Hays Days

 Rod is STILL trying to get his truck fixed.

It turns over, but won't catch.

He changed out the fuel filter.

The fuel pump is working.

He's doing other mechanical stuff...

and watching LOTS of YouTube University

videos to help him.

But it's still broken.

Meanwhile, Kyle and I headed out to town

to do the shopping...

First stop, Ollies to get some carpet

to put on his landing for his stairs.

We also got him some shorts and I got

more trays for our stuff at the farmers market.

Then to Bomgaars to get a new nest box for

the girls coop since they keep eating eggs!

We found one we can hang on the back of

the coop and they go in, lay, and the egg

rolls away into a little compartment they can't

(hopefully) reach and they can't eat them.

Plus they don't step on them with their dirty feet

so the egg stays nice and clean.

Also a new bigger waterer for when we move the

broilers into their new coop.

And some spent coffee grounds to help with the

smell in their brooder because DUDE.

(Remember, they eat and POOP a LOT...)

Then to Walmart for the usual grocery run.

Back to the house to trade vehicles.

Rod needed to head into town to meet with the 

Bishop to go do some member visits.

And we needed to go to the farm to take care

of the chickens.

And put the new onions Kyle just harvested

on those hanging racks in his shed.

And then we went down to the garden to see if

there were any tomatoes or okra to harvest.

No tomatoes.

SOMETHING is doing a number on them.

Probably the grasshoppers.

We bought a seed spreader and some grasshopper

bait to spread out there. Kyle's going to do that today.

They eat it, and then they are carnivores, so their

buddies eat them, and EVERYBODY DIES.

YEA!

Takes about 2 weeks to see a drastic drop in the

population, but I'm all for it.

Meanwhile, we are picking the tomatoes as soon

as they start to blush, then we will let them ripen

on the counter. Otherwise, the bugs get them all.

NOPE.

Kyle did some mowing on Monday.

He mowed some of the top of the hill above the garden,

so we climbed up there to get a bird's eye view.

That's corn there at the front.

And it goes all the way to his car.

Corn, okra, the cattle panels you can see have cucumbers,

cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon and sweet potatoes slowly

covering the arch.

Then the tall, really dark green is the 4 rows of tomatoes.

The plants are SUPER healthy and COVERED in little

green fruit, we just need to get it FIRST.

Then we have a row of cabbage (we harvested the first 3 

last night... they were TINY - personal cabbages, 

but I chopped them up and sautéed in butter and seasoning

and they were YUMMY!)

Then onions, beans, 2 random brussels sprouts, for about

4 or 5 more rows.

We are taking most of that out this week when the seeds

get here and putting in about 2000 carrots.

We want a good fall harvest.

I thought you might enjoy a glimpse of the backyard garden as well.

Our volunteer sunflowers are doing really well!

That's our home tomatoes and peppers to the right.

And the red potatoes, sweet potatoes (starting to climb the panel)

and some tomatoes (Roma) and peppers (no heat jalapeno

and a fun little pepper IF they actually produce) along

with some nice healthy nasturtiums. 

Then my crazy flower bed.

And finally a bed with green beans (nearly done) 

and all my cucumbers.

We are doing well with everything except the peppers.

We just aren't great pepper growers.

We picked a couple last night but the skins are

SO THICK. They smell great, but aren't a pleasure to eat.

But we'll keep trying.

Ok.

Time to get something in the freeze dryer for this week.

I pulled the cucumbers out last night.

They turned out well.

And I'm teaching again tonight.....

Have a great Wednesday!