Maybe a few figs?

   I admit to being a mite frustrated at the critters roaming about the place.  Since all of the property to our west has been clear cut, we have been invaded by just about every critter imaginable.  While I love critters of all types, you would think this would be fine but those very same animals are hungry.  They have been raiding the fruit trees and vegetable garden day and night.  When they hit the peach trees and plum trees, I was quite miffed, to say the least.  It really would not be so bad if they actually ate the fruit and not just "sampled" each and every one.  Most wind up on the ground ruined by bite marks.  What to do, what to do?  Well, I picked anything that was large and starting to ripen and left the rest.  The picked fruit was placed on trays and let ripen inside.  In the past few weeks, I have canned more fruit than is needed.  So it all worked out ok. 

  Now, the pears are starting to be attacked.  Beneath the pear trees, the ground is littered with half eaten pears.  The fruit is far too small to be picked so it does not look promising.  I suppose the fig trees will be the next buffet for the fruit-eating critters.  All of the fig trees are loaded with fruit and I am in hopes of at least getting a few but that may not happen.

  Pop always used to say "If something is hungry, let it eat.  Plant more next year."  Well, Pop.  I guess I better get busy and plant more trees because we sure have a lot of hungry critters on our hands!

That is not a peach tree!

     I have a lot of fruit trees dotting the gardens.  Each of the plum trees and peach trees were loaded with fruit so I expected to be canning fruit for the entire month.  Well, we also have an overabundance of critters now that nary a tree stands on the acreage west of my brother's place.  All of the animals that were not immediately killed were displaced and are now starving to death.  (It is saddening to know they are suffering merely because of the greed of humans.  I would not be able to sleep at night knowing I caused this much agony on any creature.)  The critters have no place to go other than the Bayou so my fruit trees have been fair game for the critters.  There is not much I can do other than share.  Lots of the fruit is merely "tasted" then dropped to the ground.  That is frustrating as it is a huge waste.  Son and I picked several hundred of each type before they were tasted and let them ripen indoors.  Enough jam, jelly and preserves were made to last for the year so all is good.  The rest of the fruit will be left for the animals.  

  This afternoon, I was out taking one last walk through the gardens when I noticed something strange.  Up in the top of the live oak tree on the west side of the house was something rosy pink.  Well, now!  That is not a peach tree!  Obviously, a squirrel had stolen a peach and managed to get it to the opposite side of the yard, up the tree and then got chased from its prize.  The peach sits perfectly balanced on the large limb.  Perfectly balanced that is until the next thunderstorm rolls through the area later tonight.  Then the winds will shake the peach loose and it will come crashing down...right on the old truck!  It seems that the "critter damage" is not just confined to the fruit trees.  Hopefully, some other critter will take a liking to the peach and remove it before it falls.  Oak trees are not supposed to have peaches!

A Sad Situation For All

  With our potential new neighbors clear-cutting the property to our west, we are being inundated with critters.  The poor things have no place to go other than here.  They are confused, agitated and hungry so...they raid the gardens.  I fully understand that this is merely an act to survive and has nothing to do with meanness but I really was in hopes of eating a few peaches or plums from the trees.  The critters do so much damage that it is heartbreaking.

  A week ago, the coons raided the peach trees and took a nip out of about half of the unripe peaches.  They broke limbs and knocked hundreds of peaches to the ground.  If they had taken one or two peaches each, I would not have complained.  I figure there was plenty to share but to ruin almost a hundred pieces of fruit and not eat it was so disheartening.  I was so upset that I headed out with a basket and picked every remaining peach from the trees.  Yep.  These were unripe but I figured that I could let them ripen indoors a few days then make jam and jelly.  During the day, I put the covered trays outside so the sun can hasten the process.  The first batch of jam turned out well so I have high hopes.  Five boxes of peaches have yet to ripen but appear to be on the verge of doing so!  After that episode, the rascals raided the tomato patch and ruined dozens of tomatoes.  Again, I was saddened and have been watching the plot like a hawk since then!  Two nights ago, the raccoons found the plum trees.  Thousands of unripe plums were dangling from the tree limbs and I was so in hopes that I could restock the pantry shelves with plum jam.  After the night of rambunctiousness by the coons, two hundred plums were on the ground again with one bite taken.  I was sickened at the sight.  Needless to say, all of the remaining plums that were starting to ripen were picked and the same process as with the peaches was started.  Hopefully, I will be successful in ripening these, too.  

  I am not sure what can be done with so many "homeless" or misplaced critters.  Somehow, we will have to learn to live harmoniously but I am not seeing it.  It makes me sad since this situation was by no fault of the critters. They are trying to survive the best way they know how.  It is sad.

