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!!!

Have A Tomato…

I was out taking photos of the garden for the good day/bad day squash report and was blown away by how much the tomato plants have grown with the last week of H.O.T. weather and lots of sunshine.  I figured if it was astounding to me you all might enjoy seeing the pictures that I took as well as the pictures my cousin took of me and the tomato plants.  So without further ado and little more comment than to say we planted 15 tomato plants of different varieties, here are the photos for your enjoyment…

Now for the photos my cousin took because you know how I enjoy giving you something to compare size-wise…

 

I used to be 5’9” tall.  When I had a bone study done a couple of years ago the nurse said I was 5’7'” so I figure that I’m still 5’7” because it took me 50 years to drop 2” and it’s only been a couple or three years since I was last measured.  That will give you an idea about these plants.

And yes, I am standing up and my arm is resting on one of my cousin’s home-made tomato cages.  You know it’s me because of the double chins… I think I’ll not tell anyone else how to use the zoom on this camera.

So while you may be envious of all these plants I look at them and know I’m gonna have to eat a bunch of bacon and tomato sandwiches and give a bunch of tomatoes away.  As we start getting ripe tomatoes I will crawl down and find the names of each of the plants and record them with photos for ‘posterity’ and share with you all my findings.

I Promised Mimosa And A Bad Hair Photo…

Not of me, of course, I never have a bad hair day since I started cutting it way short and falling into the bleach bottle.  I don’t much like my mousey brown hair… Makes me feel like a plain, OLD, Helen and I am fighting that feeling tooth and nail.

 

Mimosaaas are GORGEOUS…  I love the flowers and I especially love them when the tree grows out in the back forty because while being very beautiful when in bloom the nasty messiness come after the blooms but I’ll address that in a bit.  For now let’s enjoy the beauty part…

The blooms are so light and airy looking and they do have a sweet but light scent to them.

The small green bundles of b-b sized balls are the flowers to come yet so the trees are just getting into the full flowering phase.

This is an older mimosa that greets people as they drive up the drive.  Normally, at least in Oklahoma, 20-30 years is way old for mimosas because they are a more brittle tree and tend to break in our higher storm winds.  Plus a lot of folks think they are a nuisance tree and take them out if they are too close to the house or where they park their cars or trucks.  This tree is a venerable elder around in these parts.

Another photo from a different angle.  You can see how the trunk is bent towards the drive… That whole large limb was broken in a storm and was cut off but the wound healed and the tree hung in there and has continues to share it’s beauty each spring.

This tree is on the backside of the house.  I took this photo just to show how tall they can get when they survive the storms without getting broken.  The house as you can see from the previous photo is just a single story home with a normally pitched roof so that gives you a sight reference and we all know how I like to give you something to compare size-wise.  Part of the tree’s umbrella of branches that shade the back deck and side of the house.

I like the texture on the bark of the tree also.  This one is the one in the back of the house.  It is younger than the one along the drive and the bark is much smoother with the lighter spots all through it.

Now about the bad hair…

This is the little jenny that is in the pasture with the cows.  They are very good at protecting the cows and calves and will fight off and even kill coyotes and the occasional cougar that gets a yen for beef.  Yes we do have cougars in Oklahoma but they are smaller than the mountain lions that you generally see on the National Geographic Channel or in the movies. 

She is very sweet but also shy because she hasn’t been handled much.  So naturally I’ve been trying to make friends with her.

Here’s where the bad hair comes into the story.  Her hair looks like it’s been fried on the ends.  Every time I’m able to scratch her head and ears I want to get some really good conditioner and put on it.  Feel free to copy this photo and print it for when you think you are having a bad hair day.

  But it doesn’t seem to bother this little guy what her hair looks like.  He still tries to make whoopee whenever she doesn’t give him a good swift kick.  Although he is shorter than she is he still gives it the good old college try and we are hoping in about 10 months there will be a little one for me to photograph.

I think that just about covers everything for this post…  oh, wait. The messy part of  mimosas…

I’ll start small…

One of the chairs on the back deck…

More and more mess.

This deck was all swept and cleaned up three days before I took these photos…  but I much prefer to leave you with the ahhh in mimosahhhs so here is my favorite photo that I’ve taken with this batch of shots…

Have a great week, y’all.  I’ll be posting another farm report on the good day/bad day squash and other garden news  in the next day or two.

I Know, I Know…

I’m late on my good day/bad day squash report.  I went out of town last Friday and didn’t get back until yesterday evening.  Bro asked me to dig up a mess of potatoes so he could cook up green beans and potatoes to take to the church tomorrow because a friend of my cousin had passed away and the funeral will be tomorrow… so I got out this morning and headed out with my camera.

The first stop was to the former playhouse where we keep the garden tools.  I opened the door and I was immediately hit behind my ear by a wasp, a yellow jacket.  It still is feeling like someone hit me with a needle full of cayenne pepper but I got the wasp spray and got my revenge and because I needed to get potatoes and take photos I grabbed my cultivator and got down to business.

First off, the potatoes…

You know me… I have to give you something for a size comparison so after I washed some of the dirt off they were ready for their photo op.  My Crocs are about the equivalent of a women’s size nine shoe.

  This shot I wanted to put in to show you how beautifully thin skinned these red potatoes are and all that was done was a light wash to get the dirt off.  Makes my mouth water just looking at these.

Now to the good day/bad day squash…

Good day squash is on the left and bad day squash is on the right.

From north looking to south now so you can see the littlest bad day squash and the bigger bad day squash on the left and the good day on the right.

This is the littlest bad day squash.  It’s hanging in there but it is way smaller than all the rest but I must tell you that even though it is tiny the leaves are looking healthy.

This is the bigger of the bad day squash.  You can see a couple of photos back how much bigger the good day squash is now.

Here is the first bloom on the good day squash.  The leaves are huge and the plants, the four good day squash that came up, are so healthy looking.  The broken stem there on the right was done when the storms came rolling through Monday night. 

Just a few more general garden shots now…

  The two rows in the middle, the left one is alternating okra and black eyed peas.  The right one is okra.  To the right of them are some squash and zucchini that were plants already when we planted them.  We’ve gotten several messes of yellow squash and while the zuchs were planted later and we haven’t gotten any off them yet there are a bunch of blooms and young zuchs going now.

We are going to be begging people to take tomatoes if they keep on like they are going.  We planted 15 plants of several varieties and the plants are full and big, almost growing together, and they have a bunch of blooms on them.

Here’s another shot where I tried to just shoot looking down between the rows.

Another view of the tomato jungle looking from north to the south.

This is the backyard garden. The plants in front are the broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower that are all on their way out.

Here is one of the cabbage that is still growing.  You kind of get the idea of size with Spud, the Jack Russell, standing there checking for mice.

This is the potato bed that I raided for potatoes earlier.  We also planted potatoes in the bigger front garden but we planted them about three weeks after we put these in and so these are the plants we’ve been raiding for the past week or two.

And to wind up this post I have to put in a picture of the yellow daylily that you can see at the back of the above photo.  It is one of the daylillies that I transported from the garden in Noble and I’m so glad to see them starting to bloom.

This is one of my favorites.  I love the clear buttery yellow and this daylily is just that… no golden yellow hues to it, just the very clean clear yellow.

This concludes the second good day/bad day squash report.  I’ll try not to be so long for the next post.  I had to put off the mimosa blooms and the bad hair post because I needed to show the good day/bad day squash report so I will try to get it posted in the next couple of days.

By the way, does anyone have a good home fix for wasp stings?  I still have this awful pain in my head…