busy afternoon at the house

i found another tube in the bee house plugged with leaves...three so far...more interestingly ( for me )...

i found some of the girls flitting in and out ( and they flit quickly...hence some blurring...these things happen ) busy as...well..bees...after an iffy start the day has significantly improved...and yes there are bees in all but the first two photos.

hot, dry climate change markers

it was already warm when i got to the garden this morning after work...about ten thirty...and the beds were dry so i spent the first hour or so soaking them...after which i had a look around...

the asparagus is in full summer dress and continues to throw up the occasional spear...which indicates it is doing well...all we need now is "berries"...

out west in my bed the alfalfa seems to have definitely overcome its spring malaise...there are new blooms on the plants...

even the grumpy pepper is showing clear signs of getting on with a season...

the corn row is coming along...

the largest of the maize plants has tillered like a good heirloom should...

which is also what the maize ancestor zea mays mexicana down at the other end of the bed has done...it has flowered and swll and is producing more flowers on the tillers...no sign of silks yet...they cannot be far off...

there were no spuds ready to dig today...these three will be done son enough though...next week perhaps will see more harvest...

it is warm today...but there is nothing unusual about heat in indiana in july...it would not be seen as odd or abnormal, unlike the european heat wave of the past week...it's what happens...the non-native guest seems unfazed by it...in fact it is thriving in the beds and in the lawn despite obvious attempts to eradicated it...its basking in the heat is not the issue...its over-wintering is...i have taken a couple of more home...and while we are on the subject of home...

there is an abundance of dragonflies in my yard again this year which i find pleasing and which is providing some interesting photos...however the big insect news for me this week has been the emergence of several lines of evidence showing the presence of leaf cutter bees out there...

first the bee house has ( next to the clay plugged tubs i would surmise to be the doings either wasps or miserable earwigs ) two tubes plugged with leaves...a clear sign of leaf cutter nesting...and...

i saw and managed to photograph one of the girls hard at work...which has been a relief...it is late...but not too late.

bread: phase three

you may recall the bag of wheat ears i cut off the stems in phase two of this project...that has led me to begin phase three and it has had its moments...

weary of teasing the grain out of the ears one at a time by hand, being stabbed repeatedly by awns, and arguing with stubborn rachis, i did some research on methodology and, adding a twist or two, found a much quicker way to process the grain...

i dug out a burlap sack and put about half the remaining ears in it...

i took it out on the deck and began to...what's a good word? slam it into the deck to loosen the grain...after a few minutes awns began to poke through the mesh and litter the steps ( which i swept off thus defusing possible recriminations )...

the next step was a cinder block and a chunk of wood in the back where a few more minutes of battering the ears...

rendered the ears into a much more tractable form...there was still some cleaning to do before winnowing however...

i cleaned the remaining unbroken ears and created something of a midden behind the compost bin...looking for volunteer wheat soon...

ready to winnow but lacking a consistent summer breeze i set up a small fan...got out a five gallon "food grade" bucket...

and let the fan blow off the chaff...

yesterday in about two hours of work with the old method i processed seven eights of an ounce of grain...in approximately half that time today i cleaned three times as much...i am sold...

if one cup of grain renders a cup and a half of flour i will need to fill this container fully ( and this would include seed grain for the next crop )...this may be iffy...

the good news is the rye is finished so if we cannot have whole wheat we will have pumpernickel...either way...bread is bread...i will have the wheat done by the week end and then it will be time to bring in and process the rye...we will see how this system works with that