You say Tomato, I say Potato.

It's the 26th of June and hotter than three kinds of hell, but that doesn't stop us from working our collective asses off. I'm not talking donkeys here, either.

The 200+ tomato plants are ripening, but not all at once. We get about 10 pounds a day and yesterday we made tomato sauce with the first ten lbs. Today, we have another ten pounds and will be making salsa, but not for canning. I also canned several pints of crunchy jalapenos, the same jalapenos that make you get on your knees and scream to the heavens. You know, good ones.

The rat in the tack room is maybe five inches long plus the tail. Mike's seen it three times now, always in the morning, but he can also hear it most of the time. We left the door ajar for Eatz, our rat-eating cat, but today the little goats got their heads inside and thus their bodies and tore open a chicken feed bag and messed up some of the goat chow bags.

Our attempt at raising corn this first go around was a bust. Without big machines that go between the rows and pick the corn, we figured out that we need at least two feet between the rows to get into it with a mower. Mike thinks I'm crazy because I bought a hand mower, one that doesn't run on gas. It will come in handy. He just can't see it right now.

Alas, the corn looks like miniature corn, and really that's not bad, it just isn't the type of corn we wanted. It's silver queen, but matured too fast because of two factors -- weeds and lack of nitrogen in the soil. This is version One Point Oh!

The watermelons are coming along nicely, too, but slowly, as always. The squash -- two kinds -- zucchini (sp?) as well as round squash, are growing like crazy. The plants are the biggest I've ever seen. Huge.

The gourds are doing well, but I could not remember what type of gourd I planted in one pot and when I transferred them, I thought they were dipper gourds, but that's not the case. They're LOOFAHS! So we have round ball gourds, dippers and loofahs this year. Somewhere. Next year, the markers will be bigger so I can find them.

Today, I harvested the dill seeds on the drying heads that will die off in the sun if they're not captured. I put them in a garbage bag with holes in it, then tied it up in the kitchen.

The volunteer gourds in the barnyard that are doing well are birdhouse gourds. We also have snake gourds growing.

Mike finished the covering behind the shed where he will store his wood, so that's good. Today, he is sorting the wood and creating a way to store it properly. He's found a bunch of cockroaches which are easily taken care of organically with boric acid and diatomaceous earth. It's too bad the chickens don't follow him around out there, because they love to eat the cockroaches. More protein, better eggs.

We are getting between six and seven eggs a day right now, but some of the shells are not hard enough and I suspect that those eggs are from the new layers. We've always had that problem with the ends of the eggs being super soft and usually broken. Mike says that's not the case, that the chickens scratch around and cause the egg to break. Nonetheless, those eggs get thrown into the barnyard and our little cannibals love them.

The guineas are a handful, but they hang out in a pack, are quite noisy and delightful at the same time. They explore a little more area every day, and these last few days, that area has been the barn itself.

Weed control for the tomatoes, the potatoes, the beans, the corn, etc... is a real issue we have to deal with next time. The black plastic could have worked, but the dirt I put on top seems to have allowed the grass and weeds to grow. Version One Point Oh!

The fruit trees we ignored for a week and the leaves fell of off some of them because of the heat and the fact that we've been too busy to keep watering them consistently.

Bewicks Wrens, which are diminishing in numbers in the US, seem to be nesting in the small, wire shelf just outside the back door. The eggs, we think, have hatched because the wrens come with grasshoppers and other bugs, so that can only mean they're feeding chicks. The wrens are wary of us, but more wary of our long-hair cat (Thud), and chirp like the dickens when she's around. There are four little eggs and both the male and the female share nesting duties.

We foiled the squirrels that had torn a hole in the trashcan that we were using to store bird feed on the back porch. We replaced it with a metal one, but recently, we've discovered that the little buggers have pissed all over the lid. Maybe they're just pissed off because they can't get to the seed. With all the pecans, the acorns and other food around, you'd think they wouldn't be so spoiled.

Barbecue, who has been given the OKAY to chase the squirrels has a little dance that she does when chasing them. She runs after them with a bounce on her front paws, barking excitedly and turning around and around. We encourage her to do this and she loves it. It still doesn't keep the squirrels out of the back yard, though.

Barbecue is enervated by the heat. Poor dog, she sits under bushes where it's exposed and cool dirt. I don't think she's got enough energy to actually dig a nice cool spot out for herself under our trees at this time. That's not a bad thing.

