is from the chickens we cleaned. she added some of our onions.  the fresh green beans and new potatoes tasted real good. my gardening is paying off. i get to eat fresh vegetables that i grew.

i caught another raccoon. felt no pity for the critter as i said ‘say hello to my little friend”.  then i offed it. the raccoons wiped out my chicken herd. they didnt even eat all of the chickens. it was like they just killed them. a lot more ruthless than me.

it was caught in the dog proof trap. my new live cage was empty. i got my new dog proof trap but it aint got the anchor to it. i gotta rig it to stay in place while the critter is caught. or order the missing part from the place i bought the trap from.

i am not gonna replace my chickens just yet. i will rebuild my chicken yard. the poles holding up the fence are leaning in. it dont look pleasing to my eye. i will straighten it out. i have to cut down the mulberry tree that they climb upon to get to the roof of the chicken house too. i want to see how many i catch first. when it tapers off, any chickens i get will be safer.

we walked 2 miles last night. we heard it would be 100 degrees today. didnt think we would walk in that.  we walked 30 miles this month. thats our best month in some time. now we gotta keep it up.

i have been saying i wanna hit the weights. its rare i go into the basement during the summer. i gotta force myself to lift. i dont get into it that much. i mainly do it to burn more calories. and they say that strength training helps old people in a number of ways.

my worm farm still has worms. i have been trying my best to take care of it. had it for 3 and a half weeks. i add food when necessary. i belong to several groups dedicated to worm composting. i read up on tips and how to on these sites. i am big into learning about things i have an interest in.  it is getting hotter. i moved the worm bin to the basement. dont want the coming heat to kill my worms. it will be in the basement this winter anyway.

i ordered a book on doing quillwork on birch bark. i am making a fan. some dude traded it to me for a roach years ago. i have been wanting to fix it up. i decided i wanted a birch bark handle. that is an old style you dont see often. underneath it will be rawhide to strengthen the handle. i want a simple design on it. i will practice on scraps until i am sure of my quill technique.

i had my doctors appointment. my numbers are going down. that is the right direction. the doc upped my dosage of meds.  she said she would see me in 3 months. that is good news. i will keep trying to improve my health by walking, eating better etc.

last item on my bucket list is to live long enough to be a crabby old man. but i said i wouldnt be mean when i am old. i will go out with a smile. hell yeah

took this picture of my home place as we were coming back from a walk. i wanted a good shot of my corn field. the corn looks good right now. still have over a month before it is ready to pick. too many variables can happen in that time. not enough or too much rain. not enough sun or too much heat. gotta wait and see what happens.

i like this picture of my trees.  i moved in here about 35 years ago. the house was in a hayfield on my misho’s allotment. the ground around it was bare and had no trees. i planted most of these trees.  a few volunteers came up.  when i am working outside i can sit under the trees for shade while taking a break.

we walked 8 miles this past week. that makes it 3 weeks in a row that we walked that many miles. we walked 28 miles in 27 days. that is probably our best month walking so far. we are trying to keep it up.

we went to the farmers market in kansas city yesterday. we weighed the pros and cons of a trip to the city. we are aware the covid crisis is far from over. the numbers are still going up. it is definitely not a hoax. we will only stop its spread when everyone is actively trying to help. i see many that just dont care.

we have stayed home. we have taken precautions. we knew our hour drive there and hour drive back would be in the car. at the farmers market we wore face masks as did most others. the market is outside.  the threat of rain may have kept some home. it wasn’t packed. that was good for us.

we have been wanting to go to this farmers market. they have more stands to choose from than the one in topeekie. i prefer things that are grown locally instead of trucked in.  i can go to the grocery store if i wanted trucked in veggies n fruit.

we wanted to stock up and fruit and vegetables. and we did. i made  3 trips back to the car with full bags. we bought watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, peaches, cucumbers, kale, sweet corn and tomatoes. i grow some of these but mine arent ready yet. i noticed i had green beans to pick when i got home.

i want to start juicing again. i can drink a glass of veggies. fresh home grown veggies are the best to use for that.  gotta get our fill on what is in season. this winter they wont taste as good or be as nutritious.

i havent caught any more critters the past two nights. i will keep setting traps. i wont buy any more chickens until i am sure nothing is coming around. i want my fresh eggs.  life isnt suppose to be easy. i wont quit because i lost my chickens. i will just start over. i have done that many times in life.

