Sophie the cat is checking out Taco the Faverolle hen. Our neighbor’s cats also come to watch the chickens, and the chickens watch them. Thank goodness for strong hardware cloth between the two.
Stand off
Fall sculpture
Yes, I spend too much time on Pinterest. I saw harvest sculptures that looked like elaborate dresses on mannequins, but made of wheat or grasses. I don’t have wheat, but after cutting down my over grown artemisia, I had something with beautiful texture and color, and had it in abundance. I also had a “mannequin”, or more specifically, a woman’s shape made out of chickenwire from last Halloween’s ghosts. So I tucked the artemisia stems into the poultry wire to form the skirt, then trimmed some of the post oak trees and used the branches to build the bodice and leaves to accent the waist.
This is going to be an evolving sculpture; as I trim trees or tend greenery, the choice bits will get added to my green lady. I’m thinking I can keep augmenting her dress through the winter.
Artemisia ‘Powis Castle‘
At the end of August I took some cuttings of our overgrown Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ and rooted them out to replace the original plants. After five weeks, I severely cut back the old plants, and planted the newly rooted stems. I read that artemisia does not do well being aggressively cut back, so the slips are backup. As backup to my backup (I really like the look of this artemisia), I started five more slips. These I will let root out in my plastic test tubes inside through the winter. I do replace the water daily to reduce the chance of mold or algae growing in the tubes with the roots.
The plan to to keep the artemisia trimmed down next summer to a level below the hibiscus in the back row. I may again be overrun though. The plants I cut back are happily growing new branches. What, you mean internet information is suspect?!?
Undermined
I’ve been checking on our largest aspire melon daily. The Neem, Castille soap, and peppermint spray seemed to work to keep the caterpillars off, and the spots on the rind that were nibbled healed up. The color turned yellow and then I was checking to see if it slipped from the vine. I put a secondary cage made of welded wire fence up around the melon to keep the dog off it. Then I checked the bottom and found the gaping hole. Hm. I wasn’t very careful to spray the bottom, as it was pressed up against the mesh sling.
I detached the melon from the vine and rinsed it well in the sink (rather easy to rinse with a hole that goes all the way in). I cut it open and did not find any critters, so I cleaned it up and cut away the rind and questionable bits. It tastes nice, not as nice as the smaller melon that fully ripened on the vine, but better than a store-bought cantaloupe. So there we go. There are still two more melons developing, so we’ll see who gets to those first.
Frankenstein spindle
Well it happened. I dropped my favorite spindle (again) and the head cracked and came completely off this time. All this near the beginning of a walk. I tried spinning from the other end, but the yarn wasn’t aligned right. I tried just turning the spindle with my fingers, but the yarn produced was much, much thinner. So I tucked it all in my bag and went home.
I glued then clamped the head back onto the spindle, but since that didn’t hold the last two times, this time I drilled a small hole and hand riveted the two pieces together as well. It took some experiment; the brass wire was too hard, but aluminum filled the hole nicely with some hammering. I sanded the rivet smooth so the edges wouldn’t catch on my yarn.
It looks like a Frankenstein spindle now, with its metal rivets on the neck, but it is holding. I’ve dropped it three times since repairing (not on purpose) and the head has held. I do now carry a spare spindle in the bottom of my bag, just in case.
