Birds, Berries, and Wine

I put bathrooms back together yesterday, or as close to back together as I could get them while waiting for the new furnishings to arrive. We are going to have to replace some light fixtures throughout the house, too. Some need updating, but some also refuse to play nicely with LED bulbs. I have LED bulbs in the fluorescent overhead fixtures in my office and while I love the amount of light they put out, they must overheat the fixtures, because every so often the fixtures just shut off. I can type in the dark, but when all three fixtures go out simultaneously (they don’t always), I usually take a break and go make some tea until they cool off and come back on. We’re having similar problems with some of the other fixtures. The LED bulbs are burning out way before they should.

I made another batch of masks and cooked up some madras lentils because I really wanted some comfort food. Some people like chicken soup, others want mac and cheese. When I want comfort food, it’s usually some kind of Indian curry.

After lunch, I went out to work in the garden. I was surprised to find this little guy inside the greenhouse:

The doors were closed, so we’re not quite sure how he got in. Even when the doors are open, birds rarely find their way inside. I opened the doors and within a few minutes, he had escaped to the great outdoors again.

Yesterday’s gardening task was more pruning. I started by giving the grapes a pretty severe haircut because I want them to produce well this year (more on that in a moment). Once they were done, I moved over to the raspberry bed. Getting the raspberries under control has been a multi-year project, because we were bad farmers and let them grow uncontrolled for too long. I went through and cut and pulled out all the dead canes, dug out the suckers that were creeping out of the bed, and thinned out this year’s bearing canes. When we put those berries in, we planted two varieties. One is thorny and one is thornless. The thornless variety bears much better and is (obviously) easier to pick, so I am also trying to dig out and get rid of the thorny variety.

It’s a process, but I am getting there. And I’ve thinned out the bed enough that it is going to provide a lot less cover for those stupid ground squirrels.

Part of the reason I want a good crop of grapes this year is this:

This is the wine that our employee and his wife made with the grapes I gave them last year. I opened the bottle and poured myself a glass yesterday afternoon. Isn’t it pretty? It tastes even better than it looks. Our variety of grapes is called Reliance. I have never seen a description of that variety that even hints that it might be a good wine grape. It is described strictly as a table grape, suitable for jams and jellies. I am no oenophile, but I know what I like, and this is really good wine. (Also, it’s organic!) I want to make sure that Matt and his wife have enough grapes this fall to make more of this.

I have heard it said that “The best fertilizer is a farmer’s footprints,” and looking at and evaluating our property is a big part of how we get things to grow here. I am noticing that my herb garden and the old vegetable garden are getting much more sun now because we lost so many trees in the woods in that last storm. The canopy has opened up considerably. Unfortunately, the chicken yard also lost some of its shade, so we may have to figure out a way to shade that for the chickens this summer. I am curious to see how the herb garden does this year with the extra sun as it already has a tendency to become an overgrown jungle by the middle of July.