Turkey Tracks and Interesting Information: August 8, 2022
Wasp Pollinators
The Pee Gee Hydrangea is in full and glorious bloom.
Pee Gees can and do grow into tree size. I keep mine cut back to a shrub form, but pruning comes in the fall when the white blossoms have turned to deep rusty red.
What has been totally fascinating to me this summer is the huge amount of different kinds of pollinators on all my flowers and the raspberries. I stopped picking the last of the raspberries as tiny wasps were feeding on the ripe berries. Indeed, I have been hesitant about cutting back any of the plants that are now loaded with pollinators—as I do not want to risk a wasp or bee sting—especially as I live alone.
I am astonished to note that in the hum of insects on the Pee Gee blossoms, there is a tiny wasp who is clearly collecting pollen. Who knew?
Here’s where the now overgrown Pee Gee is in my poor, dry, deer-eaten garden. Serious pruning will occur this fall—and I’ll bring some of the cut now-rusty red blooms in the house to dry in vases.
And here’s a view from the guest bedroom inside the house.
There was a thunderstorm late yesterday, but the rain gauge says only 1/4 inch. There may be more rain later today, and it is now cooler and overcast.
We didn’t get any of the possible rain predicted during this last week, and temps went higher.
We have a serious drought here—with grass and fields turning brown.
I think the drought is part of why the deer is eating my green plants in the garden. She did serious damage Friday night. I didn’t spray when I saw her last week, as I thought we would get rain and was going to wait. That was a mistake, for sure. I sprayed yesterday, so we will see.
I’ve also spent HOURS researching what to feed a puppy. Can I just say that the first ingredient on the Purina Puppy Chow is whole grain CORN, followed by chicken by-product MEAL and soybean MEAL, meat “flavors,” and host of what are likely really cheap chemicals. No wonder dogs today are as sick as people. This food is starchy and a chemical brew. There is NO WAY I can put this crap in a bowl for any living creature to eat. This…. This is a great example of what has gone seriously wrong in this country in my not so humble opinion.
Note: I completely understand why the rescue organization uses this food. They are operating on a shoe string financially and are doing the best they can. This food has got to be better than what these puppies were getting while their mother was tied under a tree and at the mercy of owners who should be immediately tied to that tree for the rest of their lives. I can’t imagine what the mother or the pups were fed, which is why Buster Brown was sick when rescued. The carelessness of some people with regard to pets just does not amaze me, but hurts my heart.
Right now, stop! And google “Maggie’s Song” by Chris Stapleton and listen to it.
Feeding puppies is tricky. I could feed an adult dog real food in my sleep—and have with the last 3 dogs I’ve had over the last 20+ years. Puppies need higher levels of zinc and calcium and an appropriate balance between calcium and phosphorus, for two things. And the need for appropriate omega 3 fats. And whatever recipe one uses, it has to contain balanced nutrition or it can cause problems. Plus, too much of some nutrients can also cause problems.
So, I’ve learned a lot about raw food recipes, where to get things like whole beef and whole chicken ground with bones and organs, and a whole bunch of new ingredients for me that provide needed nutrients (powdered kelp, hempseed, green lipped muscle powder, krill oil, and more).
I am old enough to remember when dry dogfood wasn’t around. My grandparents fed dogs kitchen scraps, and most lived to ripe old ages and looked really healthy. I don’t know what else these dogs ate, but it wasn’t dry dog food. And meds like heartworm preventatives weren’t around—so these dogs had to have pretty strong immune systems. I did just fine with my last 3 dogs—the two rat terriers lived to be 16 years old, and AC’s coat and teeth were awesome.
But I can do better, and I have some recipes with which to start. It is also important to change out or combine protein meat sources to prevent the development of food allergies. I’ve found places that ship the meat proteins I need, and now I’m hoping they will arrive without mishap, still cold, etc.
It’s all a very interesting journey…
Once Jackpot is 1 year, I can use many more recipes that are suitable for adult dogs and that can be sourced easily locally.
I will also use Milk Thistle in a herbal form to help him detox from all the puppy vaccines, heartworm and worming meds, etc. And Slippery Elm is on the way to help with any diarrhea he may get. He’s had a long journey and will arrive tired and stressed.
I finished the “Wyoming Stars” quilt top and am now piecing a backing with the last of the Cotton+Steel bigger fabric pieces.
This block has fascinated me as when used without sashing it makes the most interesting secondary patterns.
I chose to make the block center dark, but when sewn to other blocks a pattern of light and dark squares forms. Also a larger light diamond forms with a star at the center. Then there are the x’s and long diagonal lines that form.
It’s busy, so the dark border contains/stops the business. I think it will need a light binding, and I have enough of one more bigger fabric to use for binding that is a sort of tan neutral.
