First off , let me apologize for the lack of posts, it’s been a wild run the last few months. I changed jobs back in October, and the everlasting drought made it difficult to have anything to write about…or time to write it.   I hope that will change soon!

But with that said let’s get to it shall we?!

Compost Fuel

The guys at the courthouse were kind enough to let me take about 20 bags of leaves that they raked up, I jumped on the chance to bring them home for compost, and to work a bunch into the soil right now, that will give them time to break down and give a much needed shot of organic material back into the soil.

There were about 20 bags total , I shared with some other fella that wanted some!

I need to get the compost pile rolling again, It’s just a matter of some time to get it all together!

The Poor Cucumber Patch!

I have really let things get away from me in the cucumber patch, but like everything else, when I get a weekend free , It will look better.  This one isn’t so bad , just overgrown.

All my trellis’s are still in place it just needs some TLC!

Look at the overgrown mess!

This is the before Pic!

Oh well, can’t wait for the Spring time greenness !

And finally, the rain! We have been lucky the last few months, rain has come back in a big way!

Just last week we got around three to five inches , depending on whose rain gauge you believe.

We have so much rain lately our pond is almost full again!!!

Damn Near Full!

Back Pasture that mighty wet!

Well there you have it, Thanks for sticking around, If you’re still there that is!  Hope to see you as the weather gets better, should be a good year!

That’s what I said, then I started reading and whammo, this sounds interesting.  I’ve heard of the layering of sawdust and wood chips as a mulch, breaks down , feeds the soil, you know the drill, but this is burying whole logs and large branches. This goes against everything I have ever heard about composting, small even pieces… what happened to that?

I am intrigued my friends, I’m going to read some more on this and I will get back to you, I mean really, all I have to do right now is read, the fall garden is pretty well a no-go unless some serious rain comes soon, so I guess we shall see, but i’m not going to get my hopes up!

Anyway, check these links out, they have some basic info, when I find more I will let you know, and sorry for the dry spell …lol!

Treehugger.com

Hubpages

We have not seen any real rain in I don’t know how many months, A check of the NOAA web site says were are in exceptional drought territory and not looking good for precip until possibly next year sometime!  Whats a farmer to do?

Well this one is gonna hunker down and wait for it! , It will rain again I have no doubt, Its just when and how much patience do you have?  I have alot!

Just a Visual reminder .

This is circa 2007 , nice and green

Same pasture maybe 2008

Now fast forward to 2011 and take a look at the same pasture, brown , dry and brittle.  I’m afraid that the cows just walking across it will cause a spark and set the whole county ablaze!!

Look at this moon scape!

Same pasture, different angle! Not any better.

So there you have it, that’s why we are waiting for the rains to come back for a fall garden!

A good little storm came thru yesterday, I think we got an inch or so, Now for about 15 more… not in the same day, jus sayin!

Look at that, sweet rain is coming!

And after, we had a little pond out front, the ducks loved it!

Don't worry, its only an inch deep!

The sunflowers loved it too!

The forecast says maybe some more rain until Friday, let’s hope!

The heat and lack of water finally got us, I can’t afford to irrigate and It isn’t helping all that much anyway!

The Spring garden is about done, we have a few cukes left, some watermelons vines and a few sunflowers still kicking but the rest is bone dry!

We did put up a good fight , we got alot of tomatoes , peppers, squash and onions.  The cucumbers didn’t do as well as I hoped, although we did get a couple batches of pickles! So for now mother nature , you win.

This sunflower isn't facing the sun, what the heck?

Bug Update

I found a large grasshopper in the tomatoes, it was black with racing stripes, red and yellow. I thought it was pretty cool looking.  Then I found this one later , it was larger and a whole different color. After a google search I found out this was a lubber grasshopper, they travel in packs and are darn near indestructable.

The adult version!

My knife for scale

If you want to read more see what Wikipedia has to say.

So for now, Im waiting to get the fall garden going, and doin the big rain dance!!

Later

Well it’s mid June and still no rain, the heat around here is breaking records and the tomatoes and squash are still going gangbusters, so is my water bill!

Just a little photo update until it slows down a little around here!

The Veggies

The squash is going pretty strong, it’s a yellow straight neck variety and it is good, also have some green zucchini mixed in there too.

Yellow straight neck squash

More Squash

Onion Seeds

I cut all the seed heads off the onions that bloomed, looks like a lot of onions next year!

Drying the Onion Seed Heads

Cucumbers

After a rocky start with the chickens, the cukes are really growing well, they are moving up the trellises as planned. we still have to keep the chickens out, they don’t stop!

This is the slicing variety Marketmore 76

The pickling cukes, forget the variety.

The Cukes climbing the trellis.

New Additions To The Farm

We had a few new additions to the farm last week, one was a new Jersey Heifer named Roxi and four new chicks hatched this week as well.

The newest addition

The proud mama

The new chixs

So there you have it, been real busy around this joint for the last few weeks!

Stay tuned for more.

Even with the dry conditions, the veggies keep growing. They don’t grow as fast or as big as we would like , but they still grow.

We did get a little rain this last week, but we are way behind so everything is behind the cure. We had a major water bill last month just to keep this stuff going.

The Beets

The beet looked real good, got some nice ones out of this bunch, take a look.

