We had company over Memorial Day weekend and that means everything else goes by the wayside!
The weather has been extremely hot and humid but the daily rains have stopped.
I am behind with everything....except reading.
I have now allowed my sweet mate the job of mowing and he is doing a good job. I may have to teach him trimming next.
I am much better now and the first thing I did after company left was to till the Kitchen Garden. That will be the last time because I planted things much closer this year so that I could get everything in this garden. I wasn't able to till the new garden out back where the orchard is. I hate it, but just have to accept it.
We have been sitting around in the mornings and not going out until 8 AM.....a very bad mistake in this kind of weather. It is daylight by 6 AM....I went out yesterday at 6:30 and it was a lovely morning for work. I planted the hoopframe with my favorite Kwintus pole beans. I hoed out some places the tiller couldn't reach.
I also drug out the greenhouse shade cloth and draped it over the smaller frame where I have the lettuces. They were going to cook in this heat. I hope it helps.
I still have more plants to get in the ground and hope I can get that done this morning.
I was inside by 10 AM before it got too hot around 11 AM. We made a run to the feed store for chicken feed and that was it for chores for the day.
Milk Cow
Willow was due to be dried by May 29 but because of my hips, I decided I would dry her early and did.
There was no magic involved. We just turned her out to pasture and I quit milking.
We also don't let the calf nurse. She never missed a beat; didn't even bawl.
We will not feed her grain during this time either.
When we were milking, the routine was a little more involved. First,a Holstein gives a lot more milk and she may still be milking pretty heavy when it is time to dry her. If a cow is not giving over 40 pounds a day, you just stop milking with no gradual tapering off, if she is giving more you might have to milk her less often for a few days first.....however, we never did that either. You then sanitize her teat ends and insert a dry-cow antibiotic into each teat canal. This is to prevent or cure any resident mastitis bacteria in her udder. Often we would worm them at dry-off. We skip all those steps now. Willow has never had mastitis and I am keeping her in a more organic, natural way. She is a very healthy cow. We did worm her when we first bought her.
I do miss her milk and am forcing myself to drink store milk now! Silly, I know.
Flowers
The poppies are blooming at last. I think I enjoy them more than any other flowers because each day there is a surprise shape, color and location. They are all papaver somniferums. I started with one planting of 'Lauren's Grape' and a pink double and this is what I have so far this year:
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| From Poppies 2011 |
and finally one that has reverted back to Lauren's Grape
