Farm Friday

Whew, it's hot. Since there's not much getting done, I thought I'd take a few pictures for you.

 

Jade comes in from the heat and lays down on the cool bricks of the hearth. She's hiding from her four kittens, I suppose.

 

Grinning kid who is always lurking on the porch. I think he's one of ours.

 

Hot dogs moved up to the shady pen where they can sit in the cool dirt under a shade tree.

 

Some of the prickly pear cactus are blooming. I wonder if this is what they meant by the "Yellow rose of Texas". They don't all bloom at the same time though, which is strange to me. 

 

Alright, this is from down in the gardens looking back up the hill towards the pond. The white pipe is part of our siphon system to bring water down out of the pond, only there's just a 6' drop there. Right now the pond level is so low that the intake is below the outflow and therefore the system won't work. I'm having to pump water using a pump and the generator. I fill this tank up every 4-5 days, but when the garden is really going it'll take filling every 3 days.

 

Pepper plant with stray okra seeds growing. The okra will eventually dominate this pepper plant so one or the other needs to be moved. Stray okra apparently got seeded everywhere.

 

This is a patch of prairie verbena growing down by the garden. It's pretty and the bees love it. While technically a "weed", it'll grow anywhere there is disturbed soil. I am a great disturber of soil (and the peace).

 Cucumber plants growing up next to the fence. They'll eventually wind their way up that fence and give us lots of cucumbers. Hopefully.

Swiss Chard, probably my favorite green veggie.

Decimated cabbage plant, probably my least favorite green veggie.

They're in bad shape, aren't they? The cabbage cutworms are munching away.

 

Here's one of the culprits now. Fat, isn't he? Looks well fed to me.

 

Oh, how cute. He's a family man!

 

Today, I think the cabbage goes into a burn pile before I end up with a permanent infestation for the next 300 generations of cabbage worms.

 

The plant nursery. Little fellows growing in pots. I dip them in the big buckets to water them. When they're ready, they'll be spread around the rest of the garden.

Looking up the hill from the garden towards the driveway and the pond. There's grass! Green growing grass! That's kind of a big deal around here.