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!

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.

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.

Hello again,

Well the South Texas heat has finally stopped the relentless assault on us and the rains have returned… we even had a few temps down in the 60′s , you can’t beat that!  So it’s been a busy few weeks around here, we have been horse sitting for a friend of my wife’s, we have moved cattle around to rotate pastures, and the garden work has picked back up.

After the Hornworm Incident last month, I had given up on the tomatoes, but there is one plant that still keeps chugging along.  So we shall see how that goes.  Mostly its been cleanup work, weeding , cutting back the dead stuff, you know how it goes.  We have also been filling up the compost piles, lots of goodies for that endeavor, old hay grass clippings and what not, so now we have two pretty big piles ready for next spring, if everything works as it should!

Now The Garden Plan!

Down here where we live we really don’t get winter. oh yea I hear ya , it gets cool, 40′ s maybe a freeze in January, but over all its more like a hard Fall season…I was stationed in Colorado in The Army, now it gets cold there!!  But that’s all the better for us , with the proper protection , you can garden dang near year round.   Most of your cool season crops just love the mild weather here from October until usually late December, even some root veggies and onions can stay in ground until spring, That is if the cold rainy days don’t get to crazy and it all rots.   So without further delay here’s what I’m planning for this fall season.

• Cabbage – some red and some green
• Carrots – can’t go wrong with carrots
• Onions and Garlic – Two more favorites around here
• Spinach and some Lettuce
• Broccoli – gonna try this again, I never have any luck with good broccoli

And whatever else I have a few extra seeds for , so stay tuned for the next installment now that things have cooled off a bit!

We finally got some good rain! For the last two weeks its been coming a shower here and a thunder boomer there, well we finally got a goos hour long soaker.

Looking out over the back pasture.

The rains have been mostly the summer afternoon 10 minute jobs,  but this one hung around for a while, about a month too late, everything but a few tomatoes and the watermelons have long since burned to a crisp.  Oh well fall garden coming soon!

Another view of the back.

Yep , it kept raining and raining and raining, I wasn’t sure if it was going to stop!  I guess I really didn’t want it to, it was so nice to see.  Not to mention we needed it, we got enough that the county lifted the burn ban!!  woo hoo!

View out the front of the house

So everything is getting greener and it’s actually a little cooler today, maybe its a trend!

We can only hope!

Wow , I can’t tell you how much rain we have had in the last two days! It started Friday afternoon , It came down for a couple hours and cleared off. Then Saturday it really came on strong. It was nice up till 10:30 or so, it started with a lite drizzle, and only got worse from there. It rained for hours and hours, then around 6:00pm it fizzled out. We need the rain , just not all at once!

On another note, the potatoes we set last week started to sprout up, also the cucumbers are peeking out too. So all in all not a bad week!

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