Wasted effort sometimes

You work your azz off and them its all for nothing. Dang it all. I started out with a beautiful row of cabbage and this evening I took another good look at them. Well I guess if I intend to make kraut I will need to find someone else who has cabbage and buy a few. The cabbage worms have literally ate all of em up. And I had sprayed them several times. Next year, I swear I am only planting like 20 cabbage plants at most and cover them with sheer curtains or cheesecloth to keep the damn moths from laying their eggs on the plants.

We initially went to the garden to put some netting material over the top of the sweet corn to keep the crows off it. We had several large lengths of deer netting and just tossed that up over the tops of the corn. We have had to do this in the past to keep them at bay. Crows can destroy a field of corn in one day. Its a constant battle around here.

You can see the shimmer of the netting on top of the corn stalks. Dang the crap ya gotta do to save ya food supply. I know they will raise hell in the field corn as we dont have enough netting to cover it to protect the ears. I guess I could just sit on the front porch with the rifle and keep the devils scared off. Once the corn is past the soft stage and gets hard they dont mess with it.

We drove thru the orchard just looking at the trees. Our almond trees are sagging they have so many nuts on them. Yes, we can grow almonds in Ky. All be it rare they produce due to the fact it takes very little spring warming to trigger them to bloom and most times they get froze or frosted on. But we were blessed this year.

So many nuts such small tree. This tree is about 5 years old and this is the first crop of nuts we have been blessed with. Just hope they do well and the worms dont invade them. I have got to do some research and get a spray program for us and our little orchard. One of the peach trees had lots of worm damage in the fruit. Dont want a repeat of that next year. I guess the next challenge will be getting these nuts harvested before the squirrels figure out what they are. Dont know if Ky squirrels know what almonds are, but if they do, we are sunk.

In the garden the beans have filled in the trellis' nicely. And they are starting to bloom a little bit. We have harvested some okra pods already and getting enough tomatoes to eat with meals. And a few cukes as well. Not long till we will be able to make pickles. Sadly we did not get our trellis put up for the cukes and they are running on the ground and growing into the sweet potato vines. Gonna make picking them kinda challenging at best.

Yes that is a pile of manure covered over outside the fence waiting to be put on the garden when the corn is done in a couple weeks. Where the corn is growing is where it needs some extra organic matter. Not to mention there will be more manure later. I am really glad Rodger got to weed eat around the fence before I took these photos. It is a full time task to keep all the mowing done here. You really cant do much as far as physical work after about 10 am here. Our temps today hit 97 with about 60% humidity. You really need gills to be outside much at mid-day.

Sunflowers are such happy flowers. Seem to always be smiling. We planted a bunch this year. About a half acre total. They are the black seed sunflower. Our plan is to harvest and use them for chicken feed. In the mean time they are just so pretty to look at.

I think it is so neat the way sunflowers turn their head also. They face the sunrise each day. Much like we should do. By the way, do ya reckon there is an easier way to harvest sunflower heads other than a blade to lop off the heads and toss em in a bag? I think Rodger and Jason have decided to try using our corn picker to see if it will snap the heads off without losing all the seeds. I guess we wait and see. I am sure it will be an interesting process.

We did get our carrots dug and taken care of this week also. And man were they big uns. I think I have found a new best place to raise my carrots every year. From now on they will be out back in the bed here in the back yard. It also grew nice beets this year. And the leeks are not doing too shabby either. How ya like these things?

A little over a half bushel from a small bed. Not a bad harvest. I cut most of them in chunks and vacuum sealed them for the freezer. That should last us for a year at least. About the only thing I use carrots for is pot roast or stew and that is with deer meat. I did shred and freeze some to use in stir fry and chicken noodle soup. It certainly takes a while to scrub and chunk up that many carrots. I am very glad Rodger came out to help cut them up while I did the scrubbing. I guess that is why my hands were swollen, stiff and very sore this morning.

