First harvest of strawberries

My mom holding up one of the beauties.

Just a small sampling  of strawberries from my garden. They are sweet and very juicy, which means I need to use them damn soon.  Damn good haul I am going to have this year.

It Is Time For Doggy Porn!

Connor's long, sexy & furry back.
(Just look @ that sexy spine! lol)

Yes, dog porn. Connor typically hates cameras and usually attempts to photo-bomb his own photos, so getting him to actually do this with a camera on him is a miracle in itself, but not unheard of. Every now& then, on a blue moon, in a very distant solar system far unknown to us, he will ... do doggy softcore porn.  Yes, yes. I know, "porn is the of the Devil."  But that is neither here nor there.... It's not bad for such an aging pet of 12 or 13 years old.  Well, now I can feel the strange, heated, disgusted looks I am getting from people all across the interwebz, so I will just let you all get to the dirty, dirty pictures and let the Devil work his magic over you. Enjoy!

(Very Bandwidth Heavy!)

To Spreadsheet, Or Not To Spreadsheet?

This is quite the dilemma for me. I need to come up with either special program -- which I still have the skills for, or build a spreadsheet for some calculations. If I were to build an application for myself, I would need to sit down and plan it out thoroughly. On the other hand, spreadsheets require much less to nearly zero planning. They are all finished much sooner, quicker than an application.  I guess it really comes down to what my specific needs are and if a spreadsheet can meet that criteria. Hmm.... I must geek on this. Geek, I must....

Another Turning Day, Continued

Okay, so my Aunt’s pile is freshly turned & aerated.  It looks to have about another 1 to 1 ½ weeks till it is technically finished, barring any more heavy rains since I cannot really cover it.  That will be just in time for a garden project that my Aunt and a Friend of hers will be doing together.  Not to mention the one project I was have talking about earlier this year which is also a raised garden bed.  This project which be growing a variety of squash for a fall harvest, so I actually need to get on that sooner than later. Never enough time and resources. LOL!  Speaking of this specific project, I am going to do a mini-hugelkulture bed with some cottonwood trees that are around my Aunt’s property.  In combination with the fresh compost, I think it will make for some really large squash.  Something that I think she will get quite a kick out of.  Currently, she has several cottonwood trees that are too close to her property line and are in a very wet area. Regardless, they need to come down.  I am going to cut the smaller ones down, cut them into rounds, and place them in the garden bed.  I know that fresh cut logs could become a nitrogen-sink, but I can mitigate that with some horse manure, and place the compost soil on top of that.  Also, the cottonwood should help the garden soil from becoming too wet/saturated by groundwater and allows for proper drainage from rain water.  I am not sure how tall it will be just yet, but probably safe to bet around the 18-inch marker.  I might have to dig down into the soil a bit to make sure it does not exceed that height.   I will post some pictures when I get to building that project, so keep an eye out for it.

Another Turning Day

My Aunt and Mother have both told me with much excitement that her pile is steaming big time. With all of the passing showers we have had in the last few  days, hopefully it is not too saturated with water since I do not have a cover to put over it. To be  continued....

*EDIT* Continued at Another Turning Day, Continue

Ah, What The Horse Sh*t!

Turning the piles on the outside into the center. Grass & straw on the
left, horse manure & alfalfa hay on the right.

I have just returned from my Aunt's property where I turned her two compost piles into one massive one, again.  No, you read that correctly and now you are thinking, "Did you not just make her a new pile the other day?"  Yes, I did.  But now I have made it better: I have combined the two massive piles into one even more massive pile.  What is better than two piles? One massive one. LOL!

Russian Comfrey Is Up!

They're all up! All seven slips that I received three weeks ago and are growing pretty rapidly.  I am so stoked!  Enjoy some pics.

Comfrey Harvest

The other day I had posted about finding some in-wild Russian Comfrey in a development plot nearby.  I just harvested some earlier tonight on a walk with my dog.  I got a good five pounds worth which oddly enough, I harvested less than a fifth of the plant.  There are two so I will be back to grab some more tomorrow or so.  I am going to make a comfrey compost tea for my mom as well as a biomass for my compost.  My Aunt will be receiving some too.   It is a good find!

I shredded up some of what I got tonight and mulched it around my growing comfrey plants. My mom took some and mulched in around some of her plants.  We used all five pounds and added the thick stalks to my compost pile.

What a Bitch!

You heard me.  That huge compost pile I was talking about the other day... well I just turned it.  Damn, it was tiresome. Took me a good hour to turn it all with my forks, although very worth it.  I pulled off the plastic covering on it to see steam race towards the overcast sky.  You did not have to dig to feel the heat of the pile. It is an easily 150-degrees.  So I began to turn the outside inside -- new pile next to it, of course -- and inside to the outside.  Only had to add a tiny bit of water the pile, but otherwise it was fine.  In the center, it is so dark you could not tell the straw from the grass and weeds.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love composting? lol.

Another Pile Started

I spent the day with my Aunt mucking horse manure from one of her neighbor's barns.  Boy, was there some manure to harvest.  We are using it to start another pile next to her already large pile that we started a week or so ago. Sadly, I am fresh out of straw for the time being so I will be using shredded  cardboard and paper for my carbon. With that said, that is going to be a bitch to do.  Last year, the ill-informed voters of my beloved State voted out the State run liquor stores in-favor for every Tom, Dick, and Harry establishment with 10,000+ square feet to be able to sell it in their stores.  (Corporate greed, anyone?)