Farm Report... And Thank You...

Tipper at The Blind Pig And The Acorn picked cucumbers for our planting by the signs for 2011'

My first baby cucumber! It's only about an inch and a half and still has it's bloom navel on it. If you haven't found the baby yet it is laying on the leaf under the big leaf on the left, just below the yellow flower that is peeking out.

I know if you can't see it you can hardly claim it's there but I will get a better photo in a couple of days when the baby grows a bit and I read about how to focus in closer on something behind or next to something bigger.


I love these little tendrils that these plants put out to be able to climb towards the sun. They start out in these little spring like coils and then start unfurling and going in search of support to help them in their climb.

They look so very delicate, these little gossamer strands, but they are very strong. If they get attached to something you'd rather they not climb on they are a force to reckon with all on their own.

This is the 'good' day plant that is the largest. The other two 'good' day plants are putting on blossoms.



Like this...

These little plants love our sandy, loamy soil here. That and I've been pouring the water to them. With the 100 F. and higher daily temperatures we've been having if we hadn't watered I'd have no farm reports or flower tours or anything to share with you all... other than my aches and pains.

These three are the 'good' day plants. They are putting on blossoms like crazy and growing by leaps and bounds.

This photo is of the two 'bad' day plants. I'm going to have to quit calling them 'good' and 'bad' day plants because these two 'bad' day cucumbers have almost caught up with the 'good' day plants.

Once again, I need to read the book on how to focus in on what I'm trying to particularly show off. As you can see the leaf that is pointed at us is very clearly in focus... the blossoms are, shall we say, in soft focus... like I would like if some one takes a picture of me to soften the laugh lines and crepe y, turkey neck...


This is one of four okra plants that we bought, the only one of four that survived... It's probably a foot and a half tall and I've been watching for the okra blossoms because they are beautiful and I like to share the pictures with those who can't grow okra where they live or haven't ever seen it grow. This plant was sneaky though... because I found THIS:
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The blossoms only last for a day once they are opened and so the mother of this okra must have done her thing on one of the two rainy days we had that I didn't go out and check the plant.

This pod has got to be a good 6 inches long... It was growing up next to the stalk under the wide leaves on the top and flat snuck by my inspections.

I love surprises like this.

And I love the support you all have given me after my last post. I won't say that I was surprised because I feel like I know each of you and if it weren't for the distances between us I would be comfortable sitting down and having a glass of iced tea and visiting the afternoon away at your home or mine... I will say that I don't have the words to say how much you touched my heart. I hesitate to put my worries out there because we all have problems to deal with and I hate to think I put out my problems to add to your problems. But I must say that I do feel lighter for having written the post. I have always been willing to share my friends problems because I feel I can be unbiased, but I've always had a hard time sharing my problems because of my own insecurities. You know, people won't care about what's going with me... I'm just a listener, not a talker.

Just please, please, accept my most profound thank you for your support. You all will get me through Tuesday and the unknown and I can only say thank you, thank you, thank you. Your support will help me hold my head high and be prepared for the good, bad, or the ugly and report to you on Tuesday evening. Prayers for good results please.... And Thank you all for being you. My Friends. I cherish each and every one of you even if you made me cry... Thank You for being there for me. I feel I don't have to go through these things by myself now and it takes so much of the stress off me. For that... one final THANK YOU to each and every one of you. I hope that I can be the kind of friends to each of you that you have been to me.

You can reach me at Llachi3@aol.com. P.S. I did the link wrong somehow. I'll fix it tomorrow. I've already taken my night meds and am correcting almost as much as I'm writing. Night All.

Farm Report Time...

Once again this year Tipper over at The Blind Pig And The Acorn is having a gardening by the signs experiment. This year we are growing cucumbers.

This photo is of the good day cukes. Three of the five seeds I planted on the "good" day, May 16th, came up. Obviously the one on the right is the 'champeen' of this group so far. All the pictures in this post were taken on the 9th of June so this is about 3 weeks after they were planted.



These are the "bad" day cukes. They were planted on the barren sign of Sagittarius on the 18th of May, a couple of days after the "good" planting day.

As you can see only two of the five seeds sprouted and they are quite a bit smaller.

Of course, since it is difficult to tell size without some sort of reference, it is now time for the 'shoe' picture...




The 'bad' day cucumbers with my size 8/9 flip flop...
















The 'good' day cucumbers with my other flip flop.

