Sunday Snapshot: Game Camera, Ruby, and Figs

My old, trusty Bushnell Trail camera died recently.  It served me well for a number of years, even though I didn't treat it very kindly.  I often left it out all year round, sometimes forgetting to latch the cover to keep out the weather.  Last week, I made a trip to Cabela's and bought a new one.  I have promised myself to take better care of it this time.

This motion-activated automatic camera is used by many people to monitor game for hunting season.  I use mine to see what kind of critters pass through parts of the property when people aren't around.  For the past week, I have had it back by the figs at the barn to assess the effectiveness of my neighbor's war on our plague of groundhogs.  I am pleased to report that only harmless varmints were recorded in the area.

Guinea hen photo bomb

All three Guineas.  They live at the farm behind us.

Ruby and me, yesterday afternoon, on our way to harvest figs.

This is the first decent fig harvest for me in three years.  We had two unseasonably-cold, awful winters in a row, that killed the plants to the ground.  Figs are produced on wood from the previous year.  No older wood = little or no fruit.  Last winter was a bit milder and the fig plants suffered little damage.  As a result, it appears that I will get a decent amount of fruit.  

This was yesterday's harvest ... 21 figs!  At this rate, I should soon have enough to make jam!!

Ruby ... this dog loves being a farm dog!  She was interested in figs as I was picking them, so I offered her one.  She carefully took it, like she does with all treats, and walked a short distance away.  I went back to picking.  Instead of eating it, she dropped her fig and the ground and proceeded to roll on it.  What a weird dog.

Just a little slice of Hartwood for you on this cloudy, cool Sunday morning.  I hope that things are just as peaceful where you are.

Happy Sunday!

Figs!

I have six fig trees/bushes of different varieties planted along the south side of our barn.  Originally it was eight varieties, but two of them weren't able to handle our winters and they died.  The remaining six have done well.  Three years ago, I had enough fruit to eat my fill AND to make a couple batches of jam.

Our past two winters have been much colder than average.  All of these unprotected figs were frozen and killed clear to the ground.  This spring, I almost ripped them out.  It's too frustrating to alot this much space and emotional energy to a crop that's so frustrating.  I had a change of heart in early summer, when I saw that each of the figs started to show new growth ... and they ended up growing tall and beautiful.  I didn't hold out much hope for any fruit production on those immature branches, though.  Imagine my surprise the other day, when I went to work on the roses back there and I found these on one of the bushes.

Six ripe figs!!  (The eagle eyes among you have already noticed that there are only five figs in the picture.  I was chewing the sixth one when I realized that I should snap a pic to document the event.)  There are a few more figs that will probably be ripe in a few days, if the groundhogs don't find them first.

A Groundhog Story in Photos

Groundhog #6, one of the fig eaters, was trapped and relocated yesterday afternoon.

 

 

The game camera photos from last week showed at least two groundhogs at the barn eating figs, so I set and baited both of our traps in that spot ... one is on the left of the photo below, and one is on the right (but you can barely see it because it's in the shadows).

I must have set the trap on the left incorrectly ... probably forgot to release the safety hook that keeps the trap door from slamming on my arm while I put in the bait.  When I went to the barn at around 3:00 to check the traps, I found that the trap on the left was upside down and a good distance from where I put it. ... and the trap on the right was full of groundhog!  I am SO thankful that my camera was there, because it recorded the whole process. 

Grab a beverage and settle in, and please enjoy this series of photos that shows the activity of a very determined groundhog attempting to get apple and cantaloupe from a closed trap.  (The time shown on the date stamp at the bottom of the photos is correct ... the date is off by one day.)

 Sniffing the trap on the left.

 

 Checking out the one on the right.

 

In there somewhere. 

 

 Groundhog, where are you?

 There you are!

 Probably eating the apple I put in front of the trap.

 This is the photo that proved to me that the trap wasn't set correctly ... the groundhog pushed it onto its side, and the trap door is still open.

 

 

 Pushed it again, and still hasn't tripped the door.

 

 Now it's closed.

 

 Pushed it again.

 "There's still stuff in there."

 "oohh, figs!"

 "What are you looking at?"

 He's over by the right trap again.

 Pushed the left one again.

 and again.

 He's scooting the trap now.

