What did you do in the garden today?

[Acre4Me]

Hot stretch here. Garden looks good. Planted the gourds, but they take awhile to sprout.

the baby chicks have been spending their days in the run, in a bunny cage. They are getting used to the chickens. I might need to give them a small pen to frolic in, so they have better exposure to the flock.

We’ve been discovered. We’ve had chickens for 2 years and the last 2 nights something has been digging all along the 50’ fence, and the 10’ side fence. Shallow holes. Also some holes where I’ve washed out the waterers or pans. Only a couple spots in the compost were touched. Compost is chicken bedding and coffee grounds/tea leaves, veg trimmings. So, the biggest area of interest has been the fence line. A climbing and motivated animal could get into the run. But, so far no evidence of that. A small animal could get between the rounded door edge and fence post, but hasn’t. What could it be? An opossum can climb, but maybe not motivated to do so? A smaller dog? A raccoon that can’t climb? We plan to set a trap, assume it’s can fit into the trap we have, but neighbor may have a bigger one.

 

[Sueby]

@karenerwin love the bee pics! Is that greenhouse attached to her house - like as in the windows are open? That's a lot of work!

I put up a sun shade (made for my jeep, lol) over the lettuce. Some of it was about to bolt & for sure this heat will do it. I watered last night, wish we would get some rain but I think all we're getting is heat & humidity. @Wee Farmer Sarah I don't know how you do it without the ac, we've had them in for at least a month, lol! They will be on all day, every day through this wave.

I had to sprinkle sweet pdz all over my deck & sweep it in the cracks because that stupid chippie that lives under there has made the smell of urine unbearable. Gross.

@littledog that's a good idea, like a tuna salad inside a roma. I'm going to have to try that.

Have a great day everyone!

 

[Sueby]

Yikes. It could be anything! Do you have cameras you could point that way?

Hot stretch here. Garden looks good. Planted the gourds, but they take awhile to sprout.

the baby chicks have been spending their days in the run, in a bunny cage. They are getting used to the chickens. I might need to give them a small pen to frolic in, so they have better exposure to the flock.

We’ve been discovered. We’ve had chickens for 2 years and the last 2 nights something has been digging all along the 50’ fence, and the 10’ side fence. Shallow holes. Also some holes where I’ve washed out the waterers or pans. Only a couple spots in the compost were touched. Compost is chicken bedding and coffee grounds/tea leaves, veg trimmings. So, the biggest area of interest has been the fence line. A climbing and motivated animal could get into the run. But, so far no evidence of that. A small animal could get between the rounded door edge and fence post, but hasn’t. What could it be? An opossum can climb, but maybe not motivated to do so? A smaller dog? A raccoon that can’t climb? We plan to set a trap, assume it’s can fit into the trap we have, but neighbor may have a bigger one.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

It could be a fox @Acre4Me. A raccoon would just climb. I don’t think fishers dig. The heat Isn’t too bad here until mid to late June @Sueby. My little house is well insulated so it takes a little while to heat up. I had to run an errand so now it’s lunchtime and then it will be too hot to work outside. I’ll just focus on getting the big AC in the dining room installed. That unit weighs well over 50 pounds so I bought a special cart that lets me install it myself. No lifting, just shifting the weight around. I still need to put up a shade cloth up for my lettuce and cabbages.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Ok @Sueby, I felt guilty so I just put up an old bed sheet up to shade that garden bed. It’s muggy out there.

 

[Acre4Me]

Yikes. It could be anything! Do you have cameras you could point that way?

no cameras, but maybe need to see if a local store carries any.

 

[NewBoots]

A small animal could get between the rounded door edge and fence post, but hasn’t. What could it be? An opossum can climb, but maybe not motivated to do so? A smaller dog? A raccoon that can’t climb? We plan to set a trap, assume it’s can fit into the trap we have, but neighbor may have a bigger one.

My money is on on it being a skunk. We used to trap them all the time back in Portland. We only killed one and that was because the trap had injured it too much. I can kill critters but I hate killing skunks.

that's a good idea, like a tuna salad inside a roma. I'm going to have to try that.

Dang it now I want a tomato stuffed with tuna salad.

Ok @Sueby, I felt guilty so I just put up an old bed sheet up to shade that garden bed. It’s muggy out there.

That's a great idea, simple and effective.

No rain so I did the watering, dumped the pots that had sick tomatoes and mixed in new soil and up-potted a bunch of peppers that have been in little pots much too long. I read that hot peppers are easier to grow in my location than sweet peppers, I can't imagine why. Also potted a few more flowers to mix in with the deck pots. Finally dragged the soaker house out of storage and put in on the west fence-line. It isn't really long enough but it's a good start and it shows me more good planting space that I am watering. I need to move the artichokes over there.

Fern (our other cinnamon doe) had her babies last night and there's at least six of them. It's her first litter but all seems good right now. She wasn't even twitchy about me poking around in the nest. I'll try to get pics later today, the cage is kind high for a shorty like me to get a good look in. Fern is always a sweet girl, Cupcake always gives us the stink eye sometimes.

I suspect that the mystery crower is Carl (formerly known as Carmen), our rowdy boy. He crowed at 5:50 am this morning then was quiet till about 7:30 then crowed every 5 minutes or so. I tried to catch him in the act but they can see me through my window once I stand up and he didn't crow anymore after that. Gonna really hate having to do him, he's really pretty and has a real personality. He's the littlest rooster and really tries to make up for his size with persistence.

 

[AllenK RGV]

I was able to get 5 new agave pups divided and in pots, plus found where one of my Sumatra has been hiding her nest with a silkie mix in there too. . So far another 1.5 inches of rain fell on my yard with already saturated ground after pup potting. DW is starting to shop for a scythe so we can do something productive with the half of the lawn that I couldn't get to last week before the rains restarted. Also, I finally got to ask a neighbor a couple of doors down for some of their cactus nodes as they were pruning them anyway when I drove by.I have been admiring that one for well over a year. Next time I see em in bloom.. might be early AM I'll upload some photos of the flowers. Don't expect a valid ID for them though as I just call em pretty. I'll toss some mix for those together today or tomorrow to get those set.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Would love photos when you can Allen ..

 

[AllenK RGV]

Still was a little bit more to my day. I did 45 minutes of weed eating as I knew where a nest had to be. So 80% of the tall stuff close to the house and the suspected nest area between a couple of sheds were cleared. I was right and found 16 eggs. After people dinner, DW cooked em up to add some spice to the dogs kibble and the chicken were paid their share too.

So now it is wine'o'clock until the chicken chores need done in 1 hour closing them up for the night.