Painting 9th

Our rental at 9th Street is changing tenants, so we scurried over to get it painted. That was the last big chore to do, and now it's done! Yay! Before we started we painted a swatch to make sure we liked it.

And it came out looking great! It has a very homey, cabin-like feel. I was afraid it would seem dark, but it's perfect for its setting.

Here's the side view.

After each day of work, we went out for food and beer. Here we are at Burgers and Brews. We also went to Winchester Goose after.

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Weather Note
It's definitely summer. It was cooler this week, fortunately, only getting into the mid to high 80s. But last week had some 90-degree days. For once it didn't rain on the fair, but it did rain the weekend before. Everything's been a little early this season...
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We helped Ann move a refrigerator, so she baked us a pie! It was strawberry rhubarb, and it was delicious.

Ann is a good baker, and the pie was worthy of another shot.

My gourds are thriving.

And I'm even getting some ripe tomatoes starting. I picked this borg today, so first ripe tomato before June!

This tiger is almost ripe.

 Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers... These are coming along nicely.

As are the purple tomatoes.

Rick got the perches up in the henhouse. It's almost time to move the babies in there. I put them in a temp pen yesterday just to get them used to it. They enjoyed dust bathing.

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What We're Eating
I got my grain mill, and I made pizza dough and bread out of it. Both were astoundingly good. Freshly milled grain is vastly better than storebought.

I also made some more seasoning salt. We love this stuff. This batch was oregano, garlic, basil, sage, and mint. Very good! These small jars hold 2 ounces.

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Room for More?

Ok, so clearly I hadn't planted enough tomatoes. I mean, there are only 13 at my house and 11 at the farm. Nowhere near enough! So we decided to do a true community garden. Buddy dug up along the side of the fence, and I planted 4 more tomatoes outside. They are Indigo Blueberry, Sungold, Indigo Blueberry, Momotaro. We will paint a cute sign so folks know they can pick some.

Rick continues work on the chicken house. It is almost done! The door is on.

Who's the tallest chicken? We think that with all the windows, and the uber security light across the street, the chickens will get a bit of supplemental light for better laying.

Catherine's gourds are doing very well. She cut up some old blue cups to put collars around the tops to deter slugs and other bugs.

Her herb pot is lovely as well.

My pots are coming along nicely too. It's funny to see basil being taller than the tomatoes, but that's a Tumbling Tiger for ya. The basil in the ground got munched by bugs but the stuff in pots is doing great.

Is It Summer Yet?

Well, it's fair weekend this weekend, so it must be almost summer. And it's getting hot. Our bit of rain last weekend may have been the fair's rain, coming a mite early. Because it always, always rains on the Silver Dollar Fair. Always... Also, this Friday is the last Friday I have to go to the market to meet the conditions of my scholarship. But I'll probably keep going, except in the worst of the summer heat. In the meantime, I'm finding homes for left over plants. We met Sissy (Davina) Smith, and donated a bunch of plants to the community garden at the African American Family and Cultural Center in Oroville.

Walked down to the Jesus Center Garden on Mon. to try to catch up with Jim, but he wasn't there. On the way back, I noticed this cute little garden. It's a tiny space, but they've made the most of it.

Rick is making great progress on the chicken coop. Yesterday, he got the door up. Now we just need a few more pieces and it's all done. It's even pretty cute for being made totally out of found materials.

Ricky C helped me get the beans in. That man can just bend in half! Row 1B: Red Mexican, Row 2B: Flambo, Row 3B: Turtle, Row 4B front: White, Row 4B back: Jacob's cattle. We got these in 5-20 and I got the irrigation all set up yesterday (5-21)

After we planted, I sent some seeds home with Rick for his yard.

Dean came by and took a few more plants.

Our tenants are moving out of 9th Street, but we have another gal poised to move in. We went by and took a quick look at it, and it doesn't look too bad. We will get it painted next week, which Rick took off. Jane and Titus will help us, so it will go fast.

I saw the price for Kare Chips at S and S. Really pricy, but they have to be because they turn into nothing when you roast them.

They have been replacing the water main in the alley behind out house, and on Tuesday, the water was off most of the day, so I went downtown. Had lunch with Rick, then grabbed a beer on the patio of Burgers and Brews. I had a Citrus Mistress from Hop Valley brewery in Oregon. I'd never even heard of them. The deckle had some Boont on it, so I photo'd it so I could remember it.

Shed Building

Yesterday we went over to the Maker's Garden on Ohio and Guill. Kendra is a fellow scholarship winner, and her mom Marie helps her out. Ashlee is out hoeing in the garden. They have a nice big garden space here in the Second Baptist Church lot. If you look very closely, you can see red pots on the table under the sunshade. I donated my excess peppers to them. And I had to ask if anyone would be offended by the red peters!

We were there to help Lindsey and Shemu build a shed from a kit. The shed will shelter bits for the market, like the signs. When we arrived they were getting all the pieces sorted out.

The spot it needed to go was really uneven, but Rick went out scrounging and came up with a pier block, some cardboard, and some pallets. Then he went back out and scored some plywood.

And we have a floor! I just texted Lindsey and they are still working on the shed, but they have the walls up. Notice Shemu's fashion statement of tape. We were using tape to label the pieces.

Mid Spring

I've been very remiss about updating this blog, but it's only because I've been so busy! With farms at both properties, the market, the food biz, and general keeping up with everything I've been sorta swamped. But here's the roundup for the last couple of weeks. We got the tomatoes and peppers in at the farm.

And they are already getting big! Rick made some super uber cages out of rewire (the stuff you put under cement). He made them so three nest together so they don't take up quite so much room.

We got the tomatoes and peppers in at home also. I found more places to put them! I have 9 tomatoes back here (plus five more in the last row), and two gourds. It's gonna be interesting later!

Rick turns compost. We have a good bunch this season. This lot has already been put on sector 1, where I will plant beans soon.

I'm still doing the Chapman Farmers' Market, but it's slow going. I have a fantastic ratio of sales to customers, but there just aren't many customers.

These are my neighbors, Jake and Jim.

Liz came one day and brought some great historical documents. I had no idea we lived between Del Norte and El Dorado.

The chickens are getting big fast. Rick is working diligently on the chicken house, and it is nearing completion.

The garlic and onions are almost done. I harvested most of my garlic at home, and these need to come out soon.

We are also harvesting peas (they are gone now, but they were delicious).

And leeks. This was a monster!

We got the sign put up.

It looks great! You can see where the old sign was, but that should fade.

 Behind the garlic rows are the sweet peas. I only got  a couple plants to come up, but they have been fun and fragrant. Catherine indulges in the scent.

Karen and Glen had us over for pizza and beer for Rick's birthday.

Glen made Rick a special bottling of Wake Me Up Coffee Stout.

I liked this shot of Glen out in the roses. He sorta matches!

We also went out to Handle Bar for Heretic Tap Takeover.

They brought some good beers. It wasn't as fun as when Lagunitas came, but it was still nice.

The little peach is doing well. We didn't get much fruit on the plums this year. They started to bloom too soon, and then nothing seemed to set up. But the peach has some nice fruit on it.

And the red hot pokers were a lot happier out here in the sun. The hummingbirds just loved these, and would fly right by our faces to get to them. They sound like light sabers.

And so I can find this again... here's how to prune gourds.

I finished a decoupage project.

And Amber's flowers are blooming.