8/19/18. Sunday

Hello pumpkin flowers.  After mirning chores and watering some plants I went to haul feed. 

But the truck needed a jump first. 

And when I lifted the hood on the van I discovered either a pack rat or squirrel nest in the hood liner. 

While picking up feed I noticed these unusually marked chicks. Since the store never has the right label for the chicks it gets I really doubt these are Australorps. But the are cool looking. 

In the afternoon I went to see mom. Very sad to see her loosing her vocabulary. Hard to carry on a conversation of any kind any more. 

Afternoon chores done. 7:00 pm and still this hot. Looks like our monsoon is quitting early. We never even got real rains this year. I got a little too much sun this morning so off to bed early. Goodnight world. 

8/18/18 Market Saturday

My daughter has been busy making jam and relish for our booth at market along with zucchini and banana bread.  We went to Superior for the Prickly Pear Festival after Market and had some good BBQ. My phone seems to be possessed this week and kept telling me it didn't have room to take a picture or would just turn off and say the battery needed charged. So no more pics today. Usual chores done, sold 4 cockerels so a few less mouths to feed. It looked like it was going to rain but didn't, just really hot and humid. I'm hot and tired and going to lay in bed under the fan. Good night world. 

8/17/18 Farmer Friday

Holy Moly look how long the baby Trombonccino is getting. I think I will try to do a slide show with dates after it's ready to harvest. 

Boy the asparagus plants are flopping over and trying to trip me. Better tie them up. 

Well that's a little better. My phone has been acting up today so I didn't get any more pictures. I picked a good amount of kale and a little chard. Barely a pound of cherry tomatoes and only a couple of big tomatoes to be found. 

I've been researching solutions to the root knot nematodes besides growing and turning under cover crops of mustard and marigolds. I think I will also try neem cake which is also a fertilizer.  Did the usual chores and delivered to my Superior customers. And now it's bed time. Good night world. 

8/16/18 Thursday

I potted up 3-4 trays of broccoli and cauliflower seedlings. 

Mmmmm. I think this area needs some attention.  

Weed eater issues. #alwayssomething

Got a little bit done. 

Mexican sunflower aka Tithonia finally blooming. Only one plant made it so hope makes lots of seed. There was a humming bird buzzing it. 

Moved some chicks around. 

Took a little nap and woke up disoriented to my time and place. Was very strange for a couple of minutes. This book is a great read   It's not all about gardening. The first half is about health issues like celiac disease and food allergies and health. I would recommend it to all gardeners and lovers of good food. 

The usual chores done. Sad to find two dead chicks wedged in a corner of a pen. I think they must have gotten wet and cold from the rain and piled together so the ones on the bottom smothered. But that's #farmlife dinner eaten, dogs fed, time for bed.  Good night world. 

8/15/18. Wednesday

There is a low spot in this pen so when it rains it's deep squishy mud. I dumped some creek sand in there and a couple buckets of sawdust based compost. Hopefully it will stay a little drier. 

I finished clearing out the patch of dead tomatoes in this garden and planted a thick cover of Giant Red Mustard. Root knot nematodes don't like mustard greens. I cleared another patch of dead tomatoes out in another area. I couldn't tell on most of the plants if they had nematodes or not but the last plant I pulled certainly did. I dumped several inches of compost on top with some blood meal for extra nitrogen. I'm going to try some Mizuna mustard there, it's not as strong as Giant Red so I don't know how it will work out. When I was done with that I worked on the wind break some more. 

A dahlia is finally blooming. All the earlier flowers were eaten by Japanese beetles. 

I can't get the right color of theses red zinnias. They are a deep dark almost blood red in real life. 

And most of the day was the usual stuff, feeding and watering birds, finished cleaning out a pen, now to move some more babies around tomorrow, fooling with tarps the wind tore loose, a little housekeeping and now time for bed. Good night world. 

8/14/18 Tuesday but no tacos

This morning started out fine and I had lots planned. But I forgot I had to take Sis to an appointment. Dropped her off and got a little pen cleaning done then had to go pick her up and take her to do some errands. By the time I got back it was getting too hot for outside work so I did a little cleanup inside. 
Look at how big the baby Trombonccino is getting. I think it's doubled in a week. 