It’s going to be HOT here today. And there is no rain in sight of any appreciable amount for the next week.
But Jackpot’s journey to me will begin this week, and he arrives next Saturday. The new dog beds and toys are here, and my life is about to drastically change. Again.
The other day as I turned onto Howe Hill Road, below my house, I saw a female deer standing by my side of the road. I should have tried to take a picture, but deer don’t normally hang around when a car stops.
I rolled down the window. She didn’t move. She also didn’t moved when I talked to her. Not one foot.
So I drove on up the hill and turned into my steep driveway.
Yesterday early morning I looked out the kitchen window, and there she was, about to nosh on the wild day-lilies on the hill. I’m sure she would have moved right on to the hostas on that hill—though I had sprayed them—and will do so again after whatever rain we might get in the next few days.
I opened the window and yelled at her, and she moved into the woods, but not at any kind of fast pace.
I now have 20 whirlygigs in place around the yard, and they do move merrily if the breeze hits them. Their shiny surfaces seem to throw light when they move. Movement is, obviously, a big “if.”
But I’m not sure they move at night when the breeze from the bay dies down. Or, even, work to when moving to scare the deer.
Whatever, my female deer visitor ate all the Borage just about to bloom in the new garden by the driveway two nights ago—leaving only the plant stems. And got into the plants BEHIND those where I sprayed the edges of beds and did SERIOUS damage to several, including a large hydrangea. She also ate all the buds off the dahlia that I winter over. It was full of buds.
So, she does seem to avoid where I have sprayed…
Or I hope so anyway.
She is practically tame.
I’m going out to respray again this morning—and moving deeper into the beds with the spray.
We are meant to get rain today, but the time frame has already been moved from morning to afternoon. What we need is sustained, steady rain for several days, not just a thunderstorm. But we’ll take whatever we can get. I think the strong breeze from the bay is moving these summer storms west of us, away from the coast.
I got some good sewing time yesterday—only stopping at almost 8:30 pm for my salad supper. One border is on the “Wyoming Stars” quilt—which is working really well to contain that busy and interesting center, and I’m making the final pieced border now. Pics to follow when the top is done.
The Sweet Pups transport team has now started a Messenger message connection where all of the people adopting dogs on this trip are connected. Right now, 6 people so far are meeting the train at the West Gardner (just south of Augusta) hospitality center on 95—about 45 minutes from me. It is truly heart warming to see how excited people are to be getting “their” rescue dogs. And to see the wonderful work and caring that the folks at the Sanctuary and Rescue organization are doing. I’ve been following them on their FB page.
I’m more or less ready for Jackpot doggie’s arrival next Saturday.
I’ve been researching how to feed a puppy real food and how to transition a dog to real food. Feeding puppies is a bit tricky actually—as one needs to carefully balance the nutrients. But I’ve got it now, though I’m still rounding up ingredients, like a high-quality cod liver oil.
I’m a big fan of the vet, Dr. Karen Becker. And I’m learning more about Rodney Habib, who founded Planet Paws. Their new book THE FOREVER DOG is on my dining room table at the moment.
The new dog toys arrived yesterday. They are so cute. I still remember when AC came at 6 months of age and dived into the toy bucket downstairs. I want that joy to happen again.
There is an adorable video of Buster Brown. If the link doesn’t work, you can see it on my FB page or on the Sweet Paws Sanctuary FB page. Buster Brown is Jackpot’s brother (and clearly had a different dad—as is true too for Lace Top, the girl). Buster was too sick to rescue, so the Sanctuary is getting him sorted, and you can see he is doing much better. Recall that the mother dog had been tied to a tree for her whole life, and had her puppies there, but that the owner finally surrendered her.
Yesterday I made the most delicious potato salad that I combined with a grilled lamb burger.
I used 4 new red potatoes about 3 inches each—and they cooked (whole) in boiling water to cover them faster than I thought they would—about 25 minutes maybe. I drained them and let them cool while I did other things and then peeled and chopped them into big chunks. I had some homemade really tangy yogurt that I had strained and threw about 1/4 cup of that into a bowl where I put herbs from the garden (chives, basil, tarragon, thyme) and added some dried herbs, like dill and oregano. I added some green peas, some chopped veggies I had on hand (sweet onion, red bell pepper, cucumber) and some grated carrot. I swirled in some of my good olive oil (Organic Roots’ Koroneiki EVOO) and added salt.
And when I telling him what a sweet boy he was, I knew I had found the magic again.
But, clearly, I’ve lost my ever-loving mind! He’s a 3-4 month old PUPPY from Texas, near the Louisiana border: Sweet Pups Sanctuary and Rescue rescued him. I’m going to call him Jackpot. He’s the third dog whose picture I fell in love with online—I just knew somehow with both Penny and AC Slater. And then I couldn’t stop going back to look at their sweet faces. Ditto with this little guy.
