Pesky Termites

So, yesterday I dug a bit in our shed. The shed is about 12' x 12' and at least as old as me. It's at minimum 25 years old as it was here when we first moved in and wasn't new. Over the years it has begun to sink into the ground and in general rot.

We had the roof fixed and parts inside shored up, but I was thinking we'd have to demolish it soon and start over as there isn't any structure left to the bottom. I kind of want to rip out the south side and add glass to use it as a quasi greenhouse, but needed support at the bottom to attach. I also wanted to get it squirrel proof so they will stop storing acorns in all the pots I store.

While I was digging out a few rotted chunks of wood I found the main culprits of the sinking. Termites. They were eating the front support beams of the shed in addition to the planting beds that sat in front of it. So today I dug up all the plants from that bed and removed the dirt so at least some of their food is gone. (And so when we crunch the shed I won't have to worry about any plants.)

I have to go around the yard and check all the wood beds to see which ones have attracted termites (so far the pond most definitely has them.) Thankfully the one at my back door actually near the house foundation appears to have dry rot rather then termites. That one I have to replace as soon as possible with something not made of wood just in case. We will also be demolishing the old wood pile even though it isn't particularly near the house. Mom does not like the idea of termites and we're trying to remove some attractive territory.

Heavenly Blue

Every year I plant some morning glories this color, and every year they are out competed by some little purple ones. It isn't clear why they never come back, or why they're not as prolific. Maybe they don't set seed fast enough, the purple ones are already dropping seeds everywhere, whereas this blue has only flowered 2 or 3 times this year. Of course Mom likes the blue ones so I get to keep planting them.

Left Hanging

So hurricane Irene came and went. I barely managed to keep my car from getting crushed by falling junk (branch landed within 6 inches of the front of my car). I spent Friday preparing, i.e. moving everything not tied down from the yard and putting an awful lot of it in my kitchen (I now have a few tiny flies in my kitchen I'll have to evict). I also did a small amount of hurricane shopping.

Above is a picture from today of the precarious chunk of tree now hanging above my driveway. Some smaller branches, only 10 or so feet long did fall, but this one got caught on itself and then stuck around some steel cables that anchor a telephone pole in our yard. It barely even swung in the wind yesterday and I didn't notice it until late in the storm. Obviously the tree itself isn't looking so good, so will likely get taken down completely, or heavily trimmed. The winter moths we have now in MA have been stripping this tree for a few years so it isn't in the best of health anyway.

Vermont Clouds

From around this time in 2009. I'm just trying to keep my mind off the potential hurricane. Today I get top go to my cousins house and move all their loose outdoor stuff inside since they're in Florida. Then I get to do the same for myself later today and tomorrow. Lots of plants in pots to move, and assorted trashcans and lawn furniture.

Surprise Pink Phlox

So years ago I bought two clearance phlox plants, one pink and one white. In the last few years they have spread rather aggressively by seed around the yard. I just dug up clumps and moved them to places I wanted them. So far all had come up white. This year the original pink plant failed to come up so I was worried I'd only have white plants now. I don't really like white flowers, I like color. Turns out the pink ones bloom a little later then the white. I have at least three pink plants now, though one is rather messily combined with a white one. The odd part is the pink isn't the same. I have pics of the original pink plant (see below), and it was much darker then the one above, so I guess I'm now dealing with a cross with the white one. I do like the new patterning on the flowers.

Spider

I'm not sure on type, but it reminded me of a jumping spider. It's even on standard insect screen so size is easier to guess. This guy was sitting at eye level on the door of the screen porch. Talk about a surprise.

Water Droplets on Fern

Last week I fixed our soaker hose by doing some surgery to make 4 equal straight pieces. This is making watering much more efficient in the garden. Too bad something fluffy toured the garden yesterday and chopped down most of the seedling lettuce.

Soaker Hose Surgery

So I've been missing. Here's one thing I was doing. The lettuce finally bolted in early August so I dug it all up and started fresh. New lettuce from seeds as well as a few experiments. I'll be covering it in plastic as it gets colder so I'm trying to see what might grow in the cooler fall under cover I also wove the soaker hose through the garden bed so watering would be easier, I forgot to do it in the Spring.

To get the soaker hose to fit in the bed in neat rows I had to bend it at some sharp angles. I finally turned it on a few days ago (too much rain to need it before then) and only some of it would work. The angles had cut off the water travel space too much. Grr.

