Grapes, part II

This was a delightful surprise yesterday. It looks like we'll be harvesting grapes - Concords, from the look and taste - this year. We have lived in this house for over eight years, and never once have we seen ripe grapes on these vines. We'll need to move fast so we can get them picked before the birds make a feast of them (as I suspect has happened in past years).

My day in charts

Outdoor To-Do List

Interesting to nobody but me, I'm sure, but perhaps posting these online will keep me honest.

• Finish front gardens
• transplant 4 ferns
• dig up 1 dead fern
• dig and divide black-eyed Susans
• Clean up porch
• Turn compost
• Harvest tomatillos (for salsa and whatever else I can think up)
• Keep harvesting baby cukes for cornichons
• Mow
• Price out wood chipper rental for a day (we have scads of small branches and brush around - enough that it may be cost-effective for us to make our own mulch for next year)
• Clear out old veg garden and move rocks to make a fire circle
• Clean gutters (a job that probably should be at the top of the list, but which fills me with fear and loathing)

There are probably several items missing, but it's a start at least. On rainy days I can work on planning out the expanded veg garden for next year. Come fall, I won't be able to do as much as I'd like, but I'd like to get some of the raised bed frames built before spring arrives and I want to start filling them.

Tut tut, it looks like rain

And a good thing, too. The rain barrel is empty again. One or two more barrels are definitely on the wish list for next season.

Out-of-the-box Mousing

Last week, Mehitabel herded a mouse up and out the front door of our house as Joe and I were walking in. Tonight, she somehow cornered a mouse in between two window panes in our bedroom (thank goodness for tilt-to-clean windows and pop-out screens).

I suppose I can't argue with her results, but she must be the strangest mouser I've ever encountered. We've had a cat who had no interest at all in mice (Hardee was all about birds). My folks had a cat who would leave offerings on the doorstep. Hell, Gus was afraid of mice, best I can tell. But this is the first time I've ever met a cat who was both so enthusiastic and so... innovative?

Grapes

A Squash Named Audrey II

We tried to convince the Munchkin to stand behind it, so you could get a true sense of scale, but the vines were a little prickly. It comes up roughly to his waist, and spreads eight feet wide in one direction, between five and six feet in the other. Not bad for his first foray into seed-starting.