Bamboo Pea Frame

 What do you make a frame out of to grow vine peas on?? Why Bamboo of course...especially if you have a supply growing right there on the farm!!!! I have been trying to figure out what kind of frame I would need for my climbing peas, and I had a chat with David about this...we both thought of the bamboo...I tired to describe how I wanted it, but opted for drawing a picture...you don't want to see my drawing...but it all turned out perfect anyway!!!!

 Here are some of the bamboo poles as we were clipping all the side shoots off of them to make poles that we could tie together.

This is one of the last to get clipped down to a bare pole...hmmm...I wonder what we should do with the clippings....????

 

 So here is the start of the frame...pretty basic...David did screw it onto the raised bed, so it will be super sturdy...then i tied jute around each place that the poles came together at...

We ran the jute twine from one pole up over the center pole and tied it off on the opposite side...there will be plenty of peas coming up and hopefully the little tendrils will grab onto the twine and reach for the sky.

 

I like these pea planting pictures...they look so straight and hopefully they will germinate and produce tons of yummy snap peas!

 Here it is....the finished product...While I planted, David worked on digging up blackberry roots that have invaded the grapes...not sure if we can keep up with them, I dug up several around the fruit trees yesterday...they are sooooo invasive!

 Here is the Rhubarb plant that I thought died last year...it looks really good doesn't it? and next to it is some asparagus coming up out of the ground...tomorrow I need to plant spinach under the 'pea teepee'...it will come up fast, and we can enjoy fresh spinach, then some peas after that!

Raised beds...the first three,off in the distance are home to Strawberry plants.  There are some blooms on them already, so I'm expecting some nice early strawberries this year.

3rd Annual Apple Juice Pressing

Our 3rd Annual Apple Pressing with Jake and Suz.  This year David came along too!!! He gathered all the apples...there musta been about 8 boxes of them from our tree and also some from his sister Pearl's tree.  My friend Cindie who is a wool dyer, saved empty Vinegar jugs to put the fresh pressed apple cider in for us again this year. 

                                      

Suz picking tomatoes from Jake's garden

Fresh Natural Apple juice running out of the Apple Press that Jake built.

 We cut up the apples, put them into an apple grinder,

then the ground apples were taken and put into the apple press.

And then...it was time for a morning break.....BLOODY MARY's all around!!!!  This was Suz's recipe...
V8 type tomato juice - about 6 oz (?)
Vodka - about 2 oz
Worcestershire sauce
Jalapeño pickle juice
Celery salt and a splash of Tabasco sauce if I'd had any... I put in a pinch of celery seed and a sprinkle of Cerache salt
and then there were the asparagus spears....
Oh!!! it was soooo yummy!!!!!

Back to work....Jake ran the press and

Suz held the funnel....Oh what a sweet smell!!!!

Four of the 11? gallons....I don't really remember how many there were....there were tons of apples...and David, Suz and I just kept cutting and sending them down the chute to the grinder....

Apples awaiting the slaughter!!!! lol

The inside of the Apple Press

Suz pouring us some Hard Apple Cider from the Apple Pressing day of 2011....tasty and bubbly...and look.....we have cheese and snacks and there was some killer Salsa that she made too.....mmmm

Thanks Suz!!!!!!!

Yeah I brought Salsa in a jar...but next to it is her home made Salsa...oh! gosh it was so good!   

Done and Doner....we had a bit of wine after the Bloody Mary's after the Hard Apple Cider...but we had lots of snacks....and then we went and watched Suz chop wood.....lol!!!!!!

She's pretty good with that maul!!!!!



Golden Crowned Sparrow

Several days ago I was sitting outside...there appeared on the ground close to me, a golden crowned sparrow.  He looked so still...not eating...just sitting on the ground.  I watched him for awhile, then he started to hop about, but only on one leg...he drug his other leg behind him.  But there He was in his breeding plumage-I don't believe he knew that he was different than the other birds.  Then just yesterday...he flew in to sit on the wire where the bird feeders hang...he hung on just fine with only ONE leg.  I found him quite beautiful with his flashy yellow strip of feathers on his head - he looked plump and well fed~It gave me great hope to see this small fellow...and it made me think of the word... 

Perseverance:

...to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.

 

Klamath Basin Birding

Mickey and I went birding to the Klamath Basin on sunday.  It was dark when I picked her up at 6:30 and we went into town and had breakfast! Fresh squeezed OJ for both of us...and I know I had some sort of scrambed eggs and ham, but all I can remember is how HUGE the biscuit was - I mean you could made a meal just out of that biscuit!!! (Black Bear Diner in Grants Pass)....Then we started heading out toward Central Point to go up Lake of the Woods highway over to Klamath Falls.  I hadn't had my coffee fix for the day, so Mickey and I stopped at Dutch Brothers on Washburn Way and she got us some coffee treats!!!! We got back on the road and headed out through Merrill towards Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge in Northern California.  We finished off at Lower Klamath Lake back on the Oregon side, then on back home...again in the dark...another fantastic birding adventure with my best friend in the world! Thanks Mickey!

Mount McLoughlin from The Great Meadow wayside

Upper Klamath Lake FROZEN!

Upper Klamath Lake

Red Tail Hawk just below the highway, past Running Y

Red Tail Take-off

Red Tail Hawk



Discovery Marsh - Tule Lake Refuge HQ



Cat Tails going to seed

Seed fluff from the Cat Tails.  It felt soft enough to spin like wool!



Looking out over the frozen ponds at Discovery Marsh





Golden crowned Sparrow



Golden crowned Sparrow

Golden crowned Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Song Sparrow

House Sparrow



Young House Sparrow



Song Sparrow

Best Friend Mickey

All the canals were FROZEN!

Young Immature Red Tail Hawk

Red Tail



Shrike at Tule Lake



Tundra Swans, Geese and Ducks at Tule Lake. 
We were in a blind, but they were really far out on to the lake even with my 300 mm lens.

Mick and I drove over to Lower Klamath.  I like the auto drive route over there...again most everything was frozen, but we found a few ducks.  Here is a female Northern Shoveler.

Male Northern Shoveler

Coot! Plenty of these...they're kinda cute!

Female Anerican Wigeon

Red Tailed Hawk - Rufous Morph
All my hawks were Identified by Greg Gillson! I am lucky enough to have him help me with these ID's and give me pointers as what to look for! Will I ever get it????!!!!!

In past years near this area Mickey and I have seen White Faced Ibis and one year two donkeys in a corral!  Nothing here this year, except frozen water, and an occasional hawk flying over hunting.

Ice Ice Baby

Okay...now this is another area of Tundra Swans, Geese and ducks, but if you click on this picture and look in the center you will see a Coyote...We watched it walk out on the frozen lake trying to get close enough for a snack!  Way off to the left (you can't see it in this photo) there was another coyote - they usually work together when hunting.  All of a sudden the far coyote started heading back to the shore, and so did this one.  Wonder if they could hear the ice start to crack under foot?  We were thinking how brave and stupid they were at first, but then when they turned around and went back, we thought how smart they really are!!!! Wow....Good moment 'birding' for us!

Male Bald Eagle

Northern Shovlers with two bufflehead females

Yellow Headed Blackbird

Yellow Headed Blackbird

Yellow Headed Blackbird

We were in the truck stopped with the windows and sun roof open...watching this huge wave of different blackbirds flying and landing.  For sure we saw Yellow headed and Red Winged...and probably Brewers in the Mix...

Sun starting to go down...Canada Geese flying....lots of geese were lifting off the water as
 we were heading home back over the mountains to Hugo....

Sunset lighting the hills to the east