 

i caught a raccoon and a possum. the possum was caught in a live cage. the raccoon was caught in a dog proof trap. i just had the live cage delivered a few days ago.  i borrowed the dog proof trap. i have one of those on order. i should be getting it soon.

i will continue to set traps for the rest of the week. when i stop catching critters i will get more chickens. i dont let set backs stop me. i probably raised chickens at least 30 years of the 35 years we lived here. dogs wiped out my chickens once when i let them roam free.

i will call this one farmer that has hundreds of rhode island reds. those are my favorite chicken. i will get about 20 of them. some will be laying this fall. i will still get eggs.

i usually feel bad if i gotta kill an animal. well not so much if i am hunting. i know that is part of getting food to eat. i didnt feel any remorse killing these two critters that killed my chickens. actually i felt kinda glad they are gone. they wont ever eat another one of my chickens.

mary and i cleaned the last two chickens we had. i didnt want to lose every one of them. it didnt take long. i made a fire outside to heat the water. i tied the chickens upside down and slit their throats. they bled out as they hung there. we dipped them in the hot water and plucked the feathers off. we cleaned enough chickens that it didnt take us long to get done.

i had already lost 1 rooster and 12 hens. and about a dozen eggs a day. i still feel like i have to go out to the chicken house and feed them or bring in the eggs. old habits. now i got no chickens. hell yeah i am happy i killed that coon and possum.

i had my lab tests this morning. they drew some blood and i have to fill a cup. i have a doctors appointment on monday. my new doc wanted the tests done before i see her. my medications depend on the results of my tests.

i went to another one of my grandson’s baseball games last night. they wanted to spend the night with us before they head to the southwest this weekend. they will leave tonight. so we got a house full of grand kids today. i like that. i love any time i get with the grand kids. i still swear i was kept alive to see my grand kids.

i picked all my cabbages. we had fried cabbage. it really tasted real good. home grown cabbage tastes so much better than store bought. we diced up the rest and put them in food saver bags. we froze them for soups and stews later.

the hayfields in the surrounding area have been cut. the renters of this allotment havent cut our hay yet. it is usually cut by this time. i would always get worried about the field catching fire when we light fireworks. the grass is still green now.

the little rain we got the other night helped my corn. we ‘pose to get more. good.

i went to andrews ball game last night. i texted his mom to tell him misho was coming to his game. he liked that. we drove to lawrence to watch the game. we had our lawn chairs to sit on.  we had no problem with social distancing. people sat in their own groups.

after the game we gave andrew and samuel a hug. we wont be seeing them this week end. they will go see their grand mother from the southwest. they will be back the following week end. misho will probably have to buy fireworks.

we got home late. the game wasnt over til 9 o clock. i had a dog proof trap set for the raccoons that killed my chickens. i also had a live trap set. it was set off but nothing inside it. the raccoons killed all my chickens but two. i will clean them today. i will at least get a coupla meals out of them. i wont buy any more chickens until i trap the raccoons. i ordered some more traps.

we picked some wild black berries yesterday afternoon. there are some volunteer bushes on the north east corner of our house. i didnt cut them down because last year i picked some of the berries. i did stake them to a t post i had. we filled a freezer bag of them. we will use them in a ttibekwe.

there are more black berry bushes by the ditch near our mailbox.i noticed some of the berries got dried up from the early heat we had. thats why i was surprised we had some by our house. maybe it was because they had some shade from the house.

i check on the indian tea i am drying. i fluff it up in the brown paper sack it is in. that is so it gets air and dont stick together. dont want mold to form. i will continue to dry it for a few more days. i should have enough to last me a good part of the year. i used to pick it when i was young. we didnt get to buy pop in them days. so i drank indian tea. as a diabetic i have to stay away from pop today. i can live with that.

the predicted rain we were suppose to get didnt materialize. my corn would really benefit from it. after i cut the suckers off my corn it grew. some of it is waist high. some rain would give it another growth spurt. the squash and indian beans i reseeded havent come up yet. they needed rain.

today i will mow the yard. temps are in the high 70s now. it wont get too warm today. i dont like mowing when it is hot. the grass hasnt grown too high. we didnt get that much rain. i want to keep it cut though. no sense in cutting high grass.

i went after my meds. they changed my metformin. they asked if i heard about that. i said i seen something on facebook but you cant believe everything on that site. i guess the dosage i was taken could cause cancer in some people. i dont wanna die from diabetes or cancer. or covid. or boredom.

got no more chickens. one of my chores is gone. i have plenty of others to do.