Band of Thieves

  While I love the critters that inhabit the Bayou, Creek and wooded area around here, I have to admit that occasionally I get a tad irritated at some of them.  Just last week, I observed the squirrels munching the peaches. Three of them would slip into the garden, each grab a peach and scoot up the nearby Black Gum Tree.  There, they would gnaw the peach and toss down the pit.  Five nights ago, it was different critters in the same tree.  The coons riddled the peach crop.  It would not be so bad if they helped themselves to a few and then were so kind as to leave a few for us, but...NOOOO....they have to taste-test each and every peach on the tree.  What they do not eat, they simply bit and dropped.  One night and about half of the peaches were lost.  Son and I went out the next day and picked the remaining fruit even though they were not quite ripe.  Better to get what we could before those were ruined.  Peach jam can be very forgiving when it come to ripeness.  

  Three nights later, the same thing happened to the plums.  Two trees of fruit were eliminated by the same process.  Bite and drop seems to be the norm for coons.  We got six plums.  Those were thrown in the pot with some of those green peaches.  Jam is good.

  Now I have had it with raccoons!  I am so over their thieving ways.  Between those and the birds stealing the Boysenberries, it is amazing that we have any fruit whatsoever.  Then...yesterday morning....while I sat drinking my coffee. I noticed a wiggle outside the window in the tomato patch. A Redheaded Woodpecker was hammering away at my nice red tomato!  Geez!  I grabbed a bucket, picked every tomato that was remotely changing color and brought them inside.  There, bird! Take that!  I made gallons of tomato sauce today.  Tomorrow will be the same as I shall pick more in the morning.  It is hard to believe that this pretty bird would stoop so low as to be a tomato thief!  Then again....he does have sneaky eyes....just look at him!  Thief!!!

  It seems as if the critters are thinking my gardens are there for their pleasure.  I would not mind so much if they lent a helping hand...errr...paw, talon, claw or whatever...but for them just to take is totally uncalled for.  Pops always used to say that we just had to plant more the next year to make up for what the critters (and unscrupulous people) stole from his fields.  I never remember him becoming upset over the thefts.  Maybe I just need a bigger garden.....or high fences.....or a pack of large watchdogs...or maybe I should just count my blessings and forget about it.

There is a better way!

  Our peach orchard sits in the back of the house about half way down to the creek.  Obviously, we were not using our brains when we decided that it was a good idea to plant the trees here.  Even though for a while we had a six foot tall fence surrounding the trees, critters still raided the fruit.  We tried to outsmart the animals by adding several rows of electric fence wire around the top of the existing fence.  The critters still raided the fruit.  Nothing we did could dissuade the critters from stealing peaches every night.  What made this most frustrating was the fact that even though they would bite a peach, the varmints never finished a single one.  One bite and the peach was dropped to the ground.  This just ruined bushels of fruit.  We decided that we needed to pick the peaches before they ripened.  Perhaps this would work. Nope, the coons, squirrels, birds and deer all decided to beat us to the punch and nibble the green, unripe fruit. This whole thing was very disheartening.

  Then a seedling peach tree decided to push its way through the mulch in the Rose Garden.  I carefully dug it and potted it in hopes that perhaps we could find a place that would be critter-free.  Since the Rose Garden has been transformed into the Cottage Garden with veggies, fruits and herbs, the sapling was transplanted in a prime spot.  It grew quickly and this year produced a number of fruit.  So far, no critters have devoured our peaches!  Perhaps planting the tree in the midst of the tomatoes, squash and cucumbers disguised it to the point that the animals were unable to find it!  Perhaps, Ms. Ez, the Bayou Dog, did her job a bit better this year.  Perhaps, I need to plant more fruit trees within feet of the house!  This definitely seems to be a much better way of getting fruit!

  Usually a seedling peach has better odds of being a clingstone peach where the seed hangs tight to the flesh but this seedling is the perfect freestone type!  The fruit is sweet, juicy and highly flavorful! Mark and I are pondering whether to try our hand at planting another seed or investing in a tree from the nursery.  Since this one did so well, I might just plant a seed...or two...or maybe a dozen or so!

Those Deer Little Ones!

This has been an unbelievably tough year on the garden.  Weatherwise..it should have been perfect!  We had an early spring after an almost "not" winter.  Rains have been perfectly timed and even the winds have been cooperating!  But, still, the garden is in wrack and ruin.  Critters!  Critters of all sorts have taken a liking to my plants!  Actually, all of this started with the seeds.  We planted the hotbed with the usual tomato and pepper seeds.  Out of four packs of each, a mere three peppers and seven tomatoes survived.  I found that I had mole crickets  infesting the hotbed.  These critters did not eat the seeds but the new seedling plants were soon devoid of any tender roots.  This caused my seedlings to wither and wilt.  After just a few days, I was down to less that a dozen plants.  This was no way to start a garden!  Then, the grasshoppers came in and decimated my squash!  Overnight, the ten inch tall squash plants were stripped to a small stalk.  Even the blooms were eaten!  I was heartbroken but vowed to replant.  I would have a garden!