I bought two bags of this on clearance.  Since we've had some rain and expected more this evening I sprinkled them out in the little wild garden by the hoophouse. 

I call this the wild garden although not everything here is wild. But I would like for this area to basically take care of itself eventually. There are several live oaks that I grew from acorns, some Monarda (aka bee balm), four o'clocks, Greek oregano, Rosemary, mugwort and some chocolate flowers. 

About a minute after I spread the seeds it started raining really hard. So I ducked for cover. Most of the usual stuff done and now it's time for bed. Goodnight world. 

8/13/18 Monday

I spent most of the morning working on fence. I got 2 more posts set. Then I worked on bailing water off of tarps and getting some support under the saggy parts. The garden got another .4" of rain over night bringing the years total to 5.6".  Keep going we certainly need some more!

A lot of the usual chores with a little laundry and housekeeping thrown in. Now to feed the dogs and me. Then I might make some jelly before my juice goes bad if I'm not too tired. Pretty sunset tonight. 

8/12/18. Sunday

Back on fence early this morning. Mostly cutting back brush and marking for post placement. I think I need about 7 more posts.  

This bed of tomatoes is mostly dead so I've been pulling them out. 

What killed them?  I thought at first maybe the drip system failed but the soil was moist enough. Then I thought probably one of the virus diseases got them. But no. When I pulled up a dead plant I discovered that it was rootknot nematodes. So this bed will mostly be planted to marigolds ASAP. As soon as the plants are at least a foot tall I'll chop them up and dig them into the soil. Special compounds in the leaves will help kill the nematodes. Then I'll mostly grow mustards over the winter and next spring which will also help kill them. 

When my hands got tired of cutting up dead plants I moved to this project. I'm just tying up tall saplings to the garden fence with hay strings.  This is my free wind break. This garden gets really blasted by the wind during storms so this will hopefully help it out. 

Some of the usual chores and a visit with mom. Then about 4:00 this storm rolled in suddenly with a lot of wind and thunder. 

It dropped almost .8" of rain at my house in under an hour. So happy for the water!

But it also has its draw backs. Tarps over dog kennels make great safe chicken pens, except when it rains!  There was so much water in this spot I had to baile it with a bucket before I could push up from underneath to dump the rest of the water off. 

In other news there is a baby in the bathtub. Yesterday he was having a hard time holding his head up. I lost 2 Ameraucana chicks from the same pen last week with the same issue. I thought they had the vitamin E / selenium deficiency going on and pumped them full of vitamins but it didn't help. In the meantime I've noticed some foamy yellow poop that makes me think they have coccidiosis. So I've been giving this guy some hearty doses of Corid (commercial amprolium powder). This afternoon he seemed a little perkier so I'll see how he's acting in the morning. I've also started the other birds in his pen on the Corid also. For more information about cocci check out the Merk Veterenarian Manual, https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/coccidiosis/overview-of-coccidiosis-in-poultry

Now time to feed the dogs and go to bed. Good night world. 

8/11/18 to market to market

Good morning Beauty. The day dawned fairly cool. It tried to rain overnight but didn't really happen.  

Lol.  Just realizing I too pictures of all the other booths today but not my own. Was a fun day celebrating National Farmers Market week. Our market manager Holly Brantly brought watermelon on a stick for everyone. We gave away a shopping bag with items from all the vendors every 30 minutes and a good time was had by all. 

Had lunch with my daughter and did the usual chores. And now I'm off to bed. Good night world. 

8/10/18 Farmer Friday

Well glory be. .6" of rain overnight. Not nearly enough but I'll take it. Please send some more. 

I'm still totally amazed by the sunflowers and zinnias. 

Cut some amaranth and lambsquarters for the chickens. 

The chicks especially love their greens. 

There were a few tomatoes. 

Look at that baby Trombonccino grow.  There were a few zucchini and a couple of patty pans but I forgot to take a picture of them. Delivered to my customers in Superior. Did the usual chores. Ate a little dinner. Now to feed the dogs and off to bed.