 Pushed it again.

This was the last groundhog photo.  He must have been taking a round-about way, under the fig tree out of the camera's range, toward captivity in the trap on the right.  The next photo in the series showed mostly the seat of my pants as I bent over the trap, wondering why it was so far from where I put it earlier in the day.  (Keeping that photo to myself.)

Both traps are baited and set again this morning (set correctly this time).  Perhaps today will be another fruitful groundhog trapping day!

Fig Season

The arrival of late summer means that my figs are starting to ripen.  I don't have the time or energy to keep a vegetable garden, but I do reserve some prime garden space for figs ... I love figs!!

I have a collection of eight different varieties of fig trees planted beside our barn.  The good soil and sunny location make it a perfect spot to grow them.    Most of the plants have lost their tags, so I have no idea which one is which ... but I do know that the last one in the line, whatever it is, is the first one to produce ripe fruit and it is my best producer.

This thing is loaded with figs!

The tree next to this one is also full of  fruit, but none of them are quite ripe yet.

Figs ripen their fruit over the course of a few weeks, so it's important to harvest them every few days.  If you don't ... the varmints will beat you to it.

Figs don't keep ... which is why you just won't find fresh figs at the store. 

You know a fig is ripe if it is soft, begins to hang from its stem (instead of sitting stiffly out from the main stalk), and it begins to look a little wrinkly around the top of the neck where the stem attaches.  I carefully snap the fruit off the tree, pick off the remains of the stem, and pop them into my mouth right out there in the yard.

Up until this year, all of our figs were eaten fresh because we never had enough at any one time to do anything with.  This year, I hope I can use them to actually make something ... fig jam, perhaps.

Here is today's harvest.

I've already eaten half a dozen of these.  I am going to wash and refrigerate the rest of them, adding new ones to the stash for the next few days until I have enough to make jam.

Starting September in a Random Sort of Way

September is here ... summer is waning, and fall is on the horizon. 

A beautiful sunset, photographed one evening last week.

The past few mornings have been cool and crisp, perfect for a quick walk-around and great for working outside, and daytime temperatures have been in the low-to-mid 80s.  There is a lot of work to do, and The Husband and I are taking it one day at a time.  When the ground conditions are favorable, we pull weeds ... and this job is coming along quite nicely.  About 2/3 of the rose field is passable.

My figs have been ripening for a couple of weeks now.  There are eight varieties of figs planted beside the barn, as I experiment with which variety I like the most.  Wouldn't you know that the one that's growing and producing the best has lost its label, so I have no idea what it is.  Figs are easy to propagate, however, and I will just make some more of them from this bush.  The new babies should be ready to plant in the spring.

Shoo, fly!

As I mentioned yesterday, I went to the nursery to pick up our boxwood bushes for the front of the house.  As they were being dug and lifted by the nursery workers, I had a brief moment of panic ... these bushes are BIG and HEAVY.  Planting all eight of them in one day didn't seem to be possible, and the ones we didn't get planted could dry out and get stressed.  So, I picked up four of the bushes, leaving the other four in the care of the nursery for a few more days.  It turned out to be a great decision.

There is no way we could have handled these bushes without the tractor.

The Husband was finishing up the final hole, while I took a much-needed water break.

This photo was taken this morning.  As large as these bushes are (3 full feet tall), they still have a bit of growing to do before they're in proportion to the house.

Our friends Jim and Dan came to visit a couple of weeks ago.  We had lunch in the pavilion on a beautiful afternoon, and we sat and visited the rest of the day away.  While we were chatting, Dan snapped this photo of me.  He sent it to me yesterday.

The subject of Dan's email with the photo attached was "A Beautiful Woman".  The photo surprised me a bit, but I'm liking it more and more.  This is not the face that I see in the mirror ... it is a face that has character.  I guess I didn't realize that there was THAT much character.  It sorta crept up on me.  I see both of my grandmothers in this face.

Sunday evening, after Hurricane Irene had moved from Virginia to do her damage in New England, we had the most beautiful sunset.

I darkened this photo in Photoshop so the colors would pop.

The whole time we were planting the boxwoods yesterday, The Husband and I were firing quotes from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" at each other.

Bring me a shrubbery!

(Like I said in the title of this post ... it's pretty random around here.)