August Adventures

 

August is a messy month when the garden goes out of control. Weeds run rampant as they sense the end is coming and they need to set seed. The annual flowers do the same. Pumpkins, squash, and cucumbers grow rebellious, spreading into places where I did not intend them to grow, almost as if they know I do not have the heart to curtail their runaway vines. Everything gets big, tall, top-heavy, and over-extended. Things fall over. They collapse under their own weight. It is untidy and ungovernable.

The mornings last week were cool and dew-drenched. On my morning walks, I got soaked to the shins walking through the dewy garden. The trees dripped dew like it had rained in the night. When the sun breached the hilltop, everything sparkled with the dew. It was lovely.

Soon after the sun was up, it warmed up but didn't get hot yet. That's my favorite time for working in the garden, from sunup to late morning. The day is young and I feel fresh and full of energy. My first task of the day is collecting snails and Japanese beetles. While I feel energetic, they are sluggish in the cool and dewy hours and are easy pickings. Weeds also pull up easier when the ground is damp with dew. They relax their roots and come up with a good tug. I find pulling them up relaxing too. Weeding is therapeutic.

On Monday morning, I worked on moving firewood. I loaded what I could lift into the wagon on the mower and drove it out to the pavilion. After breakfast, Miriam and the children helped. Russell let me take him for a ride on the mower for the first time. He's usually too scared to let me. And June got her first lesson on driving the mower. Most of the wood was too heavy for us to move, so Kurt came over with his tractor and loaded some of the larger, heavier pieces into the back of his pickup truck and I drove them over to the pavilion where we piled them to await the arrival of the log splitter. We worked at that for several hours and moved four of the piles in the front yard.

By then it was time for lunch and after that, swimming. It had warmed to 84° and the sun was bright and hot, but the water at the pond was cold and I did not go in. The children seem oblivious to the cold and jumped right in. We stayed at the pond until it was time to come home and do the chores.

On Tuesday the final round of summer guests began. Rachel and Hazel arrived at dinnertime. Next door, Kurt and Julie drove up to Buffalo and picked up their daughter Kohl and her three children. Later that night our niece Missy and her family flew into Buffalo and rented a car and drove down. So with the Thayns at our house and the Shillig's guests next door, the party mood picked up again.

My war with rodents escalated last week. I haven't had my birdfeeders up all summer because of chipmunks, but it didn't help. They moved into the upper part of the barn. They were very bold. When I threw scratch or slop out in the chicken yard for the flock, they joined them, feeding without a care, knowing I couldn't do anything to them without risking hurting a chicken. I set traps for them inside the barn, but they weren't interested in any of the bait I used, having ample food of higher quality at their disposal. They chew holes in my feed buckets. They also come into the woodshed looking for food. They tear open the trash bags and make a mess. Stacey keeps a rat trap set in the woodshed at all times and caught a chipmunk in it on Monday. Rachel told me about a bucket trap she uses at her house and we set one up on the barn bridge on Thursday and caught one. That's two less, but there are always more.

My fancy chipmunk trap.

I also have trouble with a few very fat voles in my vegetable garden. The reason they are fat is because they have been feasting on my carrots. I need to get more mousetraps. I usually bait them with peanut butter, but they obviously prefer carrots. I'll have to figure out a way to attach carrots to the traps.

The nest of rabbits in my lily bed was finally empty on Monday. The last of the bunnies hopped out and joined their family in the brushy wilderness across the road. I was glad they were finally gone. I hope they don't feel a longing to revisit their childhood home. Cute as they were, I will shoot them if they come back into the garden. It is amazing how much damage a rabbit can do among the vegetables. Ask Mr. McGregor. With the nest abandoned, I dug up all the lilies and cleaned out the bed. I replanted the lilies in the newly renovated bed out in the side yard.

And I'm still fighting rats in the chicken coop. Of all the rodents I wage war on, they are the wiliest. They get wise to my traps. They ignore different baits I try. I dig out their holes and cave in their tunnels, and they just dig new ones. The thing that works best is to shoot them, but that means sitting in the dark at night, shining a light, and trying to shoot them as they scurry into their holes. They are fast and it is frustrating. They seem to know the limits of my patience. Kurt is more patient than I am and will sit longer, and he's a better shot than I am. He went down several nights last week with Chance and Hudson and they shot five. There are still plenty more.

There are certain things that I expect in August and last week they arrived right on cue. The first was cicadas. We don't get the massive brood hatch here. We are just beyond the edge of their range. We just hear one or two on hot August afternoons droning high in the trees. It is a sound that I love. The other seasonal sound I love is crickets. Early spring evenings have peepers. Early summer evenings have bullfrogs. High summer evenings are full of cricket song. Another sign that we've come to expect in August is the peacock shedding his train. Every year he loses his beautiful long tail feathers. We find them all over the yard. Florence loves to go out every day and gather them. She has a big bouquet of them.

Another August event is the Potter County Fair. It went from the August 1st to today. We went on Wednesday afternoon. We made our way along our usual route through the display pavilions and the animal sheds. We saw people we know all along the route. We ended, as we always do, at the taffy vendor.

