Now that the garden is mostly in place, minus a few things still in the greenhouse, there really isn’t that much to report out there. I go out and check the garden each day and smile as I see the progress our plants are making. Strawberries and squash are starting to bloom, the raspberries have lots of small green berries. I weed as necessary, water when it’s too dry (though we do live in Western WA and that’s not a big problem), and reset the mouse traps.

Mouse traps? Well we’ve had a problem keeping Kate (our 9 month old Border Collie) out of the garden, and especially from digging in the nice soft soil (that we worked so hard to get). We debated options of fencing the whole thing in (but she can easily jump over three feet, she’d just see it as another fun challenge), or putting in an invisible fence–though that costs a lot and seemed to be a bit of over-kill. So I came up with the idea of trying mouse traps. She’s already jumpy and overly cautious of the unknown, so I put traps in the places she had been digging, near the compost, our new plants, and her usual paths. In the past couple of weeks she’s set off several of the traps (getting her nose once) but is getting much better at avoiding the areas they are in and, in general, just staying out of the garden.

I finished reading Holding Their Own II: The Independents (the sequel to Holding Their Own that I reviewed a couple weeks ago). It was okay. It’s changed from being a prepper-type book, with many good ideas incorporated into a novel, to a post-apocalyptic, adventure, “super cool guy hero” book. (If you enjoy Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels you’d probably enjoy continuing this series; though they’re not nearly as well written as Child’s). Joe Nobody expands the scope of his original book and is now taking on the task of rebuilding the nation, with opposing factions–the federal government and the “Independents”–moving toward civil war. The second book ends leading straight into a third book.

Ryan and I (with some help from Emily and Alison) spent quite a bit of time this week building rabbit hutches. I bought a roll of 1” x 2” 14 gauge galvanized wire fencing, cut it and bent in into a square. Then, using J clips, attached it to itself and put on a roof, and using 1/2” x 1” wire fencing, attached the floor. This weekend we’ll build the frame to hold them and be ready for the rabbits. I’ve got a potential lead for rabbits, but haven’t heard back from him yet; if anyone knows of a good source of rabbits in Western Washington let me know, otherwise I’ll just hit Craigslist.

Quote of the Week: “The only time you can have too much ammo is if you’re drowning or on fire.” -Jeff Chudwin

What did you do?

(Monday: We’re Raising Rabbits)