These are the moments, however, that it all seems worth it! Tori and I harvested one pear tree that actually produced good pears. I still have another loaded tree and a third that is too young to produce well. My peach trees have some disease and my apple trees are a disaster, but I'm thankful for the pears!
The pears were much higher than Tori on the ladder, but shaking them worked well. I only got hit on the head once!
Tori and I picked them up very quickly when we shook the trees, since the goats discovered quickly that they like pears.
My new venture this summer was growing the entire middle layer of the backyard in pumpkins. The idea is to store them for winter treats for the animals, after canning our fair share. I'm getting nervous because the squash bugs have descended upon them, and I don't think there is a successful pumpkin farmer out there who doesn't spray their fields. I have used dust on the ground lately, which I hate to do, but I'm not sure it's enough.
There are many decent sized pumpkins growing in there and the guineas seem clueless so far.
We left some eggs with several momma hens who wanted to sit on them. They have successfully hatched many, many chicks. These six little guys just hatched last night. Selah is also being mom to eight guinea babies and a chick baby that hatched in the incubator from an abandoned guinea nest.
I bought a chicken tractor that can move around the yard that Luna, Selah's bunny, and the momma-less baby chicks share during the day. We move them back to safer night cages, because of the fat fox that is stalking the chickens.
My tomato crop was pitiful this year, so I had to resort to buying these from a local farmer. Guess what I am doing today and tomorrow?
Jenny
Wow, everything looks great. What did you dust with? DE? Our garden is done, except for the black-eyed peas drying on the vine. We are talking about scaling back next year on the farm---want to buy some cows? =)
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!