I know I've hinted at it before, but I really do think summer has finally arrived! Our temp should be over 100 degrees today so I was up at 5:00 a.m. to water the veggies before I left for work. I pulled all the lettuce before it bolted this afternoon. The warm weather veggies have been slow to sprout and I think it's too late to replant the dry beans. The short-season corn is about a foot tall and a few tomatoes are coming on but the cucumber plants are only about 2" tall. I might have to buy some transplants to fill in where the beans didn't come up.
We have more new baby turkeys and still have two hens sitting. There's a skunk that has raided the one mama who made her nest in the flower bed next to the house (that was a good spot when the weather was cool) so Ron surrounded her with a metal fence that he opens up in the morning so she can leave if she needs water. We know when the skunk has arrived in the middle of the night as the dogs bark.
Speaking of barking dogs, someone in our neighborhood sent out an email to everybody complaining about the barking dogs now that the weather is warm and windows are open at night. I hope he'll come to understand that farm dogs are just doing their job when they bark at night as they're telling us that there are strangers or dangers in the area. I can tell by Lacey's bark whether it's a deer eating plants or skunks stealing eggs or raccoons killing chickens. When she and Bonnie both start in, the problem wildlife are close by the house. When they wake us up with their barking, we go outside and investigate. We thank them for doing their job and tell them it's time to be quiet. They're pretty good listeners and, if they keep barking, it's for a reason.
Not everyone should move to farm country, especially if their expectations are of an idealized existence. All livestock have their noisy times. Separate a calf or kid from their mama, and the bawling begins. All 35 or so chickens announce when they've laid an egg, and turkey hens noisily warn when anyone is in the area. Roosters crow in anticipation of the sun coming up and they crow to roosters down the road. Sometimes we can hear our neighbor's mules bray two properties over when the coyotes are teaching their young how to hunt. Our neighborhood is in a canyon and sounds travel for miles. I don't mean this in a flip or disrespectful way but I think this neighbor would be happier if he invested in a good pair of ear plugs!
We're going to do a test dig this weekend on the garlic. I dug a few bulbs 2 weeks ago and those varieties were right on track for harvest. We could be at the Gorge Grown Farmers market on August 5th - I'm getting excited!
I agree that some people move up to rural areas with no idea what it's really like. My neighbor to the east is a nice guy, but I had to threaten to shoot his dog before he made any effort to keep it on his property so it would not harass our poultry (it had actually killed a couple of chickens). He (and his wife, who is even less suited to country life) have no concept of how to keep up a gravel driveway, and has tried to "fix" or improve the driveway several times, and each try has actually made things worse.
ReplyDeleteThe latest problem to come up concerns shooting on my property. He says his dog is neurotic and goes nuts for a day or so when it hears shots fired. I quit shooting except for my airguns to try and accommodate him, but I'd still like to keep in practice with my powder burners, but I guess I'll go up to the national forest for that to try and keep the peace. But if I need to use the firearms for predators, too bad about his dog. I can only hope he'll understand.