August already

August Already

It's hard to believe it's August 8th.

 

Tomatoes of 2020

I picked the first of the Heirlooms, a "Mortgage Lifter" tomato yesterday. It was huge, many more to come.  The tomato plants so far outgrew their cages by more than four feet this year they all fell over, didn't seem to hurt them any just harder to see the fruits.

We picked a few of our first 's of 2020 last week, a black cherry we picked up at Tanglewood Gardens greenhouse in Bedford, NH they grow 10-20 different Heirloom tomato varieties, this same tomato variety last year was super sweet.  

Black Cherry Tomatoes

 

Big Toads 

Along with more bees Honey, Bumble and Yellow-jacket than we've seen in years, this Big Ol' Toad as well as numerous leopard frogs are hopping all over the farm that need to be watched for when mowing the lawn...

 

Blackberries 

The thorn-less blackberry bushes Jarrod got me a few years back have started yielding crazy big berried, some of the berries are the size of strawberries.  A couple of cups of the berries so far, I'll keep adding to the bag in the freezer every couple days we need 4-6 cups to make a Blackberry Cobbler.  If I can keep the deer away these bushes grow canes that are 12'+ feet long in a year.

No we didn't grow corn this year

We did get the first local corn of the year, we picked up a dozen ears at Devriendt Farm Stand in Goffstown Saturday, shucked them, ate a couple, and froze 8 or so ears.  We'll probably do that several times before the season is gone. 

Pickle Cukes 

These are burp-less to boot.  I think other than our Swiss Chard this Burp-less Cucumber is the top producer so far in the garden.

More Garden Updates

We've decided to expand the garden again next year, probably till the expansion up this fall adding another 10' wide by 50' strip along the side.  The Summer Squashes, and Broccoli are winding down, garden clean-up begins. We ate a summer squash earlier this week and it had a distinctive fresh corn flavor, not sure how that happened, but yum!  Wax beans are coming in, pole beans are flowering like crazy just no beans yet.  Potatoes appear ready to dig, Collards and Chard are still producing, I'll pick some this week to see how big they are.  Winter squashes, Acorn, Blue Hubbard, and Buttercup are producing like weeds, the vines are up, over, and out of the fenced garden with some large squask hanging on the fence itself, there's at least one basketball size Blue Hubbard we're keeping an eye on.

Blue Hubbard

The Obligatory Deer Pics

Covid-19 seems to be getting worse in many cities in the US. here not so much we'll remain secluded just the same.  Restaurants are opening up around here which still seems a bit weird, we occasionally get take-out wearing masks at the local sub shop or Chinese place.

Tropical Storm Isaias was a complete bust here, I think it rained maybe an hour and we had some 30+ mph gusts. Still way too dry here, I think the dust bowl is making a come back.

Stay Safe Out There!

The End of July

The End of July

I hope you're all staying healthy, This Covid-19 thing... we're still staying in for the most part except for the occasional foray to Home depot, food shopping, and occasional take out pickup.   Restaurants are opening here, little league has started there were 3 fields in use when we drove through Goffstown during the week. 

I think we're still having problems with this new Blogger that Google came out with nobody is getting notified of the new Blog posts. ;-(

It's been too hot to do a lot around here, Rose is working on the camper.  I would like to get the boat out on the water, but I'm not looking to go out there in 90+ degree heat though. 

Probably going to the shooting range this weekend, I have some work to do on a Ruger 10/22 rifle and Rose would like to shoot her pistol some more.  Ammunition is in short supply I'm hearing.

The flower gardens are enjoying the heat, I'm still waiting for the first tomato of the year from the Victory garden, we've got to tie up the Tomatoes, a couple of them fell over they have outgrown their four foot cages and the weight did the rest. Rose saw a cherry tomato starting to go red, soon, soon...  Tomato Sandwiches, Yum!

The 5 pointer

The Doe and her Fawns

Stay Safe!

Pickles in July 2020

Pickles in July 2020

Rose put up more pickles on Saturday. The Claussen style pickle recipe that we found is a winner.  I was in the mood to mow yesterday so I mowed the lawn, then fired up the DR Field & Brush mower and finished a section of the field, more poison Ivy out there than in previous years, we'll do some more targeted spraying of the stuff in the fall.

Victory Garden update
Had to spray the squashes and broccoli the squash borers and other bugs were having a field day.   No tomatoes yet, I think we're several weeks away still.  Jarrod's garden is doing well, he's picked some tomatoes already, they have a bunch of lettuces going too.  We'll see how the Zukes and summers do those borers have curtailed production.  The winter squash are still going crazy and have left the confines of the garden fences.  We did finally get some rains over the past week or so so we're not as worried about the well.

The Deer are finally bringing the fawns by for a visit. 

 

The Bucks

The Garden and the Critters - July 2020

The Garden and the Critters

We had three Fawns playing in the yard last night just before dark.

A huge owl flew in and was sitting on a bird house roof last night just as it got dark, I could barely make out it's form it was so dark out.

Garden is coming in good we had a few peppers last night with a nice marinated steak, I picked the Broccoli yesterday had a bunch for dinner, there's more in the fridge.

Squash borers are causing havoc with the summer zucchini and blue hubbard. I'll have to get some spray out.  We'll spray the plants next year earlier.

