This is an almost vertical bank along the creek and I’ve been losing a lot of good topsoil here.
So I pegged some boards in place to help catch it. I need to do some more but this is a start.
Can you see the big hole in the netting? Damn rats chewed a hole and when I came out to water the last bed of spinach was decimated by a flock of sparrows. I can’t take much more. I’m ready to just quit. Between the cost of water, nematodes, rodents and predators I am at the end of my patience.
Freya is trying to drive.
While Loki is trying to adjust the seat. They did make me laugh.
And then I took the afternoon off to meet up with an old friend. Our last ride together was about 44 years ago.
We rode up to what is officially called Solitude Tailings pond but what everyone calls Blue Lake.
Quiet and peaceful. We disturbed a flock of ducks.
Saw some cows.
And watched the light change with the setting sun. Got back at dark. Certainly helped me feel better.
This squash started out innocently enough, just a little sprout in the compost in the corner of the greenhouse bed…..I now believe it is an alien bent on taking over the garden!
Liberty said we had to grow pickles and so we are, here’s a couple still on the vine 
Here’s the greenhouse from the other side. The big bushy plants in the tubs are huckleberries. I haven’t grown them before but they are doing very well, loaded with flowers and green fruit.
I just finished potting on some eggplants and peppers into these 2 1/2 gallon containers. The peppers are Rio Grande. The large leaved plant just behind the peppers is my little fig tree, growing from a cutting I took last fall. Behind everything are some of the potted potatoes.
A Delicata squash grown in a large tub. I love these little winter squash, they are very sweet and tasty. Much better than any acorn I’ve ever tried.
Purple de Milpa, a purple tomatillo from the Seed Saver’s Exchange.
On the patio the Trombocinno is taking off and so are the yard long beans.
A young Trombocinno squash
these “Snow White” tomatoes are certainly misnamed, tho they are sweet and juicy.
The Jicama have finally quit pouting and started growing now that is warmer.
The grey water filter tub is growing a good crop too. Kabocha squash, Elephant ears, canna lilly
A Moon & stars Heirloom watermelon seedling. This time of year nothing is safe from the birds and every little seedling has to be caged to keep them from being ripped up and eaten.
The King of the Garden Lima beans are still going at it. They are now 11 FEET tall!
Bloody Butcher corn is doing well. some of the popping sorghum and broom corn were wiped out in an afternoon when the chickens got loose, but there are still some plants left.
Looking along the driveway from the front steps, the bergamot is blooming, the grape vine thinks that everything is there just for it to climb on, like the apple tree.
This is a Blacktail Mountain watermelon. It’s one of the ones growing on the compost pile out back.
Here’s another little watermelon along with a cantaloupe. We would be much closer to eating cantaloupes except for the darn rodents that ate every single developing fruit! as well as munching on the vines. They are making a comeback now though.
Baby Blue Hubbard squash on their compost pile. They look a bit sad because I forgot to water them one day and when I got to them they were badly wilted. They are doing fine now though, with several small squash coming on.
Here’s one of those Baby Blues, next to the compost thermometer, which still registers 140 degrees. It actually went down to 130 but a good watering and it went up to 150, but has settled back down to 140 again.
We had a nice thunderstorm this evening and I spied this double rainbow when I went outside after the rain.
Miracles terrific sunflower is blooming. It is now 8 feet 6 inches tall.
The small fruited tomatoes are loaded. These are the Princepe Borhese. But the kids and I eat them as fast as they come in so we haven’t gotten around to drying any of them yet.
The new bunny condo in the works. This one will hold my four does. Later I will make another one for the two bucks with space for two more grown rabbits or to hold fryers that don’t gain weight fast enough and need a little more time to grow. I suspect that rabbit will replace chicken in our diet this winter.
The small seeded sunflower plants are beginning to really take off and grow.
The King of the Garden lima’s are beginning to bloom at the bottom. The tops of the vines are hitting 9 feet and still going.
WHOA! HELLO THERE! I came around the corner of the house the other evening to discover this guy on my patio. It looked like this rattlesnake had just eaten [big belly bulge visible just past the coffee can]. I hope it was that pesky squirrel! I hated to do it after it did me such a favor, but I did shoot it. With small children around the house it was way too risky to let it keep hanging out, especially just a few feet from the back door.