Summer's Here

The July moon this morning bodes more rain on the way  (when the moon looks like an overturned bowl) --

The cool and wet weather has vanished and it's been hot and humid.  It was 85F today and very windy -- too hot to work in the field for me so I washed the sheets and hung them outside on the clothesline instead.

We have been able to get a lot of work done in the last few dry days we've had.  Most of the grass has been cut around the field sections, and most of the garden has been mulched.  The potatoes and corn in all the gardens have been hilled and hoed, and we've been able to keep up with the weeds.  Tom's potatoes look pretty good.

The bad news is that because of the prolonged cool and wet weather, most of the winter squashes are lost, and a lot of what's been planted looks poor.  Maybe now that we have some heat, the garden will start to perk up.  And maybe the deer and sandhill cranes will find something other than my seedlings to eat!

I harvested all the garlic, potato onions and shallots from the garden boxes in back of the house.  It was a bit early, but with all the rain the tops fell over and I was afraid it would all rot.  I was glad I harvested them.  The bulbs are on the small side, but otherwise they look good.  I let them cure in the sun for two days and then hung everything up in the garage rafters to cure for a couple of weeks.  I amended the garden boxes with some of the mink manure we got from Dale and replanted the boxes for a fall garden.  Tom couldn't believe all that I planted in the boxes, but I told him each box was 100 sq./ft. and you can plant an awful lot in them.  Here's the diagram:

I also found another roll of chicken wire that was out in the high tunnel, and I took that back to the house to use to finish the fence around the berry knoll and the fruit trees near the house.

Last night something funny happened.  I went to lock up the chickens for the night and was kind of surprised that they had gone into the coop early.  Usually they wait till just about dark to go inside.  Anyway, just as I closed the coop door I felt something jump on me.  I looked over my shoulder and there wagging their tails and looking up at me with big puppy eyes were two little bear hound pups that could only have come from my neighbor's house.  They were irrestible; I had to laugh.  "Well,"  I said, "Puppies can't play with chickens.  Let's go home."  So I walked them around the coop run and through the woods over to my neighbor's house.  "Come on, Puppies," I kept saying, and they followed me with no problem.  They were cute little pups.  We had a bear come through the yard again the other night and it knocked down the fence at the end of the coop run and I haven't had a chance to fix the downed posts yet so I expect that's how they got inside.  Carrie called Larry to get the pups and she and I chatted a while.  Bear dog training season started today and they were planning on taking the pups out early.  I'll bet those pooches are sleeping sound tonight!

Tomorrow we're having a bar-be-que for the 4th of July holiday.  I made homemade hamburger buns -- the recipe came from a recent issue of Mother Earth News magazine.  They smell SO good I can't wait to try them.  My sister, Mary, and her crew are coming as well as my Dad.  Even though rain is forecast, it should be a fun day!