Things went well for a few weeks.  The replanted gardens were starting to thrive!  The squash plants were blooming again and the few tomato plants were starting to fill their cages!  I was happy again!  The empty plots once again resembled healthy gardens.  In the peach orchard, we had planted five rows of Crowder Peas.  I had suggested this as the garden had a hefty, five-foot tall fence around it.  That fence was topped with a single strand of electric wire and had two other strands spaced below that.  This electric wire was not charged enough to truly hurt any animal or bird since it was solar powered but it was there just to make the critters think twice about entering the area.  I was most positive that the peas would be safe there!  I was wrong..oh, so wrong!  Some time during the night, a thief..or maybe several..entered that garden.  My peaches were nipped to the seed and the Crowder Peas were gnawed to the ground!  I had nary a pea plant!  I was quick to blame the birds since I did not think anything else could penetrate this fortress!  Then, I saw the back fence!  The entire fence was on the ground!  The corner post had been hit with such force that it had broken off at the ground.  Now, granted, the post was getting a tad wobbly as it aged..but oh, my goodness!  It was broken in two!  My garden had been violated!  I started scanning the ground for evidence and soon found it!  Hoof prints of a deer!  So that was what was purloining my peaches and pinching my peas!  The very same deer that I had been feeding down in the front yard had now decided to visit the gardens!  My poor peaches and peas!

I am pondering whether to even bother planting anything else this summer.  I still have several hundred jars of home-canned goodies on the shelves and three huge freezers full of seafood.  Do I need the extra work?  Do I need the added stress?  Probably not but today, I pulled out the seeds and started planning a summer garden.  If nothing else..the critters around the Bayou will be nice and fat for the winter!

Everything is Peachy Keen!

Peaches! Tons and tons of peaches..well..maybe not tons but a lot of peaches! Son and I chopped what seemed like an endless amount of the fruit today. I had to use the canner pot to cook the chopped peaches. It was filled to capacity even though it is almost a twenty-two quart pot! Oh my! The house smelled delicious while this was cooking! It took us several hours, two cut thumbs and a pot of coffee to make our way through this mass of peaches but we finally have it all in the jars! What was twenty pounds of peaches has now been turned into four gallons of peach jam! I am tired to say the least! And to think..we have to pick more peaches in the morning..the process will start all over again!

After spending all day inside the kitchen, I needed to escape to the garden. I slipped on my shoes and headed out the back door just in time to hear Ezzy barking at something near the marsh edge. After killing one snake at the back door yesterday, I was concerned that she might have found another. So..to the Bayou I headed. I was thoroughly armed with my camera and nothing else but I was more interested in pulling the dog back from the marsh than killing a snake that was where it should be. As I made my way through the tomato garden, I realized that Ezzy was barking up a tree and not at the ground. Now there have been instances where I have seen snakes in the trees but something just struck me as being a bit odd with this situation. Ezzy does have a habit of treeing animals so I was assuming that a squirrel was sitting on a low limb just aggravating her. She was excited to see that I was investigating her dilemma. I peered into the bushes and finally located what she had treed. There about eight feet from the ground in a small bush was a raccoon. A nice, fat raccoon..she had treed what I assume was a very pregnant critter. I called her back and let the animal clamber out of the bush and hurry on its way. No use in disturbing a lady that was "in the family way". Ezzy was extremely proud of her treeing abilities and immediately raced to a nearby hickory tree as if to say.."I might have something up this one, too!" Sadly to say, there was nary a critter in that tree..but she was just as excited to sit and stare at the tree for the next hour anyway! Silly dog!

Speaking of the tomato garden, I noticed when I hurried through earlier, that the bushes are loaded with tiny fruit. I can only hope that this year, we actually get a few tomatoes that are of a larger size. Last year, every plant in the garden turned out to be of the cherry size. That made for a lot of picking. Still, I managed to put up quite a few jars of sauce, salsa and ketchup! It pleases me to know that the plants are still doing as well as they are considering the extreme drought that we are enduring here on the Bayou. I try to water the plants but sometimes I wonder if I am just prolonging the inevitable. Hopefully..the plants will hold on a bit longer and the rains will come again.

While the feet amble, the mind rambles!

I do a good bit of walking everyday. Not particularly as a "fitness" regime but more because I like to be outside and I like to meander around looking at whatever happens to be in my path. No matter how many times I take the same route around the property, I always manage to see something new, different or just interesting. So..the mind rambles as I amble.

