Owl box. 4.11.16

 Barn owls are known to eat significant numbers of rodents.  A single pair of barn owls can eat 2,000 rodents a year.

I hear owls in the distance, and occasionally seen them overhead.  However, my area is  developing rapidly.  I don't know what that means for owl habitat, but probably not good.

Last year I bought this owl nesting box.  It would not be complicated to make one, but I wasn't up to it.  Then it sat in the garage for a year.

I set it up on an old basketball hoop stand that came with the place and has been sitting around for years.  I removed the backboard, and lashed the nesting box onto the hoop.  Without the backboard, I was able to move the box back on the hoop for better center of gravity.

This turned out to be a very easy job.  Plus it's portable.  This is in an easement, which if I'm lucky will never get used - long story - but I can't place anything permanent in the area. 

Now to see if a pair of owls finds and uses the nest box.  That might be a while, if ever.

Apple Blossom Time. 4.7.16

Standing next to NorthPole Apple.  4.7.16

 Here are the current blooming apples in the Vancouver yard.  This is all of my varieties there.  They are all early.

The NorthPole apple is about 15 years old.  It's a nice shape and appearance.  Difficult to find photos of such an old columnar apple tree. 

The newer Northpole is a graft I did on rootstock sprouts from an old apple tree.  I think this is dwarf or semidwarf rootstock, but I'm not sure.  Northpole is off patent, so it's OK to use as scion.

The other apple trees are on M27.  This is too dwarfing for me, but this year they look like they will be productive.  I played the bee and collected pollen from the pollen fertile varieties - Northpole, Liberty - and transferred to each other and to the pollen-sterile Jonagold.  I love the Jonagold apples, hope I get a good crop this year.

No photos now, but at Battleground the other columnar trees, Scarlet Sentinel and Golden Sentinel are also blooming, as is Queen Cox. 

Jonagold on 27.  4.7.16

Liberty on M27. 4.7.16

New NorthPole Apple, at 2nd leaf.  4.7.16

Protected Raised Beds for Pepper Plants. 4.7.16

Pepper Plants in Raised Bed.  4.7.16

Protected Raised Bed.  4.7.16

I planted 18 of the pepper plants into the building block raised beds.  Initially I have planted seeds for cold tolerant plants,  but they haven't done well.  These are the peppers that I started from seeds in Jan.  Most are blooming, some have small peppers.  The sunroom becomes too hot now during the day - into the 80s and sometimes 90s.

I planted the pepper plants.  They need protection from cool nights.  I had some old Remay nonwoven fabric from a previous year, constructed frames from old metal fenceposts and bamboo.

I can keep the  beds open during the day when I am there, and close up again at night.

When the Remay goes, I will need something to keep rabbits and deer out.

Male Ginkgo biloba flowers. 4.7.16

First flowers of male Ginkgo biliba tree.  4.7.16

This Ginkgo biloba is the beautiful tree in my Vancouver back yard.   I have posted numerous times about this tree.  Almost 20 years ago, my Dad collected ginkgo seeds, one of which grew into this tree.

I've often thought it will have a better chance of surviving our moving away, if the tree is male.  Female ginkgos have fruits that many people object to, because they are stinky.  The males are nicely suitable for picky people, because they have no stinky fruits.

The male flowers are sort of a catkin.  The female flowers have a swollen terminal aspect that becomes the seed.

Unknown Soidler from Long Ago. 4.4.16

Unidentified Soldier, early 1900s

From time to time I post photos from my family's photo boxes.  No one is left to tell me who they were.  The photos are unlabeled.  In some cases I process with Picassa, to improve contrast and crop to focus on the soldier.

I wonder if this was the last that family and friends saw this young man.

This soldier looks to me like early 1900s, either WWI or Philipine-American war.

Daylily Seedlings. Fruit Tree Bloom Times. Puttering. 4.3.15

Daylily Seedlings Leaving Dormancy.  4.2.16

First Apple Flowers.  Golden Sentinel.  4.3.16

Daylily Seedlings.  During the late winter, I thought the daylily seedlings were dying of some disease or infestation.  The leaves had become pale and turned brown.  I do think there were some spider mites.  I placed them all outside and left them to the weather. 

It turns out they were going dormant.  If there were spider mites, I guess they are gone now.  The top growth is vigorous and sturdy.  The roods are also thick and sturdy for such small seedlings.

This leaves me with some choices.  There are too many plants to grow them all in borders.  I chose about 2 dozen from different crosses, and planted in a bed between orchard trees.

They will still have to survive marauding rabbits and deer.  Nature, random chance, and their final appearances, will determine which ones I ultimately keep and move to more prominent borders.  It may be another year or two before I know. In the ground, they will require minimal care and not take up room on the deck.

Apple Blossoms.  By a clear lead, the first of my apples to bloom are Golden Sentinel and North Pole.  Both are descendants of McIntosh, with other parentage as well.  In the Vancouver yard, which is ahead, Liberty is also blooming.


