Good news this morning. Look what I found when I checked the live trap by the corn patch.
Maybe it has been him instead of a raccoon all along. DH reset the trap without new bait. So I don't expect to find anything in the trap this morning! A friend suggested a tin of salmon cat food as bait for raccoons. I have added that to my shopping list.
I did my last beetle trap emptying (maybe) yesterday morning. I got so that I dreaded that so much....the smell was horrific. I just took the second one down.
I stored the baits in a small jar and kept the rest of the trap apparatus too.
Now I will check all the plants each morning and see if they are landing on them instead of the baited traps. I had to do some spot spraying of okra and beans in the garden. Oh yes, they love the large okra leaves! A few were on the hibiscus too. This will be a test period to see how things go without the traps.
I set up the sprinkler to water the main tomato patch and saw four ripe tomatoes....well one almost ripe. I brought those to the house along with a few other harvest items.
After checking the squash daily, I still missed one that got past prime. See that warty one? Probably will become chicken feed.
The eggplant was supposed to be Slim Jim; obviously, it wasn't. That makes me so mad when that happens. The tomatoes are Heinz Classic, a canner and my favorite Granny Cantrell.
When I finished outside, I came in and had my favorite summer garden snack: sliced tomato with a dollop of Miracle Whip! It was delicious. The Heinz Classic must have a high acid content because it has some zing...very good flavor.
We had our very first summer veggies with lunch. I sliced onion, squash and bell pepper into the end of the electric skillet (I had hamburger steaks/patties cooking on one end). with some garlic flavored olive oil. Just before they were ready, I added the diced almost ripe Heinz tomato. We sprinkled grated parmesan cheese over the top at the table. Salad was a slicing cucumber tossed with some white dressing and salt and pepper. I must say we did enjoy it all.
I took a picture, but it really doesn't do it justice so I am not posting it.
Farming
Another tractor bit the dust; we are hoping it is just a wheel bearing costing a few hundred; not some other $4,000 thing that they mentioned. We may start looking at tractors.........not a good thing.
