MAGIC

We had two magical and exciting things happen on the homestead this week.

First, firefly season began! I love seeing fireflies. No, I never converted over to the Southern moniker: lightning bugs. I held on to “Firefly” because the word just sounds as magical to me as seeing them is. The next few weeks will involve watching for each night’s firefly display.

The other excitement is that the automatic chicken door has been installed. We’ve been waiting a year for this moment!

Last month, I won some money at work — enough to cover the cost of the door kit. I chose the Omelet door. It has great reviews for the security it provides, and I like that it opens and closes horizontally instead of vertically.

Of course, Oscar let it sit around for a month before doing anything with it. He has an aversion to doing new things. I tried to encourage him to overcome his delaying tactics by having him do the morning AND evening chicken chores (usually we split them). Nevertheless, it took me saying “Now” and standing out there while he installed it to get it done. SMH.

As you might imagine, both of us were standing on the back porch tonight to watch the Magic:

IN THE GARDEN

The heat this week and weekend has been in the upper eighties and at times into the nineties so all outside work has been in spurts. I only got little things done but they added up to a nice bunch of accomplishments. Most notable is the planting I was able to do.

This weekend I planted zucchini, watermelon, and two kinds of yellow summer squash seeds in the Three Sisters Garden.

I had transplanted some tarragon, oregano, sage, thyme, and marjoram into my new “Leaf” Greenstalk planter on Monday. This weekend I transplanted rosemary into a couple of pockets. I direct-seeded the entire top level with nasturtiums as pest deterrent and, of course, because they are pretty. Lastly, I direct-seeded the remaining pockets with some borage, spearmint, and basil. This Greenstalk is now fully planted!

It may not look like much now but if everything grows, it’s going to be spectacular.

Hmm, if everything grows, I’m going to have to learn how to use all this stuff.