Rhinebeck Progress

Well I'm slowly but surely making progress on my Rhinebeck projects!

First up is a skein of Ashland Bay BFL wool.  I think it was 4 oz, spun and double plied.  It definitely isn't perfect, so it will be interesting to see how it does.  This will go in the 2-ply natural colored wool category.

The single plies on the outside.

Plied yarn.

Second is a cable lace cowl, knit out of a handspun skein of 50:50 camel:silk.  I'm not quite done, on row 52 of 62.  It looks pretty good, even though the yarn is fairly uneven.  I think it will look a lot better once it is blocked.

Not the best picture, but this is the cowl so far.

The crazy 2-page chart!

No Tomatoes...

Yes, we have no tomatoes, we have no (ripe) tomatoes today...

Yes, we have no tomatoes, tomatoes in Norwich, NY...

(bonus points if you get the reference!)

I would give anything for my tomatoes to ripen already!  I've picked 4 ripe heirlooms (yellow perfection), and a handful of ripe cherries, but that's it!  The rest of the tomatoes have tons of green fruit, but nothing is ripening!  I gave the tomatoes a bit of fertilizer this week, and it is a bit warmer, so hopefully that will help!

Finishing the Fence!!

Well it isn't completely done, but the fence is 99% finished!

Yesterday we finished the last remaining side of the perimeter fence.

Today I worked on the rest of the aisle fence.

We also hung the gate yesterday, but I still need to wire-tie some chicken wire to the gate.

I got half of the aisle fence attached to the posts, and will do the rest tomorrow.

We also worked on evicting our groundhog resident from the shed.

And we finished the shed pen and make-shift gate.

There is still another couple hours worth of work to do tomorrow morning, but the llamas are going to christen their new pasture by the afternoon!  Can't wait!

Ongoing Issues

I never realized there were so many things that could go wrong with a garden!

The first problem, which I've talked about before, has been cucumber beetles and squash bugs.  At first I was just smushing the eggs whenever I found them, but they were still getting out of control.

Cucumber beetle eggs and a mature squash beetle.

Phase 2 of the control measures was sticky traps and neem oil.  They sell yellow sticky traps specifically for cucumber beetles, but you can only order them online and they're about $20 for 2!  I found some yellow sticky fly traps at Tractor Supply Company in town, and decided to try those.  They were $7 for 2!  Unfortunately I caught a lot more than just cucumber beetles, but they do seem to have worked.  I also applied neem oil to the squash, pumpkin, and cucumber plants for a few weeks.  It can kill pollinators though, so I've decided to quit applying it.  I've been finding a lot less egg clusters, so hopefully I made a dent in the population.

My sticky trap.

For some reason, the cucumber beetles don't seem to be laying eggs on the cucumbers.  It is weird, but I'm okay with it!

Good-looking cucumbers!

The squash plants had quit producing fruits, I think it may have been because of the heat.  Luckily it has cooled down, and I've seen a couple of baby squash on the plants.

Crowded squash.

The newest problem is the tomatoes!  Several of the plants were starting to yellow at the bottom, which can be a sign of several different diseases (mostly blights and wilts) as well as many nutrient deficiencies.  I decided to be safe and remove all of the yellow branches, and put them in the trash (not the compost!).  I'm also going to give them several treatments of compost tea and maybe some other fertilizers, just in case it is a deficiency.

Yellowing on the tomato plants.

Close-up of the yellowing leaves.

Pruned plant.

Hanging Fence!!

We're finally hanging fence!

I set up the wires for the braces a few days ago (well, all but one), so today we set out to start hanging the fence.

First we had to build our fence stretcher.  It is 2 pieces of 2x4, cut to 4.5'.  We drilled 2 holes and added 2 bolts.  The fence gets sandwiched between the pieces of wood, and the nuts on the bolts tightened as much as possible.

Next we had to strip the vertical wires from the end of the fence roll, and tie the end of the fence around the gate post.  Just stripping those wires took an hour!

Then we unrolled the fence along the fence row, and attached the stretcher.  We wrapped a chain around the top and bottom of the stretcher, and attached a come-along between the chain and the tractor.  We had a lot of extra slack in the fence, so we backed the tractor up before tightening with the come-along.

Once the fence was tight enough, we stapled it at the corner.  Tomorrow we'll stretch the next length of fence (and splice the next roll in between).

We didn't get much done in all reality, but hopefully it will go faster in the future!

Done!!

Not much to write about tonight, other than that I finally finished a giant knitting project I've been working on!  I started it over a month ago, so I'm very happy to be done!  And now I can start my Rhinebeck projects!!

A sneak peek of the project.  Can't give away any more details, as it is a surprise gift!

Fruits (& Veggies) of My Labor!!

It is so nice to get produce from my garden finally!  It still isn't in full production, but it is close!

I've already harvested all of the main heads off the broccoli, but the side shoots are coming along nicely.

Potatoes are almost done flowering, no idea when they'll get harvested though.

Two different batches of onions.  I've already picked 1-2 onions, but the rest are still a bit small.  The tiny ones on the left have quite awhile to go.

Cucumbers!  There are 2 this size, and tons of tiny ones.  Hopefully I've gotten rid of most of the beetles...

The spinach that my husband requested.  It isn't doing great in the hot weather, but hopefully it will get big enough to pick.

The biggest 2 of the baby pumpkins.

The third batch of radishes that I planted.  I picked a couple today, but most still need another week or so.

The cucumber plants look good too!

The squash plants are huge!  I think I planted them too close together.  I've harvested 4 of these already.

My favorite little patch of the garden, even if it isn't the most productive.  This had radishes (they're all picked now), and still have beets, carrots, onions, and peppers.  The pepper plants look good, but they still haven't flowered.

I have TONS of baby tomatoes!

Only 1 ripe one though!

The cherry tomato plant that is taller than me!

And of course, a grazing llama picture!