Happy Birthday Carrie!

I would like to wish my daughter Carrie a very Happy Birthday.  It doesn't seem possible that you are turning 33 years old today especially since I am only 32 myself.  I hope you have a wonderful day and wish we were with you to celebrate your special day.  From the time you were born to currently you stole my heart and it will be forever like that.  You have grown into a woman that can do anything and you have your whole future ahead of you.  Keep doing your best, make good choices and just live.  Happy Happy Birthday Carebear! ❤️

Dead Men Tell No Tales

We went and saw "Pirates of the Caribbean 5 Dead Men Tell No Tales" and if you are a Pirates fan then you will love it.  Even if you are not it is good.  We are and so we throughly enjoyed it.  We all liked it better than Pirates 4 and it kind of wrapped up the on going story from the first three movies and still left it open for another Pirates movie.  I don't want to say much more than that because I don't want to spoil it for anyone but if you want to go to a movie for fun and action then this is it!

The Plants Get Fed

After planting all the seeds and plants in the garden some of the tomato and egg plant plants were not looking very good so Operation help the tomatoes & eggplants began. Lisa was reading about the impact of heavy rains on the nutrients in the soil and found out that the rain will wash away key nutrients such as nitrogen. George & Lisa decided to use tomato & vegetable plant food and George sprinkled the granules around the plants and Lisa followed him with the liquid food both hoping it would work and it did. The plants are doing much better and we are all pretty sure there will be a bumper crop of tomatoes and eggplants.  Sounds like some eggplant Parmesan will follow too!

The Dump Truck Lives On

As you know the dump truck on the farm has had its ups and downs and most of the time it has been down so the saga of the dump truck was created but if you remember a couple of months ago Tim and George ended that saga and yesterday went even further than the saga.  When repairing the truck used parts from an old truck that George had purchased, to be used for parts,  fixed the problems on the dump truck and yesterday it had its maiden voyage and it did a great job.  The maiden voyage was to pick up horse manure from a local rancher and instead of using the pick up truck and make several trips George and Tim were able to make one trip with the dump truck.  One small problem is the battery was weak and as the manure was getting loaded they did have to jump start the truck.  Other than that everything went well and now there is a working dump truck on the farm and a whole lot of horse manure!  Basically the Dump Truck lives on!

Catching Squirrels?

If you want to catch a squirrel just ask Lisa.  She has managed to create quite a squirrel trap and didn't even realize that is what she had purchased.  She thought she bought a bird feeder which is exactly what she did but. However, a squirrel thought it was its personal feeder and managed to flip open the lid and crawl inside getting trapped.  The squirrel got in easily but getting out was a different story.  George, Lisa and Tim tried a few things to get the squirrel out but eventually Tim, using thick gloves, took the bird feeder and placed it on its side on the ground and opened the lid so the squirrel could get out.  The squirrel got out and ran like its life depended on it. So, if you need to trap a squirrel get a bird feeder with a lid.

The Fruit Trees Are Showing

If you have followed this blog for the past couple of years you know that at this time of year I do a lot of blogs about the orchard and the garden.  There is one big reason for that and it is because a lot of our time and effort will be dedicated to the orchard and garden for at least the next three months.  Today is all about the fruit trees.  They are looking really good and if the trees keep doing their thing then this year should be a good year for all the fruits.  The grapes and pears have been good the past couple of years but we have not had as much luck with the peaches, nectarines and apple trees.  So far, they are all bearing fruit and we just hope we can beat the birds and insects to harvest.  As for now we just wait and see and watch the trees show their fruit!

Planting Time Again

More seeds were planted in the garden which is a strategy that we are hoping will work out with having crops last longer and not get too much all at once.  Corn and Green beans were planted again along with replanting cantaloupe, acorn squash, watermelon and cucumbers.  We had some visitors in the garden (cows and wild boar) that decided to walk all through the patch where the above items were planted.  They killed a some of the plants that is why they were replanted.  We may have beef and pork soon if they continue to ruin our crops.  This time when planting Lisa used a PVC pipe to plant the seeds.  It worked well and only cost $5 compared to the $600 seeder we tried earlier; the seeder was returned for a full refund.  So now we are hoping the plants will grow or continue to grow and we will be harvesting in about a month or earlier.