Does this have rotten written all over it? This lil girl is growing like a bad weed. She is old enough now that I can let her be out of her pen while we are here. She likes to hide under the back deck when it gets hot out because it is always cool under there. It was one of Luna's favorite places to stay cool too. I hope Sasha is as good a girl as Luna was.

Not much else happening here on the homestead. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella

If you plant, they will come

Bugs that is. They will come in droves to eat what ever you plant for you to eat. This week this fact is especially true of Japanese beetles. Oh my, they are having a field day eating my thornless blackberries and grape vines. So I had to get out the heavy artillery last evening and give them the old one, two punch. I sprayed with Liquid Sevin pesticide. I dont relish the idea of spraying anything but dang, we gotta eat too. I do always spray late evenings when bees are not active. So I solved the problem of Japanese beetles, hopefully for the remainder of the season.

I made myself a list of small task that I needed to get done yesterday and did manage to accomplish all of them. Amazing!! eh? But geez, little task can take all day when you let so many build up before you tackle one of em. I had lavendar that I had started from seed that needed to be put in the ground in the herb bed to live permanently. Got that done. Got the dill cut and in the freezer so it keeps fresh to make dill pickles later when the cukes come on. I have a shrub near the front porch sidewalk that was covering half the steps and sidewalk. Got it pruned back so you can walk by without getting your legs wet when it rains or in the early morning dew is hanging on.  I want to plant some fall cabbage also and finally got the soil in the peat pots and seeds in so now its cross my fingers and hope they come up and grow fast. Its hard to find fall cabbage and broccoli plants in our area. Most people just plant a garden in spring and once its gone they are done. I just happen to know the sweetest cabbage is grown in the cooler fall weather. After having Sasha to the vet for a minor skin infection she had to have a bath in medicated shampoo, so I got that done last evening as well. Jason had just mowed the yard and you know how fresh cut grass can cling and stain anything it comes in contact with. Well I didnt dry Sasha and just bathed her, rubbed her down and let her got. She too off running and would hit her belly and slide thru the grass clippings. Oh did she look awful when I put her back in her pen right before dark. Just glad she looks better today after she got dry and the loose grass fell off her coat.

Rodger got the field mowed yesterday around the garden and in the orchard, around the corn, pea and sunflower field. It looks so much better. Good thing the mowing got finished yesterday cause we got a pretty good little rain this afternoon. It didnt rain long but got things nice and wet. IF I can get my butt in gear in the morning and get the mulch put around the lavendar plants before the ground dries it will do them a lot of good. They do like water.

I didnt have too big a day planned today. Just catching up laundry, house cleaning, general every day stuff. Cook, clean, do laundry, dry, fold, repeat. Seems I have to drag out the vacuum every day now to clean up bird seed hulls out of the floor. I got 2 lil parakeets. My friend Jackie that I have known for many years has breeding pairs and had raised a few. I have had a few parakeets in my life so I do enjoy them. Jackie gave me a young one that she hatched (well her female bird hatched it) and another female that the others were being mean to. They hull their seeds out when they eat them and they when they flap their wings inside the cage all the hulls fly out in the floor. (self cleaning birds) So clean em up, repeat later in the day. But they are relaxing to watch. Me and my various birds.

A friend ask me the other day if I had any new pictures of the grandbabies. Well of course I do. So here you go Sissy. Enjoy the babies. Sissy dont get on facebook so she dont get to see the pics Amoy or Rob post of the kids. And yes I am a very proud grammy.

Love these 2 lil boys so very much. And their parents. Cant wait to see them this fall and steal hugs and kisses.

Not much else happening here on the homestead. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella

Some days just dont happen

Seems I have a lot of those days that I get nothing done. Not sure what I did to my back, again, but walking is a major problem right now. I didnt rest well last night, just could not get comfortable for my lower back and left hip and leg hurting so bad. I guess I have made the sciatic nerve mad at me again. It is really pissed this time too. Ugh!! And I got a list as long as your arm of things I need to get done in the next couple days.

