Things have been
growing and changing around the mini-farm.
Here’s a run down of the past couple
of weeks.
Farmer D has been busy setting up paddocks to hold the
cattle for a couple of days while giving other areas of the field a chance to
rest.
Considering our water has been
rationed to the point where we get only 3 watering opportunities all summer at
only two days total this is really important. With the lack of water and the heat wave (in the 100’s this week folks!) we need to try everything we can.
We watered a little over a week ago and to make things simple we put the
cows into the corral for four days to keep them out of the pasture.
Farmer D had put the cows into the front pasture on Monday. They practically ran to the fresh green growth.
When I left for work yesterday there they
were, happily munching.
Um… what?
After a quick inspection, we found the cows had bust through 3
of the 6 paddocks pulling out the electric fencing, running it from one side of
the pasture to the other.
Our only guess
was that one hit the fence when trying to get to the grass in the next paddock
over and panicked, ran and got tangled up in it.
When we found them, they were all together
chewing their cud, giving us the stink eye.
You know -that look. The one that says “it’s really all YOUR
fault – We just went for the grass!"
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| Ginger giving me the "don't look at me!" look. |
Farmer D got everything put back together and we just left
the cows in the back and called it good. Just another day of learning at Cottonwood Row.
In the meantime, the gardens love the heat. We are getting up at 5:30 or 6:00 am to get out to the garden before the temp climbs too high.
The potatoes and onions have grown
considerably. You can't tell from the photo, but the potatoes (on the right side) are about knee height.
Weeds love the heat too. We
spent the weekend attacking the bindweed that was taking over the pasture
garden. Farmer D broke out Erline and
the rototiller to take care of some of it. Most of that greenery is weeds, unfortunately!
The pumpkins in the pasture are putting on flowers as are
the potatoes.
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| Baby pumpkin...? |
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| Blue potatoes make pretty lilac flowers. |
The herbs in the kitchen garden have doubled in size, but
still look small in the large space.
The cantaloupe is growing well.
And the tomatoes are gigantic. Not many tomatoes on them yet, but I’ll keep
hoping!
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| I hope I can find tomatoes in that mass. |
Cabbage is looking lovely.
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| Looks like some bugs are finding them tasty, too. |
I checked on the apricots, which are starting to ripen and
sure enough, birds are starting to peck at them. I need to figure out how to keep the birds
off the few fruit I have so we can enjoy some of it ourselves!
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| The few apricots on the trees. Only two branches! |
The apples are a complete loss. I didn’t spray them soon
enough and they are riddled with worm holes. Yuck.
 |
| Uh... gross. |
And the peaches are looking pretty good - and the trees filled in with leaves - finally!
