Baby birds everywhere

Naturally this is the season for baby birds. And let me tell you, they're everywhere.

Let's start a few days ago when I noticed a Western Kingbird fledgling on a pile of rocks, waiting for its parents to feed it.

These are surprisingly hard birds to photograph, so I was pleased to get these shots.

Here's an adult.

Next up, a juvenile black-capped chickadee that got under our porch roof and couldn't quite find its way out for a bit. Its wings weren't the strongest, so it blundered around for a few minutes.

Here's a darling little fledgling robin (I'm a sucker for robins) that hung around inside the strawberry enclosure. Made me want to pinch his little cheek. The parents were clucking around me in alarm, so of course I didn't get any closer.

And then there are the magpies. I can't pretend to enjoy these fledglings as much. They're noisy and raucous and demanding, and they're everywhere. You can distinguish juvies from adults by the length of their tail feathers.

(Bonus photo: Here's Frumpkin watching the magpies on the roof.)

And finally, the pièce de résistance, some killdeer. Here's the parent:

S/he was shepherding around four offspring, which were moving around fairly fast. I was lucky to get all four in one photo.

Even though we have killdeer everywhere, it's rare to glimpse the babies.

That's our inventory of baby birds so far.

Potato update

As you may recall, I planted potatoes in grow bags (again) this year. I tried this technique last year, but between a bad location and bad clay soil, it was a complete flop. This year I relocated the grow bags to a better location and used better soil.

The idea with indeterminate potatoes is to bury them in layers, because more potatoes will form from the stem. When I first planted them in grow bags in April, I put in about four inches of soil in bottom of the bags, laid down the seed potatoes, and buried them in about four more inches of soil. This meant the grow bags were about half-full. I also gave a modest sprinkle of fertilizer at this stage.

After that, it was a matter of waiting until the potatoes had grown enough that I could finish filling the bags with soil while still allowing enough leaves poking out to let the plans photosynthesize.

I did this over a period of a few days in late May/early June. It took a bit of practice before I got the hang of how best to get the dirt in among the potato plants without burying them irrevocably (the secret, I found, is to take a shovel-full of dirt and shake it over the plants, rather than dumping it).

This allowed me the chance to try to un-bury leaves as well. New tubers form from the stems, not the leaves, so I didn't want to bury the leaves unnecessarily. I accidentally broke a few leaves off during this process, but I figured it was early enough in the season to give the potatoes time to recover.

As of this writing (June 22), the potatoes are so lush and beautiful that I will often just pause and admire them (Don and Older Daughter never miss the opportunity to tease me about that). They're doing even better in these grow bags than in the garden in our old place. 

I'm thrilled at the thought of what's happening at the root level. How many tubers will we be able to harvest per bag? That remains to be seen, but I'm optimistic.

In fact, assuming this experiment is a success, I'll continue using grow bags for indeterminate potatoes even after we get the raised-bed garden built (which, by the way, is a project I'll post about shortly). So far I'm impressed with them!

Welcome to summer (shiver)

Today is the solstice, officially the first day of summer.

This morning it was 38F outside.

We've had the heater running in the house for the past three mornings.

Any questions?

Living your best (fake) life

I came across a bizarre article a few days ago entitled "New Grads Chasing 'TikTok Lifestyles' Struggle In NYC As Rents Surge."

As the title implies, it seems "influencing" has become a way of life for a lot of college grads. The opening paragraph reads: "Some social media influencers and college graduates defy financial logic and sign leases for New York City apartments at record-high prices. Some of these kids who don't have access to the 'bank of mom and dad' are finding side hustles or draining their savings to afford the high cost of living expenses."

The aim for these young influencers, bizarrely, is to pretend they're living high on the hog while being absolutely broke. Rather than spending their money on useful things (or – gasp – putting some away for a rainy day), they're spending their meager income on silly stuff while pretending they're rich.

One young woman "said her priorities this year were to maintain living at a prime location in the city while documenting her life on social media. She admitted she has trouble affording $20 cocktails and $90 dinners with her friends, who all have high-paying banking jobs."

Am I missing something here?

The article covers the sky-high rental prices in New York City (about $4,395 per month in Manhattan), which is shocking enough and an incredible hardship for anyone who isn't earning way more than six figures. Rent prices are being called, with justification, a "once-in-a-generation housing crisis." So why do these broke young grads prance around in what looks like designer clothing while eating pricey meals and such? Who are they fooling? What am I missing?

Apparently this lifestyle is justified in the eyes of those with a lot of "followers." One 22-year-old influencer "posts TikToks on her personal account, where she commands $1,000 for sponsored posts, or creates content for other companies. Her side gigs put her on track to bring in a total of roughly $100,000 this year, she said."

She goes on to say, "I worked so hard to get here, I didn't want to compromise on the life I wanted to live. ... The cost of living here is an investment in myself. It sounds crazy to justify $25 cocktails, but being here opens doors for my career. That's worth the costs."

Opens doors for her career. A career as what? What am I missing?

I know these infleuncers are fake. They know they're fake. Their followers know it's all fake. So what's the purpose?

I am genuinely baffled.

Clearing the forest

Here on our new (to us) home, about two acres are in woods on a steep hillside.

This area was covered in brush and fairly unusable except by passing deer. The underbrush was such that very little grazing grew. Clearing these acres, we knew, would be a long and laborious process, and it fell verrrry low on our priority list.

