I've been pulling some really long hours in the garden now that the weather is finally beginning to cooperate with me. I've planted the beans and sweet corn in the ground (both starts AND seeds), and have begun transplanting peppers and squash and cucumbers outside too. We've also had a lot of "first of the season" appearances this past week: the first ripe strawberries, the first rose bloom, the first artichokes, etc. All of the heirloom pole beans have germinated, and today I noticed the Dragons Tongue bush beans finally poking their shy heads up out of the soil! Summer is on the way!
Last weekend, Ryan and I spent most of Sunday putting together my pepper isolation cage frames. I had to order my snap clamps online though, so I'm still waiting for those to arrive before I can finish the cages with reemay fabric. Who would have thought that such a simple and supposedly common part would be SO unbelievably difficult to find?!? I don't even want to admit how many hours we wasted trying to find the part locally...ah well. Story of my life.
I'm very much looking forward to summer! We've had a bad year for greens/peas/etc this year (which is SO strange to me), so there hasn't been much fresh produce to eat around the house. We're not big on grocery store shopping (mainly due to the fact that town is a long drive away, grocery shopping is EXPENSIVE anymore, and most of the produce they have is terribly bland), so if we can't eat out of our garden then we tend not to eat produce...I swear, if I see one more carb I may SCREAM! I am eagerly awaiting those lusciously ripe tomatoes, cold zucchini soup, hot tamale pie with fresh vegetables and homegrown & ground cornmeal! Not to mention squash soup, raspberries, peppers, etc.! Is it mid-summer yet??
Saturday afternoon was spent relaxing around a table at the wonderful Longsword Vineyard, while watching paragliders and hang gliders land in the field in front of the tasting room. What a great way to start off Memorial Weekend! 
Of course I wore my birthday hat! 
Thursday was my (infamous) birthday, and it appears that I mostly managed to escape my normal bad luck spell: I did not have to work, there were no trips to the emergency room, and there was only one minor instance with a sick animal (ok, I cried for two days straight over that one, but thankfully it happened on SUNDAY, and the animal ended up not being as ill as it could have been!). All in all, not too bad for me!
Later, Ryan and I got all dressed up to go out on an evening date, but we were still SO full from lunch at 38 Central that we ended up canceling our reservation, changing into sweatpants, and hanging out at home. I know, we must sound pretty lame, but it was the best way to end a wonderful birthday that I could think of! We did make sure to take pictures of us dressed up though...just to have as proof that we DO clean up well! *grin*
Today's B&B guest breakfast consisted of Ryan's freshly-baked sourdough rolls with a choice of blackberry-basil or strawberry-tarragon jams; farm fresh scrambled eggs with butter-fried sage and chives; and finally, our signature Cherry-Fennel Granola with whole milk yogurt, garnished with (local) apricot slices, blueberries, and a strawberry topped with a fennel leaf! 
I also found this adorable vintage purse to go with it!
On Saturday, Ryan tilled the Pasture Garden one last time for me. I then proceeded to plant Oaxacan Green Dent Corn seeds and pumpkin seeds in the 14'x49' plot. We have expanded from our original flour corn patch last year, which measured 10'x40'. However, I was frustrated to note that Sunday morning the ground squirrels and crows had already gone to work on my patch! This has been a bad year for furry "pests," and I am beginning to stress a bit about the harvest. Though we try to live in harmony with the wildlife around us, the ground squirrels were such a problem last year (both to gardens and house foundations) that we officially declared open warfare on them. As far as I can tell, there are only two small colonies left, and we are still waging our war.
Yesterday, Ryan and I built our "tester" pepper plant isolation cage out of wood and reemay row cover cloth. This cage (and the 6-7 others we are planning to build) will be used to ensure seed purity in the rare heirloom pepper plants that we will be raising this year. 
The reemay fabric allows about 75% light and water to pass through, and also provides a light shade and increased humidity, which the plants love. 
This particular cage measures 4'x4'x4', which is a bit too large for many pepper plants. However, this one is planned for my beloved Chapeau de Frade pepper plants, which (when happy) have been known to grow up to 5 feet tall and 8 feet wide! I doubt they will reach that big here in Southern Oregon, but I wanted to give them a good amount of space just in case!
Trying to attach the reemay fabric to the wooden frame was a bit...difficult...in the breeze to say the least! The fabric covers all sides except for the bottom of the frame, with a long "skirt" that will be buried in the soil so that insects can't crawl under the frame to get into the box.
