101st Blog Post

I can't believe that I have posted 100 blog posts since I started blogging 5 years ago!  I kinda feel like confetti and streamers should be dropping out of the ceiling and those crazy New Year's Eve horns should be going off.  Yeah!  OK, settle down.  Back to posting the blog.

We had something attack our hen house and then get three of our chickens.  It must have been something pretty big because it ripped the bottom of the door off and pulled the screen and the mesh off the door.  It also rolled the pressure treated post away from the door to start the process.  It must have been really mad and hungry.  My bet is that it was a bobcat.  I have seen one out just up the road in the pasture and one of the loquat trees that I planted had the bark shredded and I assumed that was from a bobcat as well.  One of the chickens we lost was the Amerucana that laid the double yolk, blue eggs.  What a shame.

I visited an organic grower in another county (Magnolia Gardens in San Antonio) today and it was nice to see his field.  His plants looked great.   It was interesting to hear him talking about his variety choices and they were very similar to mine.  He had a different red beet which seemed to grow well and he also had a couple of melons that I might try.  He didn't grow as many varieties of veggies that we do but what he did grow looked great.  In fact, it made me really understand how much better I hope to do next year.  He had a few ideas that I hope to try in the field.  He plants all his scallions in bunches instead of rows.  I like that idea and it will save a bunch of time.  He uses plastic mulch in his rows.  I don't think that I will do that but it is interesting.  He brews coffee for repelling ants.  It didn't seem to be working as I saw ants, but I will give it a try as they were eating some of my seedlings.  I will be using a few ideas I picked up.

In our field the corn is growing nicely.  The zucchini and the squash are doing better than ever.  The beans are just starting to ripen.  The greenhouse tomatoes are starting to go downhill.  The lettuce is trying to finish off.  The field planted tomatoes are green and ripening.  The pumpkins are looking good. The peaches/plums/nectarines, what little we have are almost ripe.  I wish we had more of them this year.  A few more weeks to go until the end of the season.

Here is a few pictures from the farm.  A lettuce going to seed.  A lemon tree with some fruit for next year.  I am very excited about this one.  It might be the first lemons since I planted the tree in 2004-'05.  The last picture is of a leaf with lady bug larvae that were all over the eggplant eating the aphids that were running rampant in there.  The ladybugs ate them all.