After such a dry spell, we got a drenching 2 inches of rain. It wasn’t supposed to rain, according to the weather forecast, so Will went out and cut three fields of hay, figuring three dry days to get it up and baled. First, he got a flat tire on the big Kubota. He spent a whole day getting it off and loaded on the trailer, along with the spare. Of course, it was the year-old tire he bought new online. It was a sidewall leak, and it leaked out a bunch of beet juice (put in instead of calcium chloride to prevent freezing and add weight to the wheels), at over $2 a gallon. So, he cut hay with the International. The hay was beautiful with lots of clover. Of course, the next day it poured! So much for weather forecasts, huh?
Well, we did need the rain. The day before, I had gone out and replanted sweet corn in the North Garden along with some more pumpkins to sell. I was just finishing up when it started raining. I did make it to the house before it cut loose, however. The good news is the rain is bringing on the second planting of Bear Island and Simonet corn in the North Garden and sure watered all the plants that are already up.
There are billions of little, tiny baby frogs everywhere right now. I have to watch the ground constantly, so I don’t step on them. I’m not sure where they all came from as it’s a long way to the beaver ponds or even our backyard fishpond. One of life’s mysteries, I guess.
Today I seeded out the last of our small Hopi Pale Grey squash as I’m getting low on seeds to sell and we still have three weeks before we turn our seed business over to Lynn and Jesse. I was surprised that even those little squash had nice, fat seeds. A couple of the squash even had seeds which were sprouting inside! Our squash in the gardens all look great. I’m sure Will’s weeding, spreading a thick layer of manure around each plant, then mulching them has a lot to do with it. — Jackie
Jackie, glad you got rain! Here we’re mostly dry. I hope to have my knee surgery soon. It was put off because of me not watching my sugars, I’m a diabetic.
In a couple of months I lost my wonderful step mom and then our two 19 year old cats. Both cats were raised from 4 weeks with us. So I had to wait for more control on the sugar.
We’ve been cleaning up the place and clearing out junk. Amazing how much you can get stuffed into a place.
I’m going buy or build a greenhouse with double wall plastic. We had snow on the mountains here in June. Plus we’ve got deer that are hiding in our little town. So I’m going to have to fence in the bulk of the garden.
Do you know if deer will eat asparagus? Our neighbor put in a garden and they ate her pea plants.
Take care Jackie and hugs to your family!
The best of luck with your coming knee surgery. I’ve never had deer eat asparagus yet. Nor have I ever heard of that happening, even with wild asparagus, growing in ditches. You’ll love your greenhouse. I know I sure do love mine. I only wish we’d have built it bigger like Will wanted to do.
Here in Copper Basin alaska we are having a fairly cool year. We needed a warming fire on July 1 and again today because of multi day lows in 40’s and highs in 50’s or low60’s with showers. So far we have only got in the 70’s a fairly few days. On climate change the Palmer Experimental farm puts a monthly climate summary on Facebook with a comparison to 1926. Some months we ar warmer or wetter or cooler or dryer a some times it’s 1926. They are an official weather station. Since all my garden is in the hoop houses or green house the temps are a few degrees higher and a tcouple hours gives us 80’s. I have a zucchini almost ready to harvest. Fortunately I haven’t had a major tractor tire problem because it is 200 miles way for repairs!
That’s a couple hours of sun gives us 80’s!
It’s been pretty cool here, some nights, in the forties. But we haven’t needed a fire to keep warm. Just toss on another blanket with the windows open to cool the house down for the next day. That’s a benefit of having a log house. The thermal mass keeps it cool on hot days and warmer on cold days.
Susan! What a delight to know you have Bullfrogs.
I that everything around here has been killed by the farmers spray! The cats catch young bullfrogs sooo maybe I just can’t hear too well! LOL 🤣
Hearing aids didn’t work. Please enjoy the croaking!
You made my day!
Jackie you say you have weeds but where are they? LOL 🤣
Take care ❤️
Oh, believe me, we do have weeds. I’ll take some pictures so you can see what we’re fighting daily. Bullfrogs are so wonderful to hear. Unfortunately, we live too far north to have them. When I was a child in lower Michigan, we did have them to enjoy.
We have a lot of frogs here as well. All sizes. That is such a GREAT sign, as having frogs is a sign of the local environment and they do eat a lot of bugs. Using very few chemicals helps. Had a friend in OK mention a while back not seeing any birds…….. Another sign of the status of the environment. Now, if I could just get some bat colonies.
We are hoping for some rain this weekend and a cool down (low 90’s/upper 80’s). That will be so much better than the HOT (99-101) degree weather we are seeing……..
Yep, we’ve got plenty of frogs, toads and birds. Too many birds as today I see they’re busy cleaning up my beautiful cherries on my best tree! Just before they’re ripe, too. Drat! We lost a lot of bats due to the fungus, white nose, a few years ago. Slowly, they’re coming back. But it’ll be years before their population increases to what it was before it hit.
Dear Jackie, I have heard that windy storms can cause a rain of frogs, (and fish) for several miles away from water source. They are just swept up and blown a few miles. LOL. Either way, aren’t they cute little things? Take care. It is gathering rain clouds now as we type.
