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.