Warm spell brings more hatchlings ...

First off, the African Violets (Saintpaulia spp) indoors has bloomed. They seem to really like sitting in the North facing window!

Two "rescued" lily bulbs in the bargain bin in the grocery store is living very happily in the pot for now. Might transplant them into the ground soon, though.

Also managed to overwinter several lily bulbs successfully under the spruce trees, in their pots, and covered in cones.

Just for giggles I saved a mango seed to try see if I can get a houseplant mango tree. I've let the seed dry out over a couple of weeks and then cracked the seed casing to free the bean shaped seed inside.

Was given some Scotch Bonnet pepper seed (Capsicum frutescens) and they germinated OK, too. Hopefully they won't be too fussy about the cold nights.

Little hatchlings in the germinator seed flat thing. Transplanted the hatched Brassicas and Chards to the newly dug vegetable plot.

Yes, that is chickenwire covering the plot... the squirrels love to dig up the seeds and hatchlings, not to mention the neighbour's cat has a habit of pooping in loose friable soil LOL.

As the hatchlings grow taller, the mesh will be taken off, and instead of covering over it, it'll be a "perimeter fence".

Of course, there's also lots and lots and lots of sunflowers and borage seedlings, too. They tend to have a high casualty rate due to grey squirrels. Fortunately the red squirrels aren't so fond of digging up the garden. They are fond of mushrooms and fruits, though ... 

Of course, the cat loves sleeping in the tall grass when she's not busy watching birdies

White Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys rare sighting, really, for Alberta!) mucking about under the birdfeeder. They are being displaced by common (European) house sparrows

Return of the Triffids

Did I tell you that I've been busy? Been digging up a new vegetable/flower bed in the back garden, bordering and just under the upstairs bedroom balcony/deck. Removed the top grassy layer and piled them in the wheel barrow to go into the would be compost heap that I'll be working on next. 

Dug about a foot deep and was pleasantly surprised at how rich the soil is under the grass. Accidentally chopped up a few worms (sorry, my annelid friends), too, in the process. 

The weather's been pretty wet and spring-like. Wet, cool, overcast. Started a few seeds already in the greenhouse, too, with a small block heater in the bottom-most shelf. While the block heater makes sure the the in-greenhouse temperature is about a balmy 20 deg C during the day, it just barely keeps the 'house about 5 deg at night when it drops down to below freezing. Good 'nuff.

13 feet by 1 foot (or 4 meters by 0.3 meters). Nearly lost a toe in the digging, too! Lucky for presence of footwear,
a big bruised big toe is better than a chopped off big toe any day.

Some Gai Choy, beets, and Chards in the long container at the back. My egg-carton germinator in the foreground.
Various lavandula types in the polystyrene cup, and indoor over-wintered catnip on the left.

50 seedling coconut fibre pots filled with goodies to come!

A randomly buried (by squirrel pop in the hanging basket) sunflower seed making an early wake up

Carrot greenery poking through... didn't start this from seed though, had a carrot top from dinner prep that I figured
would be worth trying to grow ...

I would guess from the colour of the seedlings, they are the beets.

Gai Choy seedling

Last years Red Amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) seeds germinated just fine, and surprisingly, when it's not even 10 deg C most days.

Whole bunch of Tropaeolum majus seeds being tucked into old cardboard  TP rolls germinator ...

The Aquilegia rhizomes already sent out new foliage in from the mulched down beds ...

Supposed to Aquilegia seedlings, but is it just me or does it look very Brassica-ish? I'm getting a bit worried now!
Identity crisis plants!

More Brassica-ish Aquilegia seedlings. Oh well, lots of cabbages for us then! Must be seed packet labelling error. 

Random dried pea that I picked up from the pet food supply shop germinated fine indoors, but is a bit ratty looking now when being left outside (after hardening off). It shares the pot with another chestnut seedling.

Good to see the lily bulbs I buried under the spruce tree (inside the pot) made it through winter OK!

Mesclun salad seed mix ...out of 10 seeds scattered onto the pot's surface a month ago only two seedlings tolerated the temperature swings outside. The tall leafy one near the right corner is actually a random kidney bean that I pushed into the soil just for giggles. Never thought it would sprout out just nice in the cold weather!

