Read until DH went out right at sunrise to check the cows. Then I do my little housecleaning for the day. Of course with the grandcat in residence, I have to dust the floors daily! Fed him. He is eating much heartier since I have begun the suggested Vaseline routine. Cleaned the bathroom, made the bed. I have decided to just do eggs for DH on the weekends so I can keep better track of how many he is eating. I am not sure they are correct about the correlation between high cholesterol foods and heart attacks, but don't want to risk it with him even though he is still on Lipitor.
Out of the blue late yesterday afternoon, we got a 1.25 inch rain. I had just started outside to mow and was met by lots of thunder. I turned around and went back inside and almost immediately a short downpour hit. We got another nice rain, not predicted by our weathermen I might add.
So now the grass will really be difficult to mow and I will have to wait until it drys a lot before attempting to do it.
FARM
I haven't posted in a few days.....we lost another calf to a predator so I have been busy with MDC , research and wondering why our neighbor hasn't called about selling us one of his llamas. I will call them again today! Now they are talking coyotes....no one knows for sure. I just want it to stop.
We brought Willow, my milk cow, back down to the barn lot. I didn't want to risk loosing her calf. She is due anytime now. This gives us a chance to sample a bale of the new winter hay we bought. So far, DH is impressed. I need to go out and check it too. I like to twist a handful, see if it breaks or bends and smell it. I should smell fresh and like newly cut grass a bit.
The rains are welcome for the pastures even if it does cramp my gardening.
GARDENING
I am happy to report that the patch of sweet corn that the previous thunderstorm flattened arose from the dead. I was amazed. It looked like someone had run over it with a roller. It is not perfectly upright but will still produce.
Still very late getting tomatoes. I planted almost all heirlooms and they are almost always late tomatoes. Next year I intend to try some Goliaths. They are a hybrid and fairly early. My neighbor showed me two huge,perfect ones from her garden and they were beautiful.
We got a second swarm of Japanese Beetles so I am spraying regularly. I had just just sprayed about 12 gallons yesterday............will have to do that over since the rain. I will wait until I see beetles again though. They are doing considerable damage to the late peach tree. They love: Pole beans, peach, plum and apple trees, hibiscus, rose of sharon, roses,kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate, okra and Elm and Birch trees. I discovered they had eaten the top out of my last River Birch yesterday. We lost the other to an ice storm.
Onions didn't do well this year. I hear others complaining of the same thing. I think the potatoes did well. I have just dug a few though.
The pole beans on the hoop house are surviving in spite of the JB, I will pick a 'mess' today. They are from saved seeds of Kwintus, a favorite of ours.
The new garden is still looking pretty good. The OP corn is going to be really tall. I hope the pole beans I planted at the base of a few rows do OK.
I just checked and they are beginning to vine up the stalks.
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| From 2010_07_17 |
The corn is about 7 feet tall now and not through growing!
I am really enjoying watching the Pink Eye Purple Hull Peas grown. I had no idea how they bloomed only 1 or 2 blooms at the top and the hulls are below. I am assuming they only fill out if the the blooms are pollinated. I guess mine have been. Mom and Dad used to grow them, but I never have before. Looks like we will have lots.
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| From 2010_07_17 |
Flowers
The row of zinnias I planted by the cabbages in the kitchen garden are beginning to bloom. They are a mix. I like the first one.
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| From 2010_07_17 |
and a daylily I just call the short melon. It is actually a little more orange than the photo shows:
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| From 2010_07_17 |
and I finally caught a Westerland rose bloom untouched by the beetles:
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| From 2010_07_17 |
Mow around both gardens
Spray fruit trees.
Tie up the tomatoes in new garden (I will need help with that one)
Till down the rows in the new garden. The rains have caused thousands of weed seeds to germinate.
Mow the yard proper
Keep weeding flower beds.
Hi Glenda,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about the loss of the calf. I hope they find the predator that got it, or at least it doesn't get anything else.
You sure have been busy, as always. It's not been the best year for veggie gardening for me, even though we've had lots of rain. Rabbits have eaten a lot clear to the ground. I'm going to have to get some rabbit fencing up.
The onions are OK, but not as big as other years. The ones across the street are being eaten by something, maybe birds. My tomatoes are late, too.
I love your zinnia.
My onions are not faring well either this year. Too hot, not enough rain, and they are short day varieties anyway, not really suited to Ohio. My tomatoes, on the other hand, started turning on 7/6 and I've picked 8 varieties so far! Astonishing!
ReplyDeleteI hope you get a llama.