Boy, we could sure use some rain! The upside of this dryness is that we’ve got all the gardens tilled up twice, with manure spread in between tillings. As Will and I do nearly all of the planting, and most by hand, we have to get an earlier start than we would like to. As the ten-day forecast shows no temperatures diving into the thirties and the daytime temperatures in the 70’s, we started planting today.
I had saved a bucket of Grandpa’s favorite red potatoes, Bliss Triumph, which are now very rare. Three years ago, we had special ordered them grown in Alaska. We’ve had good crops and, today, we planted a 100-foot row. Will goes ahead of me, making furrows with a little plow called a middle buster, which goes on the three-point hitch of the tractor. He makes furrows about eight inches deep, throwing dirt up on both sides. I follow with the seed potatoes, placing them about a foot apart. Then, he follows me, raking dirt from one side of the furrow, over the potatoes. When the plants are about a foot tall, we’ll hill them with the dirt from the other side. This makes more potatoes and discourages weeds.
I also planted a bucket of Dakota Pearl seed potatoes in the second row. God willing, we’ll have lots of potatoes this fall. When I got back to the house, I went in the greenhouse and picked out a flat of hot peppers to plant in the second hoop house. In the first hoop house, I planted our inside batch of sweet peppers, Early Red Bell, Ozark Sweet Snack, and Oda. I need to get them all planted. Then I can go in and water and mulch well as it looks like a drought is here!
Tomorrow, I’m going to till some more next to the potatoes and start planting beans. Where the potatoes take about eight days to come up, the beans only take about five. But, without rain, they will (hopefully) just sit there until we water. As I’ve said, it’s early and frost is possible yet. But with as much as we plant, I’ve got to get an early start because my darned knees don’t work as well as I’d like.
We had another baby calf born two days ago. Then the cows got through the fence and the mother hid her calf. Will and I looked and looked and couldn’t find it. Will thought maybe wolves had gotten it. Finally, the mother got out when he was hauling manure and started off toward the woods of the horse pasture. Will followed and then spotted the calf lying next to a tree in the woods. Mom and son are reunited and fenced well in the cow yard. Whew! — Jackie
Mama cows are like mama cats moving kittens. The 3/4 rain over two days turned into .1 inch in one day. We had to drive today (with looking like not good test results from the vet school) and that area got maybe .2 inch. We’ll take it, beggars can’t be choosers.
We hill our taters but my grandpa never did hill his. He pretty much lived in the same area his entire gardening life.
I have seen some berries on the strawberry plants so will keep an eye out.
Thankful for my knees which are aging quite well, squatting is not an issue.
You probably gave the anti dairy guys ammunition with the story about the cow and calf! They think we (former dairyman) cruel because we take the calves right away and usually the mothers don’t care. I know it’s different with beaf! I’ve got my tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the green house and onions in one of my hoop houses. Here in my part of Copper basin Alaska we had 24 last night so it’s a good thing we have a stove in the green house. I was a little leery about going out as I had to shoot a black bear in the chicken pen yesterday evening and the grand kids thought they saw another in the woods! It broke a window and made a mess but couldn’t catch a chicken! I gave it to the neighbor because some of my crew won’t eat it. I plant potatoes with a tube device you poke into the ground and open the jaws, drop potato in and rake a little dirt over. Work along drip tape, pull it just before hilling after a big watering.
I attended a class at a local gardening center. The man was older and had built a simple device using a PVC pipe to drop his seeds through. It might be something you could do to drop the potato pieces through so you don’t have to bend down so much and save your knees 😊
Wow busy as always! Potato planting is sure hard for knees and back. Worth it though. I ‘lost’ a heifers calf years back, mom didn’t get out, baby continually crawled under fence, cross the road into patch of woods! Get him back in nurse and he’d sneak out again! Finally got to big to crawl out.. got my beans in with 80 degrees forecast and no rain, gave them a wetting to encourage sprouting. Corn in along with a row of okra. Just starting to set out my peppers and tomatoes when came down with terrible head cold. Hope to be able to get back out soon though. Drought. Flood. Wind’s Mother Nature sure has been hard on a lot of us. Hopefully you will avoid any frost s!
I have searched for days for a missing calf-mother cows can really hide them. We have many coyotes here. When I transplant tomatoes and peppers I have to do it while sitting on the ground and drag the flat of plants. It’s too hard on my knees to kneel or squat. I do take a bucket to push off of to get up. I get it done but it’s becoming more difficult. I enjoy it so much it doesn’t matter. My potatoes are “up”-7-30 foot rows, onions growing and peas up. We had a 1/2 rain today. Ground is still very dry. My garlic had been eaten in the ground by a vole or mole. It’s frustrating when critters dine on my plants. I had a bucket of celery growing by the house and the deer enjoyed that snack. It makes growing food challenging. More planting to go-it’s still cool here in Southern Wisconsin.
There certainly is a lot going on at your place! Planting time is always a race against either drought or drenching it seems. We continue to be very dry here, but we did get a little shower of about 2 tenths last night. It has been cloudy and cool here this past several days. My Cole crops sure love it! Radishes are sweet and the lettuce is producing well for the first time is a couple of years. I’m planning to make wilted lettuce this weekend. It is supposed to turn on very hot, so the little moisture we have may evaporate quickly. I’m glad your calf was safe after all. Those mothers sure can hide them well! Sending prayers for warm weather, gentle rains and a blessed week.