Garden, Orchard and Food Plots

This week, there was 3/4" of rain in the gauge.  The garden was thirsty and this rain was appreciated.  The corn looked much better and we may even get some to eat.  Unfortunately, it may be ready for picking next weekend but we're going to Peoria to visit Amy.

There are some tiny little watermelons starting to appear.

The cantalope look pretty small and the vines don't look very happy.  I harvested one just to give it a try.  Last year I waited too long and they rotted.

It's small but it looks pretty good.  I left a dozen or so more like this in the field.

It really wasn't quite ripe yet but it was not bad.  I hope that they will be just right when we come back in two weeks.

I'm not too sure what this is - must be a melon of some sort.  I didn't think that I planted anything other than watermelon and cantalope.  Time will tell - the vines look healthy so there should be lots of fruit.

The zuchinni are doing pretty well but Joan has had enough of them.  I don't mind the zuchinni bread at all.

For some reason, I planted three types of bush beans and they are all producing quite nicely.

We had them for dinner and Joan also blanched and froze a bunch of them.

Unless a catastrophe happens, it should be a good year for pumpkins.

Joan thinks I might jinx it by saying so...

Some are already turning orange.

The old apples and pears are doing great.  The cherry trees look to be about dead.  My new orchard is in a state of neglect and I really need to spend some time on those trees soon.  They need weeded, sprayed, cages expanded, and pruned once it's colder.

The green apples are edible right now but not really ripe.  They are my favorite when ripe.

Two varieties of pears.

Red apples.

The sunflowers are just past peak bloom.

The brassica got just enough rain to start germination - I hope it gets enough to continue.



Shooting the 30-06 for Utah

I've been trying to improve my shooting in anticipation of my elk hunting trip to Utah in September.  I'm shooting a Browning A-Bolt that has a muzzlebrake (called a BOSS).  I wasn't sure that I had it tuned optimally so I set up to do it again.  My 100 yard shooting bench is in disrepair so I set up to shoot prone from 72 yards (it was a convenient spot on the edge of the pond).

I marked paper with crosshairs for each setting on the BOSS and I shot a group of three off of bags.  My best groups were around 3 and 6 so I experimented with a couple more groups at 3.5 and 6.5.  Finally, I concluded 6.5 was my best setting.  I had been shooting at 4 previously.

At the 6.5 setting from 72 yards off of bags, I shot about a 1" group.  I don't think that's great but it is respectable.

Then I moved back to 100 yards and shot a group of 6 off of sticks.  5 of them were pretty good but one was a flier.

Incidentally, there was a left to right wind during this whole process - I think that's why all the groups were to the right of center.

Then I moved back to 190 yards and shot another group off of sticks.  It was about a 6" group - not so great.  More work needed.

Traffic Report and Other Stuff

This is Steve - he's Van's helper and has been coming most weeks this summer while Van builds a house.

I keep the disk on the old John Deere and that's what I used for planting the fall food plots.

Did some bush-hogging and had an issue with the pin on the 3 point hitch.  Got it together and Van will take a look at it later.

Saturday night was georgeous and I did a little fishing.  I was getting hits from the bluegills but I could see the bass feeding too.

Joan made homemade cinnamon rolls.  They oozed in the oven, dripped off the cookie sheet and smoked out the cabin.  They tasted really good though.

Trailcam 8-28-11

Pretty fun week for bucks.  One of the cameras died this week.

The backward buck seems to travel alone.

Cute little guy.  This is the camera that died.  I haven't had time to fool with it but it was showing no signs of life.

See the challenger in the background?