We had to take Sasha back to the vet today to get her 3month booster shots and rabies vaccine. She is growing like a bad weed. She weighs 20 lb 2  ozs now, gained another 7 lbs since 3 weeks ago. And the vet said she has not hit her growth spurt yet. Oh my, she is gonna weigh more than me by time she is a year old at this rate. She is being treated also now for a minor skin infection, he said it was not mange, which is what I thought it might be. So we have to give her a bath in medicated shampoo and she has to take meds for a week and he said this should fix her right up. He also told us this is pretty normal for puppies her age. So as long as she is not miserable I will be a happy camper. She is a hyper little thing now too. It is getting harder to trick her into going in her pen for the evening. I wont let her run out yet but that is for her safety.

We went to the garden last evening to pick a few tomatoes, squash and so I could tie up the blackberry plants, again. My thornless blackberries are growing like crazy and putting up new shoots like nobodies business. I am trying really hard to keep them upright and trained to climb on the garden fence so they dont fall over and get whacked off by the weed eater. From all indication I should have an abundance of blackberries next season.

The garden is looking nice and we are starting to get a few things from it now. We have had enough tomatoes to eat with meals, I got several yellow squash and plan is to roast those tomorrow with some bell peppers and onions from the garden.

We drove thru the vineyard and seems to still be plenty of grapes on the vines. As of yet nothing is eating them. Crossing my fingers that they stay there long enough to ripen so we can make juice and wine. We drove thru the orchard just looking at the fruit trees and to see if just by some small chance some peaches might be right. And the peaches were ripe on one of the trees. It is not hard to tell I still left too many peaches on the tree when I fruit pruned them earlier this summer. They taste great but are not the largest things in the world. This is what happens when you go to the garden without taking a bucket.

 You end up with your shirt tail full of some kind of fruit or produce. But I will stretch a work shirt out of shape to enjoy a fresh off the tree peach. Tomorrow will get those peeled and frozen for later. Not really enough to worry about canning them. Think these might be nice in some homemade ice cream.

This is the first season we have actually had dill ready to use before the cukes are ready. So I need to cut and freeze the dill so we will have it available when we get started making dill pickles in a few weeks. Its all these lil jobs that can wear you out in short order around here.

So its off to bed with me and hope I can walk some tomorrow and get a few things knocked off my to-do list. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella

Rain makes corn, Corn makes whiskey...........

Well you know the song. Or not. We did get a nice rain here today. A much needed rain at that. Our garden was getting a little on the dry side. But it was still growing and looking good. Sweet corn is starting to tassel. I have lots of little green tomatoes. Potatoes we planted just a week or so ago are coming up. Hoping for a late crop to store in the cellar this fall. They should make taters before we get frost. I have lots of little green peppers on my bell pepper plants. Yep that makes me a happy camper.

We seemed to have some issues getting seeds to come up this year. That explains the missing spots in the rows. In the transplanted plants we have some missing due to deer getting them before we got the fence put up. They cant get it now. These photos were taken right after Rodger finished tilling Friday evening. Now with the nice rain we had today I can imagine it has all grown several inches. Or at least it seems too with every plowing and little shower of rain.

I went to the orchard while we were at the garden to see if the light spraying got rid of the Japanese beetles that were eating on the trees. It did kill them. AND we were checking the Hazelnut bushes and found these on them. They have a few nuts on them this year. I dont know squat about these bushes or their habits but sure didnt see them bloom like any other normal tree. But was excited to see a few nuts.
 
Today has been one lazy day around here. I think to the point where Rodger was getting really bored. I suggested several things for him to do while it rained but he declined all of my ideas. Ya know, clean out closets, sort socks and toss ones with holes. None of that sounded fun to him. So it didnt get done. No matter, I didnt do anything either.

So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella