3rd Official Day of Summer

This post was really supposed to happen yesterday, but due to various camera/photo issues, I decided to quit and try again the next day. Hopefully my photography vibes are more in tune today.

We are to the last of our June roses; the pink climbing roses that wreath the kitchen porch trellis:

They are a bit past their prime in this photo. Most of them faded and a little bug eaten. When the blooms first open they are almost hot pink, fading to baby pink after a couple of days. And the bug eaten issue is just part of the general beetle plague that has descended upon our landscape. Not Japanese beetles, though they are just as voracious, these are little brown and black beetles that are about the same size as the Japanese, but not the right colors. And they won't be here for long. We had the same thing last year, and luckily it's only a couple of weeks and then they are gone. Until this time is over, Sevin dust is much more of a friend than we like it to be, and contact with beetle poop is an every time you go outside occurrence.


Pictures of the garden this time a year are always so pretty:

Everything is pretty well weeded. At least for the next day or so. Once the rain and cloudy skies let up, we're in trouble. It's easier to stay on top of weeding because right now harvesting and preserving time is at a minimum. That time will end soon. And then its a question of weed between the rows or do something now before these tomatoes turn to mush on the kitchen counter. You can guess what happens. Though we really, really want to work on reducing the weed seed load of our garden soil this year. Which means catching weeds before they go to seed. We've mulched in several areas, and are trying to work at running the hand plow between rows as often as possible, or hoeing and hand weeding where required. If it would dry out for 2 minutes, that would be helpful.


On the animal front, baby chicks and turkeys are growing well. Starting to become curious and aggressive. Ready to be in outside pens.  We kicked the hen turkeys off the next because we found out they had broken all their eggs, and thus weren't incubating anything! They moped for about a day, and then got over it.


Calves and pigs are growing well. Getting ready to build up our hay supply to keep the calves on hay for a couple of weeks while we block off the pasture and let the grass grow back up tall. Which they hate, but it keeps our grass from getting ate down to the quick.


Other than that, we're just ready for a little bit more moderate weather pattern. With sunshine and warmth, and the occasional rain shower, appropriately timed, of course. The constant stream of rain and storms, thumbs down.

Or at least that's what this brocolli plant said. Broken off at the base by Tuesday night's gusty storm, just as it was getting ready to form a flower head . . . of course.  


Time to go pick some berries, and get my daily dose of beetle poop.

A Little Lost

Yesterday morning I was letting Checkers out on her tie out before I closed the house up and went to the grocery store. It is not unusual for her to go a little nuts if she catches the scent of one of our outdoors cats on the porch, steps, or landscaping. But she was going pretty crazy, as if the cat itself was hiding under the buttercup bush. The cats don't usually stick around and hide though, if a dog is in the picture. I glanced under the bush seeing what looked like an extra rock in the landscaping border, and thinking it was about the right size to be a baby bunny.


So I put Checkers in the house, bend down, and push the branches of the buttercup back to get a better look. Not a bunny, not a rock, not a cat,  but a . . .

TURTLE! Friends, we live a half to three-quarters of a mile from the nearest creek, wetland or river. How and why did we end up with not a forest-loving box turtle, but a water-loving painted turtle hanging out by our front step? I have heard of female turtles walking quite a ways away from their home to lay their eggs, but really??? We don't have any water for babies when they would hatch. I think this turtle got a little lost.


So I put her in a bucket, and carried her down the road to the creek, and set her a little ways from the water's edge. Pointed away from the road, obviously. Hoping that if she felt the need to climb away from the water she would just go up the hill into the woods, and not turn around towards the road.


Checkers and I took a walk this morning. No smashed turtle on the road. So far, so good.

Strawberries and Roses

Right now, the highlights of these early June days . . .


Strawberries:

and Roses . . .

They make the weed, mulch, mow cycle a little bit more enjoyable :)


What little joys are you finding in your early June days?

Around the Farm

Around the farm, we've had a little bit of everything . . .

Ryan saved this gorgeous cecropia moth from the barnyard, where we were pretty sure one of the chickens would find it and think that it was quite a treasure to parade around with.  As slow as it was moving it was either at the very beginning or end of its short life, pumping its wings in a slow motion version of flight.

Most people don't think about there being moths in Indiana the size of one's hand. I can count on my fingers the number of times I've seen one of these. They seem almost otherworldly compared to the small, simple critters we are used to seeing congregate around our porch lights.


Otherwise, it's just hanging out with the barnyard critters . . .

As you can see, the pigs are growing quite well. And enjoying every chance they get to roam the pasture, and get a good back scratch. And take a good wet, muddy bath when the weather gets hot . . . even if the water pan is not quite big enough:

A few weeks ago we kicked the turkey hens out of their separate building because even though they were laying eggs, they showed no signs of going broody. Now they're both broody, at the same time, sharing custody of about 15 eggs . . . in the dog house in the middle of the pasture where all the other birds can go in and out at liberty. But they are not to be detered from their goal of motherhood evidentally . . .