Hurry and Wait

Summer has officially arrived. Happy Summer Solstice! For those who live around here that means heat. What struck me about today however was the wind. Yes, the hot, dessicating winds out of the north. Although they are not quite super heated today as they sometimes get mid-summer, they are strong. And as the garden gets blasted and pushed around, I long for a garden fence that is more than just welded hog panels. We have discussed a large 6 foot wooden running along the north and northwest sides of the garden. But now the soil is so completely hard that we would also need to rent an auger.

With the winds and heat, come the deer and the grasshoppers. How does anything ever grow out here? I wonder this sometimes. Anyway, the deer have eaten some grape and various fruit trees. A couple of weeks ago I discovered a dead fawn. I don't know what got it but it was large. Only the head and front legs were left. It was around this time last year that everything started to get eaten. So we shall just have to wait and learn. I killed a grasshopper in the courtyard this morning and it was no fun reliving that memory.

The chickens are doing quite well. The one named Dot who is a Barred Rock and the largest thus far, is the only one who will let us pet her. But she coos softly when we come around and that is enough. Every morning I feed them a treat of some sort almost always something green. The kittens are growing ever larger and Smudge remains skinny as ever. I have decided to feed her while she is nursing these kittens. Yes, that means buying food again. We are really struggling with what to do about fencing. So much of zone 1 and 2 needs protecting. In Introduction to Permaculture Mollison makes it quite clear that in the first few years the hardscapes are the thing. You have to do a lot of construction and moving earth. It is not the most gratifying part but very necessary. So next Fall we will be focusing on planting the trees that thrived this summer and fencing, fencing, fencing, along with maybe a wall thrown in there somewhere.