SWEET!!!!
Me, I have decided to pretend that we will need zero wood to heat our house thus winter
Thank you!Heel low: So like summer never did show up. More like the WEsT Coast with rain 90 days straight BUT (and a big butt I have!) the difference that made it tolerable here in land locked Alberta was that we got sunshine ever day....near every day there was sun shining...unlike my 25 years on the Coast of ninety days of those straight rain deluges...where no sun was seen period!
Our newest ewes...six pack of hair sheeps getting FAT on greens! "Eat yer [COLOR=008000]GREENS[/COLOR], eh!" Anyway...awesome year for grazing beasties...we are still trying to catch up to the forage growth here...for grazers, it has been a continues year of plenty.
Waterfowl and landfowl did not get lots of time out on the lawns--
Dogs, ducks and a wayward Buff Pied GanderSome time had the critters out and about but never what usual summers here offer...
Jun 5, 2016 on bird yard grassy lawn...herders helping to roust them back up for the eveningToo rainy and would have destroyed the land! Care for the land first!
June 4, 2016 Potato plantings beganSo some may recall the helpers I had that oversaw the planting of the tater patches (NO veg garden this year...slug heaven and seed would have just rotted in the ground)...
Aug 12 2016 - Ewes beginning on the weeds in Veg areaBest use of the Veg Garden this year...sheep feed on them weeds...har har!So here are me helpers...the dogs watching sheep TV and the hair sheeps clearing the patch of any green growings.
June 4, 2016 these seeds went in these furrows...
And grew up into this plot
Tater patch
And we marvelled at the pretty potato flowers...
Our last official SNOW day this year was May 22...
May 22, 2016 - Unhappy geese gaggle out on a field scavenging up grains So no fear we lacked moisture...har har. One smart rancher put up his forage in silage inside plastic wrap with a new machine he bought...now that is forward thinking...making hay when the rain pours and putting it by in the best optional way he could. Dang smart and he won't be whining about no winter foods for his herds! Dang smart!
May 22, 2016 - in downtown Cochrane AlbertaFirst potato plant I harvested on Aug 23, was the Alta Blush...
Aug 23 2016Yah, one tater plant and the bounty.
I did save four as seed potatoes for next season.
August 23, 2016 - to celebrate the harvesting of the first potatoes!Later on Aug 29th, decided with the pea sized hail we got a while back would show which particular plants got a tad more damage than others...
Aug 14 2016 at like noon...still some on the ground next day of hail...So that dictated I could steal (and I mean steal a plant that could have kept producing!) some plants.
Aug 29 2016 - Alta Blush top left Linzar Deleketess top Caribe bottom right Viking bottom left and AmaRose middleI have not harvested some real gems...those are in the ground still (like that all [COLOR=0000FF]blue[/COLOR] Russian blues...tee hee) but how about these colours for taters!
Aug 29 2016 - Second potato harvest; AltaBlush top, Caribe right top, Linzar Deleketess bottom right, Ama Rose bottom left, and Viking on left sideDecided the only way to do some justice to the variety of types...make potato soup. One plant each was taken and what eye candy!
Pretty kewl looking colander fulla tater types!
TA DA!Potato soup and that be that!Course not just homegrown potatoes were in thar...fresh herbs from the herb garden too!
Thyme, two kinds of Parsley, three kinds of sage, rosemary and oregano...yeh...Herb garden has been supplying a great continuous harvest of freshness to our meals.
Tomatoes in the greenhouse, what 30 plus varieties...we have not had the heat so all I got so far is green tomats...I mean there are shapes to see, like plum and cherry and more normal type tomatoes, but no colour yet in the Snow WHITE Cherry tomatoes forming, the BLACK plum tomatoes, the Coyote YELLER cherry tomatoes, not even the multi coloured as in German (picture hues of red and yellow) or the Zebra ones (green with black stripes, etc...). But I shall remain patient and hope a blast of heat (perhaps) will get some vine ripened ones done up. Otherwise, it is harvest the green ones and with a ripe apple, in a dark box to await their ripening and COLOURING on UP!
Green tomatoes...to ripen to what colour?
These are BLACK plums...lookin' green?The fact I got Okra and cukes, some watermelon plants (won't likely produce...no heat!), along in the greenhouse with my hundreds of tomatoes...I shall not be complaining. Next year, I shall perhaps give the one type 42 days (what a joke) another chance to show itself...but for the most part, if judge and jury were asked...this tomato variety is pathetic and the weakest of all the tomato seeds I planted...could be it needed heat...so won't discount one plant's non performance on the whole packet of seed I still have. LOLLet's see...lots and lots of time spent on Man Porch due to liquid sunshine downpours every day...
And thus, means we rotissiered our buns off...pork shoulder roasts, chickens, roasts of beef beasts...a very delicious "summer" time. We shall be upgrading to the PRO 825 Napoleon grill (nfi) from the Mirage we have worn out and outgrown...quite amazing we are ramping up to a gas grill that will do 45 hamburgers...but we have been running out of room on the old grill with a rosissiere chicken and veg and starches on it. There is a separate infra red bottom grill on this new unit...something that quickens the cooking of Rick's well done steaks and sears up my blue rare steaks to perfection. Looking forward to picking it up in a few weeks time!
Aug 20, 2016 - Cover the tallest bean plant with old towel
Aug 21, 2016 - right as rain We did get one frost warning day on August 20, so Rick and I covered up our tenders and he even whisked the newest of the fish pond and waterfall plants inside the garage for the evening...
Now that be gorgeous fur a pond plant, eh!Jun 7, 2016, I tilled up a portion of our dirt and hand seeded it to oats in two sowings.
Leaping lizard dogs in the weed patch yet to be tilled under
Aug 21, 2016 - OATS!Not sure if I will leave these to oat grain up, or harvest some clumps or...yeh, the fact that I know I can easily grow oats means, well uh, yeh...food...I can grow ourselves a bounty of food without too much trouble. Good to know, eh. :yiipchick Doggone & Chicken UP! Tara Lee Higgins Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
. Good job!
@CanuckBock those pictures are absolutely gorgeous
