Ducks ALIVE in 2025!

[ducks4you]

To the cold December heaven
Came the pale Moon and the stars,
As the yellow Sun was sinking
Behind the purple bars.
—Charles Dawson Shanly, Irish-born Canadian poet (1811-75)

 

[ducks4you]

I want to post that I am HAPPY for any useful or UseLess sidequests on my threads.
There is not much that involves gardening MORE than animals amongst us, those that we own and those owned by others.

 

[heirloomgal]

My two boys sunning themselves on a warmish Fall afternoon. Look sharp, to the right of the barn flanking the dirt pile by the back fence.
View attachment 71039

Horses.

 

[baymule]

I want to post that I am HAPPY for any useful or UseLess sidequests on my threads.
There is not much that involves gardening MORE than animals amongst us, those that we own and those owned by others.

Nyboy was the best at derailing a thread and going off in an unrelated direction.
He also loved for anyone to take his threads somewhere else. We sure had lots of fun and interesting conversations!

 

[ducks4you]

We Did!

 

[ducks4you]

Predicament. Got some new neighbors across the street. They and little girl were eyeing the barn and the ponies.
Still somewhat crippled, or I would have met with them this weekend. Gotta talk to them SOON!
Most importantly, I need to emphasize NO warfarin or DCon for killing mice, since my kittens still patrol their back yard.
I lost 2 cats to mouse killer several years ago. They both came home and died in my house after being poisoned.

 

[ducks4you]

Starting to feel better and doing some gardening like tasks. Had DH help me down the basement stairs so I could shop my pantry and bring up some pots AND the lovely garlic that @flowerbug sent me 2 years ago.
I harvested them last summer but stupidly stuck them in a 1/2 sized bucket which ended up in the basement. Garlic got watered and sprouted. Most bulbs were small. I potted them altogether this morning to get some root growth and they are now on top of the fridge.
These and the tiny garlic cloves that I started in a small pot a few weeks ago are planned to winter sow as soon as all have good roots. I have 3 window wells on the outside of my south facing basement windows available for winter sowing.
DH helped me up and down the front steps this morning so that I could empty out the really good soil in my whiskey barrel planter. I emptied 1/2 into a cat food bag--the 35 pound plastic bags that the dry food comes in--dumped the rest of the partially frozen soil on the ground close to the planter, put the wooden whiskey barrel upside down so it wouldn't get frozen and crack. There is a still a little bit of soil left in the liner.
Dunno why I have waited but that liner seriously Needs drainage holes. Plan is to store the liner downstairs this weekend, when we have another warm up, and then bring in the rest of the good soil in another cat food bag to use for my winter sowing needs.
I have some garlic seeds, leek seeds, onion seeds and shallot seeds that I plan to winter sow.
I will be sure to take shots and post them.

 

[heirloomgal]

Predicament. Got some new neighbors across the street. They and little girl were eyeing the barn and the ponies.
Still somewhat crippled, or I would have met with them this weekend. Gotta talk to them SOON!
Most importantly, I need to emphasize NO warfarin or DCon for killing mice, since my kittens still patrol their back yard.
I lost 2 cats to mouse killer several years ago. They both came home and died in my house after being poisoned.

This is just so sad, that must have been hard on your family. Much of those edible poisons have been given a backseat on the hardware shelves here if they're present, there was a lot of dogs that ate those warfarin baits too. My next door neighbor kills raccoons and mice though with it still, and then buries them behind his house in the bush. I had a couple close calls with my dog last year running across the creek to his side, into the back bush, snooping because he could smell it. We don't ever let him outside without supervision so we caught him each time, but it was scary how magnetized he was to it.

 

[ducks4you]

I should mention that maybe I will grow the bulbs indoors all winter, then plan to harvest them in 2 years, since I will probably only get a single bulb from each of them.
I have a lot of garlic seeds, and Those should do well winter sown.
Here is an interesting article for those who didn't get their garlic bulbs out:

Winter sowing: An Easy, Low-Cost Technique for Starting Seeds

Winter sowing seeds of vegetables and flowers is an easy, low-cost way to grow a lot of plants for your garden. Learn how to get started.

savvygardening.com

I have a Collection of distilled water gallon jugs, no cleaning necessary, to use, and 3 south facing, 1 west facing and 3 north facing window wells not in use, so Lots of square ft of space.
For ME, this is "where there is a will, there is a way."

 

[baymule]

You are getting some gardening done! That has to make you feel better!