Garden Update

All is continuing busy-busy-busy around here.  I often think about doing a blog post and then don't get around to it, but here's a brief update on a few points of note, and then a longer discussion of some garden updates.

My World in Brief:

• COVID-19 status in New Brunswick is excellent.  We have had 2 new cases over the past 3 weeks, and there are still no deaths.  Some things in the province have begun to reopen, carefully, with proper distancing and other precautions.  I feel very lucky to live where I do.
• Sir Francis the duck continues to do well in the house, but his duck hut and enclosure are in progress outside.  I hope he will soon be able to make the big move!
• I hatched 13 eggs and have another 17 to go.  Will do another chick post in future, I think.  All the initial hatchlings are thriving.
• Saw my first warbler of 2020 in the yard this weekend.  Yay!
• Moth season has begun but many nights are too cold for them, so it's starting slowly.
• Seedlings started in the basement for this year's garden.  All doing well.
• Knitting a few projects at the moment but don't have as much time as I'd like.  Status quo!

The Garden Update:

This year, I wanted to make some improvements in my yard.  This was in my plans for a while now - it's not because of COVID-19.  I know that's making some people turn to more home based food production, but this was a long-felt need (want?) around here!  The part of my yard that my home office looks out onto was mostly scrubby space that nature had taken over.  I love nature as any regular reader will know, but I also love to use my yard for gardening, so a balance is needed.  Much of my yard is woods and other natural habitat, so the scrubby area was designated as space for my garden expansion.  Here's how it looked on Friday.  The shed to the right is my hay storage shed.

Here's the left side of the area, which joins up with the covered chicken run.

Here's the piece of equipment that showed up to do the work!  You can see a lot of logs in the foreground.  Those are from the large-toothed aspen that fell in Hurricane Dorian last September.

The equipment had what is called a mulching head on it.  Here it was getting started.

And here's how it looked a few hours later.

A huge rock was discovered during the work, which they positioned (at my request) near the bird feeder area.  I think I will plant flowers around it.  

The same piece of equipment was used to dig a large hole and install a new post for my laundry line, since that also came down in the hurricane last fall.  The pole is in but the line isn't up yet.  I was worried about any wildlife that had nests in the scrubby area, so we checked carefully for critters but didn't locate any.  After the work was done, this poor little Northern short-tailed shrew showed up and was rushing about and trying to dig into the cleared area.  I have a bad feeling that we might have destroyed its home, but I hope it will relocate into the woodsy area and forgive me at some point.  

Today, after a rainy weekend, the crew showed up to start building the greenhouse-type structure that I wanted to put in place.  This will help me get a head start in our short growing season, and hopefully will ensure earlier tomato harvests.  It was really exciting to watch the progress through the day.  A base and a wall went up.

More walls went up.

And suddenly a frame was nearly complete.

Then the heavy poly began to be stapled in place.

Nearly there!

Ta da!  The nearly-finished project was completed early afternoon, with some ventilation screen ports in place and a door has been made.  The hinges will be purchased and the door installed later this week (after the predicted rain has come and gone).  Some compost and soil will be brought in to add to the base soil (which has a lot of mulched wood in it from the clearing process) and I will add some of my own chicken manure.  The building is angled so that the low side of the roof faces south for maximum sun.

The guys also assembled these small 4 x 4 foot raised beds that I bought from Costco.  I plan to put in some more raised beds soon.  

Next will be the addition of a small garden tool shed (between the greenhouse and the hay shed) and then an extension of the outdoor chicken run.  I also plan to install some posts and wires for some raspberries, blackberries, and grapes.  I'm really pleased and excited about the possibilities that this development opens up for me.  I'm thinking a couple more fruit trees will go in, and perhaps an area for additional berry shrubs - currants and bush cherries perhaps.  I do love having gardening space!

So I'll sign off for now with this winter firefly (Ellychnia corrusca).  Unlike the summer fireflies, the adult winter firefly doesn't glow, but the larvae do.  You might see the adults in the early spring in your area - they're about half an inch long, and easy to recognize with those red "parentheses" on their heads.  They lay eggs in April and May and then the adults die off.  The larvae take 16 months to fully mature, which takes them into the following fall.  The adults will then overwinter and emerge the next spring.  

All the same as usual around here, really

So, the state of emergency continues around here, and I know it probably sounds unusual, but things around here are more or less the same as usual.  I've been working from home for 8 years now, and I'm continuing to work from home.  I haven't lost any clients and I'm lucky to be busy...even though sometimes I'm too busy.  I work 50+ hours a week, and that's more than enough.  I typically shop for groceries once every couple of weeks, and I'm still doing that.  My stores have had most of the things I want, although there was a short supply of toilet paper for a while, but I had plenty on hand already.

My province is in an official state of emergency, with no public gatherings, no non-essential businesses being open, schools closed, and all the other usual things that everyone is dealing with now in 'lockdown' situations.  We also have closed provincial borders.  I can't visit my parents in Nova Scotia, nor can they visit me.  The provinces are like states in the United States.  I'm not sure how many states have their borders with other states closed.  Not enough, I'm sure!