I’ve heard of raining frogs and fish too. But I think these were born here, as they’re all the same tiny size. They are cute and I sure don’t want to go stepping on any of them by accident.
Jackie, Do you have a tedder for turning the hay? How do you dry it? We are on hold with our hay as we wait for a part for the tractor. Of course, this always happens during hay season.
We are hoping for rain here in central Mo. The ground is not very dry, but it sure helps my raised beds. I am finally getting a few zucchini, and we are harvesting potatoes. We don’t have any little frogs around here, but the bull frogs are sure singing in the pond.
I always enjoy reading this blog. It makes me feel as if I have a great community who understands farming.
no, we don’t have a tedder. We rake it in single windrows to dry. Will just came in and said the hay is dry now. But it’s evening and the dew will soon be down, so he’ll have to wait until tomorrow to bale it. He did get the tractor tire back today. The old (new) one was shot but he had a spare. They also had to put another tube in it plus 30 gallons of beet juice as he’d lost that much loading it from the hole in the tire. it cost nearly $500 for the repair. Ouch. And he hauled the tires in to the shop instead of having the truck come out to load them.
We are finally getting rivers back into their banks here in Iowa. Within 4 miles of us, the small town had a FOOT of rain, and we had over 9″ in our rain gauge. The following night another 3″ came. The wind did uproot several of our fruit trees which we staked and hope will be ok, and it also blew down some large ones in the woods. Numerous counties have been declared disasters, to provide aide to those with flooded basements etc.
The garden had been overcome by grass/weeds, so I, like others have said, just take care of the rows, ugh. What is funny is that normally I wouldn’t be able to walk in that mud, but this year it’s like a lawn and I’ve been in the garden every day! Blessings!
I’m happy to see how well your garden is doing, and glad you are adding another 4-legged family member. I hope she gets along with the guys.
Although Seed Treasures is soon transferred, your continuing effort to help them will take some time. I’d love to see pictures of the four of you during the sale; would you post that and their contact information so we can order from them next year? It’s an exciting event in your journey, which you have shared with us all these years. Thank you.
I agree that the weather is really “different” this year. It’s cool, then steaming hot, rain then dry and windy. My tomatoes are not producing. Everything is struggling. Maybe next year will be better. I’m trying to find vegetables at farmers markets, etc but don’t intend to buy produce from the grocery store to can as I simply don’t trust the source.
Hopefully, I guess, the mown hay can dry, be wind rowed and baled before the next rain. The garden looks great. I am thankful your hard work is looking rewarding.
Will just came in from raking the hay and says it was dry enough to bale this afternoon, which surprised us. But he had to go pick up the big tractor tire that had gone flat on the big Kubota. He’ll be baling tomorrow as soon as the dew dries up! He said it looks good. Not all bleached out and ragged. Thank God!
Don’t give up on your garden. Often it looks horrible for a while and then straightens up to provide a great harvest. Stick with it! Hey, I’ve planted sweet corn three times and it’s FINALLY coming up and looking good.
👍
Tis the year of frogs I think. Like you, we don’t have a water source close by (unless you count one on the ground wildlife water source). I know I have toads in the strawberry patch – which like the asparagus patch and perennial garden needs weeding. Our heat dome is back so I may just have to suck it up and plod along.
IMHO, it is getting harder to forecast the weather. Climate change is real and I don’t foresee things getting better any time soon.
Our last power outage was nasty – better half had to drive three towns over to get fuel for our generator. Time to suck it up and do a natural gas whole house generator. Driving during non-winter months for fuel is one thing but a winter outage means near blizzard/blizzard/ice conditions. None of those makes travel easy. In my area, the days of a non-farm having a gas tank/barrel have sailed.
Gee, that’s too bad that you can’t have a bigger gas tank! We have a 300-gallon tank for gas and a 250 gallon plus a 100-gallon portable tank for diesel. We switched our generator to propane as getting fuel during a storm might get dicey. We love the propane much better than gas!
I agree about climate change. Few want to believe it’s real as they don’t want to conserve fossil fuel and give up the luxury they’ve become accustomed to. Some say it’s just a natural cycle but what about all the 100-year floods, severe storms, droughts, fires etc. of Biblical proportions happening today? Nope, we’re believers in climate change. It’s one reason we choose to be off grid and use solar instead of tying into the fossil fueled grid.
Just imagine that they are fairy frogs and they are going to eat every bug that you have! LOL 🤣.
We are under a Flash flood watch until Sunday.
The way it rained today I can see why – just a white sheet of rain! My tomatoes plants and banana peppers are looking good.
It’s really hard not to buy produce from the grocery store while waiting for the garden but I read about some kind of intestinal parasite in/ on the produce and decided I could wait.
Your garden looks really good. I’m still planting.
Sorry about the tractor tire! Everything so expensive.
I had to have a tire plug today and it was 25.00 . Had a screw in it.
Take care ❤️
Gee, I hope you don’t have flooding! The rain does help the garden. Old farmers called rain the poor man’s fertilizer.
Yep, we’re still planting too. Almost done but there’s always a spot that frees up to put in something else.
Yes, we got the tractor tire today to the tune of nearly $500. Ouch!
Fairy Frogs! Love it!