Still Hot and Steamy

UGH, it's been awful here all week. To top it off, the vegan shop with the free wi-fi decided to only keep the wi-fi running during business hours and has been shutting the box off so no internet connection for me when I have time to be on the internet. Guess the 3 Angels Broadcasting Group has attached strings to what they give away for free. If you don't come in to their shop and get preached on, you can't use the free wi-fi they've been advertising. Well, that's my biggest problem with organized religion and that's all I'm going to say about that.

Tonite I am sitting in the truck, 20 miles from home using McDonalds free wi-fi because we thought it was a 24 hour Mickey D's. Kind of hoping for a little air conditioning, LOL. The humidity is horrible tonite as it has been all week. 109 degree heat index yesterday, I dripped sweat all day. I so hate that. I have a burn on the top of my foot, about the size of a half dollar from where I slopped the bath water on the way to the tub Tuesday night. It's more painful that i thought it would be but it seems to be healing alright even with the constant moisture from sweating on it.

Okay, enough of that, what's been going on around the farm??? Well, the sweet corn is ready. The first round is anyway. I will be working on getting it ready to be canned up this weekend. The first planting of kidney beans, the ones I had to put the row covers on, are all done now. I've pulled all the plants and stripped the bean pods off. I ended up with 6lbs from 15 plants. Not a bad haul considering the beans seemed a little bit small in size. I think the soil will need some work come this fall. I have a good pile of compost out back ready and willing to be tilled in. The tomatoes are producing really well, I have 4 gallons of pulp in the freezer right now. I've been using the fresh frozen pulp on occasion tho, this year seems like I don't have enough food in the pantry. last years harvest wasn't spectacular so maybe I didn't get as much as I thought put up. I hope to make up a little from this year. We could use some rain tho, rain seems to be the best growth enhancer there is, much better than hand watering does.

The darn zucchini bugs killed my zucc plants! I thought I was doing so darn well this year with putting them in the tires. They looked so good and were producing so nice and then BAM! gone, one by one, just like always. Also, I've had a horn worm problem in my potatoes! That's right, those nasty, fat, green worms that eat the tomato plants have had a field day with the potatoes. I don't have any borage plants anywhere near the potatoes so the worms are having breakfast, lunch and dinner at the expense of my tater plants. Guess I'll be digging a few tire sets up earlier than I'd planned to.

The onion crop isn't doing worth a hoot this year at all. The tops have folded over signaling the end of the growing cycle and the onions are a pitiful size. Some are lucky to be as big as golf balls. A truly disappointing crop this time around. Is it from worn out soil, too much early rain, not enough mid season rain, who knows. I honestly did not pay much attention to them thru the season. Not as much as I should have apparently. Now I am paying for it with small onions.

Over all tho, it appears to be an average growing season with so far, an average yield. I was hoping for a bit of a bumper crop on a few items but it's just not going to happen. I do have some things I can use to trade with to make up where I may be lacking in some food staple areas.

Other than that it's been business as usual around the farm. As soon as the heat breaks, rabbit butchering is on the list. I've got 15 good sized young rabbits slurping up feed by the gallon and not growing because of the heat. Oh well, soon I will be back down to just the breeding does and start the whole cycle over again. At least the feed crop looks good this year. I have already put up a little more than half what I'll need for the livestock(rabbits included) and with a sprinkle or 2 of rain, the second cut will be very nice. Plus, the feed corn crop is looking decent. I should end up with a little i can trade with this year over what I'm going to need. that will be a nice change.......

Okay, time to head home for a bath, more soon!