The Craftiest Workshop

It has definitely been a different spring/early summer in Northern Alberta. After two years of virtually no rain, we are having a somewhat normal summer. We have been getting rain showers once or twice a week with the odd thunderstorm. While all this rain is great for the garden and I have less watering to do, it makes the grass and weeds grow like crazy. Last summer we used the riding mower twice to cut all of our grass. This year, I had already mowed it twice by July 1. The weeds that we had the last two years just seem to grow faster and we even have new weeds that must like moisture. Every day that it is not raining, I spend at least a couple hours either weeding or cutting grass.

As I mentioned, the rain is great for the garden. We had to get the trellis for the growing pea plants finished. I was greedy and decided to plant three rows in the two garden boxes so that meant making two trellises instead of just the one.

The first one Chris made a couple weeks ago and I helped with stapling on the metal fencing. He built it with two supports at either end that makes it free standing. We did screw it into the boxes for added support because of the strong winds that we get.

The original plan was that we were going to build an arbor between the pea box and the cucumber box. I came up with a temporary solution for the cucumber for this year.

We built the arbor but only added the fencing to the pea side.

I am hoping that each year we will add more of these arbor type trellises between the garden boxes. The ones we built are moveable so when we plant peas somewhere else next year, we can move the trellises. Perhaps I will try some climbing beans next year as well.

The other addition to the garden this week was my scarecrow. I had an old pair of Chris’s jeans which he insisted had holes only because he needed air conditioning. The shirt was a thrift store purchase because I loved the shirt but it was too small for me and none of the guys in our house would wear it. At least I get to see it on “someone” every day now. The head was a cotton baggie that a set of sheets came in and I will eventually draw a face on it. I went through our costume box to find the hat. It does need a kerchief but I haven’t yet added that.

I used two tree branches and tied them in a cross shape. The up and down branch needed to be threaded through a hole just below the waistband of the jeans. The shirt arms were stuck through the horizontal branch; that branch has to be short enough to pull the shirt to one side and still get the other arm in.

I tied some garden twine as suspenders to keep the pants connected to the shirt and tucked the shirt into the jeans. We had gotten an older straw bale from a friend. Getting the straw into the shirt and pants was a bit tricky. I started with the pants, tucked the shirt in again and buttoned the shirt up as I added more straw. I needed about 1/3 of a small bale to fill the scarecrow.

The scarecrow is currently just leaning against the fence in the corner of the garden. It is heavier than I thought it would be so I should have used a metal post as the up and down post. I might try to get the branch to stay in the dirt but for now it will sit where it is.

I am not sure if the birds are afraid of it but I do know that it has fooled me a few times in the past week. I have been out on the riding mower or walking on the other side of the yard. Out of the corner of my eye I would see jeans in the garden and a couple times I asked myself, “what is Chris up to in the garden”, before realizing it was just the scarecrow.

Last year our view was blueish flax but this year the farmer across the road has planted canola. Most of the canola fields in the area flowered this week. There is a slight haze due to the wildfires in the north of the province. Only our second smoky day so far this year.

The other things in bloom are the lillies, irises and wild roses.
There are flowers all over just inside our tree line.

The abundance of flowers are keeping the bees happy.

Lots of things to see and do outside when the weather is warm and sunny with regular rainfalls. Very soon the Saskatoons and wild Raspberries will be ready to pick and that will be a daily task for at least two weeks.