![\"garden1\"](\"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/garden1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe pack rats got into one of the potato beds before we had completed the wire cages, and they cut out at least half of the plant stems and leaves.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Swiss chard.<\/p><\/div>\n
The plants which are protected are doing great!\u00a0 The swiss chard is already big enough that I can start preserving leaves for the winter.\u00a0 Plus the plants in the greenhouse have been giving up fresh leaves for breakfasts for several weeks already.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Walla Walla onions, and Copra onions, growing pretty well.<\/p><\/div>\n
Onions are growing well, and we pulled out the spinach and some lettuce.\u00a0 The peas behind the romaine lettuce were a total mass of greenery and we pulled them out and harvested the peas over the weekend.\u00a0 The pea plants actually did better in the greenhouse and that’s where we’ll plant them next year instead of in the garden.<\/p>\n
So the garden is doing pretty well.\u00a0 All the wire cages are built except for two which will cover the strawberry beds.\u00a0 We’ll have those in place by the end of the weekend.\u00a0 Cucumbers are up and starting to grow, and so are the beans, carrots, and beets.\u00a0 Now it’s just a matter of weeding, and watering and watching things grow.\u00a0 The raspberries are starting to get ripe, too.<\/p>\n Roofing project<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Red currants are starting to show ripening berries and I need to start going down every morning and picking the ripe ones.\u00a0 They will all get ripe pretty fast and I don’t want to lose many to the chipmunks who adore these berries.\u00a0 Then I can make jam.<\/p>\n<\/a>The chocolate mint plants are looking good and getting big enough that I can start drying leaves for tea.<\/p>\n<\/a>One of our two apple trees, both of which have a lot of apples on them.\u00a0 This is the first year they’ve produced much on this tree, and the first year the other tree has produced anything.\u00a0 We’ll see how many of them stay on the plant, but so far, so good.<\/p>\n<\/a>The gooseberry plants are both pretty loaded with fruits, even though we really axe murdered this plant by cutting out the older branches.\u00a0 It didn’t seem to have slowed it down at all.<\/p>\n<\/a>The pie cherry trees are both loaded with fruit.\u00a0 Good thing, too, because we’re out of frozen cherries now.\u00a0 Can’t really see the cherries as they are still pretty green.\u00a0 There are way more cherries than there are leaves.<\/p>\n<\/a>Finally we’re getting rid of the metal roofing.\u00a0 This is the before picture.<\/p>\n<\/a>This huge truck parked next to the greenhouse has a crane that can lift a pallet of roofing on to the roof from quite a distance.\u00a0 At least that was the plan.<\/p>\n<\/a>It was a very tight squeeze getting this huge truck into the driveway.\u00a0 It’s a much bigger truck than we thought it would be.\u00a0 Amazingly enough the hummingbirds didn’t seem to mind all this hullaballoo at all.\u00a0 They carried on using their feeders.<\/p>\n<\/a>The guys were walking around all over the metal roofing like it was just no big deal.\u00a0 It’s really slick and intimidating to those of us who hate heights.\u00a0 Even low heights.<\/p>\n<\/a>Here they are busy tearing off the old metal roofing.\u00a0 The stuff around the chimney was particularly difficult to get rid of, and detached.\u00a0 While they were removing the old metal roofing, they discovered places on the underlying plywood that needed to be replaced, plus it needed some proper venting.\u00a0 And that meant the truck couldn’t put the roofing up on the roof where it is convenient to the job at hand.<\/p>\n<\/a>So instead of going from the truck to the roof.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>It went to the yard and the guys get to carry it up on the roof on their shoulders, the old fashioned way.\u00a0 This is also known as “Plan 2.”<\/p>\n<\/a>End of day 1, plywood all patched, and the tar paper and ice dam prevention paper and drip edges were all installed and the roof was water-resistant, plus some roofing had been hauled up and placed where it would be convenient for installation.\u00a0 After they left, we watched a large thunderstorm which developed to the west of us with trepidation, but it slid north, and stayed in Canada instead of visiting us.\u00a0 Whew.<\/p>\n<\/a>So today on Day 2 of the roofing project, all they had to do is haul all the roofing up and go to work laying it down.\u00a0 They showed up at 7am, to beat the heat.<\/p>\n<\/a>It went really fast, all things considered.<\/p>\n<\/a>And all of a sudden they had picked everything up and we have new roofing, properly installed and vented.<\/p>\n