Just a thought...

Ok, so we've learned a lot since Spring arrived. Who knew sticking some plants in the ground could be so labor intensive and scientific? I'd like to know why weeds grow with no assistance at all.... yet flowers and veggies that you give tender loving care are so resistant to grow?!?

Rain & Corn - not necessarily a good combination!

One thing about summer in the Midwest- weather moves in fast and furiously. A huge rainstorm moves in early afternoon. Well, not much to do outside now. We decide to head to town to do some shopping.

Upon arrival home, our once proud, and vertical, corn is now horizontal. You've got to be kidding me! We chuck our cold grocery store goods in the fridge and head out to try and salvage our 9 rows of corn. First we carefully straighten it up and pack soil around it. It's mostly vertical now. It's late and we need to make dinner. After dinner we head back out to 'hill' the corn. This seems to help give it extra support. I'm curious to see how it holds up during the next rainstorm.

But what did we learn? Planting corn 1 1/2 inches deep is not enough to build a strong root system. Next year, we will plant deeper. Oh also, as a reminder for next year... plant rows 4 feet apart so we can get the tiller in between the rows. Good tip!

What does every farm need? That's right... a big honkin' tractor! In our case, a big honkin' tractor with a loader. Trouble is, tractors are expensive, and even more so with a loader. What we needed was a fixer-upper. And what better place to find a fixer-upper than eBay?!
Our tractor criteria was pretty simple: it must have a 3-point hitch, a loader, be within 100 miles of home, and be under $2,000 dollars. The search began.
4 months later (!) my eye caught a listing for the tractor in the photo above. It was the first one I'd seen that met all of our criteria. So I watched and waited. The starting bid was $1800, and I figured that it would soon ne out of our price range. A day passed with no bids. Another day passed with no bids. And another, and another. Finally the final day arrived, and I checked the listing every hour to see how high the bidding would go. Hour after hour, and still no bids. So, I figured that I was not the only sniper waiting for the last moments. Note: A sniper in eBay world is someone who waits until the last possible moment to place a bid, knowing that other bidders won't have time to react and re-bid. Sneaky? Maybe, but effective. Anyway, at last, with 60 seconds left and no other bidders, I placed my bid for $1801. By the time I clicked "Submit Bid" there was only 30 seconds left, not enough time to bid higher if another sniper bid $1802. On the edge of my seat I refreshed the screen every two seconds, fully expecting to be out bid. With the last refresh I saw the wondrous message "Congratulations, you have won this item!". Huzzah!! We had a tractor. Now we just had to get it home, and that is a story for another post.

Garden's Growing!

The garden is doing quite well! We're very happy that we aren't having too much of an insect or animal problem - which is really exciting considering we are growing completely organically - no nasty pesticides!

What About Bob?

Say hi to Bob.
When our son Danny learned that we had planted corn his response was "Well then we need a scarecrow." Now I'm personally not sure a scarecrow does anything other than give the crows a convenient place to perch after all their corn-eating. Nevertheless, I've always liked the idea of a scarecrow, so I immediately said "Okay!"
Our scarecrow's construction is very simple. First, we stuck a 7-foot long cedar post about a foot into the ground. Next we screwed a 3-foot wide board (the shoulders) across about a foot down from the top, making a cross. Next a 2-foot wide board was screwed across for some hips. An old pair of pants went around the hips and an old shirt (plaid, of course!) went around the shoulders. Two aluminum pie plates formed the head, an old ball cap was tacked on top, and some pieces of aluminum foil were folded and shaped into hands. The pie plates and hands really dance around in the wind, giving our new scarecrow some life.
When we finished I mentioned to Danny "Our new scarecrow needs a name." Without hesitating, Danny replied, "His name's Bob." Okay then.

The Girls are getting big!

The girls are starting to actually look like chickens! It's amazing how fast they grow. Here they are lounging about in their chicken run - eating bugs and grass...

Our other feathered friends

Here's a trivia question for you: What is tiny, territorial and can eat you out of house and home?

The answer, of course, is a hummingbird.

We saw hummingbirds when we first moved to the farm a year ago, so we assumed the previous owners must have had feeders for them. This spring, I promptly went to the farm store to get a feeder so they would stay this year. We had a beautiful, ruby-throated male adopt the feeder. Shortly after, some juvenile hummingbirds wanted to dine as well. However Ruby (our creatively named male) would have none of it! He shooed away all other birds. Ok, time to do some research. Sure enough we found out hummingbirds are extremely territorial. Luckily, I received a second feeder as a Mother's Day gift and hung it about 15 feet from the first. Nope, no good. That too, is apparently in Ruby's 'zone'. So it was moved to the other side of the house, outside of Ruby's view. Right? Wrong! Ruby now buzzed back and forth between the feeders running any intruding hummingbirds away. What a jerk! If he wants to play mean, fine, we'll play mean. I went back to the store for yet a third feeder. Let's see him try to monitor three feeders! He tried, but for the most part other hummingbirds get to drink now. Ruby tends to stick to the first one he found, the ladies mostly use the second and the juveniles like the third.

Everyone is happy and apparently very thirsty. I have a hard time understanding how such tiny little birds drink so much. Where does it go? I'm not sure, but I do know that we and especially Buddy enjoy having the little birds around.