After overwintering indoors for 5 months, the miniature rose (Rosa chinensis) is soooo glad to come out into real sunlight!
Starts sending out profusion of new well formed leaves within days of being out.

Yeaaa Nepeta cataria (catnip) looks a bit ratty and leggy but they'll bounce
back after I pinch the sickly looking indoor leaves off.

Random writings. Or ramblings.

Sorry folks, been busy prepping the garden for the cold weather veg. Will update with the plant log and growth pics when I can find the camera again! In the meantime, have a dose of Fiction.

The Wisdom of the River

I stood by the river. It has just stopped raining. The banks are flooded, and the leaves on the trees barely gripping on the steep bank scattered around me, like drops of glass in the blowing wind. I slid down a few steps, barely out of reach of the frigid flow, clinging to the stunted branches of the treelets that are climbing the steep slope. The air smelt like crispness of spring and the dampness of earth slowly waking up; the sleepy plants sending out tentative shoots to drink the long awaited warmth and light of the Brother Sun, who emerged shyly from behind the dancing Cloud People.

The Elder Sister Wind changed direction suddenly, and instead of the perfume of new growth, came the icy smell of snowmelt and dank, rotting, wood and leaves, from the rivulets that jumped and danced down the rocky face of the Great Stone Pillars that holds up the Sky. What moments before seemed like promise of life, now seemed like the foreboding of Death to come.

But the river still flowed, regardless of the smell of Death and Decay. Slowy, the running, dancing rivulets of water pushed off the pile rotting dank vegetation into the river, who swallowed it whole then spat it back out into the waiting roots of the trees climbing the steep bank. Then I noticed, the steep bank that is mostly rock and gravel is being nourished by the gradual trapping of rotting winter vegetation that comes down with the spring rivulets. From which sprang the climbing trees, whose spindly branches I now held in my cold, numb, hand. The stunted growth is exploding with tightly wrapped summer buds, just waiting to emerge. The promise of Life and Hope, from the wreckage of Death and Decay.

I understood now, why the River calls to me.

Glass bottle end knapping

I've always been fascinated by the various types of tools and blades that can be made out of various types stone; flint, chert, obsidian, agate etc

As a kid I used to collect a whole bunch of flint, granite, quartzite cobbles (hidden in a side pocket of my schoolbag -- yea I was a weird kid) with the intent of knapping them into some prehistoric tools; but alas, one could not easily learn knapping just by reading it in books. Spent years trying to figure out what they meant by "pressure flaking","notching", "billeting tool", and all other terms in the pre-interwebz years. All I've managed to make so far those days are a bunch of crude looking "hammerstone" cobbles, the odd "hollowed out stone beads" and plenty of powdered rock, bleeding fingers, and going "uh oh, that didn't work!"

Oh the great joys of Google and Youtube has finally satisfied me with the "pre-requisite" technique details that the childhood me have hungered all these years!

The problem now is, in Western Canada, flint is not easily available. So I guess I'd start with an easily obtainable material -- the end of a wine bottle -- before I even dream of getting my paws on real flint, chert or obsidian.

Not claiming to be any expert in knapping (disclaimer!) I would direct you to this link

http://cavemanchemistry.com/oldcave/projects/stone/bottle.html

This the most complete "Beginner's Guide" to glass knapping that I've come across (so far). I couldn't figure out who is the actual authors of that article, but whoever you are, you've made this eternally curious fox very grateful!

Now stay tuned for updates on my glass bottle knapping experiment!

In the meantime, if your own curiosity is tweaked and want to start it yourself ... watch this. Thanks practical primitive, for posting the wonderful instructive video!

 

Processing White tail hide into (part III) ... grain off bark tanned leather!

Well folks, after a long while ... I'd say I've finished with the WT hide! Sorry or the long wait, ladies and gents ... spring kinda sprung unexpectedly here and I got busy starting seeds for the vegetable patch!

After about 60-ish days in the tea (I've also added some spruce bark tea to get the more golden highlights and the preservative qualities) the hide was taken out, washed in mild soap (in a washing machine, if you must know!) and rinsed.

 

Dove body soap (1/3 cupful) with a squirt of betadine surgical scrub.

 Let the hide drip off the excess water, and in the meantime, make yourself some leather mayo. Again, I'm using 1/3 liquid soap and 2/3 olive oil to make 1 cup of leather mayo emulsion.                                    

