Brushing Dusty

Dusty disapproves brushing

I don't brush Dusty as much as I should. Over time, his long fluffy hair gets matted. Sometimes I just have to cut parts of the hair off. When I do brush his hair, I have to take a couple puffs of my inhaler before proceeding because all that hair and dust tend to trigger my asthma.

Today I decided it was time to brush that big hair ball of Dusty. I grabbed him and put him on my lap to give him a good brush. As you can see, a lot of hair came off. My cloths were covered in bunny hair.

Dusty would tolerate the brushing for as long as he could then he'd try to get away. I held him down from a few escape attempts and kept on brushing. Similar to cats, after he gets handled, he cleans himself.

He looks much better than before the brushing. After he cleaned himself, he went over to the shady cool part of the room next to the bricks to relax. When you see a bunny laying down with legs all stretched out, you know it is in relaxed mode.

Foraging Blackberries

 

Blackberry bushes are extremely invasive. Once you have them in your yard, it's almost impossible to get ride of them. They constantly pop up at various spots on Sand Village Farm. Although I love perfectly ripe blackberries, I have to keep cutting the berry branches off. They are just too thorny! So, instead of growing my own blackberries, I go pick them just like I would with wild mushrooms. They grow abundantly in the neighborhood and are free for the picking. As you can see in the picture above, it grows on someone's fence. In addition to providing berries, the bushes also act as a barrier against critters and burglars. Believe me, you would not want to fall into these bushes.

I took a walk this afternoon and picked a bunch of blackberries. There were a few other people picking them, too. Some areas obviously have been picked over. It would be a shame to let these wild blackberries go to waste.

Red Tomatoes Finally!

The East Bay Area is experiencing another heatless summer.  On average we are having mid-60 temperatures. I have plenty of tomatoes on my 10+ tomato plants scattering all over the farm, but they are taking painfully long to ripe. I refuse to buy tomatoes from stores ever since I started growing my own 3 years ago. The tomatoes in the top photo are the first ones to turn red.

Historically, the squirrels also eat my tomatoes. Recently a neighbor adopted a very friendly outdoor cat, who's been patrolling Sand Village Farm. I haven't seen the cat chasing any squirrel yet, but Dusty has been quite upset at the sight of the cat. The cat seems mildly curious about Dusty but shows no aggression. Dusty on the other hand would thump his large hind feet and make a loud noise whenever he sees the cat. I saw the cat got startled and jumped up at the loud thumping sound. Hopefully I can get a video clip of that funny scene sometime soon.

Passion

The only one cherry

On April 4th, I discovered one successfully grafted cherry scion; unfortunately, that section ended up dying. To my surprise, I discovered another success on the opposite side of the tree! This one has actually grew a couple new branches and one single cherry!

For weeks, I watched the cherry in fear that any second it would be taken by a bird or a squirrel. Although it was not completely ripe, I ended up picking it and ate it. Next year, this grafted new section should grow more cherries.

The tape on the right is where the scion was grafted on

I also discovered a passion flora in full bloom on June 16th. Today, I was surprised to see two passion fruits growing at where two flowers were previously. I can't believe that I didn't notice them before. It's starting to look like I will have a few passion fruits this year since the vine is full of flower buds.

Making Strawberry Cages

The biggest advantage of growing strawberries at home is that you can eat the ripest strawberries when they are at their best. Unfortunately, birds and squirrels tend to get them first as they hang out all day just to steal your best strawberries at the perfect ripeness. A few days ago I transplanted my potted strawberries into the ground because they have long outgrown the little pots. Putting them in the ground will give them the opportunity to propagate and grow more strawberries. However, I know the squirrels around here. They eat the peaches, apples, loquats, strawberries, and even tomatoes.  Unless I eat the strawberries before they become fully ripe, I often don't get any strawberry.

Last night as I laid down to sleep, I thought about how I could protect the strawberries from the bushy tailed bandits. I thought that I could make cages just big enough for the strawberries. Since they stay pretty low to the ground, they cages don't need to be tall, and I have the perfect material to make them.

I bent and rolled pieces of green wire netting and placed them around the strawberries. For the openings on the top or on the sides, I either used black bird netting or nylon netting bag from buying various groceries. When the strawberries are ready, it will be a little more work to remove the cage and netting, but that may be well worth it.