Chicken Experiment

This is also part of the garden experiment, the chicken experiment. I admit to being mostly "city girl." When I got chickens last year, it was such a mind boggling experiment. I fell in love with chickens. I had to read every book and mostly stood around with one in my hand as I figured things out. Well, this year with the garden, I knew I wouldn't have time to take care of a new batch of chicks. (If you want lots of eggs, you have to keep adding to your flock.) The other part of the equation is you should make chicken soup with the older batch, I am not there, yet nor ever.
I read a part in a book that said, " Having a rooster, does not make the hens happy, in fact the only reason to have a rooster is for chicks." So having a rooster and two little hens, we built a special pen for my banny chickens and they laid eggs, and we got chicks!

Spaghetti Squash

The garden is getting tired, thank goodness, so am I. This is spaghetti squash and now I know what it looks like when it is ready, sorry to all of you that tried it and it was green. That is why it was mushy. I think now, it would be good. I stood in the grocery store and stared at it and now ours looks like that. I think it is time for us to try it again. I have a bunch now. I am ready to be teacher-mom just so I can rest. :)

Just Pumpkins

I love this picture of our pumpkin peaking though the leaves. I think the leaves are starting to die and I stand out there and tell them to not die because they need to make it through August, because I don't have room to store them. I love pumpkins and I hope I can grow more next year. Who would have thought that I would be already planning a new garden with more things to grow. Like those pumpkins called Cinderella pumpkins. More gourds too.

Work of My Hands

TaDa!! This is what took me all day yesterday. Last night my thoughts were "I am totally nuts.!"
This is too much work. But this morning, It looks so pretty and I am not so tired so I might, and I mean might try it again. This morning I have almost ripe tomatoes. I just don't know if I want it to be so soon. I am glad chickens like tomatoes. :)

Spaghetti sauce day

This is what I picked this morning. I finally have enough tomatoes and bell peppers
so I can make a batch of spaghetti sauce. The only thing I don't like about this job is that
it makes the house stink. I don't like the smell of cooking tomatoes.
But, I love the taste of homemade sauce so it balances out. I might add that
I have never been able to grow enough tomatoes to make sauce on my own.
It has to be the bees.

We found three avocados on the tree yesterday!! Again, thanks to the bees!
On to the kitchen!

Love Birds

I know you can't see them but like a hidden picture there
are Fishers Lovebirds filling the sunflowers.
This morning we sat out and watched them there are blue ones
and green and some with yellow heads. We even saw new ones.
This is one of the reasons I grew so many sunflowers, to feed the parrots.


Here is what they look like, from a picture I found.

Corn Harvest

Today we picked corn from the south (wet) end of our garden. Both sides had the same kind of drip watering hose but this side was always much wetter, and the corn was taller and healthier.


Nice big ears.


We filled a wheelbarrow with the corn.


It was amazing to shuck the corn and find beautiful, perfectly formed kernels.


We ended up with 85 ears altogether.


Washed, bagged and ready for storage.

These are the tomatoes I picked this morning.
I wish I wasn't the only one out of 15 people in my family
who liked tomatoes fresh off the vine.
Sometimes is hard being normal. :)
It's Friday!! I am so happy, I can't wait for the weekend!

The Best Dog in The World.

I just had to add one more post. This is the best dog ever.
I had all of our grandchildren here yesterday. She keeps her eye on
all of them and follows them around like a very protective mother.
She is so gentle that when they went home, she ran and ran around the pasture.
It must have been very hard keeping all of her own puppy nature at bay.
I never thought I would be so nuts about a dog.

The girls went back to work.

The girls went back to work. The only animals on the place
that pay their own way. I was a little crazy when they all decided to
take a vacation. So I hope they stay around awhile and work.
Oh, all the things I can bake...

This is what I picked yesterday, I think my favorite is the cantaloupe, for one thing it is something I have never had any luck with, but the other amazing thing is when they get ripe, they just fall off of the stem. Then you just pick them up. Not like digging through tomato vines or climbing in and around all of the other plants. Nope, they just lay there, it brings to me the verse that says, your wife will be like a fruitful vine. The only thing, I don't think I am quite so obliging. I think I am more like a sticker bush, waiting to poke and prod. :)

Some of the produce

This is a little bit I have picked. With the heat I expect to be picking more cantaloupe, and lots more stuff.
I am going to make blueberry jam today and maybe some salsa. I have tomatoes and peppers.

The weather said today it would be another day of 111. We broke a record yesterday. I do worry about the animals I have who live outside. Everything in the garden seems to be enjoying the heat.
I worry about my bees too, but they just have to cool the hive themselves. I just give them water.

The Garden in July

Moonflowers and Morning Glory are climbing the arch, soon it will be covered!

This row of sunflowers was planted late in the spring way after everything else was up, they seemed to grow much faster.


This is the first row of corn and sunflowers we planted, they are getting tired.


Here is a view of the south end of the garden.

Here are the luffa and bottle gourds, thriving in the heat.


We are going to have more pumpkins than we know what to do with.


My daughter scratched some designs into the pumpkin when it was little, now it has a permanent decoration.


We have room for a much bigger garden next year, but we haven't decided if we have the energy for it yet....

I just checked it is 107 outside. what I am happy about is that it is not 110. My friend told me once, she lived in a place, where the temps reached 122 sometimes during the summer. When told she was moving to Bakersfield, she was excited because it would be cooler.
There is always something to be happy about.

Hot July

It is really hot today. Hotter than a firecracker. The chickens are just standing out with their wings out on either side and the baby chicks just stand around panting.
Oh July!