Zoey Meets Cory the Horse and Friday Pics

   
Zoey meets Cory. She never saw a horse before. We were visiting my Uncle’s farm in Chardon. Cory licked Z and the little bub had no idea what to do.

   
Just counting down the days till the tomatoes turn ripe and red. It can’t happen soon enough.

   
We’ve been pickin’ peppers but the cabbage has a bit more time to bake in the sun.

The sunset was just gorgeous this evening. Mainly because the temperature dropped 25 degrees to a cool 74 after it rained.

Here’s a fun little video of the alpacas at my Uncle’s farm. Maybe we’ll get a couple for here. They’re really funny creatures. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz7hnOCSlZ0

Read Full Post »

A hot, hot harvest day and a new enemy.

 

   

Hot, hot day on the farm. It was 95 degrees today and tomorrow it’s gonna be 97 but with a heat index that makes it feel like 110°. That makes it no fun to be in the garden. Add about 80% Humidity to that temp and that equals a very difficult harvest. Luckily Mindy spent a half hour collecting the veggies.

The small grape or (cherry) tomatoes are getting ripe but the other types are still pretty green.

The peppers are starting to really pop! You can see a green pepper and a Thai hot pepper in the above picture along with spinach, lettuce, dill, basil, cucumbers, and grape/cherry tomatoes.

There’s a couple of jack rabbits that are just destroying the garden. They’re taking down broccoli, cucumbers, pumpkins and now I gotta take them out. I think I’ll set some traps this week and relocate the little guys to somewhere else. Far, far away from here.

There’s also a video of Jake chasing one rabbit off here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFnq-U6ppHA

Here’s a couple stills of the varmint.

   

Read Full Post »

What’s the Big Dill?

 

Cucumbers are just blowing up. Mindy collected these this afternoon. We collected about a dozen yesterday as well. They love this heat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I cut some for bread and butter chips and mixed with sugar, apple cider vinegar and spices.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finished product….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I made some Dill Pickles, Mindy’s favorite. I like the Bread and Butter. The dill pickle recipe is on the recipe tab. I’ll post the B & B recipe as soon as I can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Fresh Dill from the garden and the pickle spears soaking in vinegar and spices.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, I found this spider eating a grasshopper the other day. Any idea what type of spider this is? Click on the pic to see a larger version cause I could swear it has a Mickey Mouse logo on it’s body.

Read Full Post »

How to Water Tomatoes and Santa Crow

Tomato Growing Tip: Water your tomatoes regularly before the leaves appear wilted.

• Watering tomatoes is the most important element in growing tomatoes
• Tomatoes are 90 to 95 percent water and need about 1-inch of water per week. More for sandy soil.
• Maintain even soil moisture.
• Don’t let the soil completely dry out.
• Soak the soil when watering down to 6 inches.
• Water the base, not the leaves.
• Never over-water, which can happen if your site has poor drainage.
• The best control for cracking is a constant and regular water supply.

   
Cucumbers need at least eight hours of sun every day and rich soil. They are frost-sensitive and prefer warm, humid weather to produce a good crop. Cucumbers are 90 percent water, so adequate watering throughout the growing season is vital to get a juicy crop.

   
There are four types of cucumbers: slicing, pickling, space-savers and the ever-popular burpless cucumber. These are pickling cucumbers. We like them cause they’re smaller, faster growing, delicious raw and make great pickles.

   
Look out! It’s Santa Crow. I woke up to find this in the rear field. My neighbors put him there to scare away the deer. He’s over 5′ tall and I think he’s doing his job. Jake saw him this morning and was barking like crazy. Aesthetically, it’s a bit of an eye sore but we’ll keep him till we can make something better. Ho! Ho! Ho!
   
Thank You All for over 1,000 visits in a month! Keep spreading the word about our little farm blog. We greatly appreciate it!

Read Full Post »

An Unwanted Guest and Loads of pics

   

I caught this doe in the rear field this morning. I have got to get that fence repaired in the beck. Usually deer are active at dusk and dawn but this young lady was out and about around 9:30am. Not a good sign. I also caught a jack rabbit in the front garden yesterday. I won’t use chemicals to keep them out. I use hair clippings (they hate the smell of humans) I get from the local salon and I need to build a scarecrow.

   
Broccoli                                                   Cabbage

        

Corn – Planted at about 10 days apart. You can see the difference between the middle and right pic. The right pic was rototilled once again before planting so the grass is really staying out of the way as compared to the middle pic. The sweet corn looks lush green and very healthy!

   
Cucumbers                                                 Pumpkins

   
Leaf Lettuce                                                Spinach

   
Roma Tomatoes                                        Supersonic Tomatoes

Read Full Post »

Pumpkin Planting, Watering and Chickens

Note: If you get a quick moment, please take the poll by clicking here I’d really appreciate your feedback on how to improve the Blog. Thanks!

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.

If you get a quick moment, please take the poll by clicking here I’d really appreciate your feedback on how to improve the Blog. Thanks!

Read Full Post »

More Tilling and Planting of tomatoes.

    

Had the garden and rear field tilled today. Matt brings his tractor and tills the whole field. Great guy, does a great job! If you need a guy in the area to till, get a hold of me and I’ll send you his contact info.

  

After Matt tilled I was able to plant about 90 tomato plants. The soil was perfect! Rich and dry and crumbling apart.

        

Here’s the rear field I just cut, now it’s tilled and ready for corn and pumpkins. Here’s a robin who lives in the barn. She likes to sit in the backyard next to me while I water the grass seed and sneak a tasty snack of seed. I don’t mind, there’s plenty of grass seed laid.

Read Full Post »