The Old Folks Home

[Beer can]

What is the black one?

Blacktail mountain watermelon. Supposed to be the earliest watermelon grown by Sandhill preservation center. I bought the seeds from Baker Creek.
I tried some awhile ago, looked ripe, yellow on bottom and brown tendril on the vine. They were not ripe.
The vines are about all dead now. This one was ripe, juicy and crisp good flavor. Have three more and a couple itty bitty one's.
Hard to keep them from suffering from weeds, small plants and leaves and grow close to the ground.
Next yr I think I'm going to trellis them, or thinking of halving 55gal barrels lengthwise and put them on stilts a few feet off the ground.

 

[Beer can]

Love hubbard squash... Love butternut also. And they'll keep for 6+months in a dry cool environment.

Those hopi pale grey's they say will store until next season's harvest. I'll have to keep one to see.

 

[Beer can]

Love the squash. All my pumpkins and gourds were assaulted by squirrels this year and I have nothing left.
Yesterday they dug into my 50 lb pumpkin I so proudly grew and ruined it, along with a rouge vif d'etampes next to it.

I hatesss them, precious.

View attachment 1549267

https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/09/16/huge-squirrel-population-chomps-crops-driving-farmers-nuts/

Never heard of that...
Sounds like you all need to start eating some fried squirrel.
Not a lot of squirrels here, not like when I was a kid. Not many rabbits either. Plenty of hawks, think they are gobbling them up.

 

[microchick]

SGC a .22 will cure that problem really fast. I hatesss squirrels also. We have oak steps on our back landing and noticed that something was chewing on the edge of each step rounding them off. Finally caught a squirrel that was coming up and gnawing on them to probably wear its teeth down. Caught the same squirrel trying to raid one of my blue bird's nesting box. Got the .17 scoped rifle out, laid on the landing and only took 10 minutes before the little so and so showed up again.....for the last time. I really love the .17. It'll flip a squirrel a good 3-4 feet in the air when it hits them. Not much left to fry up but the effect makes up for it.

Almost 22 acres of timber and the little devils chew on steps...not acceptable. I'm always rooting for the hawks when we see them in the timber. They keep the population down and leave the flocks alone.

Nothing left for your big pumpkin other than turning it into pumpkin puree for pies.

 

[Latestarter]

Sorry to see the damage done SCG... Save some of the seeds for planting next year. I've noticed a LOT more squirrels here than I've seen since moving here. There were a lot of rabbits for a while, but haven't seen any of them for a while now. I don't have a garden to lose/worry about, so I live and let live. That will change if they decide to move in with me.

 

[1muttsfan]

A good robust predator population, especially foxes and hawks, will take care of that squirrel population quickly. That seems to be one thing that people who kill predators don't understand, is how hard they work for us to keep nuisance critters down. Another very good reason to have a super secure set up, so you can let nature balance things out.

 

[Alaskan]

Love the squash. All my pumpkins and gourds were assaulted by squirrels this year and I have nothing left.
Yesterday they dug into my 50 lb pumpkin I so proudly grew and ruined it, along with a rouge vif d'etampes next to it.

I hatesss them, precious.

View attachment 1549267

https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/09/16/huge-squirrel-population-chomps-crops-driving-farmers-nuts/

very bad!

Blacktail mountain watermelon. Supposed to be the earliest watermelon grown by Sandhill preservation center. I bought the seeds from Baker Creek.
I tried some awhile ago, looked ripe, yellow on bottom and brown tendril on the vine. They were not ripe.
The vines are about all dead now. This one was ripe, juicy and crisp good flavor. Have three more and a couple itty bitty one's.
Hard to keep them from suffering from weeds, small plants and leaves and grow close to the ground.
Next yr I think I'm going to trellis them, or thinking of halving 55gal barrels lengthwise and put them on stilts a few feet off the ground.

Fascinating. I like antique seeds. Never seen a melon that dark. Very cool. What does the inside look like?

 

[ronott1]

Didn't Elvis eat a lot of fried peanut butter sandwiches before he died?

It was the drugs that killed him, not the Sandwich!

Killer Sandwich!

 

[ronott1]

A good robust predator population, especially foxes and hawks, will take care of that squirrel population quickly. That seems to be one thing that people who kill predators don't understand, is how hard they work for us to keep nuisance critters down. Another very good reason to have a super secure set up, so you can let nature balance things out.

I had a hawk in the backyard on Saturday. The poor thing seemed confused by the setup I have--shade screen, coop raised and then pallets around for the hens to hide under. The hawk was not even in the chicken yard! It flew off when I went out and the hens did not have any wounds.

Two of the hens are bigger than the hawk was! It is nice having hens like that

 

[perchie.girl]

A good robust predator population, especially foxes and hawks, will take care of that squirrel population quickly. That seems to be one thing that people who kill predators don't understand, is how hard they work for us to keep nuisance critters down. Another very good reason to have a super secure set up, so you can let nature balance things out.

Well said... very well said.