I think this bunch is going to be pickled, along with some of the onions we picked this week.

Peppers And Onions

The onions all started to fall over last week, so I started pulling, well Cathy and I started pulling, we got a few nice ones but most are a little bigger than spring onion size. Still good though.

The peppers are looking good, they love the heat, they almost grow like weeds!

Carrots

The carrots also stayed a little on the small side, most of the looked ok though. we made up for the lack of size by shear numbers!

That’s what we had going on this week, I’m also working on the Whizbang Chicken Plucker, check the story out on the other blog bearded-h.com .

As always, thanks for stopping by!

We haven’t seen any good rain around here in quite a while and the veggies are showing it. I got my water bill for last month, $100 just to keep everything alive. I hope we get some rain soon!!

Anyway enough cry babying , With the drought still on we do have some stuff coming in, although not as much as we would like.

Green Beans

The green beans are doing good, not gangbusters but good enough. We picked two gallon sized buckets full last week, gave some to my dad and cooked some up for supper one night, we also froze a couple bags for later.  Like I said there are enough for us for now, it would work better with rain though!

Bucket of Green Beans

Yellow Zucchini

The squash vines are starting to show some signs of life, they have been slow to get a good start. There are getting to be a foot or two tall and making fruit, so far just the yellow zucchini, that’s ok though, the green zucchini and the crook neck squash are starting to poke thru. Patience is what we need, along with alot of rain!  My other question is , why do the weeds do so well in these condition ! hehehe

Yellow Zucchini

Cucumbers

The cucumbers took a hit at the beginning when the chickens scratched them up, but with some fencing and stakes , that’s not a problem now!  the cukes are a little slow right now too, all we can do is keep the water going and hope for the best. I did see a ray of hope the other day though!

One lone cuke

Well I hope the weather is better in your neck of the woods!

Til next time, garden away!

Corn Planting

After last week visiting Cathy’s family in San Angelo, we had to bring it on home to plant some corn!

We seeded two varieties , some yellow flint and Funk’s G90 both Available at New Waverly Feed and Farm supply, ask for Kim, she’s the boss!  Anyway we got the trusty seeder and the tiller out and got to planting.  Its only been a week and a few are starting to come up , but the lack of water may be slowing it down. We haven’t had any rain in a while, so it’s irrigation time…hello water bill!

As they come up , you’ll be the first to read about it ! Stay Tuned!

Other Seedlings in the News!

I posted a while back about the seedlings we started, here is the update on those very same plants. they are going gangbusters, I’m gonna try to get them in the ground this week, since them temps seem to be staying warm enough. Take a look at the tomatoes!

Ok that last pic is Shallots and Elephant Garlic that I have in a container as a little experiment.

The tomatoes are mostly Roma and San Martzano paste style along with some Bradleys and some yellow variety that I have forgotten the name of.  Also a few different types of Asian chiles for some Kick!

As for the rest of the Garden, it’s coming along, the onions, garlic and peas are  right on track, Keeping up with the weeding is a bear, you know the drill… never enough time to do all that needs to be done.

Well it’s official, the Spring 2011 season has started around here. After the coldest February I can remember we are starting this week with lows in the 40′s and afternoon highs in the low 70′s.  Needless to say the bus has struck around here, and we have started off with a bang!

Of Onions and Tilling!

The first thing I did last Saturday, besides a brake job on my wife’s car, was a little tractor maintenance, I did the 250 Hrs service on the Kubota L5740 changed the oil, lube job etc. After that was done it was off to the tilling, you gotta love a PTO driven tiller, I don’t know how we made it  without one.  Anyhow I started out tilling three rows wide which gave us enough for three rows of red and white onions, a ling row of garlic and a half a row of carrots,  Im trying the seed tape style, they look promising.

Large Garden Area

Here is the garden area I was working on, I’ll have to get out and measure it one day.  This was home to the Okra and Purple Hull Peas last year, so good rotation is a must,  gonna work alot of root crops in this area along with some tomatoes and peppers.  Anyway That will all come later!

the Tillage Begins

As you can see that tiller does wonders, that’s just four passes and already a loose, workable planting bed.  So after that we planted the above mentioned onions and garlic and carrots and everything looks good for the start! Now we just need to have this good weather last a while and things wil be well on the way to a great season!

Cold Frame from Scrap Lumber!

We started a bunch of seeds back two weeks ago and now we have a few sprouting, Since the temps have been so crazy around here I have started all the seeds indoors for now, but soon they will be needing more sun than a couple florescent light can provide!

The answer, a cold frame made from scrap wood and an old sliding shower door, that’s right you heard it and old sliding shower door!  Here , let me demonstrate…

Homemade coldframe

Here look inside and see what I’ve done, it’s just some 1/4 inch plywood nailed together to form a rectangular box with the shower door laid on top.  This isn’t going to be a permanent fixture for us, just enough to keep the cool nights not as cool and get my poor seedling the daylight they need!

Coldframe Interior

On the inside I have a few concrete blocks to soak up some solar energy and also for some shelving. So this took me about thirty minutes to hammer together and it should serve its purpose well enough to give the seedlings a boost, and If another ugly freeze heads back, I’ll bring ‘em all back in!

Well there you have it , the season has started , we look forward to a productive spring, and hope you have one too!