But last year we caught wind of a county project in which approved applicants would have the underbrush cleared out for them by contractors for purposes of fire mitigation. At first we were skeptical – it seemed too good to be true – but after careful research, we learned it was, in fact, legitimate. Sign us up!

Still, we had no idea what to expect as far as how the final result would look. Then, during our daily walk up a nearby road, we saw some acreage where this county program had taken place.

Here is an example of the tangled brush and scrub plum trees on this roadside property (these photos were taken in March, so still snow on the ground):

With brush this thick, you can understand the concerns of the fire personnel. Now here's what the property looked like after clearing it:

We were impressed by how open and park-like the result was. The goal, we were told by the county, is to clear away "ladder" brush – things that could catch fire and send the flames into trees via the "ladder" of burning brush.

Applying for this program was a slow process, though the county official was very nice and helpful. Last March, she called and told us the contractors would be arriving the next day to view our property and make bids.

Sure enough, early the next morning, our lower driveway was full of vehicles.

After everyone left, Don and I took some flagging tape and a couple of Sharpies, and went through the property to flag anything we did NOT want cut.

However it wasn't until late May when we got word the contractors would be arriving. I took a few "before" photos.

Aside from the predictable array of chainsaws and other tools, the contractors were armed with some impressive and intimidating equipment designed to chew up anything and everything in its path.

Logs, brush, debris ... anything on the ground was ground up and spat out to make, essentially, mulch.

These men were working hard and working fast, so we stayed out of their way as much as possible. But when we peeked our heads in and took a look, we were impressed!

Not only did they remove the underbrush, but they also trimmed tree branches to a height of eight feet from the ground.

I happened to see this one displaced and very frightened robin. Doubtless she lost her nest, something I was very sorry to see.

The contractors also worked on some trees and brush along the road.

It was easier to see what they were doing during this process. They removed wild rose bushes, blackberry canes, and trimmed all the tree branches to eight feet.

Everything was fed into a chipper.

The result was a very clean area along the road.

They even chewed up the pile of black hawthorn brush from where I spent days trimming out the grove a few months ago.

As a final flourish, after the contractors had completely cleaned up, they even used a leaf blower to clean the road so neighbors would not be inconvenienced by any remaining debris.

"Wow, they're a full-service organization," I exclaimed when I saw this.

"Do you suppose they'll leave a mint on the pillow?" Don inquired.

We couldn't be more pleased with the result of this activity. Clearing out that brush opened up that section of property. We can seed it with grass and our future cows will be able to use it for shade.

And – not incidentally – it's safer for fire conditions. Win win.

Canning mushrooms

Since Older Daughter has established herself as our live-in chef (she enjoys cooking but not cleaning up; I don't mind cleaning up but don't enjoy cooking), she's been regularly using the supply of mushrooms I have canned up in the pantry.

So last time I was in the city, after dropping Younger Daughter off at the Spokane Airport, I made a point to purchase a quantity of mushrooms with an eye toward rebuilding our stockpile. I would have bought more, but this is all they had in stock.

Canning mushrooms is easy, though of course they must be pressure-canned. I used my new canning guide from the USDA.

Since mushrooms should be hot-packed, I split them into two pots...

...then filled the pots with enough water to boil the mushrooms, putting on lids to trap the heat.

While the mushrooms were cooking, I washed some jars.

Draining the mushrooms.

Filling the jars.

Adding a half-teaspoon of salt to each jar.

Topping with boiling water.

Into the canner. Those four flats provided enough mushrooms to fill twelve pint jars.

I processed the mushrooms for 45 minutes at 12 lbs. pressure. Well, 14 lbs. A little bit higher pressure is fine.

A dozen jars of mushrooms still leaves me lower in stock than what I'd like, but that's okay. Next time I'm in the city, I'll pick up more and can another batch.

Man, I love canning.

Front cover art for my latest book

The front cover art for my latest book "The Amish Midwife's Bargain" (available in November) has been finalized.

I stinkin' love this cover. Also, I believe this is, hands down, my favorite book I've written so far, and I'm pleased the cover art reflects it. The hero, incidentally, has a severe facial disfigurement, so my editor suggested he be featured from the back.

What's interesting is how this cover evolved. For every book, authors must submit a detailed "Art Fact Sheet" to help the art department design an appropriate cover. Among the information we submit are sample photos of real people who resemble the characters, as well as background images resembling three different scenes in the book.

For obvious reasons, photos of Amish people in precise settings are hard to find, so most of the time I simply use "English" people. However I was fortunate enough to come across this photo and instantly uploaded it to the Art Fact Sheet:

(I kinda wish they'd kept the Jersey cows from the original photo instead of turning them into Holsteins on the cover, but whatever.)

You can see how well the art department blended the original photo with the elements of the story.

An earlier version of the cover (which I'm not permitted to post) had some problems. Per the email I wrote to my editor: "I have two smallish concerns. One, it looks like the hero is wearing jeans and a belt. The Amish wear neither. Perhaps the art department could remove the belt and stitching, and just make his trousers a solid color? And two, there is an electric fan to the right of the Hero's head. (If I peer closely, it looks like a couple of electric ceiling lights too, one of them to the right of the heroine's head.) Obviously the Amish wouldn't have anything electric, so hopefully those can be removed. Otherwise the artwork is beyond beautiful – the colors, the postures, everything."

The final cover addressed every one of those concerns, and I couldn't be more pleased with the result. I have to admit, the art department at Harlequin absolutely rocks.

I thought you'd appreciate a little glimpse into how a book cover evolves.