Pear Blossoms.  Based on this years results, in this yard, all of my varieties of Asian and European pear overlap their bloom times.  It doesn't look like the bloom time tables matter much, because there is significant overlap between the earliest - Maxie, and the latest - Rescue.   Most of my varieties are Asian pears, but there are a few Euro or Euro grafts.  Orcas pear is not yet at blooming age.

Puttering.  I'm still digging the first of 4 new large garden beds that are intended for sunflowers, flint corn, or sorghum grain for chicken feed.  All of those can be planted in May or possibly June, so one row at a time, I may get there.  With 2 acres, there is still room for more, but I don't want it to cross the line between enjoyable work / exercise, and unpleasant chore.

I think there is a lot of fruit set on Methley - first time, other than maybe 3 plums last year.  Probably just age, although it did have pollinizing variety branches bloom, within the tree from T-bud grafts of Shiro and Hollywood that I added in 2014.  Sweet Treat may also have fruit set, which is pretty impressive considering this is only second leaf.  Still tiny and may still fall off, but I look every day and many are still on the tree.  Toka may have lost its fruit.  The next few weeks will say.  Chill and frost, bloom too early.  Although Sweet Treat was earlier.  NoID Asian Plum is also covered with potential fruits.  Again, this tree is a multiple multigraft now, which may weigh into the reason for better bearing.  Or just coming of age.

Now going out to dig a couple more rows.

Fruit Tree Blooming. Pear Graft Progress. Orchard Phenology. 3.31.16

NOID Asian Pear.  3.31.16

Vandalay and Sweetheart Cherries.  3.31.16

 The fruit tree bloom stage now, is sweet cherries and pears.

Full bloom:
NOID Asian Pear - I wonder if this is Nijesseiki?

Maxie Hybrid Pear
Hosui Asian Pear
Mishirasu Asian Pear
Hamese Asian Pear - this one never blooms much.
Shinseiki Asian Pear
Rescue European Pear - just started.

Early full bloom-
Vandalay Sweet Cherry
Sweetheart Sweet Cherry
Ranier Sweet Cherry
Stanley Plum

Vandalay and Sweetheart are described as self pollinizing, which was part of why I planted them.  Even so, it can't hurt for them to bloom together.  Vandalay is slightly ahead of Sweetheart.  There is promise of several bowls of cherries from each tree, for the first time, this year.  This is 4th leaf.

Late Full Bloom
American species plum
Ember hybrid plum
Hanska hybrid plum

Finishing  bloom
NOID Euro Pear, I think Green Gage

 I can't find the grafting date, I think mid February, but here is the progress for the two pollinizers I added to Maxie.  Both are ghrowing.  Both source trees are blooming now, as well as Maxie, so this looks like a good choice.

Graft of Rescue Pear onto Maxie.  ~6 weeks,  3.31.16

Graft of NOID Asian Peare onto Maxie.  ~6 weeks.  3.31.16

A good pomologist would not let the stock bloom below the grafts, but I'm not looking for maximal growth, just some pollinizing blooms.  Also, I really want to try the Maxie pears, and want to give it all the chance I have to bear.  The priority is on the Maxie, not the grafts.

Fig Status Report. 3.31.16

Carini Fig Starting Growth.  3.31.16

Lattarula Fig Starting Growth.  3.31.16

All of the fig trees came through the winter with no damage at all, and all have primordial breba buds swelling.  Even the more tender fig trees, Smith and Champagne, were unfazed.  Thank you El Nino.

I attempted a graft of Petite negri onto the extra Dominic.  I don't know how that will come out.  The scion were refrigerated for a few months due to not wanting them to start growth before I could graft in Spring.

What's Blooming. 3.31.16

I love this time of year. Many flowers are blooming. They show the efforts of fall and winter were worthwhile.

Hyacinths.  3.31.16

Tulips.  3.31.16

Hosui Asian Pear.  3.31.16

Daffodils.  3.31.16

Eggs and Dandelions. 3.31.16

Eggs from our chickens.  Left is after feeding dandelions.  3.31.16

For the past 4 days, I've been digging a big bucket of dandelions every day and feeding them to the chickens.

Maybe it's my imagination, but the yolk on the left looks more deeply colored, compared to the other two.  The one on the left was laid today, the two on the right were laid 3 days ago.  Since the hens are free range, the 2 eggs on the right probably contain some yard weed nutrients, but not as much.  Their yard is mostly grass, almost no weeds due to their feeding and scratching.

The hens like the dandelions and eat a pile down to nothing in an afternoon.  We have enough dandelions for many more buckets of feed.  Feeding dandelion greens may also slightly decrease the cost of feed, depending on whether the greens replace some of the feed grain.  In my yard, they are totally organic, no pesticides or herbicides at all.