Down the Hatch

Or: Attempting to preserve my garden...as it were.

But first a Marigold photo, because it is lovely. 


These are so pretty.  I'm going to save a bunch of seeds.  Marigolds tend to reseed themselves spontaneously, but I'm going to save some extra seeds on purpose, just in case 

Now.

Here is the remnant of one of my nice cantaloupes.


 It wasn't ripe yet.  The same night the diner, as it were, also went over and enjoyed a tomato.



This was about a week ago, I believe.  The next night it returned and finished off the other half of the cantaloupe.  The next night it ate half of a smaller cantaloupe and duly returned for the second half the next night...along with another tomato.

To keep any more of my choicest cantaloupes from going down the hatch before they've ripened I rigged up a cage of sorts for them.


I had to carefully maneuver the vines around so as to not break them off prematurely, but I managed to get 5 of them in there.  I really ought to cover it with chicken wire, but I don't have any at the moment.  I think next year if I feel like growing them again, I will rig up some sort of cantaloupe cage system.  

At the moment though, I am not feeling the urge to want to repeat the hours and hours of backbreaking work killing bugs just to watch the fruits of my labors go to a varmint of some kind.  Ugh.  The joys of gardening.

On a brighter note, we have been enjoying some nice tomatoes.  I've been picking them before they get really ripe and letting them ripen in the house.  I can't let the wildlife get everything.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oyster

It isn't even halfway through the month yet and I have run out of lists or anything amusing to tell you about the dairy. So here is a poem I picked up on a homesteading forum. It does deal with ag issues, just of a different sort... Enjoy! The Oyster Baxter Black The sign upon the café wall said OYSTERS: fifty cents. "How quaint," the blue-eyed sweetheart said with some bewildermence, "I didn't know they served such fare out here upon the plain." "Oh, sure," her cowboy date replied, "We're really quite urbane." "I would guess they're Chesapeake or Blue Point, don't you think?" "No ma'am, they're mostly Hereford cross . . . and usually they're pink But I've been cold, so cold myself, what you say could be true And if a man looked close enough, their points could sure be blue!" She said, "I gather them myself out on the bay alone. I pluck them from the murky depths and smash them with a...
Read more

Like Cats A'Fightin'

Image
That's a local saying when it's snowing hard. Snowing like cats a'fightin'. You can look out and see the fur flying. Ellen had never been outside while it was actually snowing. She was enchanted. She had to have a bucket of it to carry around. It was in the mid-20s but we took a bit of a walk before coming back in for a nap. The snow is still too dry to be able to make a snowman, it is really powdery. So far we have somewhere between 3 and 4 inches, I would suspect.
Read more

The Blind Calf Story

Image
This happened last month. I thought it was an interesting case. Wed Aug 15th 2007 8:30 AM: Went out and brought new heifer calf and cow in from field. Not too sure how old calf was; umbilical cord sort of dried up, but calf still seemed damp. Left her with cow all morning ‘til maybe early afternoon, then separated them. Beautiful, normal calf. 6 PM Fed calf bottle. She slugged back the whole thing. Thurs Aug 16th5:15 AM (approx) Calf comatose. Or as near as I could tell. She was on her side, non-responsive, drooling, head on ground, eyes closed or just barely opened. I tried to feed her bottle but she only swallowed convulsively once or twice, then milk just drained from her mouth. 5:30 AM. Husband went out and looked at her. Drug her out of pen and out of the way to be taken to boneyard later after chores were all done. She was barely breathing and as I said, totally non-responsive.This was a real grief as the cow she came from is a great milker and to get a heifer from her was a joy....
Read more