Ogre

I’m hauling 300 gallons of water to the property every day. The well has struggled to supply the house so I shut off the pump and just fill my holding tank in the basement with whatever is left over from watering. If I were not off work rehabbing this shoulder then my gardens would be screwed. Hauling water is an investment in time and lots of wear and tear on equipment. My heart goes out to these folks that rely on it for income.

We are having a serious rainfall deficit for it being so early in the summer. These shots tell the tale. These guys who aren’t playing like I am and are relying on results for profits are screwed. Scorched corn. Three inch tall soybeans. These guys spend $10G or more to fit a field. No rain in the forecast either.

Bingo! My Mohawk heritage was acknowledged and discussed as a boy. A large part of the reason we lived how we did was because of that inherited lifestyle. I’ve always been annoyed with the Indians/Redskins name and the depictions used in advertising of Native peoples. My BIL is a Redskins’ fan and the conversation today lead me to the realization that my in-law family sees nothing wrong with marginalizing Native peoples. My BIL has several pieces of “art” displayed in their home using the customary derogatory imagery so in a discussion on BLM tonight I shared my history and how I felt. They looked at me like I had two heads. Mother. *****. Shocking.

I grew up on a farm. My affection for them was tested by the brutality they face in those situations. That little black one (her name is Little Bear and her eyes are up here thank you very much) was dropped off at my neighbor farm. There’s a whole story I told about her being chipped and the original owner(always hated that term) being threatened with animal cruelty. If you look back you may find it. If you drop your cat off at a farm thinking your sending them to a good life, shame on you. Ogre will find you. Hopefully he’ll at least find your abandoned pet and give it a new hope you rat bastard.

Black cat sees the fire Near the crooked path she sits Ears facing forward

I knew I had to wrap them before winter, we lost hundreds of bare root trees to the deer eating them up. Late September seemed safe. I guess I never expected a buck rub. Anyways I considered using some leftover drainage pipe to protect the newer ones but I have to wrap anything below 7’ with wire anyways so wait until late August and wrap the entire tree with a 7’ fence.

He was back today. Same spot. Poor little guy is hungry.

I think this guy sucks. Retweeting “white power”? Letting Vlad put a bounty on our heads? And on and on with this guy. His name comes up in a course (that was written before his tenure) that warns young apprentices to be wise with their earnings and not go bankrupt. Joker. Lier. Racist. Little. Tiny. Loser. Bankrupt. My country takes the world stage as a B actor with him as director.

And the last one. I helped my neighbor load out an old maple tree that he had had cut down. I took a few of the bigger hunks home and chainsawed a hole straight through one to use as a planter. My wife planted a clematis and I welded up a big ass trellis for it....Uhhh...not big enough.

Just a couple more. The habanero spray worked but wasn’t effective. Once they got the taste for spice they were all in so I put up a fence with some old fishing line. I watched from the deck as they tried to figure out what magic was keeping them from the sunflowers. They just moved on to the heirloom popcorn so I spent the day doing PT, then weeding and building a higher fishing line fence around the popcorn. So far I’m losing far less than last year. It would be nice to eat some popcorn this year.

This guy was hanging out by the rock wall today. Much less aggressive than the other guy I saw. (Oops. I meant “seen”)

This is my neighbor’s cat Huckleberry. No relation to our resident @Huckleberry that I know of. He was an old cat when we built the place seven years ago. He used to be a much brighter shade of orange and we haven’t seen him in a while. He’s also traveling a good distance to get here so it sure was nice to see the old boy!

These pumpkins sprouted up in this well digested compost pile from last year. I was going to use it but decided to let these guys grow. The second is how I get a hot pile started to begin with. Our town has free mulch that they load up with a bobcat the last Saturday of every summer month. I just bury our home compost in it and it will reduce to about the size of the other pile. They say a ten foot pile will get hot enough to cook any seeds it contains but the pumpkins went in the pile late and it obviously wasn’t hot enough anymore. Think I’ll get more mulch and start a fresh pile toward fall.

And this is my faithful little dwarf peach tree. It’s been good for 30 or so peaches every year but this spring it got leaf curl fungus as did the rest of the peach trees but this guy got it the worst. Absolutely nothing you can do about it either. Water with love and hope it springs back.

Of the fourteen, twelve were replaced. The newbies were doing soooo good up until the gypsy moth explosion. It’s really bad here in Bristol Mtn area. The only thing we can do is go out with a cup of soapy water and pick them off. They’ve really messed with the apple and cherry trees. Eating the leaves completely off. They grow back(cause I water with 100+ gallons every two days religiously) and they eat them all off again! Mother *****!

So I’ve shared photos of my gardening successes. Let’s look at some lesser results. The first 14 fruit trees that I planted were doing well but one evening while pulling into the driveway I noticed they all looked weird. Upon further inspection I noticed that one of the bucks had stripped the bark from them with his antlers. I saw red! If I could have found the culprit I would have choked it to death with my bare hands. Mrs. iT found a product that was supposed to seal them up. I have two left from the original 14 as most were damaged too badly. Very costly mistake. Now I have them wrapped before the bucks want to rub. This is one of the survivors.

FTR, I believe that the sacrifices made by the people doing the right thing and staying home had the biggest role in NY’s recovery. How the hell did Ontario county, being 300+ miles from NYC, get herd immunity? If you really think that’s the case, and not that the good people of NY did the right thing, then I’d like talk to you about some land for sale. It isn’t full of glacial gravel and rocks. I swear.

But then my vehicle would be all smashed up. Another problem with them is they run into the road and ruin people’s cars and drive insurance rates up. This is one of the babies blindly running out into the road on the crest of a hill that people drive pretty fast on. Out here in the country a speed limit is a suggestion.

There are six out here in our hay field. Two mothers and four fawns. Soon after this pic we had two bucks to the North in our little orchard having a big D contest. I’m not eligible for the nuisance permits as I don’t make profit from my produce. There isn’t much more that I can legally do and they are literally doubling in number.

I take a deer every year but what the hell am I going to do with all the rest? My new plan for next year is to plant some dummy gardens that I don’t bother weeding. Enough that they can have whatever and leave mine alone.

The deer are at an infestation rate around here. The farmer that we let have rent-free access to the larger lots had 12 nuisance permits last year. You have to prove a significant loss of income to get those permits. It doesn’t even make a dent in how many deer there are. This particular garden is devoted to learning how to defeat these pricks. (That’s why all my other gardens have a six foot fence).

A small garden is Zen. A large time/financial investment is not. My fenced in stuff is a source of Joy. This experimental garden can be frustrating. I grew up on a farm so I understand the perils. The GD vermin loot you like a band of bandits. Right now the sunflowers are being gobbled up at a rate that I could end up with a handful of flowers from HUNDREDS of plants. I tried a habanero spray but they ate them anyway. Yesterday I drove some posts and wrapped a few hundred feet of fishing line around them. I hunkered on the deck and watched them tonight. They were befuddled by the invisible barrier. Good. Go F yourselves you thieving bastards.

Where could they have possibly picked up THAT idea?

I’m embarrassed that my country can’t contain this like all of the other first world countries could.