A friend here told me after AC died that in time, “another nose will poke at you, and the magic will begin again.”
Jackpot is very like AC Slater—terrier and hound, a kind of feist dog. Same coloring. Same kind of soft gentle eyes. Longer ears maybe. And may well have AC’s energy.
Jackpot’s mother is a terrier mix and has been tied to a tree for her whole life. When she went into heat, various male dogs came, and she had this litter (her first?) under that tree. I think there are three pups: 2 males and a female. Buster Brown is the other male, Lacy Top the girl. I put pictures below. Jackpot is the biggest of the three. And my Sanctuary contact said that the owner has finally agreed to give up the mother, and she was coming into the shelter that same day. She’s about 30 pounds, so Jackpot is going to be about the same size as AC Slater, who was 46 pounds, which works well for here in Maine and with my woodsy property that has critters. AC’s mother was, I think I remember, 35 pounds.
I got AC about this same time in September 2018—and he was 6 months old. I’m going to have a very busy winter with an active baby puppy. For sure. Especially in the Maine winter. But AC LOVED the snow. I put a video of his first snow storm at the end of this post.
I went back and forth about getting another puppy rather than an older dog, but I’m also sure that putting the time and training into a puppy pays off for many years to come and that the bond between dog and person is even stronger. And it seems I do want to spend the time loving on and nourishing a creature that will grow up to be another good friend. I just needed some time—though I’ll never get over losing AC—and to have the picture magic happen. It came close a few times with older dogs, but not strong enough.
Sweet Pups drives the dogs to Maine themselves in the warm weather, and I’ll meet them at the West Gardner big rest stop on highway 95 just south of Augusta—only about 45 minutes from me—on Saturday, August 13th. They deliver all the way up to Bangor and come every 4 to 6 weeks, with 30-40, or more, rescued dogs that already have homes. My contact said most of their rescues do come to Maine, but their efforts are not limited to Maine. Texas is a kill state.
And this schedule is another piece of the stars being aligned for this rescue, since this Sweet Pups trip was already scheduled.
So now I’m pulling out of storage the the big (heavy) crate I put in the top of the garage, the dog beds I saved, the car protective covers, dog blankets, leashes, the Furminator and toenail clippers, what’s left of the dog toys, water bowls, yadda, yadda. I’ve ordered new toys and two new dog beds, and I’m organizing the real food to which I’ll switch Jackpot gradually.
AC was a TERRIBLE chewer—like furniture and base boards when he wanted my attention or was left in a room. At 4 years I still would not leave him free in the house alone, especially after the covid years when I did not go much beyond grocery stores and was with him all the time. I won’t make that mistake again. So, I’m ready for Jackpot. He will be with me at all times or in the crate while I shower, etc., until he’s about a year old. And maybe longer. As I said, I’ll have a busy winter coming up.
I’ve now paid and signed the contract. So, all is in play.
Here’s a picture of Jackpot’s sister, Lace Up, next to Jackpot. You can see that she is very dainty.
And a picture of his brother, Buster Brown, who is not yet ready for adoption.
Sweet Pups has a FB page and a web site. They are in east Texas, near the Louisiana border. Penny came to me as a rescue from Katrina. She was born near Baton Rouge. AC came from Rock City Rescue in Arkansas in the fall of 2018.
I’m reading an author that I absolutely adore: Marisa de los Santos. She comes with some serious academic credentials, is a published poet, and is married to author David Teague who seems to write children’s books. They have also written several books together, like Saving Lucas Biggs.
Santos has, if my research is correct, 6 novels. Four of these novels are connected in some way. The first of this series is Love Walked In, and I really enjoyed it. The second book in this series is Belong to Me, and she’s hit this one right out of the ball park. I found myself reading bits at a time so it didn’t end too quickly. I just finished I’ll Be Your Blue Sky because I could not put it down and read for many hours over the last two days. I’ll be starting I’d Give Anything today. And I’ve ordered Santos’ two other novels, as I’ll want to give these books as gifts.
Santos just has the most wonderful voice on the page—so interesting and different. Someone in one of the reviews I read said that Santos introduces and follows three-dimensional characters, and I think that is true. Her characters are good, bad, beautiful, ugly, stupid and wise, all at the same time. These books are NOT romances, which the titles may suggest, though there is certainly much about the nature of love in them. And, life. (And I don’t mean to disparage romances. These novels just don’t fit that genre.)
Here’s a gift for you today. It’s a gift for me every time I walk into the kitchen.
Yesterday I mowed, and the grass is brown in many places from the drought. So today I’ll water and pick raspberries—while listening and singing along to my music. While I cooked a meatloaf yesterday for dinner (middle of the day for me), I bought more of The Zac Brown Band’s songs, so today I’ll listen to them while outside.
