The Weekly Digs #171
Being so involved in growing most of our food is always eye opening. If it’s not bugs eating the food, then it’s something else. I’ll tell you about this week’s garden foe in a minute, but for now, I need to be grateful the blister beetles are pretty much gone! I’ve seen a few here and there, and only today did I see a cluster of them but thankfully they were outside my garden on the grass. I’m so grateful for that miracle.
My kids have been noticing some animal nibbling happening in their gardens, and Dax, who has Montana Cudu corn which is close to the ground, had entire ears getting eaten. I told him it was likely a rabbit, since I’d seen one in my strawberries a few weeks before.
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So he took it upon himself to set up a trap, placing a fresh ripe ear of corn in it. The next day, we were picking cucumbers and he said, “Mom, I caught the rabbit!” He then paraded the rabbit (still alive in the cage) around and showed each of his siblings his catch.
Rabbits always look sweet, even though they can be formidable in the garden. So we opted this time to drive the rabbit 3 miles down the road and let it go. We picked a spot with water flowing nearby, no neighboring gardens or even houses nearby, and tree cover also. It looked to be a perfect spot for a rabbit to thrive.
We set the cage out and opened it up, feeling good about our choice. Then the rabbit slowly, cautiously, exited the cage. Out of nowhere a stray dog appeared and saw the rabbit immediately.
The rabbit bolted, scurrying across the water, and the dog followed. At first the rabbit was out maneuvering the dog even though the dog was faster. Then the chase led them back over the water.
The rabbit lost its footing in the water and the dog caught up, catching the rabbit and dispatching it in one swift motion. Even though I wasn’t a fan of the rabbit, it was hard to see it die so quickly.
My boys are less emotional about things like this and Cruz, who was with me, said, “Well, we get an “A” for effort.”
In the Garden
- Harvesting summer squash (finally!), tomatoes, celery, dill, cucumbers, onions, green beans.
- I did a fair amount of weeding and tomato trellising. It’s still hot here 95ºF+ and I am finding it more difficult to get things done outside. I’m not naturally a morning person but shifted my schedule this week and got up at 6am everyday so I could get a few things done in the garden before the oppressive heat set in each day.
- The kids started some soil blocks for the family garden. More sunflowers (the oil seed type), basil, celery, and cilantro.
Preserving
- Canned 16 pints pickles
- Made 4 gallons of cucumber kimchi. It was about 40 lbs of cucumbers!
- We are in the middle of dicing celery. I think we will freeze dry some, and the kids say they want me to make some chicken noodle soup and then freeze dry that. I’ll update on what we actually decide to do next week.
House Projects
- We finished painting our bedroom, and I love it. It’s much darker because we painted the ceiling too. I’m not a fan of dark rooms in general but in this case it has been so nice for sleeping!
