Been a long hot week

The flowers are picking up

Okra

Picked the first Trombonccino plus Armenian cucumber, zucchini and patty pan

Seeds planted are popping up

Made some yogurt 

Posie gave me bit of a scare with some super rapid breathing. It was a super hot afternoon like 110 very humid and no breeze at all. She was much better when it finally cooled down and the next evening was her usual trouble making self. 

With the heat plus the heavy rain a couple weeks ago I’m seeing signs of coccidiosis in some chicks. Most are doing ok but these two are down. Giving some milk and hope they make it. 

The flies oh man the flies. I have about 25 fly traps out right now and they aren’t even making a dent. This trap has only been up about 48 hours. And it’s not just me, apparently the whole state has issues. 

Mr coyote comes by every afternoon. The red arrows point him out. 

First tarantula of the season

#appreciation

Today I appreciate the much cooler temperatures 

Farmer Friday

The last few weeks have been doozies. In fact this whole year has been something else. My culverts clogged a bit and I had some run off from the hill pen. You can see more of that in the video  below. 

I worked on new steps up to the hill pen. 

And it rained. A lot in a few days. I’ve gotten as much rain this month as I did for the whole year of 2019. 

So the goat pens flooded and needed mucked out. 

14 bags of bedding barely dried out the goat pens and the brooder coop. Most of the other pens had at least some dry space. 

I dug a little ditch around Caramel’s pen so hopefully the water won’t run in there again. 

There was so much water on tarps it was bending the kennel panels. 

View from the top. Took me all one day to bail water and muck out pens. 

And THEN!

It rained some more!

Since it was nice and cool I did make a pizza: Brick House Bakers pizza dough, home made mozzarella, homegrown tomatoes, basil, garlic chives with some figs from the Superior Farmers Market. 

Tons of weeds growing like crazy but so is everything else. A little birdhouse gourd. 

And a big one. 
Cosmos or maybe coreopsis 

Dahlia 

Tomatoes are starting 

Armenian cucumber 

A jungle out back

I got some of it tamed

Wild fungi

Another dahlia I love the colors, reminds me of water lilies 

Sorting out some Nankins. Nankins are little bantams that shouldn’t be too big. A young cockerel like this should only weigh about 20 ounces. Some of these are too big or don’t have the right coloring to keep for breeding. So I’m giving them away to 4H kids for showmanship birds. I have several pairs. Message me if you are interested and local

I did pick tomatoes and okra and a couple cucumbers but forgot to take pictures. Maybe in the morning. But I did get one of this weeks flowers. 

#appreciation

Today I appreciate we’ve gotten rain. I appreciate that despite the wildfires and floods I still have my house, my gardens, my animals, food in my belly and clothes on my back. 

Farmer Friday

almost 2 pounds of basil

pesto!

Farmer Friday! A little late getting this done, I've had a ton of stuff to do this week and today. The other day I picked a bunch of basil and made pesto.

cherry tomatoes

More cherry tomatoes, still a lot of splits and rots from the rain. Not as many as before, and some of the plants seem to have a blight or something. I'll be cutting them out this week as soon as I have time.

trying to get in the garden gate!

Wild asters, lambsquarters, volunteer tomatoes and a giant squash vine are clogging up the access to the new garden, but I did manage to get in to pick beans.

picking beans

part of the bean harvest

I was worried that I wouldn't have enough beans to fill my pre-paid orders, but there were plenty, almost 10 pounds!

squash, lots of gold patty pan

More squash of course. this week there were a lot of gold patty pans, with a few of each of the other kinds.

Armenian and Market Moore cucumbers

A good amount of both kinds of cucumbers. I also picked some greens, kale, chard and collards, but I figure you've already seen them. I didn't have time today to pick herbs and flowers, so I'll do that in the morning before I go to market.

Harvest Monday and #eatwhatyougrow

a mess of green beans

Harvest Monday once again, hooking up with Dave over at Our Happy Acres. I got over 3 pounds of green beans this week from the older patch. The new bed of bush beans is up and off to a great start with the rain.

more squash

There was a good amount of squash this week and I only had one left over after market on Saturday so that is always a plus.

Hales cantaloupe and Black Tail Mt. watermelon

I got some more watermelons and cantaloupes. They have been pretty good tasting.

Georgia collards

I made the first picking on the new bed of collard greens. They have really started growing fast since the rains have come.

Armenian cucumber

Market More cucumber

I picked one Armenian and a couple of Market More cucumbers. The Market More have had the slightest tinge of bitterness to the skin. I think probably because sometimes they still don't get enough water. but they are still tasty, they just have to be peeled.

I cleaned up an almost empty bed of carrots and also found some volunteer new potatoes. 

cucumber & yogurt salad

#eatwhatyougrow Besides having cucumber in regular salad I've been making a cucumber salad with yogurt and chopped fresh herbs.

omelet in the making

ready to eat

I used up another dozen silkie eggs in an omelet for lunch on Sunday. Along with a couple of collard leaves and some parsley. I also added a lot of Monterrey Jack cheese. Mom says there is no such thing as too much cheese.

Harvest for week of July 24-30
July 24
 large tomatoes      1#  1oz

July 26
Scarlet Kale     1# 12oz
Lancinato kale 1# 8oz
Collards           2# 0oz
New potatoes        12oz
carrots                   3oz
Armenian cuke  1# 12oz

July 27
watermelon   11# 0oz
cantaloupe    5#  7oz

July 28
Cherry tomato 5# 3oz
cucumber        12oz
green beans 3# 12oz
squash       28# 3oz
basil 2oz
sage 2 oz
oregano2 oz
curly parsley 3oz
flat parsley 3oz
rosemary 1oz

July 29
basil 6oz
sage 2oz
curly parsley 4oz
flat parsley 4oz

July30
large tomatos 1# 8oz

TOTALS for the week
large tomato  2# 9oz
kale                3# 4oz
collards         2#  0oz
new potatoes      12 oz
Armenian cuke 1#12oz
watermelon    11# 0oz
cantaloupe      5#  7oz
cherry tomato 5# 3oz
cucumber        12oz
green beans 3# 12oz
squash        28# 3oz
fresh herbs  1# 11oz

GRAND TOTAL 66# 4oz