I planted the male kiwifruit vine and Vincent (female) kiwi vines in January of 2004, and we have been patiently waiting for our first fruits. George, the dog, accidentally root pruned the female vine a little more than two years ago and we have been getting tons of female flowers on it ever since. I was starting to think the male would never flower and thus pollinate the female. However, the male did end up flowering this year, but I…
Below are the latest picture of our five bantam Cochins. The pullets turned 16 weeks on Monday. The kids have managed to name them all, even though my husband explicitly told them not to: Penguin, Lady Cluck, Daisy, Harly-quin, and Greasy Chicken. My daughter wants to change Greasy Chicken to Bockachelli, but my son is standing his ground with Greasy Chicken because of her odd looking feathers. In general, they are very gentle, outgoing, pretty quiet (unless they see me…
What do you buy an old fashioned, practical girl for her birthday? Not diamonds, clothes, or furs; a tankless hot water heater! According to my husband, it was my birthday present this year since it was completed the night before my birthday. He did get me a few other things, but this was best. I will no longer be stuck with tepid or cold water since I am last in line on school days for a morning shower. We had…
Every year from late July to early August, I often hear an approaching green fig beetle before I see it. It sounds like a Valley Carpenter bee, an insect I really like, so I usually pause and look around, but more often than not this time of year, the noise is a fruit beetle on the hunt for fruit or a nesting spot. As a child, I enjoyed catching these beetles, which very likely was the beginning of my fascination…
Generally, I really like insects, and very few bugs make me squeamish, but this one really freaks me out: the Brown Widow (latrodectus geometricus.) I was showing someone an egg sack to look out for today, and figured I could post about the spider since they are now a regular occurrence in the garden. I didn’t enjoy taking the photos at all. Brown Widow spiders have moved into Southern California from Florida, where it was introduced from the tropics. In…
The chicks are growing very quickly. I still only can tell that there are two cockerels for sure due to their very slow feathering and slightly larger and pinker combs. Statistically there should be more males. There are two others that just this week got a tiny bit of pink in their combs, but the combs are still mostly yellow. We have 13 chicks, and I doubt we could be so lucky as to get 11 pullets. Even though they…
Raising a few chickens in the city sure isn’t about saving money. The organic eggs our chickens gave us cost A LOT! Since June of last year when they started laying, we had approximately 950 eggs or about 80 dozen. After looking back at all our expenses, it worked out to about $2.83 a dozen. It is still cheaper than organic eggs in the stores around here, but I also invested a lot of my time, hard work, and love…
July 17, 2010: I was astonished to almost step on a lizard on my front lawn last week. It scurried into the irises, so I ran into the house to get the camera. I managed to get an okay photo, but not a full body shot. It was thin and almost 12 inches in length. The color was yellowish with almost some pink, a really pretty lizard! When I showed the photo to one of the neighbor kids that knows…
Well, Summer is officially here. It had been a really mild summer so far, with most of June and July having fog up until 1 or 2PM and the sun only coming out briefly for a few hours in the afternoon each day. But now, the temperatures have been in the upper 80’s to mid 90’s all this week. I jokingly blame my husband that he brought the heat back with him from Texas after his visit with his brother. …
Bababerries or Baba Raspberries are my favorite raspberry to grow. I have tried many yellows and reds over the years, and Baba has been the best. I first started growing them in the winter of 1999-2000 and have ever since. They need about half day sun (shade some of the time, with about 4 to 6 hours of sun light) here in Southern California. Morning Sun is better than afternoon sun since the harsh heat can burn the leaves early…