The peach orchard needed tending today, so Son and I grabbed a couple of small buckets and headed out back. Each day there has been a raccoon that scurries up the corner post, barges right across to "hot" wires and enters to eat its fill. By "hot" wires, I am referring to a solar-powered electric fence. There are two strands of this wire that are strung above the chicken wire fence. It does pack a pretty good wallop but this does not seem to faze the raccoon at all. Thought...do I put more strands of hot wire? Do I get a stronger charger? Or do I just let the raccoon eat my peaches? Today, we picked any semi-ripe fruit and made ten pints of jam. At least that 'coon isn't getting everything!

On my meandering, I came across the cutest little bird. The tiny Brown-headed Nuthatch was visiting the feeders and was all fluffed out due to the chilly wind. Chilly wind? Yes, for some strange reason, we are having a cool spell here on the Bayou. This is not supposed to happen in May!!! (Perhaps this all goes back to an explanation that I gave in an earlier post about April being late this year! A slip of the tongue..instead of Easter being late!) Anyway the tiny Nuthatch was filling his belly and preparing for a chilly night. I can imagine that its small size makes it difficult to stay warm. Go back to your nest, Little One!

Under the citrus trees, the Inca or Peruvian Lilies are blooming! I love these lilies simply because they are something that my Aunt Marie and Uncle Alfred gave to me years ago! I remember that they had them planted by their steps that went down toward the Bay. I was always fascinated by the unusualness of the blooms and now, every time mine bloom, they bring back fond childhood memories of times spent with my aunt and uncle..wonderful people!

Building Codes! I am so thinking that someone should create building codes for the birds! Not all birds but mainly for the Mourning Doves. These sweet birds have no clue when it comes to building a sturdy structure. A pair have decided to nest on top of the grape arbor. Not a bad place, but my goodness, this is a shoddy nest! There are approximately ten twigs haphazardly twined together to form a base. How in the world the eggs are supposed to balance on this is beyond me! Every year, I am amazed that any baby doves survive at all..for that matter, how any of the eggs hatch in the first place!

Shoo Fly! Or more aptly put, Shoe Fly. On one of the fig trees in the back of the house, I came across a huge..maybe two inch long bug! I am not sure just what it is or if it would bite, sting or otherwise maltreat me. I just know that it was interesting because it appeared to be wearing little yellow shoes! Now, not many bugs wear tiny, yellow shoes or any shoes at all for that matter! This large, flying insect was black with a red splotch on its body underneath its wings. As large as it was, I was certainly relieved to find that it was quite timid and tried to steer clear of me! Shoes..tiny, yellow shoes!

I leave you with one last thought..isn't it relaxing to view a a small bunch of flowers in a window? There is just something calming about either a vase of cut flowers or even a pot of tulips. Both of these flowers made me smile so I had to share the pictures with you. The vase of flowers were some that I picked from the garden. I had intended to leave them on the kitchen table but they just looked so happy in the window. The tulips were a gift from my sweet daughter-in-law and son. The fiery, red blooms have been brightening my windowsill for about a week now. Go out and pick a handful of ditch daisies, stick them in a jar, place it on the windowsill and see if this doesn't just make your day wonderful! I guarantee they will bring a smile and lower the stress level! Ahhhh...happy!

Peach jam!

Our peach trees produced rather well this year considering this is only their second season. The peaches started ripening several weeks ago, so I have been busy canning peaches daily. This morning, I picked the last ones from the trees and proceeded to preserve them. Since all of our trees seem to be cling peaches instead of the desired free-stone type, I was dreading the labor intensive seeding. Time for Plan B! Peach jam! This is much easier since I do not peel the peaches when making jam. I chopped my way through 41 peaches this morning, cooked it down and popped it into the jars. Seven more quarts of peach jam are now on the shelf awaiting winter! This makes a total of 23 quarts plus 12 quarts of peach jelly and 18 quarts of peach pie-filling. We will have tasty treats during the cold weather!

This evening it is threatening rain. There are dark clouds to the north and west of the Bayou and thunder is rumbling in the distance. I had hoped to fish from our pier this evening but I guess those plans are dashed now. Our freezer needs to be filled with seafood just in case the oil from the BP spill ruins our waters. We depend upon the Back Bay of Biloxi as one of our main suppliers of food. We have always been able to catch fish, shrimp and crabs from our pier to supplement our diets. I am not sure how much longer this will be the case as the oil looms just offshore like some sort of monster.

On a happier thought..we do need the rain! The garden could use a good soaking. Yesterday, I pulled out all of the old, spent squash plants and remade the rows. If it does come a shower, I will replant with hopes of getting a second summer crop. There should still be plenty of time left for them to produce before I put in the fall garden. It is amazing just how much work there is to live this simple life! Still, I am happy..tired but happy.