New purchases and Updates on growth

We recently purchased some grape vines from a hobbyist in Colorado, 5 dormant frontenac grapes and 2 Tramenier grape vines . We also received our Gurney’s grape order of 5 Reliant grape vines. They arrived bare root and dormant and so I took the risk of putting them outdoors, heavily mulched.

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Furry butt here is the reason the grapes are caged. Don’t want him getting bored and chewing them up.

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The pistachio tree is doing quite well.

Growing Pistachio Trees from Seed

The apple seeds I’ve been growing are hit and miss, but mostly doing well.

Apple Seedling

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The lone locust tree seedling I have is growing slowly, but growing.

Locust Seedling

My tomato seedlings look…unchanged. I’m doing something wrong, obviously, but I do not know what.

 

I’ve had bug issues. The bamboo brought them into the house. The grapes cuttings I’m trying to root were the worst hit. I’ve since put diatomaceous earth on all of my indoor plants. We shall see if what they say is true, and the bugs die.

 

Everything else is not noticeably different but doing well.

I have planted out the hill I built for the kids slide, mulched it and tried my best to keep the mulch in place. I’m hoping in a few weeks I will be able to remove the fencing.

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The birds enjoyed making it into the yard, usually heavily guarded by dogs. The ducks took the most advantage, though a few chickens came in. We had to escort everyone out before dinner, so the dogs could go back out. This gave the kids an opportunity to pet a chicken.

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Yesterday we also brought home a new peacock, to replace the one that was killed by the dogs. He’s an india blue black shoulder. He had some broken feathers in transit but is still looking mighty fine. The kids took the opportunity, while the pea decided whether to come out of the cage or not, to pet his long tail and peak in on him.

peaking at the new boy petting the boy Unsure boy

We hope he adjusts well and that we can open the door to the barn again soon. They’ll all be locked in there until we are sure the new pea won’t fly away.

Here are a few extra, gratuitous pictures.

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Blue’s first tail display

Blue has grown a mighty fine train. This weekend was the first time I’ve seen him display it. I had to take the pictures from inside the house. I didn’t want to spook him off. Still, marvelous!

Oh, but the ladies were not impressed.

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This is our front lawn. I had swept a bunch of cat food out onto it and the peas have been busy hunting it out.

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Blue kept trying to threaten this rooster but the rooster was unimpressed. Blue needn’t waste his time. This rooster is very young still but I have a feeling we will be forced to eat him. He’s a bit….too friendly with people. I think he’ll get mean.10968577_10153086148178633_7663423407784535405_n

10991177_10153086148683633_1776524947117731158_n10891435_10153086148093633_8239308709084955392_n 10649583_10153086148443633_4324981849162458213_n 10151822_10153086148563633_2107380748722956973_n 1922388_10153086148773633_8523043060368636234_nI’ve raised these peas since they were 6 weeks old. I’ve lost 2 but the remaining 3 are marvelous!

Here is a baby pic.

Peachicks