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When the trim is completed and it is “settled” with junk – I’ll post a tour of the leanto… bet that’s exciting enough for you to head back this way soon! This is one of those years… the elements are conspiring against us in a major way. With over 8 inches of rain for the month of June coupled with below average temps – it’s now becoming pretty clear the fate of our garden – once stunted by too much rain is now moving into the realm of plant loss outside of the several tomato plants already lost. When you see the water up through the several inches of grass mulch – it’s NOT a good sign.
If the depressing carnage of the one end of the main garden plot were not “typhoon or tsunami” coverage enough for you… the opposite end has the same issues. The unmulched foreground is “extra space” where there are a bunch of large sunflowers planted (underwater), the peppers swimming in the water are the straw mulched area (many inches thick and you can STILL see water), and then the grass mulched are is the tomato graveyard…
The weather has dramatically weighed in on EVERY plant we have. The corn will NOT be “knee high by the Fourth of July”, the radishes are splitting the ground because of too much water all the sudden, the potato greens are not looking healthy, and most plants if they haven’t visibly started to show signs of wet feet have basically stopped growing at all. As a matter of fact – there was so much rain yesterday the rate of fall topped the post the other day at 4.38″/hour… Kelli actually had to get out there as the storm let up and put a significant amount of straw in the two pasture pens so the chickens could get up out of the standing water in the pasture. This weather is just brutal.
Their first night was a little chilly and there were several birds in the morning that were shivering (yes – cold chickens do shiver). No wories – out comes the food – and they are right back to being pudgie little gluttons again! Every morning since then the pens get moved their length (10′) and the birds seem to be learning the ropes. You can watch their little minds churn: see guy with red bucket of grains, watch guy, guy lifts pen – RUN, RUN!, freedom!… uuhhh, hungry, guy by moved pen has grain… guy put grain in pen… RUN, RUN! Guy lowers pen, trapped again… who cares – food is in here… large world out there I don’t care about, eat, eat, drink water… lay.
Let’s see – small Terrier… little chickens that peep, chirp and cluck… they flap their wings and scurry about quickly and randomly… Encoded in that Terrier is his most basic premise – “get small things that make high pitched noises and eliminate them”. They are not friends, Watson and the chickens. They look at him with interest and inquiry… he looks at them with a tremor in his paw and a subtle chatter of his teeth. It’s an uneasy tension – always supervised… but for two years now there has been no inter-species bloodshed. It’s a tenuous coexistence while the chickens invade Watson’s space in the barn for several weeks. Kelli and I remain the diligent peacekeepers – and Watson remains the diligent watcher… |
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Today’s weather was rough – at one point the rain gauge recorded a rate of 4.3″ of rain an hour – thankfully it didn’t rain for an hour. We did get a wallop of another 3/4″ of rain. So the tomatoes are swimming again. Tonight we will be standing the peas back up, fixing various other plants – and ripping out the dead 
