The Zucchini Tsunami is Upon Us

The warm weather we had in May gave most of the veggies a headstart—those that weren’t being nibbled on by rodents, at least—and I came home to find these:

June is early for zucchini. These became a batch of zucchini fritters yesterday. I ate five in one sitting because they tasted so good.

The garden is still being plagued by ground squirrels, although the husband shot another one while I was gone. If I get any broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower this year, it will be a minor miracle. Enough pea plants escaped damage that I will get some peas. I am going to grow lettuce in the greenhouse. There is no point in putting any out in the garden. I still have a couple of trays of greens growing in the basement, too.

Everything else looks wonderful. We should have raspberries soon. The tomatoes are flourishing. The pole beans seem to have appreciated the application of sulfur and have lovely green leaves now instead of anemic yellow ones.

Every year is different. The husband says that next spring, we will have to rig up some kind of cage system over the brassicas and peas, although a truly determined ground squirrel could tunnel up underneath.

***************

I have a hen in the chicken hospital at the moment. (The chicken hospital consists of a cage on the floor in the laundry room.) The husband was working behind the chicken yard the other day and spotted her being pecked at mercilessly by the other chickens. She had a gaping wound on her back. Dave, the rooster, has a few favorite hens and he is not always gentle in his wooing of them. I suspect this wound started as a result of his attentions. I cleaned it up as best I could and put her in the cage. She is eating and drinking and generally chipper, but I have to figure out what to do with her. I worry that putting her back out there too soon will be an invitation for the other hens to peck at her again. It’s almost time to let the pullets in with the big chickens, which would free up that separate space for her in the coop for another week or two. We’ll see. She is one of the chickens I hatched in 2020 and is destined for freezer camp this fall anyway.

I’ve had a group of broody hens in the corner of the coop on the floor—two Buff Orpingtons and two Black Australorps—for a couple of weeks now. I know they are sitting on a passel of eggs. If any of the eggs were fertilized, we should be seeing chicks soon.

Our neighbor texted last night that he had fresh bear scat in his yard. I know the bears are roaming around but we haven’t seen any.

***************

Sewing . . . While we were traveling, I checked at several Joann Fabrics stores for black duck canvas and couldn’t find any. Our store has been out of it for a while. It was like searching for black Kona all over again. I finally found some in the Joanns in Spokane on the way home. I’m working my way through another batch of canvas grocery bags.

One of my favorite YouTube channels at the moment is Crumpets, Tea, and Sewing. Tea made a recent video about her five essential sewing patterns. She mentioned Burda 6221, which I picked up just before we left for Portland:

Tea made both a dress and a blouse version of this pattern. I love that ruffled neckline.

I will be stuck on canvas grocery bags for the foreseeable future, although I’d like to get back to making some clothes. I also have to make a couple of generator covers before fall.