Tomato Stakes

Dad placing Tomato stakes in to keep the plants up.

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Sunday stuff

I had a terrible stomach flu all weekend. I was laid up the entire time. Hopefully, it’ll run its course and be gone by tomorrow. 103 temp and the works, Uggghhhhhhh! So, I wasn’t able to get things done on the farm I had planned.

  
Jo Jo named these two Barred Rocks the Olsen twins. They get out everyday and play around then jump back in at dusk to roost. They
are really funny. Best of friends…

  
Here’s a couple down shots I took while finishing the roof with Dave. You can get a good idea of the size of our little farm.

  
I got a hawk to watch over the garden. He’s supposed to scare away birds and other small critters but will it work? We’ll see. Here’s a pi of the flower garden at the fron of the house. Lee planted it all and did a fantastic job!
 
The family unit out side playing and a pic of cabbage

  
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Just pictures from tonight…..Artsy little pieces.

Just some artsy photos from this evening…..

  

  

  

  

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How to Plant Pumpkins

I got up at 5:30 and was able to plant a whole row of pumpkins. I wanted to get them in the ground before it rained this afternoon.

  
Step 1: Use your shovel and make a mound about 3′ in diameter. Break it up and smooth it out with your rake.
Step 2: Use your rake handle to press some holes into the soil. Make about 8 holes like your cutting a pizza and 1 in the middle

  
Step 3: place a pumpkin seed in each hole. These are Howden pumpkin seeds, Consistent excellent qualities that take about 105 Days to Maturity. I also planted some Jack Be Little pumpkin seeds Flattened, mini-pumpkins that take 90 Days to Maturity.
Step 4: Cover the seeds up with earth.

  
Step 5: Pumpkins are considered “heavy feeders” and do well with a little extra nourishment. One nutrient source that works well and is reasonably priced has the dismaying name “fish emulsion”. It is a concentrate of fishy by-products, rich in minerals, that smells a little like low tide. Spread a handful onto the top of the mound. The rain will break it down and push it tnto the roots.
Step 6: Take a picture of your foot to show the size of the mound. That’s a size 10 Addidas.

  
Step 7: Water and wait for the seedlings to pop up. Once they do, you can thin them out keeping the strongest vines.
Step 8: Coming soon, you’re going to want to put some more fish emulsion on them and make sure they’re pollinated.

Stay Tuned! In a few months they’ll look like this:

  

Howden and Mini Pumpkins

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Time for the 2nd Planting of Corn

Mindy, Zoey and I  had errands to run and look who I found in the rear field planting corn when we got home….

  
Uncle Keith and Jim got 13 more rows of sweet corn in the ground. Which is great cause we’re getting rain tomorrow! You want to plant corn in sets of about 10 rows a week apart so when it comes in, it doesn’t all come in at once. I can’t thank UK and Jim enough for helping me get this field planted. They’ve been a huge help.

  
I know it’s not that exciting to look at yet but it’s growing.

  
See? Here’s a corn seedling we planted a few days ago and here’s a pic of the pumpkin patch all watered up. I planted Corn Ambrosia (Bi Color) Excellent gourmet eating quality. One of the sweetest SE types.

  
Let’s end with a picture of the onion sets popping through the soil and the pepper plants beginning to flower.

  

 

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Pumpkin Planting, Watering and Chickens

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Uncle Keith came over last night to plant pumpkins with Max. He’s such a big help on the farm. Lucky to have a friend like him!

    

I’m planting Connecticut Field – Slightly flattened globe. Multi-purpose pumpkin that are really big jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween.

  
Hefty orange-gold fruits weigh 15-20 lbs. and have a flattened bottom to keep them from tipping. I hope they come in on time, This type of pumpkin takes 100 Days to Maturity.

   

I bought another hose (130′) to reach the rear field but still came up short. Need another hose to hook up to get to the watermelons.

   
I was able to water the corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, soybeans. It’s not going to rain for another couple days and I wanted to make certain those little seeds have a a bath.

   
The chickens enjoying the the cool evening breeze.

   
Grass Update: I cut it and now I just have to rake the excess straw away. If you look real hard you can see Max in the picture on the right. She loves coming to the farm with UK.

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Chicken Coop Roof Finished….. Almost and Cool Videos!

When I got home from work today, I found these guys already working on the chicken coop roof. Brother Doug, Brother Dave and Jo Jo.

  
My Dad got a new roof put on his barn at home so he saved me some shingles that were pulled off his roof. Jeff gave me some tar paper and we were able to shingle the coop for free!

  
Of course we came up about 5 shingles short but a quick call to Dad and he made a call to his roofer and luckily he had a few left over he hasn’t tossed yet.

  
These guys are the best! No one works as hard as Dave and his son Joseph and Doug does great work too. I’m very lucky to have them live so close. Well, Doug lives in Los Angeles but he gets home once every 5 to 7 years.

  
I’ll get the last few shingles from my Dad tomorrow and the chickens will be happy, cool and dry all summer long.

Check out the new videos posted. I shot one of the bonfire and one of Max going for a swim in the pond. They’re on the homepage on the right side or here: Max goes for a Swim and Big ‘ol Bonfire.

 

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A Quick Poll

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A Very Sun Funday

  
Zoey was baptized this morning at St. Mary’s in Hudson. Doug and Liz stood for her. It was a nice ceremony and we had about 50 guests over to the farm for lunch.

  
After the party, Max and Uncle Keith came over to play in the pond. UK was able to plant an entire row of watermelons in the rear field!

 
Chickens love scraps from cooking… any and all vegetables except uncooked potatoes but they really love scratching around the garden for bugs and worms.

  
Baptism by fire and finally the bird feeder from outside our bedroom window. If you give the birdies a feeder, they’ll stay out of the seed planted in the garden.

Have a great week everybody!

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Seed Planting in the rear field

Thanks to the help of a couple of great guys the back field got planted today! About a third of it did at least. Which is fantastic! I’ve been so busy with the front garden, I haven’t had any free time to try and work on the rear field. Keep in mind that during the month of May we got rain 26 out of 31 days. Jealous Seattle? So, waiting around to till then for the ground to dry up has been killing me.

 

But a all that changed this morning. Uncle Keith and Jim Frohnapfel came over  and planted like crazy!

 

The panted 10 Rows of soybean, 10 Rows (well mounds) of pickling cucumbers, and 10 rows of sweet corn. Each row is about 50 feet long.

Beautiful straight rows evenly spaced. These guys are pros.

 

and the best part it, we got rain tonight so the seeds will have a great chance of taking off this week. Will it be “knee high by the fourth of July”? Maybe…… Thanks again you two! You’re both rock stars!

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