A few weeks ago I went on a farm tour with my mother and lusted after their drip watering system. All the ones I looked up would only work on 18" spacing and cost an arm and a leg or needed lots of setup (micros drip watering). So I went out and looked at hose fittings. I got 4 female hose menders, 4 male hose menders, 3 2-way shutoffs and 4 hose caps. I then chopped the existing 5/8 soaker hose I had into pieces putting the ends on and attaching it all to the shutoffs. (I could have gotten a 4 way splitter, but it would have been $15 bucks, and 3 2-way splitters only cost $3.75, however they will have to be replaced eventually and brought in before winter as cold temps will cause them to crack and start to leak.) I also might have managed to end the hoses with wire folding them closed rather then male fittings and caps, but I wanted the option of stringing them together again.

I now have 4 equalish lengths of soaker hose hooked into the splitters and laid straight along the bed. (I considered buying a new flat soaker hose too, but I figured I should take apart what I already had first.) And it works perfectly. I even had enough menders to make the leftover piece usable as well. Next year I'm laying soaker hose along all the beds fed from rain barrels. I'll also be adding at least one more bed due to my mother's new local food desires (she watched Food, Inc., and I read Tomatoland either of which will make you organic and local food nuts). We're likely also getting a dying tree removed and the other big tree trimmed so we can have more light for vegetable gardening.

I also may need to do this again later because this isn't so much a soaker hose now as a spraying hose with tons of pinholes in it causing it to spray water above the plants. The next time I try tomatoes I want to avoid getting them too wet by spraying, and this hose likely won't manage it.

Assassin Bug

assassin bug - zelus luridus

This one has been sitting on my camera for a bit waiting for me to figure out what it was. I kept looking up stick insects and their relatives as I had flipped through my bug guide and found no obvious matches. Turns out it is Zelus luridus, an assassin bug. I'll add it to my collection of weird critters you see when you do absolutely no bug spraying. (I admit I am however using mosquito dunks in the pond this year, they don't seem to have done anything to the damselflies that keep hatching out and the mosquitoes have been MUCH less noticeable this year.)

Finally a Male Widow Skimmer

I went out last week and spotted one male widow skimmer, but it was just a bit too far away for any good pictures. This time I dragged my (crappy) zoom lens along just in case. I took 54 images of just one animal and got 5 in good enough focus to be usable. I really hate that lens, but unless a huge box of money falls on my head I'm kind of stuck with it.

Mantis on Strawberry

So, I've spotted at least three of these guys now. The above is a better show of their size. That is an over sized strawberry leaf.

More Yard Visitors

I'm still getting dragonflies. There are actually so many this year I've been looking at some and saying I already have too many photos of that species. This is another female whitetail. They're commonly found away from water, while the males are found closer to it. Obviously they're named white tail due to the males coloration.

Crimson Pirate

A short break from the bugs. I was missing for a bit doing gardening (planting some late veggies), making some yogurt and other odd projects. Posting should be back to normal now. This is a "Crimson Pirate" Daylily, which has been blooming since the start of July. Everything in the garden has been blooming late this year, likely due to that very rainy few weeks we had back in the spring.

Mantis

Pretend I haven't been missing. Here's another mantis. I'm excited because last year I didn't find any mid-sized mantis. I found an adult and plenty up to 1" long, but no signs of anything in the middle. This one was 2"-3" long. I actually found another one and coaxed it onto my hand but didn't have anything but my phone. As that picture is awful I won't try to figure out how to get an image off my painfully old phone.

Banded Pennant

Banded Pennant -Male

I just keep getting close to new dragonflies for me. This trip to Ponkapoag pond included the above banded pennant (which were all along the dam and rocky edges of the trail) and breeding halloween pennants. I never saw the halloween pennants perched, they would come out of the woods paired up and lay eggs before disappearing back into the woods. Then I spent the afternoon going on a farm tour for the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. My mother wanted to buy a pasture raised chicken, and this is at the moment just about the only place to buy them.

Female Meadowhawk

My guess would be Autumn Meadowhawk, but there are several species that look mighty similar. I spent today tidying up the yard, replanting the raspberries, moving a few inconveniently located plants, planting the few things I still have in pots to go out and weeding, lots of weeding. I filled my laundry basket (weed carrier) four times. I also need to move the weed compost bin again as the bottom stuff has rotted down enough I'm getting a pile. (uggh, and just pulled off a sock and mistook a false blue indigo seed for a tick.)

Male Eastern Forktail

Eastern Forktail - Male

The array of damselflies and dragonflies appearing in the yard this year is impressive. The different fork tails in my area are differentiated by how much blue is at the end of their tail, and which segments are colored.