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
