Charleston Trip

This was Kodi's third time in Charleston, but her first time downtown.  She was a big fan of the king sized bed in the B&B we stayed at and met horses for the first time.  She was very concerned about these great big hulking things at first, barking her head off, but she settled down in short order and decided that she wanted to play with them.  I thought that wasn't a particularly good idea!

Gardening

 Dear blog, I apologize profusely for neglecting you all summer.  I shall make it up to you now!  First, we got chickens!  Unfortunately, during the awful heat wave (we were measuring on the ground at 125) the chickens died.

So we got new chickens.  I made some changes to their home to make it better in the heat.

The garden is giving us lots of veggies.  I'm learning a lot and will have a better plan next year!

The old chickens gave us lots of eggs as well.  The new ones haven't started laying yet.

The garden is also providing us with epic cayenne time.

I said epic, didn't I?  That long string there, I got that many plus more in just one week!

Kodi is growing up and growing big!

New Puppy!

Kodi (Kodiak) joined our family last night!

Kodiak Photo Essay

More than 24 hours after I woke up that morning, we finally landed on Ugiak Bay and got base camp set up, aided by the lengthening Alaska days.  I almost went right to sleep, but figured I should take some pictures of the sunset - good thing, too, as we didn't get these lovely colors again! 

Our first full day we climbed up a little knob.  The hillside was steep and thick with alders and willows.  It was hard going, but worse going down.  We also decided that we couldn't see well enough to make that our glassing hill.

Day two was dead wind so we stuck near to camp and the beach.  There were a bunch of old shrimp pots piled up nearby.

Dream Kitchen, Base Camp edition

Sitka deer lurked on the beach at low tide, snatching up kelp after a long, hard winter.

Seals followed us whenever we walked the beach.  It was a bit creepy!

Home Sweet Home, Base Camp edition

Down booties kept us cozy warm on day three, which was our one really rainy day.

Day four started off drizzly but looked to clear up, so after a hot breakfast and some tea, we pushed to our new glassing hill.

View from our glassing hill on day three.

Sunset on day three.

We spent the next bunch of days up on the hill at spike camp, glassing from dawn to dusk.

Spotting scope, our constant companion!

Dream Kitchen, Spike Camp edition

Home Sweet Home, Spike Camp edition.  Yes, it was that steep!

Oh, the Places You'll Go

View up the Wild Creek drainage.

When we finally broke spike and headed back to base camp, the meadow was full of buffalo.

They cleared out after we hung around for half an hour or so.

...But they still didn't like us!

Buffalo tracks on the beach.

I have more pictures coming, but it will be a few weeks.  No, we didn't get a bear, but I think we did everything right.  We were just unfortunate enough to have four other hunting parties dropped off in the same drainage who were not as scent conscious as we were.  Still, it was a blast and quite an adventure!

Return from the Wild

I'm back from Kodiak with tons of stories and pictures, but also with three weeks and a musical to go until the end of the school year.  Hopefully I will get a good post up this weekend, but I also have two community band concerts eating up my time, so for now I shall leave you with the last sight of our float plane after being dropped off on Ugiak Bay.

How Does Your Garden Grow...

Mine is growing!  Slowly!  But the owners of this house must love roses, because there are some pretty epic rose bushes in the landscape.  Bright colors!

Swan Pon'

Long story short, I got a job!  Hurray!  And goodbye to free time!  So here's some pretty picture spamming!

Love me some wood duck.

My favorite swan.  How can you not love those gorgeous wing feathers??

We all have something important to say!

...Mmmkay.

Seedlings, Day Four

I've decided to use this blog to muse about my garden.  I've decided that I love vegetables.  But only real vegetables.  As in, not the kind you buy at the store.  So, I'm getting my garden on.  This is utterly hilarious to those who know me, because I have a very black thumb, but I figure that South Carolina is pretty perfect climate-wise for growing things so maybe that will help me!

Anyway, one of the cool things about this house is that it came with a raised garden bed already!  I did soil testing and began adding more soil and fertilizer to correct the PH levels and nutrient deficiencies.  I need to test again in a week or so.

Meanwhile, I ordered a bunch of seeds.  These arrived late last week.  Some of them don't need to be started inside but others do.  So, I Very Carefully read the instructions plus everything I could find on the internets.  I set aside the outside ones and will return to them after the last frost (end of March, 'round here).  This left me with my first crop of brussel sprouts and broccoli (I'll get two crops of those), some herbs, and the trickier tomatoes, eggplants and chili peppers.  I popped them into their little sprouting pots and gave them a sprinkle of water.

The next problem was where to put the baby plants.  The instructions specifically said that a windowsill was not the best option.  A warm location with lights a few inches above the plants was suggested.  I figured I'd try the top of the fridge.  Really, this would have been perfect, except that my cat decided that HE wanted the top of the fridge and in Cat vs Baby Plants, Cat wins.  So I rescued the plants from the cat and retreated to the laundry room.  On top of the drier is a pretty warm spot!  And I guess it worked because on day four I have nice big sprouts from my broccoli and brussels, and little sprouts from my herbs.  Still watching the tomatoes, eggplants and chilis though!

Pee Dee Hog Hunt

Sunset 

Dawn over the Pee Dee

I was too busy to do much photographing on this trip, but these two views were too gorgeous to pass up.  As you can see in the bottom image, I've been experimenting with Photomatix.  I'm liking it a lot and will be purchasing a copy as soon as I get around to it.

It was nice to spend time out in the woods, even if it was a gross swamp and even if we didn't get a hog.

Backyard Birding

Every evening around sunset, the back corner of my yard is full of cardinals and bluejays munching on this or that.  In an effort to entice them closer, I've put a birdfeeder outside the kitchen window.  So far only some sparrows have found it, but its only been up for day.  Hopefully soon I will have pretty cardinals like this fine fellow right outside my window!

This is Winter?

Sorry for the hiatus!  We've just finished up the Big Move (again!).  We're getting settled in - signed the lease on a place and tomorrow the movers come!  More pictures soon!