i went to pick indian tea. i wanted to pick it before the field is mowed for hay. i can get more later after it is hayed. i picked alot. it weighed about 4 pounds. thats the most i picked. i want enough to drink tea thru out the year.

mary and i stripped the leaves off the stems. i have the tea leaves drying in brown paper grocery sacks. it is in my tool shed. it get hot in there because i have alot of window area. its almost like a hot house sometimes.  after it is dried i will start drinking indian tea. it is a good all around tonic that is good for the whole body.

i was walking my usual two miles. i seen movement in a tree. i stopped to have a better look. it was a small raccoon. then i seen two other raccoons. they were all the same size. the mother musta been out hunting. i took a picture of the little ones.

the little raccoons might be considered cute. but i dont think the one that i caught in my live trap is. it is one of the critters that killed many of my chickens. this one was caught in the cage and there were other dead chickens in the chicken house. must be others.

that raccoon was so big, he ruined my live trap. he ripped up the pressure plate that slams the door shut. the metal was bent. raccoons are tough, til you put a bullet up side their head. i ordered another live trap to replace the ruined one. i will get it delivered thursday.

i set a ladder against the chicken house. i checked out the roof. it is made of corrugated sheet metal. i have some sections that are green fiber glass. it takes the place of windows and lets light in. the green stuff is brittle from being exposed to the weather. the raccoons made a hole thru it to get in.

i nailed a couple of corrugated sheets over the top of the holes. no raccoons got into the chicken house last night. i will continue to set my trap til i catch more. i will bbq the next one i catch. it fattens up on my chickens and i will make a meal out of it. that completes the circle of life eh.

i once had a rooster and 14 hens. now i am left with 6 hens. i got 4 eggs yesterday. that is enough for us. i used to sell my surplus eggs to pay for chicken feed. i seen an ad that advertised chicks on craigslist. i called and talked to the guy. he said he had hundreds of rhode island reds of all ages.

i said i will call back after i took care of my raccoon problem. rhode island reds are my favorite chicken. i like raising chickens. it gives me something to do. i will get some that are 4 months old. they will lay in a month or two for sure. i might get some chicks for next year.

life is never dull. there is always something.

as a gardener, i am always grateful for the rain we get. we didnt get much but in this early heat, any rain we get is welcome.  the ground still has big cracks in it.  they are predicting some more tonite. we got enough rain to make the grass grow.  i will have to mow again.

the rain will give my indian corn a growth spurt. my corn is doing good. that is what corn i have. it has bare spots in it. deer ate some of it. i didn’t reseed. i am going with what i got. as if life, i take what i get.

i cut the suckers off my corn. the main stalk grew visibly taller after this rain. but some of the suckers grew back. i cut some of them off. i have more to do. this rain should make the beans and squash i planted come up. none of the squash came up the first time. i noticed the mexican kickapoo squash came up this time. i will wait to see if the crooked neck squash comes up.

my rabbit beans in the grow beds are doing real good. i have a lot of them. a few of the mattwaoshe beans have started to come up. i will need to water them til they come up. i want to get a good crop of beans. i do have some growing in the corn field too.

last week some thing killed my rooster. i fixed what i thought was the weak spot. several days went by and nothing. thought i took care of it. last night something got into the chicken house and killed 5 hens. my dog is too old to fend off critters. used to be, he would never let any animals into the yard.

i saved two of the carcasses. i will use them as bait in the live cages i have. i did that before and they never bothered it. i will try again. i bought a baby monitor. i will hook it up in the chicken house. if i hear any noise i will go out and blast the varmint. cant be nice about it. once they start killing chickens they dont stop. that is until they are killed themselves.

just got rid of cable. now my internet is making me question my supplier. i get a real weak signal. i called them. they said they would come here friday. if not then monday. yeah yeah. i dont know what the other internet companies are like. i asked a few people what experiences they had with other companies. the company i am with just isnt fast enough. i will look at replacing what i have. i am not getting my moneys worth.

i considered ordering boltons book. then thought naw. why didnt he testify back when they had hearings. yeah i know, it wouldnt have mattered. our president gets a pass on everything he does. i will pass on the book. i will hear whatever is in it anyway.

i walked 8 miles last week. i plan on walking again today. if i do that will be another 8  mile week. gotta walk first though. kinda reminds me of this hunter. he was aiming in on a rabbit. some one came by and asked him how many he had. he answered if i get this one and two more i will have 3. now thats optimism.

gotta rig up my traps n the baby monitor.