Please ignore the grass creeping into the photo. I'm working on it. This ground is one of my pocket plant areas in the yard and had never been tilled for garden area so it will have to be closely watched through the growing season but that will give me something to do with my hands...

Pulling the grass.


Thanks again, Tipper, for doing your growing by the signs experiment. Besides being very interesting it is also therapeutic for me. You need to go check out what's going on over at The Blind Pig And The Acorn. Besides growing tips for the garden you can hear some great music and try out some really good recipes and reading some fun and interesting stories.

Y'all come back now, ya hear!

It’s A Jungle Out There…

A world of heros and villains, pesticides and matricides, guinea temptations and pupster massacres… but then the incredible beauty of growing something that is edible and beautiful.  The circle of life.

First the long overdue garden report that has been sorely neglected of late due to a certain someone… me… running  up and down the road but more about that later.

Walking out of the house the garden looks like a mini jungle. The okra, Rick, is over my head tall and like everything else, thanks  to all the rain we’ve received, is loaded with buds, flowers and okra pods ready to be picked, cooked and eaten.  

I had to throw these two photos in because I walk by them going to take the squash photos and their color just stopped me cold.  Any of you that have read me for any time at all know that, while I love my veggie garden, my true heart of hearts are my flowers.  These are in the south east corner of the big garden.  Had to have a spot of color, don’t ‘cha know…

Let’s talk squash.

We have had a battle royal with first with the Colorado potato beetles, then the squash bugs.  I say we but mostly my Cuz has been on the battlefront.  I put powered pesticide on the squash and potato plants and also the cabbage because the Colorado potato bug likes them all and they are voracious little buggers.  The next thing we knew we were beset by squash bugs.  Cuz was after them with clorox and water mixtue, spraying the bugs and the eggs on the underside of the leafs with that.  It slowed them down some but she ended up having to bring out the heavy artillery… liquid sevin. She is one mean mother when it comes to protecting the squash babies that she was growing.  When I came back yesterday she said she had gotten some squash and shared with one of her church friends.  Turns out the only squash plant survivors of the battle of the beetles were two of the good day squash and the larger of the bad day squash and they are still sitting on flowers and squash.  Yea!!!  for the g.d./b.d. squash.

I was watching “Chopped!” on the Food Channel this weekend and in one of the challenges of food to cook was squash blossoms.  I was so excited to see what the chefs would do with them because I had just learned this year that people often cook and eat them.  The show, while very interesting, didn’t inspire me enough to try to cook them but then nothing very often inspires me to cook… I just enjoy growing the different veggies and sharing photos in various stages of growth with you all.

The news from the bad part of the jungle… It’s kind of Quixotic that a hero can also be a villain.

Yep… the pupster Spud…  The same little guy that grabbed and killed a snake (though it was small it was still a snake to me) when I was working in the pen to make it secure enough for the guinea chicks broke into that same pen while I was out of town and wreaked havoc on the baby guineas…

The wire you see in this photo is now hot.  When I got back from Norman I saw Scott’s truck pulled up by the cage and I just figured that he was working on reinforcing some places that I had noticed before I left.  I had not yet heard of the massacre that occurred while I was gone.   I went in and made a comment about Scott working on the pen and Bro realized I hadn’t heard the story…  While the girls and I were gone, Cuz had let the Spud puppy out to go to the bathroom before bedtime.  When he hadn’t come back in his usual short time she went looking for him.  She found him red-handed or red-footed as it were… I guess without the girls to play with he was bored and had busted a hole in the chicken wire and played chase guineas with unfortunate murderous results.  When Scott and Merri arrived to help Cuz and to begin the reinforcing of the pen they did manage to find and round up two of the original 16 guineas.  We are now on the lookout for other escapees of the tragedy.  Bro met up with the breeder and brought ten more guineas back to the house.  Merri was hot wiring the pen when I got here and after she was finished she came in to tell Cuz that she could let the chicklets out of their respective small pens into the now multi-fortified and hot-wired big pen.

So these will be the closest watched babies until such time as they are big enough to be turned out to run with the other “survivors” that I have posted about previously.  And on that subject another grown guinea has turned up making the rounds with the Cuz’s grown guineas.

The guinea closer to the middle is the new one… it is more brownish colored than the Survivors but is full grown and now enjoying making the rounds of the grounds with the Survivors. No one knows where it came from but Merri said she had seen it up by the silos before but it is now making the rounds around the place helping to eat the bugs before they eat us.

