Lucy's First Farm Visit

Amy and Lucy were in town visiting and we made it out to the farm for one night.  I haven't been out for two weeks and probably will not be back for another two weeks.  Things are getting a little overgrown.  Some interesting stuff on camera this visit.

We filled the car up - Joan shared the back seat with Lucy, Chloe and Sydney.

Lucy having some farm tummy time with help from the dogs.

Such a big girl - sitting up by herself.

The pumpkins look great.  Some rows have a weed issue but they're pretty much going to have to fend for themselves this year.

Most plants are in the flower stage but some of the early plantings are already fruiting.

News Flash:
The scoundrel elk outfitter who stiffed us has finally refunded our hunt deposits (after 1 1/2 years).

Only 60 days until this year's elk hunt.

I'm thinking about an Africa hunt next year for my 60th birthday.  Anybody else interested?

Amy assisted with the harvest this week - here she's working on the beans.

A bumper crop of zucchini and squash.

The rain gauge was only showing about an inch but it hadn't been checked in two weeks - might have had some evaporation.

One of the sunflower fields is in bloom - this one is just outside the dining room.

They are pretty tall but there's quite a bit of ragweed in there too.

There's the barn.

Probably my best soybean crops - it has been a great growing season so far.  The beans are growing faster than the deer can eat them - unusual.

I had planned to catch up on some mowing but, of course, I broke the brush-hog.

The rear wheel fell off and the axle was broken.

I was racing to get some forage turnips planted for a late season deer snack.  The rain was moving in and the field had been taken over by weeds.  We'll see how they do.

Last visit I mowed some of the weeds in the clover field.

The deer (fawns included) seemed to appreciate the mowing.

They were followed by a coyote - probably looking for the fawns.

This was an interesting gobbler parade on the ridge atv trail.

Followed an hour later by a coyote.

The fawns are up and about.  If these are twins, one is alot larger than the other (male/female?).

Could these be triplets?  It's unusual but it does happen.

Sometimes there's just one fawn.  Coyote attrition?

I splurged on a new camera (regular flash) for under the apple trees.  I think the apples are such an attraction that the deer will come whether there's a flash or not.  And the pictures are better with a regular versus IR flash.

There are already a number of good looking bucks around.

I'm guessing that the great growing season is providing ample nutrition.

This will probably be my last mineral feed.

Amy made the camera tour with me and we looked for more rasberries.  The red ones are done and the black ones are just ripening - but they are sour.

I'm off to Australia for a quick trip so I'm not sure when I'll be back.  Hopefully my brush-hog can be fixed while I'm gone.

Quick Visit for Chores

Our grandaughter Lucy is coming to visit.  She just turned 3 months old.  This weekend we will be in Mason and next weekend we will be in Chicago.  There is a baby shower for Jeni - our grandson is due in late August.  So I won't be back to the farm for awhile.

Here's Lucy studying up on her farm animals.

I arrived Wednesday night right at sundown.  A pretty heavy storm line came thru at about 6:00.

Another 0.8" of rain - I was hoping for semi-dry ground to work in the garden and do some mowing.

When I got up Thu. morning, we were fogged in (again).

I took a camera tour because it was too wet to do much else.  The sun was supposed to burn it off quickly.

To kill some time, I picked more wild rasberries.  The red ones are delicious.  The black ones are sour.  I eventually filled this container.

I decided to brave the mud and get to work in the patch.  The weeds are getting out of hand.

This is my vegetable row.  I must have put some gourds in there and they are taking over.

I think these are gourds.

The storm blew everything around and made it muddy.

Some of the early pumpkins are really looking good.

I've lost some beans and zucchini in those gourd vines.

But there was still some to harvest.  This is only about 5 days worth.  I don't think that I can stay away for two weeks.

The harvest at home all scrubbed up. The little tomatos are from Joan's plant on the deck.

The one sunflower field already has a couple of blooms.  If we don't come back for two weeks, we may miss the action here.

Here's a spot where the deer got in the sunflowers and ate everything but the stalks.

There are still turkeys around.  While driving around, I kicked up a covey of something bigger than quail (about a dozen of them).  I thought that they were too small to be turkey poults.  I thought they might be grouse but I've never heard of them coveying.

Then I saw this picture - I'm sure it was these poults.  I never saw the hen.

These guys would love to find those poults or a fawn.

This buck has a very nice sized rack for July.

I think that's him on the left coming into this field full of deer. In the picture below you can see him bedded down in the field.

Some other bucks.

Shows how big that first one really is.

I'll have to find another day or two to slip back out here - lots of chores to do.