Checking out the children's craft winners.

Russell checking out the tractors.

Best in show quilt made from prize ribbons.

A friendly goat.

At the county fair.

Finishing at the taffy booth.

When we got back from the fair, we had dinner at the Shillig's. They made meatball subs and mosquito salad and popsicles for dessert. It was an excellent meal eaten with some excellent people.

Dinner on the Shillig's back porch.

We were supposed to get a thunderstorm on Thursday so we worked hard to get things done before it arrived. I spent most of the day continuing my makeover of the long border. That day I worked on redoing the front end. I paused for a while midday to go into town with Rachel to Tractor Supply. There was a rumor that they had late chicks and guinea keets for sale at bargain prices. I was hesitant to undertake raising chicks this late in the season, but the Fosters wanted them and they had accommodations for them over at the farmhouse, so I agreed to go along with it. We bought all the keets they had – fifteen of them – and five chicks, two Golden Laced Wyandottes and three Amber Links. We brought them back and set up a pen for them over behind the Foster's barn in a repurposed dog kennel. I will be the one mostly taking care of them. I'm not sure where the new guinea flock will ultimately be housed. Maybe my lone guinea can join them later on. There's always new adventures when you farm.

The redone flowerbed.

Florence and her cousin Scarlett picking out chicks.

Home with a boxful of poultry.

The new chicks' home, for now.

We also finished moving the last of the logs off the front lawn and out to the pavilion that afternoon. Kurt managed to make it fun by giving tractor rides in between loads. My niece Missy's husband, Chance, helped load and unload logs. He could heft logs way too heavy for me. It's nice to have the front lawn clear. Now I have to work on repairing the damage.

Friday morning, I went out right away to check on the new chicks and keets. They were fine. Then I continued my walk across the big garden, down to the beaver pond and back home through the orchard. The sunrise was very pretty.

Friday morning walk out through the big garden.

Down to the beaver pond.

Through the orchard.

Home again.

Miriam, Rachel, and the children went on an outing for the day with the gang next door. They went up to Rochester to the Strong Toy Museum. Stacey and Hannah were at work. That left me home, alone, in a very quiet house all day. I wasn't actually in the house. It was a beautiful day and I spent it in the garden. I continued ransacking the long border. I finished the lower part. The upper part will be this week's project.

Kids at the toy museum.

Friday was Sarah's birthday. She wanted pizza for her birthday dinner. Everyone else was still out, so dinner was just Stacey, Hannah, Sarah, and I. Sarah made the pizza – fried sourdough crusts, some with pesto and cheese, some with tomato sauce and cheese. They were delicious. As dinner was ending, Kurt and Julie and Missy arrived and brought presents. The real party was planned for Saturday because Tosh was out of town and we wanted to wait for him to come home. The museum crew arrived shortly after that.

After waiting all week for predicted thunderstorms and rains that never came, finally on Friday evening they arrived. Nothing great. Hardly any thunder and very slow, soft rain. It was appreciated even so. Things have been dry. Miriam went out and cut gladiolus before the rain had a chance to knock them over and made a beautiful bouquet. Around midnight it rained harder. The house was warm and we had the windows open and the rain was loud enough to wake me up. I listened to it until it lulled me back to sleep.

Friday evening as the rain arrived.

Miriam's glad bouquet.

Saturday started out overcast and humid. I thought it might rain, but it cleared and became a beautiful day. I spent the day working in the orchard. First I mowed then I mulched the fruit trees. I'm putting all the wood chips from the maple trees to good use. The day turned hot and the work was hard. I had to carry the mulch to each tree, a bucket at a time. It looked nice when I was done.

Mulched apple trees.

Saturday evening we celebrated the second day of Sarah's birthday. We had a Mexican fiesta – tacos, rice and beans, homemade salsa, guacamole, horchata, and Brazilian limeade. After dinner, we sang happy birthday and there were more presents. The big present, and a big surprise, was four bunnies. Sarah and Tosh already had two rabbits. These four new ones came from the county fair, two each of two different breeds, Dutch and Netherlands Dwarf. 

Birthday bunnies.

We're home from church now. Our meetings were good. We had a good turnout, for Wellsvillle anyway. That was because we had a lot of visitors, most of them family. That will change now as we've come to the last days of family visits. Missy and Chance were our speakers and they both gave great talks. We're almost ready to eat lunch. After that there's talk of driving over to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon to take a walk along Pine Creek. It's a beautiful summer day, perfect for a walk. This evening we're gathering at the Shillig's for a Sabbath Soiree. Sarah is presenting a Bread and Spread with a selection of homemade breads and various things to spread on them.

The week ahead looks interesting. The forecast says there is a chance for rain and or thunderstorms every day. We could use some rain, but not every day, please. I have lots of plans for work. We have guests departing, the Thayns and Roberts on Tuesday and the Atwaters on Friday, and it would be nice to spend our final days doing more than sitting indoors, watching it rain. We'll see.