So the circle of life goes on… the good and the bad, the kind and the cruel circles of life.  All go towards making this world that we live in such a strange and wonderful place…

Oh, and yes, the hot wire does work… I found that out today when I went to check out the babies and forgot about the wire and brushed my bare leg on it.  I’m sure it will prove to be an excellent deterrent.

Farm Report… And Bad Hair Day

Yep… I promised the next bad hair I’d show you would be mine and it will but first things first.  Tipper, feel free to use any of these garden photos you’d like on Blind Pig And The Acorn.

This photo was taken on the 28th of June,  the good day squash is on the left and the bad day squash is on the right.  Just to the right of the bad day squash is okra and black eyed peas planted alternately.  The squash is still getting good sun because it gets from mid-day to late afternoon west sun so I don’t worry about it being in too much shade for good growth.

Look at all the squash starting to come on…  this is a good day plant.

Another good day squash plant.  Spud helps me out by checking for mice, gophers and snakes… This is the littlest bad day squash.  It’s hanging in there and it is very healthy, but it is probably a tenth of the size of the good day squash.

This is the other bad day squash.  It’s about half the size of the good day squash and it is setting on a bunch of baby squash.  Four out of five of the good day seeds made and only two of the bad day seeds survived from planting day until now.

Now today’s photos…

Good day on the left, bad day on the right.  The biggest bad day is about 2/3rds the size now of the bad day.

Taken from the other direction the bigger bad day squash is hanging in and producing and has filled out enough to be almost indistinguishable from the good day squash on the right and the okra and black eyed peas plants.

The littlest bad day squash is now producing but is still so small compared even to it’s companion bad day squash but it should be noted that it is a testament to the strength of it’s seed that it has survived and is now producing squash.

There’s squash!  This is the bigger of the bad day squash, the flowers are now going on to baby squash.  Another 3 or 4 days and they will be ready to go into the salad or to bake in a squash casserole or fry up in the skillet with sliced up new potatoes and onions… mmmmm, I’m almost drooling just thinking about these choices.

Good day buds…

Huge amount of babies and another testament again to the organic seeds that were donated for this experiment.

I could go on and on about the fun I’m having with the squash but I did promise bad hair.  I need to set up the scenario first, though.

The front garden from the driveway in front of the house.  Looks kind of like a jungle out there…

Okra!  And some squash and flowers on the right and behind them are the tomato vines that were featured last week. We’ve had a terrible fight with squash bugs and the squash plant there in front that is yellow is succumbing to their onslaught.  The good day/bad day squash have been able, with a little help from us, to fight off the squash bugs and remain healthy.  Very impressive since we lost two other plants besides this one.

Here ya go, folks… My bad hair day.  I was in a lot of hurt today with the storm front coming in and spent most of the day in bed sleeping because I don’t hurt when I take my drugs and sleep.  I had gotten up about ten minutes before this photo was taken and hadn’t even brushed my hair… just came out to take photos before the rain came.

My Cuz came out to do some weeding and I asked her to take photos of me in the okra so Rick could see that, yes, the good Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise, there will be a big crop of okra.  Lucky and Spud help me give you a size reference.

I really don’t have enough hair with my summer cut to look really bad, but a promise is a promise and this is the worst my hair has looked in a while.  I usually at least run a brush through it when I get up but I didn’t even do that because I wanted to get photos for my farm report before it rained.

Okay, okay… that wasn’t really fair since you can’t really see my hair. I guess if I can show y’all my butt I can show you my bad hair day so I snapped these on my web cam on my computer.

WARNING!!!  Put down any food or drink to avoid having to clean off your computer screen.  You may also want to have eye drops handy to help take the pain out of your eyes…

No, that isn’t a halo behind my head… just the sheen from the overhead light in the bedroom.  This shot and the following have not been edited…  You have been officially warned.

 

and even I cant believe that I shared with you all this glory…

Wouldn’t you just love to wake up looking this awesome!!!

I Did Not Fly Away Today…

Although there were tornados all around the area where I’m living, we were all fine.  We had some pretty heavy rain for a bit which means I didn’t have to water either of the gardens. 

Speaking of gardens, would you like a tour?

What first caught my attention after I got back from going to the “doc in the box” was the mommas and babies wandering up by the fence in the back yard.  I had to go get the camera and see if I could get some pictures to share.

