Gardening 2014

[maeve]

It's cold here (and warm there, Jennie and Sandra) but gardening must go on.

First thing this morning I lopped off the branches of our beautiful Balsam Fir Christmas tree, the branches to be spread on
my native wildflower nursery bed.  Next, I've gathered the fallen needles on the quilt we used as a tree skirt and on a spare bedsheet. There's my stuffing for Balsam pillows for gifts! (photos to follow.)

I also cleaned many windowsill plants, and the windows and sills. Next: planting pinches of basil for our culinary delight.

In between, all morning, sweeping, moving furniture, and tending not only the lovely Oilcan, but Jantwo (pronounced in a very French manner), my little bantam who sat in the cold draft by the coop door after her family and friends scratched away the hay barrier I had carefully stuffed there...and who now has a painful case of frostbite on both feet.

[sandrainsydney]

poor little chook!

you have been busy - are you using a window of slightly warmer weather to do all the garden work?

sandra

[maeve]

Not especially warm (20 F)- my activities have been inside except for heaving the tree trunk and big bag stuffed full of Balsam branches out the door.
I'll have to spread the branches early tomorrow, before driving to my mother's place to help her with some tasks.

Too cold and too much snow and thick ice still to do much outside, although my husband did cut down many of the broken trees damaged in the ice storm.

[jennieg]

Poor chookie! It's difficult for us to imagine just how cold you must all be.......we have nothing with which to compare it at all.

[ragdall]

You are certainly keeping busy. You're very good at finding uses for everything. I think that I can smell the balsam needles from here. Or maybe it's one of the balsams in my backyard that I smell?

I hope your little hen will recover fully. In the meanwhile she must be enjoying being inside the warm house.

rags

[ragdall]

maeve, you inspired me. I pulled all the dried leaves and blooms off from the fifteen indoor/outdoor geraniums in one basement window and watered the plants.

[maeve]

Good for you, rags! You'll all feel better.

Hen is feeling very low today. Doing my best for her may not be enough.

[ragdall]

Poor little hen. I hope that she'll take a turn for the better.

[maeve]

Thank you, rags. That will depend on how well she can fight. One foot is developing gangrene. She didn't want to eat or drink when I checked her at dawn, but I did manage to entice her with good thick Greek yogurt. An hour or so later she was willing to drink and to eat a portion of her pellets softened with hot water, then again on her own once more later this morning. I heard the roosters calling her, so took her out for a brief meet and greet with her flock family. If she doesn't heal we will make sure her flock sees her before we bury her.

In the meantime I washed three of the six big southern windows. I first moved the 3 big pots of different Clivia cultivars, as well as the many small to medium pots of amaryllis, cleaned dead leaves off, and drenched them all with seaweed fertilizer. Then I fastened the window washer/squeegee to a long pole for a different cleaning tool and washed the windows with hot soapy water, squeegeed, wiped the dirt and water from sills, and replaced the plants. Boy howdy, will you take a look? We can see through the windows!

The sun came out- gifting us with 42 degrees F- so I washed several loads of dirty people laundry and chicken laundry. Hung 'em out to dry. Brought in everything when the wind came up with a vengeance.

My Truelove has spent the day pruning apple trees... he's still out there, in fact. We're trying some new pruning approaches this year.

[ragdall]

maeve, you exert so much energy every day. You certainly accomplished a lot. It must have been great to see better through the clean windows. I wonder if it will allow more sunlight to warm your home, as well?

How is Jantwo doing?

[maeve]

rags, at the moment she is recovering from the removal of the gangrenous foot and leg.
I won't go into details that may be distressing, but she is bandaged and settled comfortably
in her laundry basket, supported with padding and towels.

She has drunk water with medication and has eaten half of a scrambled you-know-what  with
yogurt. I'll know more in the next week or so as to how well she recovers. I have burned trash
and scrubbed the area and am quietly sipping a large mug of good and hot tea with quite a large
splash of our maple syrup in it.

[sandrainsydney]

poor little chook

[jennieg]

Yes, poor chookie!

[ragdall]

You're very brave, maeve, to do what had to be done. I hope that the surgery will save Jantwo's life and that she'll be able to return to her flock or become a great indoor friend to Oilcan.

rags

[maeve]

Thank you, Sandra, Jennie, and rags. It was hard, but necessary.