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.

It's About Time!

Ok I admit, I've gotten behind on blogging. And Katinka had to call me from Australia to chastise and berate me! So without further ado... let's get bloggin! On Monday, the Boston Marrow squashes were just sprouting.

And the melons were just coming up as well.

And the squash is fruiting up. This is a Ronde de Nice.

We got an even better look at our friend the alligator lizard. He was on the mulch when I arrived at the farm, and it's a good thing I didn't accidently step on him. We shooed him to a safer area--after I got a few good pix.

Rick communes with the chickens.

On Tuesday, I visited Rick C's garden, both to see what he had planted and to reclaim the rototiller. Can you believe it? He took HIS rototiller to HIS house to work on HIS garden... the nerve!

His beans are thriving (above) and he has lots of peppers planted.

The peppers are huge!

Here's the corn patch, with some Bidwell melons in the center.

And here's a shot of my pumpkins and gourds. They've grown a lot since this was taken!

With the tiller back in its rightful place, Rick tills up row 3. The bloom in the foreground is a leek blossom.

Rick reflects on a job well done.

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Weather Note

It's still unseasonably cool. On Saturday when we went to brunch at Sierra Nevada, I was wishing I had brought a sweater. In June! We aren't complaining though, because this cool weather is letting us get everything finished. Forecasts suggest it will hot up later this week.

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This pic is sort of hard to see, but we think those are raccoon prints. The nickle is for scale.

The plums are just starting to ripen.

Rick eats it!

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What We're Eating

It's sort of between seasons in the garden. The peas are gone. The zucchini is almost big enough to eat. I planted some really late lettuce, and it's ripening up right now, along with the plums and apricots. We also have onions, garlic, and leeks. The tomatoes, grapes, and peppers are setting lots of fruit, but none of those are ripe yet.

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Here's another zucchini, this time a gray zucchini.

After we got row 3 tilled, we planted beans: Kentucky Wonder pole beans in the back, and two rows of  Dragon Tongue bush beans in front. Rick J pounded in the poles, and yesterday I put the strings up.

I also nicked and soaked the moonflower seeds. Here Buddy points to one place we planted them.

I was trying to get a pic of Blanco to show how roosterish he looks. He's definitely a boy.

We started our vacation Friday afternoon. Rick took a week off and we are spending it in town, with day trips here and there, lots of meals out, and plenty of relaxation. The last chore was to finish assembling the new gazebo. This new gazegbo is a larger 10x10... that is, it's larger at the bottom than the old one was. The furniture fits much better now.

I put some curtains on the front and side.

After that, we spent a bit of time at the farm. Rick works on the tiny pen. This is intended to let us place chickens in tighter spots, so they can dig up, fertilize, and de-bug an area.

Then we had to rush off to Keith's party. We started at the Raw Bar, then came back to Titus and Jane's for cake and Catan.

sunflower seeds ~ pomegranite seeds

While it's summer there, I'm scraping ice off my windshield in the mornings and looking at the last stubborn leaves swirling in the wind. It's winter in the Brindabella mountains; there's snow in the Australian ski fields. But the photos of my friends' smiling faces relaxing in the shade at the Farm sustain me. I will be there as soon as I can once this current job is done, so keep a cold beer and a warm hug ready for me. oxo, Tink

Great Sunflower Project

I signed us up for the Great Sunflower Project. http://www.greatsunflower.org/en. This is an experiment to track bees in various areas. Participants plant Lemon Queen sunflowers, then watch the flowers for 15 minutes and count the bees that come. That sounded like something we could manage, even on a hot day. I ordered the seeds and am waiting for them to arrive. I think we'll plant them along the side of the shed.

Now It's Hot

Oh yeah. It's summer now! The week started out pretty nice. On Monday I got these new chairs for the farm.

Buddy pulled the last of the peas from the back of row 3. It's ready to plant in beans once we give it a quick till. 

We saw this guy as we were leaving one evening. Alligator lizards like this eat tons of bugs, so we're glad to see him in our garden.

Rick and Rene make plans for the playhouse. That might be something we work on when it's in the shade.

The zuchs are starting to flower.

The black cherry tomatoes are making big bunches.

And the Tangerines are starting to show color.

I got the tub area straightened up and ready to go. It's well shaded this year.

Which is going to be important! On Friday, it got up to 90.

And by Sunday it was almost 100.

We mulched the area around the apple tree, and planted a hill of Boston Marrows there. By Saturday, a sprout was just showing. The Bidwell melons in row 1 are sprouting also.

This is the "fire" flowerbed. There are Tigger melons, two kinds of sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias, and marigolds, all in fiery oranges, reds, and yellows. I weeded and thinned them some on Saturday.

We also rushed to get the last of the mulching done. We still need to do a few sections, but only ones that will be dug up. All the planted areas are mulched and irrigated.

The sundial had been sited under the cherry tree, but by now that is in total shade, so I decided to resite it on top of the raised bed. I wanted to make sure it was aligned to true north, so I pulled out my phone's compass app to check. For some reason, everyone found it hilarious that I was using my phone to calibrate the sundial. And by the way, the bar in the center of a sundial is a "gnomon."