When your Puppy Eats your Swing, you Improvise

Loula the puppy ate the seat off of our tree swing. Actually, she just chewed it from the super-strong woven straps it was on and carried it away. But, Esme has not let that stop her from making use of the leftover straps. She was proud to show me what she has been doing with those arm muscles...







I think she might have a career in gymnastics ;) just kidding. I was in it as a kid and was quite impressive at the uneven bars.



What actually impressed me the most was not her setting this all up herself in front of me to show me her trick - but the way she grasped both straps in her hands and 'walked' her fingers up until she had a good foot of each strap below her hands - she took a long and deliberate time doing this and looking at the ground before she actually made her jump. She was calculating her distance and arc by experience - if I grab this much strap I won't hit the ground when I swing. Now that's some thought process kid!



note: also, I find balloon strings wrapped around everything lately. I blow them up for her (helium tank left over from a birthday two years ago!) and give her one every once in a while. While she has not learned to tie knots she has figured out that if you wrap the string around something about fifteen times it tends to stay put - and our porch, the swing straps, even the refrigerator door have been 'hit' by balloon wrappings lately. I found one balloon with the string stuck in the kitchen cupboard door the other day - because she didn't want it getting away from her while she played with something else for a while.


purple silks on the field corn


the west field

The drought has taken a big bite out of both of my experimental corn fields this year. This field has only gotten about three feet tall but there are some very small ears still happening in there. I guess it would be important to keep seed from this just for drought tolerance. The purple silks on a few of them interest me - is it the genetics, or the 'hot' acidity of the soil? I planted mostly black and blue kernel corn here to see what would happen. Now that I'm on vacation I am making sure it is getting some extra water to do what it can. Read up on it - purple silks means a phosphate deficiency. I can solve that with a little epsom salts - already have some from the cucumbers last year.


sad little main garden

This is the 'main garden' after the drought and all of the clearing out of things that had died. I have replanted some things but it will be hard going with the hot dry weather we are still having (although there were rains a week or so ago). Still, there are bees and butterflies and hummingbirds and goldfinches enjoying the sunflowers, zinnias and bean flowers. And at that, it is still worthwhile even if the new plantings do not do much. Planted experimental field corn plot #2 yesterday in front of the sunflowers. Beans coming up everywhere from last week - corn coming up.... pulling in sunflower heads to dry every few days and getting nearly an entire quart jar of dried black seed already. The lemon sunflowers have a strange blue-gray tinge to them which keeps them separate from the other - there is maybe a small relish jar half full of those seeds.


lemon sunflower head

Blue aleurone, red striped pericarp - crossing my Indian corn

Just one ear - but the idea seems to have taken hold!

I tried to cross up two distinct separations of my Indian corn this year, the red-striped variety that seemed so dominant last year with the blue/white kernel flour corn that produced a few stunning ears. I ended up with this, a blue aleurone layer with red striped pericarp. Not too bad - and definitely different than anything I have seen in my very short year or two looking at odd corns. I am proud of a tiny accomplishment, even one ear :) when it shows me the process is working.

I think there will be a total of about thirty kernels on this cob that show the cross - and the rest are regular white and red striped, perhaps holding some of the genes but not showing them. Since the blue aleurone is the trait passed by the father of the corn this collection of kernels and other blues will have to be planted as the 'tassellers' next year and plant either the red-striped or a selection of white kernels as the mother plants and detassel them. That is a lot of work, but it would produce interesting results.

I am hoping the 'test plot' of leftover seed will do something this year. I put out just about twenty seeds left from the parents of all of these corns - and they are up about two inches and looking like they are not having any mineral deficiencies. The drought took so much of the experiment in the first part of the year I could not help but plant another round just to see what happened.

The experiment in the west field - blue vs. black, is still going but with only half-hopes of producing anything. Some of those plants have already tasselled out at 3 feet tall - and others look like they could be healthy enough to maybe put on an ear. We've had a bit more rain now, so we'll see what happens there, too.

I have ordered Mandan Bride corn to grow next year - and Japonica Striped Maize as well. The Mandan has the food qualities I want in a corn for people and animals - and the Japonica was just too pretty, with pink, white, yellow and green striped leaves and deep purple ears lending on variegated. The Japonica is a 'popcorn' breed though, so it will need to be planted far away from the field corn.


separate your popcorn away from the field corn

You can see above what happens when popcorn genes interfere with the process. They are dominant for ear size, even over the mother plant. This mistake, and the drought - led to some sad things this year. But, it is a learning experience. That is why I'm doing this, to learn and create something new.

Note : today is the first day of vacation - go back to the work on the 30th.