This picture is actually from a week or two ago, so the beans are growing a bit more, and some of the flowers have been replaced by little mini-beans at this point. We're finally starting to see some progress in the garden and perhaps, fingers crossed here, beans are something that the slugs/rabbits/gophers/birds don't like?
The blog has been a bit quiet lately because we've been back in NY this week. So instead of living off the farm, we're living off the lake.... I learned to use a throw net, and look at the HUGE fish I caught!
Mmm.... Fresh salad for dinner? Finally something that I can harvest before the rabbits get to it!
Last week was the 4 week Birthday, rather Hatchday, for the chickens! The biggest ones have been separated out to be the meat birds, and now into their teenage years, they're eating high protein food for weight gain and snacking on corn for an extra yummy flavor. Unlike most teenagers, they're well behaved and seem to be in touch with their own mortality. I had a good talk with them about enjoying the summer weather and making the most of every day because, well, unfortunately for them they've only got 11 or so weeks left.
Friends and family of the lowly Cow celebrate, for this year's Tillamook Dairy Parade was a success!! Tillamookian's favorite dairy event, which is Oregon's 2nd biggest parade (1st biggest non-televised!), marched under blue skies with more than 150 floats. If you weren't there, you were probably home alone, because even Smokey The Bear showed up. Check out the pix @: 08 Dairy Parade
This picture was taken back on June 1st to show an overview of the garden's condition. To the casual observer it still looks a bit barren, and the plants rather small; however, don't forget that this farm is an entire 0.01 acre, so the plants only look small in comparison to all the land we have.
In terms of our vegetable selections there have been some winners, some losers, and some in between. Winners: the potatoes plants (no guarantee they're actually making potatoes though) and the weeds. Moderate sucess: anything that stinks, such as garlic, onions and shallots. Losers: anything succelent and tasty such as lettuce, artichokes, beets, peas, beans, yes just about everything else that an animal would like to eat has been eaten. My solution? I planted more potatoes!
Our gardening book recommends the philosophy of planting an extra 10% "for the animals." Well we did that, but the critters are taking about 80%. We're under attack from underground, on the ground, above the ground, even from the air! The birds dig up the seeds. The slugs mow down the seedlings. When a plant is lucky enough to actually get growing, the rabbits get it. Then on special occasions the gophers suck the plants down from right underground! In today's pictures is a new lettuce plant that was half a foot tall, until the rabbits got it. And the other picture is the beer used to bait and kill slugs, applied a little too late for the freshly chewed bok choi. We're not the only one with problems, the NY Times recently ran this article about varmits.