Have a great Sunday everyone.
Tomorrow we head into August. The summer is flying by.
Each year I like to share pictures she sends me of her garden as they are such a treat.
She has two large beds and, of course, smaller beds in other places, along with some planted containers. She lives in Thomaston, which is to the south of Camden, and she is just up a street from the St. George river, so she has a very different habitat in many ways than I do as I’m up on a hill, above Camden and the bay.
Here are some close-ups of this bed. Isn’t that little bird the sweetest little creature.
Two other beds:
That purple astilbe is so pretty next to the stones. And this astilbe color appears again here.
Three summers ago I used this gorgeous petunia in hanging baskets on the front porch. But putting it into this color combination in a container is just awesome. Note how it blends with the day-lily colors to the right. That’s how Roxanne ”sees” plants and colors before they are planted. That’s why she is an artist and a master gardener.
Thank you, Roxanne, for sharing your garden with us.
Raspberries, Japanese Beetles, and ”Wyoming Stars” Quilt Top
The raspberries are coming in strong these days. I pick every day, and I get more and more berries every day. I have frozen some, eaten a lot, and given away a lot. Here’s what I picked late yesterday:
And here’s the beauty the flower garden provided yesterday:
One more row is needed on the ”Wyoming Stars” quilt. The secondary patterns are fascinating. It will be a good lap size: 60 by 60 inches. So far. I’ll see what is needed after I sew this part together.
Japanese beetles love raspberries and roses and will eat leaves until they are like lace. They emerge in the summer, about the time raspberries are starting to fruit.
What to do?
I think working with nature is the best answer—as there is a small grayish fly, the ”Winsome” fly—Istocheta aldrichi—that is a parasitoid and which emerges alongside the beetles. Winsome females lay eggs on the Japanese beetles back—on the thorax, which is just behind the head. You can see the little white dot which contains the eggs on the back of a beetle that Winsome has attacked. AND, these attacks occur BEFORE the JB lays its own eggs (40-60 eggs yearly). One larva hatches on the beetle and penetrates the beetle, which drops to the ground and tries to dig into the dirt as it is already sick. The Winsome’s larva eat the beetle, but stay with the carcass, and turn into a pupa, which emerges in the fly form next year, which seriously alters the beetles presence over time.
When I had my raspberries in the front garden, before I started over as the plants were too hard to harvest on the steep hill, I used to see a lot of the JBs with the white dots—and the number of beetles DID decrease over time.
The JBs mostly do not fly in from elsewhere, like other insects. They stay with their food source for the most part: raspberry bushes and roses. Control the numbers, and you control the problem.
I sweep a batch of beetles from a leaf into my hand and fist them. Then I release one at a time and check to see if I see the white dot. If so, that beetle goes free. If not, I kill that one with my thumbnail. I’m not squeamish about this murder, but if someone is, they could drop that beetle into a jar of soapy water and when they are done, cover the jar.
Interesting Information and Turkey Tracks: July 24, 2022
What’s Happening With The Daylilies?
I have A LOT of day-lilies in my garden, including many of the ”wild” orange ones, called ”ditch lilies” by some.
The front porch is lined with the gold Stella D’Ora variety, and they already bloomed. But blooming now are these redder day-lilies in places I did not plant them.
And salmon ones too.
And look what has emerged down on the driveway? I did not plant this ruffled beauty.
I did plant this reddish one—and one similar on the other end of the front deck day-lilies.
And I possibly planted this vivid day-lily along the front path.
And, there is this beauty that has been in this spot on the front path for many years.
What is going on here? I’m also noticing these later-blooming dark day-lilies in other places in the garden—sometimes mixed into the wild orange day-lilies.
Are the current plants being taken over in some way and changed? That is not supposed to happen.
So, off to research I went.
Yes, the day-lilies are ”hybridizing,” but they are NOT changing any of the established plants. What they are doing is seeding hybrids into current day-lily beds—and other places in the garden too.
The hybrids can and might overtake or crowd out the established plants, but meanwhile, they are adding interesting plants into what is already in the garden.
I had a big plastic glass with a straw that I liked a lot. I used it mostly in the quilt room while sewing.
But it was…PLASTIC, as was the straw. It had a top that kept the straw in place and the glass covered.
As any of you reading this blog for any time know, I’ve been on a mission to NOT use plastic in the kitchen.
About a month ago, on a whim, I looked at the availability of a big glass drinking glass—with a glass straw.
This first one came—in a salmon color. But the straw and top were plastic. So I ordered glass straws.
And I loved the first one so much that I ordered a second one (about $8)—so now I have one on each floor and don’t have to carry the salmon one around everywhere.
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