One of the few plants I bother to weed out of my gardens is knapweed. These pictures are of bachelor's buttons though, which have a similar-looking flower, but with different colors (blue and a darker pink) and a different leaf shape.
Also, we went huckleberry picking, and I went ahead and dug up a little huckleberry plant in an attempt to do the impossible, get it to grow in my garden a thousand feet lower in elevation than it's supposed to. I figured it was worth a shot...
Oh yeah, and we mostly finished that downdraft solar dehydrator. Works alright. Could use some more gap-sealing and maybe a sort of roof. I'm interested to try a side-by-side comparison with the dehydrator down at basecamp and with the classic dashboard dehydrator too. I bet the direct sunlight of the dashboard is the fastest, but maybe the indirect methods are better at preserving nutritional value.
Also, a grand total of three ducklings were successfully hatched out by their devoted moms Varda and Glorfindel. Igneous, Gneiss, and Tourmaline have already been enjoying swimming in the Gulf of Téjas.
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hucks and saskatoons in the dehydrator
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Kai inspecting our dehydrator handiwork
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Igneous, Gneiss, and Tourmaline out for a swim with moms
Kerry, Steve's doing great and making steady progress on his house. I've got a few posts' worth of pictures of some of the things he's been working on, but I reckon he'll start a thread of his own here someday soon.
Janet, thank you for the kind words and thanks for sharing that pic of the beloved ducks. Also, congrats on your ascension to anthood! Great to have you as a neighbor!
Y2, Summer (33)
It was awesome working on building a house with my brother and my dad. The roof went up real quick, and the shade it cast made for a pleasant place to work on additional support bracing and framing.
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Gabe drilling a hole for the rebar
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pounding in a rebar spike under Steve's supervision
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