Sunday 6/16

We had another derecho come through on June 14th though it wasn't as massive as the one last July. This is a view of the dark wall that came over the blue ridge. I was working outside on a sunny day and suddenly there was a solid dark cloud popping up in the west. I got a few photos before it hit. We got little rain but some wind. Some places around the area are still without power but we got off easy as I think the mountains kept it off of us some.

The things people throw away, I found a nice old enamel ware pan at the dumpster. Of course I couldn't leave it laying there.

We were watching a Duck Dynasty the other day and the boys took an old gas grill and converted it to use charcoal. So having a broken gas grill, I got motivated and stripped out all the unneeded parts and lined the bottom with old broken fire brick from the furnace. Back in business, we have an alternate cooking device now.

I have been spending a lot of time in the garden dealing with weeds over the last few days. Debbie and I finally got the west corn patch weeded yesterday. This is a before photo but I liked the way the morning sun lit up the corn.

Another before photo as I ran the tiller through here this morning. I liked how the palletsade looked blue in the morning light. Of course it isn't blue but the best colors are early in the morning.
We got Debbie a new laptop as she is taking classes to get a teaching degree and needs a new machine. So I have been working on getting it set up here at the DQ. I have determined that I don't like Windows 8 so far. I have managed to load firefox, avg antivirus (after blowing mcafee off the system). Now I need to load the special browser so that she can take tests on the ODU site as she is going to school online.
I got taken to Red Lobster for a great father's day lunch, I actually got filled up and didn't get desert, maybe later.

Thursday 6/13

The last day of school was yesterday and Carrie used some sidewalk chalk to let everyone know of the next major event that will start soon. She came home from school and started practicing so it must be important for that to happen. We came to town and got a driving manual at DMV this morning as that time is quickly arriving. She has been promoted from passenger to co-pilot in my car and is being told what I am watching and doing while driving. We will start driving on the farm road before too long.

Houdini says moo to all his many fans!

Yesterday was a long hot day pulling weeds mostly out of the west garden bean patch. Here is a self portrait of me with sombrero and basket. I really hate to wear sun screen so I just put on long sleeves and a big hat.
The beans had right much lambs quarters weed growing in the upper row so I went out with a basket and picked a mess of greens before the pulling started.

Lambs quarters is a wonderful weed and usually the first spring greens though it seems a little late this year. I heard stories of how my great grandmother used to pick it so I started using what would normally just be tilled or pulled out of the garden. It has a different texture than most greens but to me tastes much better than say cooked spinach. The good thing is that bugs don't seem to like it and it plants itself every year but it can take over a garden if you don't get after it, almost like that red rooted pig weed as far as making a garden disappear.
I eventually got the beans weeded as well as the squash. Used some bug spray on the beans as the Mexican bean beetles are flying around, I didn't see any eggs or larvae so they must be the first ones flying in so now is the time to put a hurting on them. That is about the only thing that I spray for as they will wipe out a bean crop in just a few days.
I almost forgot to mention that I planted lots of field corn this year and I noticed that some of it is not growing as well as neighboring areas. It suddenly dawned on me yesterday that the poor performing areas correspond to where I had grown tomatoes last year. You can just about see where a row of tomatoes were by looking at the shorter corn. I have never heard not to plant corn after tomatoes but it is so obvious this year since I planted so much corn and it happened the same in two different gardens so there must be something to it though I have no idea what the cause is.  

Tuesday 6/11

Well my little camera that I could wear on my belt finally died yesterday, this is one of the last shots that I took with it. I go through digital cameras quickly, they just can't take the abuse and dirt from being around me. I am not camera friendly I guess. I once dropped an old kodak box camera while on the side of a cliff and it bounced to the bottom and still worked only with a dent to show for the fall. It even managed to take a photo as it was falling.

So I am carrying the last working digital around today, it is a large one but takes good photos.

We usually watch a nest of Martins while at the bus stop but they were gone today and there were several blue birds very interested in taking over the nest.

We have had so much rain, the corn seems to grow more each day.

Some of the green beans are blooming, these are the last planted and have a week or so more to go.
One day the ground will dry and I will start pulling weeds again.

Monday 6/10

More rain over the weekend. Fun cutting steer food in the rain but the boys would eat all of the pasture if I didn't give them extra.

We finally had the long awaited birthday party/sleep over though I am not sure why the word sleep was used with the event.

The garden has enjoyed being soaked every day or so and is really taking off.

The chickens are not amused by the rain and mud.

Lots of weed growth so I filled up the compost bin while cutting steer food nearby. Covered it with plastic and will let it cook down before putting on some dirt and more plant material.

Thursday 6/6

Sunset over the rye field on Tuesday evening.

I cut grass and weeds along the road late on Tuesday and threw it over the fence to the boys. They stuffed themselves then wanted more so I gave them grass clippings from the yard. It is hard to fill them up but I actually did it yesterday morning when I had to cut grass off of the trail to the creek so I could haul gravel to the pipe project. I gave them huge wheelbarrow loads and eventually they just lay down and looked at me when I brought the last load.

The pipe project got completed yesterday when I brought creek gravel in and put it under the pipe for support. It was shoveled out of the creek and contained sand to where it was the consistency of fresh concrete and flowed under the pipe. Next I supported the clean out pipe with a cinder block and filled in the dirt.

Before covering the clean out plug, I used a short section of 6 inch diameter pipe to make a kind of well around the plug area so that it didn't have dirt on it. Used an old stainless steel pot lid to cover the well and then covered the it up with some brick as a marker (not shown as it just looks like dirt now). We have had lots of heavy rain showers overnight and the basement didn't flood this time so the drain system is working.
It is supposed to rain until tomorrow evening so I have a couple days off from most work. Still have to cut calf food in the rain but that will be the worst of it. I am in town buying groceries.

The rain was called for so I managed to do some much needed weeding in the east garden and also a little in the west garden which still needs more but is in tolerable shape until next week. This is a view of the dill, leaf lettuce and young Romain lettuce. The onions and potatoes also got a weeding, the cool spring has been great for lettuce in this location but a row in the main garden didn't do much.

Tuesday 6/4

Worked on the pipe project today and it is nearing completion. The clean out access is installed and I just need to haul rock from the creek to pack around the pipe before throwing the dirt back in the hole.

Our former renter was throwing out a glass top metal table when he moved, the glass had broken. Of course I don't let stuff go to the dump so I used some old boards to replace the top. I plan on using it in the cannery that I am putting together in the basement of the rental house. The wood burning cook stove will get put in place of the heating wood stove and I will be able to can without electricity in there.

The guy who hunts here was out this morning hunting coyotes as they are feeding on the new born fawns that are arriving this time of year. He uses a distressed fawn call to lure them into range and it seems to be working.
I saw a fawn yesterday and it was about as big as a baby goat only a little more sure on it's feet.
Looks like rain this afternoon so I came out to get more chicken feed.

Monday 6/3

Moodini posed for an early morning photo the other day, he and Houdini are getting some size on them along with horns.

We had a couple more good hot sunny days for working hay so I got two more loads put up before we got some rain. That makes a total of 14 loads so far.

I switched to the stopped up drain project again and cut the pipe to reveal the nasty clog.
This is the gray water and water from the roof pipe.

Cleaned out the clog, we are talking fun fun fun work now!

Replaced it temporarily and we got a downpour and everything flowed properly.
My buddy Tom from Winchester was visiting for the weekend so we made a run to Home Depot and got part to install a clean out access tube into the pipe. I will work on that tomorrow as it is supposed to be a dry day.
This is Carrie's birthday so we came over to DQ for ice cream and internet.