Pictural chronology:
Posted on 07/04/2020 6:46:40 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Pictural chronology:
I love your pictures!
Thank you for posting all your beautiful pictures.
How sweet! Beau usually spots a number of fawns each spring when he’s making his mowing rounds.
One dashed across the road in front of me a few weeks back, but I managed to stop in time. All spotty and cute! Mama was already across in the woods.
She’s not winning ‘Mother of the Year’ by any means!
'Soroya' Sunflower. AAS Winner, very little pollen so they make a nice cut flower. Throws out a lot of branches, so you get a ton of flowers off of one big plant.
Still Life with Sweet Corn. Stopping at our local Farm Market stand, today. It's probably Indiana or Illinois Sweet Corn at this point, but that's OK.
One of the corn fields, looking East. It was way past knee-high this 4th of July.
If I could take an aerial shot of the farm land around us, it would look like this picture, all planted in contour strips to help stop erosion. It's really quite lovely. Our farm has been a working farm since 1900, however, practices for preventing erosion at the time were not really understood. Therefor, we have a ton of rich, black soil in the pasture downhill from the farm, which we haul up for garden beds and landscaping. Couldn't ask for more!
I’d love to be surrounded by farms. We used to have a lot of orchards around here but they’ve been replaced by cookie cutter houses and vineyards.
That’s a nice sunflower. I planted russian mammoth like I do every year but there is nothing mammoth about them.
They’re still pretty but I miss having the dinner plate sized flower heads.
Corn ears are forming in my yard and I made the first fresh tomato salsa of the season a few days ago.
Thanks for posting these Diana. The lift my spirits...
Anytime, FRiend! :)
Jealous of your first tomato! I have a lot of green globes on the vine and I should have cherry-types maybe at the end of the week.
It was another week of heat and humidity here in Central Missouri. We got a couple or three tenths of rain, which was nice. Have needed to do very little watering in the garden this summer.
I dug two rows of garlic and got that bundled and hung in the potting shed to cure. Three more rows remain to be harvested.
Tomato plants are starting to look like they want to do something. I’m not sure what their deal is this year. They just haven’t taken off like they normally do. Could be they’re telling me I need to add a few tons of stall waste to the garden. It’s been a few years since I last did that. It might be time to mix up a batch of fish emulsion and do some foliar feeding on them.
Mrs. Augie harvested the cabbage, but forgot to put it in the refrigerator overnight and it spoiled that fast. The chickens wouldn’t even eat it. lol
Kale and collards need to be weeded, but otherwise are thriving. Cucumber plants look great and are making baby cukes. None of the pole beans came up. Not even one. Either that or the bunny rabbits got them as soon as they sprouted. It’s not too late so I may replant. Haven’t decided. The heat is a serious demotivator for me.
The bait pond is about half full of water, and I’ve started stocking it with minnows, small bluegills, and crayfish. The water is still really muddy, but they seem to be getting along alright. I toss a couple handfuls of pellet food every other day for the fish, and the crays are getting the carcasses that have resulted from a couple successful fishing trips. If we don’t get a good rain soon I’m probably going to have to toss the trash pump into the creek to supplement the water level. That’s a lot of work so I’m going to wait a couple weeks and see if Mother Nature will help me out.
More progress. Outstanding!
Progress indeed, but I gotta say no bueno to Mrs. Augie’s barn sink kimchi. yech...
We are on our 2nd Weber Performer grill. Charcoal kettle with a work table. Gas start or the charcoal. We love it and they hold up well.
I mean to type gas startup for the charcoal. No lighter fluid needed.
I usually make the obligatory opening season tomato sammich to use the very first one.
I dug up about 3.5 pounds of yukon gold yesterday from a small 4x8 ish area where I planted potatoes. I have red potatoes on either side that went in a month after the yukon gold. I think they might have done better in a sunny spot. That area only gets a few mild hours in the morning. I have very few all day sunny spots and I have to save those for peppers and tomatoes and whatnot.
Collard greens are starting to get big enough to pick. I had one or two plants that were started early now the rest of them are catching up.
I made tomatillo salsa last month and one of them was kind of sorry so I sliced it, dried it and planted it. They are in a really big pot now(they spread everywhere I hear)and almost a foot tall.
I should probably start more cilantro in a shady area all of mine is fixing to bolt.
This is the first year I’ve had to put any type of netting out.
For years, I’ve been saving the little nets that garlic comes in. I use thise to catch lint in the washing machine drain hose.
I also save the big bags from citrus and onions just in case.
I cut them open and pinned them onto my little starter trays with clothespins and I have some covering my little row of radish seedlings because the birbs are numerous and snatching up anything tender they can grab in their little beaks.
Once things get big enough, they seem to leave them alone though. They really liked the tomatillo and lettuce sprouts.
A HUGE storm rolled through about 4:30pm, today. I have a limb down and a lot of branches down from the Maple closest to the house. So HAPPY Beau gave it a hard pruning very early in the spring, or I’d have even MORE of a mess on my hands.
Easily 2” of rain, though I haven’t gone out to check the gauge as it’s still raining. Clearing in the West, so we might get a pretty sunset out of it.
So, I’m already crossing ‘Watering’ off of my To-Do List for tomorrow, though I will have to asses for damage - our young fruit trees were practically bent in half the wind was so strong, and of course, since it was so HOT today, I gave the new Magnolia two gallons of water before I realized rain was on the way. *Rolleyes*
At least I got all the dog chores done prior, but I cut it pretty close, LOL! Also glad I put the mule in the barn, today - the flies seem to bother him less and it’s cooler for him and no one likes a hot, fly-bit, cranky mule! ;)
Possibly more rain later in the week.
My favorite Radar Loop:
https://radar.weather.gov/Conus/full_loop.php
Ha!
You people out in the midwest who don’t have to water all the time.
You guys have it made!
:)
We do!
But we have drought years, too. And they’re usually pretty awful, BUT in 2012 we had a drought year and I had the BEST tomato and pepper crops of my entire gardening career.
We had also planted 400 trees out here in Spring 2012 and it was a LOT of fun (NOT!) hauling the tanker filled with 800 gallons of water out to them in 104 degree heat on the 4th of July. Amazingly, 200 of them survived! (We have land in a program that helps grow big Bucks, so the trees were future shelter for them.)
In, Around, Under or Through! :)
Our old grill was a weber It had a work table made of wood bars on both sides. I loved it too. But it was just plain old charcoal - no bells and whistles-which I like-simple is better.
I would like to be able to bake bread outdoors in the summer.
I want to be able to smoke chickens, grill steaks and burgers, and cook pizza. Possibly need something to use to can stuff outdoors with pressure canner.
I really love my rocket stove. It uses wood or charcoal. I cooked a homemade hamburger helper style lasagne, heated rolls, and coffee using a mere handful of twigs. We usually have a homegrown salad to go with it.
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