Solstice

I took a bunch of pix just for documention of how fast various crops are growing. Here are the melons on 6-20.

And the Boston Marrows, likewise on 6-20.

Here are those same seedlings 3 days later. Rick and I are having a "staycation" for our 25 anniversary. Rick has a week off and we're just taking it easy: lots of meals out, plenty of beer drinking, and a little farming around the edges.

My Boston Marrows at home are fruiting already. They went in a week or so earlier.

And are already trying to take over the world.

With their cohorts, the gourds.

My Borgs are showing real red color.

Back at the farm, the peppers are fruiting up. Here are the cayennas, already showing that characteristic curl.

And this is a Biker Billy. It's still very tiny but the plants are nice and big and I have hopes for a good crop.

The marigolds are showing the first hint of blooms.

These gray zucchinis were almost done on the 20th.

As were these Ronde de Nice zucchs.

And a day later, we picked them.

The romanescos went in a week or so later, but they've caught right up.

Rick and Rene work on the final chicken pen piece. This is a tiny box so we can set a chicken or two right in a small space. The idea is to use them as a mini tractor and bug control.

Here it is finished.

These are the tigger melons, behind the sunflower/marigold patch.

On day I took the glue gun to the farm, along with this gourd. The yardifact container was totally full, so I took all the yardifacts, and hot glued them to the gourd.

We continue to harvest lovely onions and garlic.

We might prepare them just a little more than this....

We are trying this new kind of irrigation for true row crops like beans. It has emitters built into the hose, and delivers the water very precisely. Here you can see dry patches between the rows, even though they are no more than 8 inches apart. We used this type of irrigation on row 3 and row 7. Row 3 was seeded in Kentucky Wonder pole beans in the back row, and Dragon's Tongue beans in the front two rows. Then yesterday we planted row 7 with Pigiott cowpeas in the back row, and bush Baby Maxibel in the front two rows.

Yesterday, Rick and I went up to Honey Run covered bridge for a swim and some birdwatching. Here Rick consults the bird guide.

We spotted Red Shouldered hawks soaring over the buttes, and an Acorn Woodpecker grabbing bugs out of midair. We also spotted a kingfisher, a starling, and a scrub jay.