All our provincial efforts are paying off.  We've had a total of 117 cases of COVID-19.  That's across the whole province!  77 of those cases are recovered.  So, we only have 40 active cases now.  A total of 12 people have been hospitalized, but we now only have 5 people in hospital, 3 in ICU.  We have had zero deaths in my province.  Not a single one.  We had an early, rapid shutdown response with fairly consistent abiding by the rules by most people.  We are very lucky, but if everywhere had taken such strict, early measures, things would probably be a lot better all around the globe.

I really haven't been particularly worried or stressed, and I'm still not, especially given how well our province is doing.  We're not out of the woods yet, but they say that the economy may soon start to open up again if we continue to have such low numbers.  For the past couple of weeks, our daily new case number has been 0, 1 or 2.  It goes to show that obeying the rules and acting responsibly really does flatten the curve.  We also have a relatively low density in our urban areas, and a lot of people live fairly rurally, which helps keep distancing easy.

I have been going for walks in the local park (where the trails have been made one-way only to support distancing).  I saw a muskrat on the weekend!

I'm also keeping busy with my usual things around the house, including some crocheting on my Sophie's Universe blanket.


The snow is still in the yard but it's melting and a couple of the raised beds now have no more snow on them.  I have some crocuses that are blooming in the flower bed that gets the most sun.  Some of the other flower beds are still completely snow covered.

I turned 51 last weekend.  It was a bit sad not to be able to visit my parents for my birthday, but it's for the best until things are safer for them and for me.  Marc baked me a cake, which was really sweet of him, and it was extremely yummy.

In other news, I set up the incubator to replenish some flock members, and the first chicks hatched today.  They are darling, as one might expect.  Let's hope for lots of hens!

Also this week, the moths have finally started coming back.  I'm using moth bait this year, which is a mix of brown sugar, molasses, yeast, red wine, and fermented apple pieces.  It's working really well.  So far, I've had a lovely mix of spring species.  I'm really happy to be mothing again.

Wanton pinion moth (Lithophane petulca)


Straight-toothed sallow (Eupsilia vinulenta):  one specimen with orange spots and another with white spots.  I find this kind of diversity within species to be quite fascinating.

Hoary pinion (Lithophane fagina)

Dot-and-dash Swordgrass (Xylena curvimacula)...doesn't it look like it's wearing an evening gown?!

Plush-naped pinion (Lithophane pexata)

So all in all, things are just about normal around here, and I'm really glad I am a bit of a quirky introvert with hobbies that allow me to stay home and amuse myself, and I'm really glad to have a home-based career.  Hope everyone in my blogosphere is staying healthy and calm.  Carry on!

Spring? Erm....not yet.

I know that many places are experiencing "spring" amidst all the crazy stuff in the world at the moment.  Not here.  Yes, we've had a bit of melting, but overall, spring is still a bit of a distant dream for me.  There are some icicles on the roof edge, which does indicate some melting.

The front door view is still pretty dismal. 

Here's my path to the chicken coop.  It's so compacted now that my feet don't break through the snow anymore, but it's over my knees in height.  That yard waste bucket off to the right is 2 feet tall and the snow is just above its top.

The raised beds have a LONG way to go before planting.

The closer chicken feed bin is 4 feet tall and the rear one is 3 feet tall.  That shows you how much snow we still have. I'm really glad I had that modification made to the coop gate to give me the winter "upper door" that I am now using because the lower part is blocked solid.

The chickens are coming outside from time to time to enjoy the sunshine on a sunny day, and the egg count is going up.  Here are Maple, Amelia Henheart, and Marble (L to R) catching some rays.

Most of the birds are just staying inside the coop still, like beautiful Smidgen here.

The path to the hay shed...still pretty deep, except the area I shovelled for the hay delivery a couple of weeks ago.

This path is pretty compacted as well.

These two have been complete rascals lately. 

With all the freeze/thaw cycles and compacted snow, they figured out that they could climb OVER the fence in one area last week by pushing it down with their feet.  Spot the rascal who thinks she is hiding.

 BUSTED!  A bucket of grain was needed to bring them back into the fenced area.

Yours truly did a bit of fancy fence weaving with baling twine to keep the fence held up so they would stop climbing it and crushing it to the ground.

It'll be a really long time before I'm back out on the hammock.

And the driveway?  It's a skating rink.

Just pure ice.  I don't recommend walking on it.

So no, overall, I'd say spring hasn't sprung here.  But I remain hopeful that it's on the way.

Ruffed Grouse

Today I had a new visitor in the backyard.  I was excited to see a new-to-me bird: a ruffed grouse.

I know they do live in my province, but I've not seen one in my area before, and I have never photographed one before today.  This one was trying to get at some berries left on some of the branches from last fall.  It climbed up on a branch for a while. 

The area behind my house is scrubby woodland, so it is difficult to take good photographs because of all the branches in the way.

When I looked up further information about the grouse, I learned that they also eat buds, so this bird may have been eating those as well.

The males make impressive displays during the spring to attract females, but when the birds are not displaying, it is very difficult to tell whether it's a male or female grouse, so I honestly don't know about this one.  But I was very pleased to see it come for a visit, and even more pleased that I managed to get at least a few shots that show the beautiful plumage of this interesting bird.