Calf 2911 was the most curious about what that white-legged one eyed tall thing was… I liked her hair do. I really like that the mommas and babies are so close to the house.  When the little ones start playing it is very entertaining.

It was getting on toward supper time and several babies were nursing…

Those mamas are very patient I think.  If I had one attached to me that butted my poor little girls as hard as these bump their mamas I would probably be biting the little grubber in the bohiney.

This little shy girl was looking for mama.  All of the cattle are Limousin.   They are low fat producers, a very lean breed, but are also known for being very protective so unless absolutely necessary we keep a fence or a vehicle between us and them…

Meanwhile, to the gardens we go.

This is the backyard garden.  So far there is broccoli, cabbage, spinach, 3 squash plants that were given to me already growing in their pots, some onion and at the far end, red potatoes.

     This is our first almost ready broccoli… about the size of a soft ball.

You all know me… I have to have something for size comparison.  That bare foot wears an 8 1/2  shoe…. when I put shoes on.  This is cabbage (in the center).  Crooked neck squash to the right and spinach to the left of the cabbage.

The beginnings of the front yard garden.  There is about 4 times the space of the back yard garden.  We have planted 12 tomato plants you see here.

To the left of the tomato cages are the second batch of new potatoes that I planted about a month after the new potatoes in the back garden.  We all love new potatoes and I thought perhaps I could extend the growing season…  Far left along the fence are iris. next are onions, next is more cabbage (these are red) and broccoli then garlic and finally more of the new potatoes. Coming towards us from the cabbage are three rows of onion that were planted about 3 weeks after the row on the left.

You know that besides my foot for size I have to show the red dirt.  This was after the storms blew through and the wind picked up the dust and the rain settled it on these huge leaves.

Another red dirt on cabbage photo.

This is the bloom stem of an onion that has been out there for a year or two.  I would have taken more of this but it was starting to sprinkle again.  Gotta think of the camera, you know, because we all know I don’t melt.

Yes, my cousin Carol and I both used this thing.  Her son, Scott, my wonderful second cousin tilled both gardens up real well for us and we use this between rows to turn up weeds and grass… and,in my case, to try to trim up some. I like cookies too much.

These are part of the things that have kept me away from blogging… well, no not really… I have to keep this part of my life real.  I have been having to deal with bad depression… Several things hitting at once.  Moving out of the relationship and home that I had with Carol for over 22 years this last stretch, the anniversary of the OKC bombing that hit me so close to home that I haven’t yet gone to see the Memorial, the anniversary of my mother’s death 16 years ago that still cuts like a knife, my sister’s husband of 48 years is dying of cancer and just went on hospice last Thursday so we are expecting a call any day now.  Sis is dealing with it a whole lot better than I am for worrying about her and realizing that at age 65 I have no control over any facet  of   my life. Hallie and John losing their oldest son to suicide and Connor, his younger brother losing his sib that he looked up to so much and that brought up my memories from when my oldest sister  died very suddenly of a brain hemorrhage when I was almost 13…

And to add  the kicker, I have managed to stress myself  flat into a case of shingles. Around from my mid-section to my back and that sucks big time. I’ve never had them before but knew folks who did and wondered how grown folks could piss and moan about how painful they were.  There’s even the folk or old wives tale, whichever you prefer that if shingles go all the way around your body they kill you.  Missy, who has had shingles, and I decided today that it wasn’t really the shingles that killed you… you just would hurt so much that you wanted to die…

Got to have good news to wipe out the bad… I received my summer squash crookneck seeds from Tipper over at The Blind Pig and The Acorn and we are going to do the good planting day vs. the bad planting day.  Yep, another experiment about planting with the signs.  Aren’t you excited!  I know I am.  My conscience won’t let me get by without reporting about how the squash is doing so that gets me off games on Face Crack Book as Kim calls it and back to where I belong…  With all of you.  And I am going to make it back.  Depression bores the crap out of me.  About 2 or 3 weeks is about all I can stand of being morose and studying what I can find of my belly button so I’ll grab the bootstraps, get them on and get outside to the garden where the sunshine and growing things bring me back to the reality of how much I have missed by just laying around and studying my navel…

For those of you that have stuck around, you have my deepest appreciation.  I love you all and I apologize for dropping of the blogging world for as long as I have. I promise to try not to ever let it happen again.