We tried to set up a scarecrow waterer that is motion-activated, but she'll have none of that. She is afraid of the water because someone, AHEM, used to squirt her if she started barking at the hose. Now she stays away from the water when it's in, AHEM, someone's hands.

Welp, it's time to go switch the waters over and eat lunch.

Humidity Blues

Now that the heat's here, so is, yes, the humidity. It blankets every act you commit outside and every single step you take. Mike can just THINK about going outside and his shirt is soaked.

The guineas flew the coop yesterday. Mike cooked dinner and I went outside to check to see if the guineas had come out -- we've left the cage open for the third day and they finally decided it was cooler outside than inside the cage. But they weren't just walking around, they were bathing in the dirt. It reminded me of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Teri Garr's "Roll, roll, roll in the hay.." scene. Only four guineas made the jump, with two squawkers inside the coop who didn't quite understand the concept of an open door.

We saw Star Wars III for the second time yesterday and came home around 6:30 when Mike decided to check the trap for predators. He thought something was amiss because Barbecue was barking like crazy and acting a little weird. She knew there was something trapped, but didn't quite find the English words to tell us, "Hey, Dudes, something's in the trap." Stupid dog.

So off Mike went and Barbecue apparently got to the trap before he did... and then Mike saw that another raccoon had visited us over the last two days, taking the chicken-parts bait that we left in the trap.

We did the humane thing again, using the truck's exhaust and a garbage bag to do the deed...

It was kind of a crazy night, but very delightful and funny in other ways.

The tomatoes are getting out of hand, but they're not quite ripe just yet. I pickled a batch of jalapenos (two pint-sized mason jars) and put some in a bowl for us to try them out. They are spicy hot, but only after the first bite. But then you get down-on-your-knees-say-jalapeno-luya-scream-like-you-mean-it hot. It's the sandy soil what does it, methinks.

Off to never-never land...

Kristi

It's still Summer... or it's Summer-still

It is amazing to me how comforting this farm is, how wonderful to go home and to not have to worry about walking around the house in skivvies or staying inside because you don't want to talk to the neighbors. It all works for us. We like the peace and quiet because truly, neither of us have quiet jobs. Mike's job might be on the top of a hill that overlooks a cow pasture, but it's still noisy with the people around the warehouse, his employees and the constant ringing of the phones. My job is just crazy.

It is SO nice to come home to the farm. It's just RIGHT here.

Our harvests so far have been some test garlic and onions, a few plums, peaches, herbs, eggs, 40 'harvested' chickens, dill up to my... neck (almost). The gourds have gone crazy and will be taking over the 50 foot by 150 foot plot of land where they're planted.

The tomatoes are going crazy, too, and the teardrop tomatoes look more like filled in cartoon balloons with large... points on the ends.

The corn has just begun to put out its pollen packages and I hope we see some silk action in the next few weeks.

One of the boar billy goats have, for the last two days, been in the forested area where there is no gate. It has cried when we got home and gotten stuck behind the fence where it goes to find better foliage, I guess. We've had to let it out twice at the evening feeding time. The poor thing bleats like there's no tomorrow and is so panicky with us, that it just doesn't know how to handle getting back into the barnyard.

Our barred rock chickens are almost ready to lay, and we think one of them might be doing so. We can't ever tell because we pick up the eggs at odd times. Since chickens lay about every 23 hours (with regular feedings), we don't know and can't FIND the eggs when they do lay them. They've laid in the nesting boxes I made for them only twice. They are foragers, too, supplemented with chicken scratch from time to time and laying mash when they want it in a huge feeder.

The littlest goat is finally off formula, but still a pain, as it is the loudest of the goats and the one that has to be right next to us around feeding time. Bleating. Did I mention the annoying bleating?

It's hot, now, and there is still much work to do. The greenhouse is useless right now, but still has a few plants in it. Tomatoes (cherry) as well as castor bean trees, one caper plant and a few odds and ends. I need to clean it out and reorg it for the fall. It's not quite right, yet.

We have sparrows nesting right outside our back door, right at eye level and where we put stuff like gloves. There are three eggs in the nest along with Mike's matchstick lighter for his barbecue.

Speaking of Barbecue, she's got a million sticker burs in her coat and we try to keep her free of them by brushing once or twice a week, but it just doesn't seem to matter. Rolling around in the dirt and the grass is her specialty, after all.

It's been a long few weeks.

Happy farming!

Miss Lyn (Kristi)