Irrigation solved finally

For the last 4 years Jeannie from Your Home Harvests http://www.yourhomeharvests.com/ and I have been struggling with keeping the entire garden watered.  We have been using a single timer and many hoses and many soaker hoses.  When we tried a three-zone timer the faucet would sing right next to the bedroom.  But then it did that anyway.  Also every year we had to buy new soaker hoses.  We used six hose splitters and the problems compounded.  This year Jeannie suggested I consider getting it professionally done.  I called three landscapers in the area. One never responded, one responded way late and one responded and got the work done before Memorial Day.  That was Mid-Valley Landscape www.mid-valleylandscape.com.  I am delighted!  He understood the needs of a vegetable garden, as his wife is a gardener.  And the work proceeded.

Here is the yard torn up.  This took a day.  And this is only part of it.

 Here are the underground valves.  The white pole goes into the garage where the timer is.

The timer.

The water bottle is reserved for sugar water for the beehive.

And the actual watering units.  These are around the trees—two-espalier apple and two pear and two columnar apples.  There are three watering circles and in each trunks.  You can also see some mature leeks and some grassy like tufts of growing leek (these still need dividing.)

Here are the hanging baskets.  The orange globe does not water them but I like glass things so they are there for decoration.

 Here is the corner flowerbed.  There are some nice plants in here, and more to come, but the bees like the wild borage so it is in place for that reason.  I am hoping to get borage moved to the insect hedge in the future.

 The rest of the gardens have sprayers like this, a 90-degree spray at each corner and a 180-degree spray on each long side.

 Here are gardens nearer the chicken yard.  The trees are to the left.  The other tow gardens now have tomatoes, 5 blueberry bushes, spinach, some leek and more to come.  The raspberries are not in the picture.  They have been segregated to their own two 2’x4’ pots.

please forgive the rough post.  Blogger changed and I have spent 3 hours trying to figure this out.

Asparagus, herbs and potatoes to the right, bee hive under the awning, strawberries in the left foreground and celery, beans and peas (so far) closer to the hive.  What an exciting time of the year.  May 2012.

Trevor has learned to play

Every year Trevor Airedale and I go to the Picture People for pictures. Trevor usually looks the same, but I take my best pictures with him. Then we have pictures to share with family, for Facebook or Ravelry This year we had a coupon.

We got groomed the day before. I go to Brandy Ashlock at Images Hair Salon

(503) 990-7475  ‬‪5171 River Road North, Keizer, OR 97303‬.

I took Trevor to his groomer KBeeler who rents a station at

She has taken the time to learn to groom Trevor.

Our photographer lives with two roommates, they each have a Pit Bull. His is the youngest –a girl-18 months. He suggested that we do some with just Trevor.

Trevor is all Airedale – a typical clown. But we never would have had these pictures were it not for Our Veterinarian. Trevor goes to www.banfield.com/

2925 Lancaster Drive Northeast Salem, OR 97305 (503) 581-5899

He is on a well dog policy and had been going in every time he had lesions for itching (that means for years). June of 2011 Dr. Palotti suggested allergy shots. Not only does he now have a lovely pink belly, but he is more playful and even more loving. He goes to doggy Day Care at http://www.everythingpawsible.net/ M-F and they kept telling me that he was playing more, standing up for himself, greeting new dogs appropriately and just generally happier.

Whose dog is this anyway.

Oh yes, still My Trevor- McClever

Trevor turned 11 on March 5, 2012 these pictures were taken six days later.

February Honey

The bees did not make it through the winter and we had some nice days in early February so we cleaned out the hive and I harvested and bottled about 3 gallons of Honey.

here the hive is open and the bars on the left have been harvested. At this point we had not found the queen.

We found her. None of these bees are alive and the queen is in the middle.

Here is a visiting bee on capped honey to the left and brood cells to the right.

Here is capped honey off of the bars and ready to go inside. We left the bars out in the open and over the rest of the day and the next we had sunny weather and high 50’s for temperature, so the visiting bees cleaned everything up. Then I brought the bars inside the garage.

Here the honey has been placed into pieces and is in the top bucket which has holes in it. It is slowly dripping through the mesh filter and the top bucket with the holes and into the bottom 2 gallon bucket. This takes days, but I harvested about 3.5 gallons.