Too hot, too dry....

We've now had several weeks in the high 90's and low 100's.  There has only been 1/4" of rain in the last month.  Everything is baked.  When I can, I've been watering the pumpkin patch - that makes it the only green stuff around.  The deer barrier (plotsaver tape) was breeched this week.  Not sure if it was deer or rabbits.  The tape was still intact but the plants have been nibbled.

An overview of the pumpkin patch/garden.  It amazes me that weeds can grow when crops can't.

These were the earliest pumpkins that I planted.  They're up about a foot and surrounded by weeds. Most of the other rows are just up about 4".  They're living on one drink a week that I give them on the weekends.

The one row of vegetables was planted just inside the tape.  That might have been a strategic error.

Somebody ate the tops off of the bean plants.

There's not much left of the peas.

They even ate some of the cucumber plants.

 But the zucchinis weren't disturbed.

First harvest.  I won't be back for two weeks so I will probably have some monsters by then.

Hoe-ing the weeds around this one row of pumpkins took about 1 1/2 hous in 90+ heat.  With 12 more rows to go, a different strategy was called for.  I went to the roundup for the large areas in between rows.

Everything is really dry and the pond is low.  The pond aerator died.  Two attempts to fix it have failed.  I will probably have to buy a new compressor.  It is really needed in this hot weather to prevent the pond from "turning over" and killing the fish.

You can see how low it is.

The deer have been coming to the water.

The clover in the barn field is toast.

There's still a little green below the pond in the newer field.  Probably because there is a leak in the old pond that runs down there.

The original pond field clover is also toast.

The main field clover is also toast.

The soybean planting in the driveway stand never really came up.

The same condition with the soybeans in the orchard field.

The sunflower field is also just about hopeless.  If the weather broke and we got some rain, I guess all of these plots would recover but it looks like they're lost currently.

The windstorm that took the power out also snapped a couple of the large pines behind the driveway stand.

There are also trees down on all the atv trails.  I was going to have a dozer out to work on the trail drainage so he can just clear them all too.

On the camera tour - notice Joan taking incoming calls in the background.

We got high speed internet at the farm this week (DSL).  I'm trying to hook up the security system cameras to be viewed remotely.  Still working on it but we now have wireless internet at the farm. 

I was too busy with the pumpkin patch to get my guns sighted in this weekend.  I'll be hunting prairie dogs in South Dakota next weekend so I hope it rains while I'm gone.  The first few prairie dogs may get a reprieve while I get sighted in.