Staying Put

I had to lift Squishy out of her nest this morning to eat and drink. As soon as she was done she ran back in. She sure is dedicated. 

Our one and only watermelon is finally ready! It's really good...but I don't think I'd bother trying to grow watermelons again. So much work for so little!

Would ya look at those melons??

No more tennis ball melons here - these cantaloupe are the real deal.

They're growing so well in the greenhouse. I think there are about 10 of them right now. 

The watermelon is getting huge, too. There's only one of these...it better be tasty because it sure was a lot of work to get it to grow!

Bags of basil ready for the stand. 

This is the edamame from last week. I haven't actually tasted it yet - it's in the freezer. Maybe I'll try steaming some tonight.

I still can't believe how well everything is growing. I love not having to buy any veggies!

Midsummer Greenhouse

Melons and winter squash are taking over!

Lots of cantaloupes now

I opted to use some netting instead of one of my bras...

These bell peppers are huge! I want them to ripen already...

We're getting 2 lbs of these gold nugget tomatoes a day

Cucumber plant right up to the roof

Grow bed #1 is full of giant tomatoes and cucumbers

And cayenne peppers!

I think it's time to make some more pesto...

Brussels sprouts - they're the strangest looking plants.

There's finally a watermelon growing!

Poor Ewean...the only one who has enough white on her face to really see the purple eye spray. Their eyes are all cleared up, though!

I'm off to go see if I can salvage any of the recently mowed back field clippings for hay. Right now it's all laying on the field and will be wasted...then we'll have to go buy a bunch of hay to feed the sheep over winter. It would be nice to dry and use some of our own. Possibly easier said than done since it's looking a bit cloudy out...

Addiction

After giving the lambs almost a week to settle in, we decided it was time to get them to like us. They've stopped running away from us when we walk by  (it didn't help that we had to grab them on day 1 to check Ewean's gimpy leg - she had been limping but seems better now) but we want them to come running to us (and I want to pet them...and halter train them...). 

Day 2 of training and now when we go outside we see this: 

This was all thanks to the magic of Farmyard Crack. No, I'm not talking about my low sitting farm jeans: I mean sheep grain. We bought some to use for training and we started off yesterday by dropping a bit into a bowl for the lambs every time we walked by them.

Both Ewean and Oprah (her formal name is still Eweneequa but it's a bit of a mouthful) are still jumpy but are now eating out of our hands. Oprah is definitely the leader of the two - she is the first to stomp angrily when the dogs get too close to the fence, and the first to investigate anything new. Ewean doesn't investigate as much but she also seems less suspicious of everything.

The problem is, Farmyard Crack is equally loved by everyone. It's really hard to stay still and try to get nervous lambs to come over to you when you're trying to shoo chickens off of you. Especially when those chickens can get most of their bodies through the fence to try and eat the grain.

Sheep training helpers. 

That Farmyard Crack is something. When I stood up to walk down the driveway I saw this coming towards me:

This following me:

And I heard a pleading "baaaaaa!" next to me.

The cooler weather has slowed everything down in the greenhouse but it's still mostly looking good.

Baby cucumber

 Lots of Kale.

Cantaloupe. Apparently when you grow melons vertically they need to be supported in a net of some kind since they get too heavy for the plant. One YouTube video suggested using brassieres...I'm not sure if these tiny melons will need training bras first?

Itsy Bitsy Watermelon.

Not so itsy bitsy tomatoes. 

The tomatoes look fine but the folliage does not. I really hope this isn't Early Blight. I think the humid days in the greenhouse combined with cooler nights hasn't been great for tomato plants. Two of the plants in the grow bed have most of their leaves affected and the big Sweet Million plants have their bottom leaves affected.

Tomato Tomahto

Today Nathan (with his Australian accent) asked our landlord's daughter how her 4th birthday party was. She looked very confused and asked him, "what's a birthday potty???". I almost fell over laughing.

Back to Tomahtos - one of the best parts about being new to all of this is how exciting everything is.

For example, OUR FIRST TOMATO!

It's a Sweet Million tomato - they're the seeds that I started at the beginning of March. Apparently the plants can grow over 8' tall. Good thing they're tied to the roof of the greenhouse (they're about 2' right now).

A mesclun mix started from seeds in one of the grow beds is doing well (the 2nd row).

Thai Dragon hot peppers like the greenhouse heat.

 Watermelon growing vertically.

The strawberry tower.

I guess we do have pollinators in the greenhouse (I still want bees).  

I'm pretty confident in my chicken sexing. 

Cockerel:

Pullet:

WTF:

WTF x2. What ARE they??