Help Again This Week

Dave, Dawn, Graham and Grant came out this weekend and we had a few "work details".  It started Saturday evening with a Scheessele family weeding party in the pumpkin patch.

Actually the boys helped with the weeding too - they just didn't make the picture.

Big news this week - 1.5" of rain.  It made it easier to pull the weeds.

I have to compare this to last year - it isn't much.  And, in addition, we've had 100 degree heat.

The zucchini are still producing but near the end.

The stem boring bugs are killing the plants.

The cucumbers look good but then...

They end up like this.

I think that this is one of those monster pumpkin plants (prizewinner variety).

When released from the weeds, the pumpkins are doing pretty well.

Dave noticed these burrow holes in the pumpkin patch - I don't know what they are from. They have a curving entry path that almost looks snake-like.

The plotsaver tape was down in a couple places - I put it back up.  The soybean field actually looks ok but...

...the sunflower field may be hopeless this year.

These are some of the gourds that Joan wanted this year.

Here's the work crew out clearing trails.  We worked on this downed tree for quite awhile.

It was a big tree and I struggled to get it cut without pinching the chainsaw in there.

But we got the trail cleared.  The boys threw the rocks off the trail while Dave and I trimmed the "face-slapper" branches.

Our work crew finally decided to "take a day off" and just stay in the Ranger.  I think we might have pushed them a little bit too far.

Some drama from earlier in the week.  This is the phone company marking telling the excavator it is all clear to dig.  Of course, it wasn't.  It took two days to get the phone line repaired.  But I do have a new culvert under the driveway.

Just a couple bucks this week - although Dave saw a nice one running thru the woods on our drive.

We did leave a few goodies out for the deer.

Thanks for all the help Dave, Dawn, Graham and Grant.

I meant to include this photo yesterday - I believe that these are the footprints of a great blue heron fishing in my pond.

And here's the orchrd after the old fence came down.

Lots of Excitement This Week

First of all, we had rain.

We had about 1/2" on Friday and 1/4" on Thursday.  Yahoo!!!

And, I hired a dozer guy to clean up my trails.  He decided to do it right away  (this weekend).

And, I got two young, strapping boys to work as farm hands.  John and Steve are the sons of Joan's physical therapist, Andy.

We started by giving them a tour of the place on the Ranger.

Then, I put them right to work in the pumpkin patch. The weeds really prospered with a little rain.

There is no good way to get the weeds.  We tried hoes and pulling them.  Finally, we just crawled around and yanked.

There were alot of weeds when we started but we made a dent in them.

This is the kind of challenge that we faced.  The pumpkins in the foreground have been liberated from the weeds.  There are more pumpkins to be found in that snarl in the background.

We really made alot of progess.  I was able to roundup the large areas in between the rows.

The zucchini harvest is pretty strong right now but may be dwindling soon.

I think that I have a bug boring into the stems.  Not every plant is affected...yet.

John and Steve also helped with some mowing.  And then we cleared some downed trees and brush.

After a long day's work, they checked out the dozer guy's progress on the trails.

All my trail cameras had these blurred images...

Then we did a little shooting.

First with a 22 pistol.  Then with a 40 cal semi auto.

Then with the 44 magnum - the Dirty Harry gun.  We shot targets and also blew up some old stale beer cans.

The 44 is a handful.

Then we shot with a 22 rifle.  I had been in South Dakota prairie dog hunting last week and I left my other rifles in Mason (by mistake).

I was exhausted and had a beer on the couch.  These guys went fishing at the pond.

Proof that there are bass in my pond.

Sunday morning we stacked and "plotsavered" a couple of fields.  We also cut up more downed trees.  The boys fought off doves, pigeons and wasps to take a look out of the high rise stand.

Then we decided to shoot a few clays with the shotguns.

Steve was a natural.  He broke the first clay that he shot at and then didn't miss too many afterwards.

This is "Myrtle", the walking sprinkler and another birthday gift.

Believe it or not, there are actually some beans up amid those weeds.  I sprayed the field with roundup and the boys put up the plotsaver tape.  If we get a little more rain, there's still a chance for this plot.

The sunflower field looks terrible.  I'm not sure if it has a chance or not.  We worked on it to give it a chance.

Here I am clearing the line of sight for my new camera.  I had just mounted it on a tree.

Here's the dozer clearing trees right around where I had put the camera.  Luckily, he must of spotted it on the tree and he left that one tree standing.

Lots of progress this weekend.  Dozers and farm hands really help alot.