Just so it can cover the hide, I've diluted it in half a litre of WARM (not hot) water. Work, agitate, pummel, massage, rub, stir, etc for 30 minutes. Kinda wring it the best you can, let it drip off excess dressing, then repeat the work/agitate/pummel again. Then let it sit in the dressing for an hour.

After an hour, take it out of the dressing and let it drip off the excess overnight.

After dressing the hide, I folded it and plonked it in the freezer overnight. Took it out the next day, let thaw outside (8 deg C in the sun that day) let it dry off excess moisture from drippy slippery hide to just damp, and let it freeze outside at night, and prepare to work it the next day.

Even with all the holes and missed grain patches, it looks pretty darn good.

After letting it freeze dry overnight, it still contained a fair amount of water in it. Think of a bath towel after a trip to the swimming pool. Not sopping wet, but it is heavy with moisture. Here's where you'll need a fair amount of OCD ... softening a hide can take upwards of 8 to 12 hours of working it! Of course, you don't have to do it all in one sitting --- roll it up and put in a plastic baggie and into the freezer when you're done for the session.

The hide contains just enough moisture that it WON'T freeze solid - more like a very stiff pair of un-broken jeans. For working the hide, I lashed a canoe paddle onto the deck's steps and used the edge. You can also lace the hide onto a frame and work it with a paddle in your hands -- but I like to be able to rub n' fluff the hide in my palm in between edge working. Plus a hide on a frame won't fit in a freezer all that well .....

Just so I have a quantifiable way to determine the "dryness" of a hide, I weighed it before working, and after working. Once the weight stabilised, it is truly dry! I cannot emphasise how important it is to work the hide till it's completely dry -- most people stop working the hide too soon, and as the fibres dry out (without movement) it'll harden into stiff, plank-like quality! Good rule of thumb is to continue working for another hour when you think you're done ... or until the weight stays constant.

After 2 hours of working ... 1.362 kg

After 6 hours of working .... 0.743kg. Nearly half of it's original weight was water!

After 8 hours of working ... only 3g difference. Yup it's dry. Bear in mind that you also scrape a heck
of a lot of membrane off the hide when you work it ... so you'll lose maybe 2-3 grams of fibres per 2 hours.

Once it's dry, I change technique ... and used a deer scapula for finishing. The way I do it is to sit on half of the hide, lift the edge with my left hand until you have a bit of tension, then use the scapula in my right hand to scrape/fluff the stubborn areas like the back, neck and edges into the softness I want - in this case as soft as a broken in denim fabric feel, as I'm thinking of making a quiver and bow case.

It's funny how well the deer scapula fits in my hand and works so well to fluff up the fibres!

 

 

Once you've got the degree of softness you want (of course, if it's still not soft enough, you can always use a spray bottle to re-dampen it and rework), it's time to finish off the flesh side with a pumice stone. Working on an edge kinda make the fibres a bit rough on the flesh side ... so to make it smoother out comes the pumice stone. Drape the hide on your thigh (flesh side up) and rub lightly with pumice stone until it's smooth. Don't over pumice - or you'll make a hole in the hide!

Rough un-pumiced on the top half, smooth silky suedey pumiced on the bottom half.

Yeaa ... I kinda fail at graining the hide because I used a kukri (hence the holes) and missed a few patches on the grain side, but these patches just scrapes off easily with your fingernails after softening ... and kinda adds an interesting character of light coloured patches.

Grain side. Nice golden brown with the odd light tan patches from bad graining.

However, the flesh side looks amazing! Maybe I should finish off the grain side with the pumice stone, too, to even the surface a bit more.

Silky suede smooth!

Soft enough to sew without pre-punching with an awl, yet stiff enough to hold it's shape once sewn into ...
dunno yet. Quiver and bowcase, maybe?

The trimmings are not wasted either. They'll make fantastic ammo or coin pouches. Maybe a deery something for my niece.

So my verdict? For my First Ever Hair Off, Grain Off, Non-Commercial Chemicals Involved Tea Tanning ... definitely do it again. Need a bit more practice in degraining (a proper drawknife would help!) to stop poking so many holes in it ... but yup, B+ for this hide!