Looking Good

On Monday, Phil moved the cows from one neighbor's land to the other. I always enjoy the day that they are in view from my door: the gleam of their red coats through the trees makes me happy. Phil said they are looking good, well-fed and shiny, the picture of health.

I was sitting with Abraham, when Jadon came in, his little secret smile on his face. He casually set down a jar on the table, filled with a wildflower display he had collected around the orchard. I don't know what tickled me more: his eye for beauty, his happy secret smile, or the love behind the flowers. It looks good.

Up near the road, some day lilies, planted a couple years back, burst into bloom. Isaiah must have heard me compliment Jadon on his flower collection, since a few minutes later he came to the house, bearing a gift: the entire top of the daylily plant, heavy with blossoms now for our eyes only. The top of the driveway isn't looking quite as good, but I appreciate the thought and dispatch with which Isaiah also blessed me with flowers.

In the moonbed, I have other orange flowers to make up for the plucked daylily: a single nasturtium bloom, with hope for more to come.

In the orchard, a few of the most vigorous and dwarfing apples are growing their fruit well. About golf ball size now, I like their beautiful form and the red blush on some.

The orchard itself looks beautiful. The understory nicely mown, it looks managed, manicured.

In the apple nursery, many of the young trees show sprouts now several inches tall. So cute!

In the greenhouse, the 200 goji berry plants that I've potted on gladden my heart. I have about 15 sprouts a day, so a simple daily transplanting keeps up with the task. I don't think I actually got the 1000 seeds I ordered (I suspect only about half that), so I won't have quite the quantity I had hoped for, but it is fun to have a few hundred growing well. (And, really, I didn't have the heart to count the tiny seeds.)

With the 600 comfrey cuttings in the greenhouse, I received my shipment of 100 year-old comfrey plants. What a difference! These are large, beautiful plants. We plan to put them in the orchard, and because we hope to multiply them over time, we plan to put them not between the trees (since that could be damaging to the apple roots, if we dig up transplants regularly), but down a row. That will be easier to harvest as feed for cows, too.

The garlic bed has three vigorous scapes standing up straight.

Most of the scapes remain curled over. Once they go upright, the book says that the straightening up process also helps the plant harden off: rather than an easy, wet snap off (which happens with the scapes at this stage), the scapes will supposedly turn woody: they will harden. The hardening should help with storage. I'm ready: I've had a good number of garlic bulbs go bad while waiting for fall planting.

The bed clearly needs to be weeded: next year, I won't plant in an offset pattern, but make sure the garlic goes in straight lines: that will make hoeing much easier!

I had planted herbs in my funny olive oil container planters (idea courtesy of Organic Gardening Magazine). The basil, lemon balm, and such grew almost none, but I think they're finally starting to look filled out. They rest on the hitch for the trailer, which keeps them up off the ground and away from puppies, and I like them.

On Monday, while Phil did many weeks of laundry, Butch came and dug the perimeter of the metal building. The little boys thought it great fun to run around when he was finished. Continued progress on construction looks good to me.

Phil had noticed that a line on the tractor was leaking hydraulic fluid. (It seemed that had just happened, but he said the lines on the backhoe had sprung a leak: different implement.) He went to replace that single hose, but when he checked the rest, he realized most were ready to spring leaks. And he looked at the hydraulic fluid, and that needed changing. So he dealt with the tractor for most of the day, but it looks like it's in good shape now.

Butch couldn't believe we'd put about 900 hours on the tractor in the last year. It's been a necessary, helpful implement for us.

We were going to dig daffodils after the heat of the day passed, when suddenly a terrific rainstorm struck. With almost an inch in about a half hour, the rain quickly saturated everything. Daffodil digging will wait for another day.