Rose has Collards, picked, blanched and in the freezer, Rose is going to try them with Apple juice, it's supposed to remove some of the bitterness.  Rose harvested Swiss chard and froze them up for soups.  It's too hot to be thinking about canning in the house right now. I do have the outside burner we'll pull out once we're ready to begin canning.

Cucumbers, are going gangbusters, our first batch of Claussen type refrigerator pickles was started, we'll should have results in 3-4 days, 2 days in looking good so far, waiting, waiting...

We're going to start dehydrating produce as it comes in to reduce the amount we're having to put in the freezer or can.

We thought we'd won with the woodchucks... Nope...

The Fawns were out for a romp, this is one set of twins. I grabbed the camera but missed most of the fun them frolicking up and down the deer yard.

A couple of the does grabbing a bite to eat

The Bucks stop here

The Bucks stop here

Went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, the dogs ran to the back door looking to go out for their morning run.  Looked out quick before I turned the door handle, we have to look quickly out in the deer yard, Hannah will bark at the deer if there are any out there, Zeb on the other hand will sit on the hill and just watch them. We always look quick before we allow them out to ensure no one is out, if there are deer out we hold the dogs in for a while, the deer are generally not in the yard for more than 10 minutes or so in the morning.

This morning there were two bucks out in the deer yard, looks like a 4 and a 5 pointer.   I ran to grab the camera and caught these two bucks grabbing a bite off the deer block and licking the salt lick.  I don't remember ever seeing bucks out in the yard other than the deer cams catching a pic every now and then.  This makes 3 bucks in a couple weeks we've seen.

Sharing the deer block

 

 

 

Early season sharing the block

Meandering off.

Licking the salt block

 

Garden Progress

 Garden Progress - July 2020

It's finally the weekend!  Hope you and yours are well.

We're doing well, trying to stay mostly isolated, going out to go food shopping or get gas for the genny, and lawn mower.

The garden's going gangbusters, still. 

Broccoli heads are coming along, the Kale not so much, we have cukes now, Rose picked a bunch yesterday, tomatoes are slow growing, Peppers we'll probably pick the first ones today. Swiss chard and collards are growing we'll pick more today too. Summer squash are just hitting 6" or so we'll have to pick a few for dinner. The other winter squash Acorn, Butternuts, and Blue Hubbard have completely taken over the far end of the garden. Many of the spacious isles are now barely passable.  No beans or peas yet they are all still behind.


The Raspberries have passed, never had the time or inclination to go picking this year, the Blackberries should start to ripen in a couple weeks. The local Blueberry place is selling pints for $5 each, ours should be ripe later next week.

Deer are still coming in every afternoon in shifts, the first at 3pm and then another before dark.  Looks like we have 3 fawns this year, that we have seen anyway.  We had a 4 point buck coming in for 3-4 days but we haven't seen him lately.

More to come!

Stay Safe!

Does with Fawns today

Does with Fawns today

Rose saw a bunch of deer run through this morning, a Doe, a yearling spike, and two small fawns.  Something was chasing them we assumed, too fast to grab as camera.  Though we have not seen the Bobcat in a few days or the annual Bear the comes through...

Then this fawn comes running out from the cove this afternoon all by itself

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day

 Hope you have a Great Independence Day!

Our Victory garden is growing like the proverbial weeds.  Maybe not quite that fast, seems every day there's another crop of fresh weeds coming up everywhere.

Every day it's amazing to see the growth, Potatoes, Collards, are doing well, our tomatoes are setting, we have a few 3" Peppers, the summer squash have flowered and are setting squash now, the Blue Hubbard vines are already massive.

Times a wasting I gotta go and pull some more weeds...

Some garden pics...

 The Victory Garden 2020

Swiss Chard who'd a thought I'd like it?

Bell Peppers are doing well

Summer Squash setting

Cuke plants Jarrod & Crystal gave us

Starting to set tomatoes

 Blueberries are doing well

Potatoes

Thorn-less Blackberries

I found some spray that actually kills poison Ivy, sprayed a bunch today the couple of test plants I sprayed a couple weeks ago are all dried up and brown, YAY that's a win.

Obligatory Deer Pics...

Rose thought they were going to fight at first

Nope the pair just touched noses and then ate together

Finally some rain

Finally! We have RAIN!

Finally, after a good 30 days of drought we got a reprieve from watering the garden,  growing like weeds in the heat and growing weeds like crazy too.  We ate the first of the Swiss Chard the other night, that was great!

Tomatoes are cranking, lots of buds, peppers too.  squash is taking over the back half of the garden, especially the Blue Hubbard, I'll have to post some pics, wow are the plants huge! Potatoes are coming along, 

Robin the Robin is getting big, soon to be released and is eating earthworms and mealworms from the floor all by him/herself now. 

The deer are coming into the yard nightly somewhere between 1-3 at a time.

Drought, There I said it...

Drought 2020

Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads!

The heat will continue at least through Fathers Day. Saturday morning's hot even at 8am, you can tell it's going to be another scorcher.  I may just have to join the dogs in the pool today!

Hannah and Zeb in their Pools (How it it the dogs get two pools?)

Deer are coming into the deer yard nightly still, the does are not showing off the fawns yet though.

Update:  "Robin" the robin is doing well and still eating like a pig. The ground's to dry to dig worms so we'll have to buy some more today, probably pick up some meal worms too.

"Robin" the robin!

Rose and I are hanging in there hope you are too!