Farming Skills Are in Question

I took a quick trip to Australia which meant that I missed a weekend at the farm.  And the weekend before I left, I only had a short visit that was nonproductive since I broke my bush-hog.  So when I finally got back out there, things were getting a little out of hand.

I have had some success though due to the exceptional growing season this year.  Here's Joan in front of my second sunflower field.

The main problem is that the weeds and grass have been growing exceptionally well too.

I had so many photos on the trail cameras that I am going to make multiple posts from this weekend.

This is the earlier sunflower field.  It's already past peak and starting to be taken over by ragweed.

The pumpkin patch looks good from a distance but some of the pumpkin plants are showing mold/fungus.  I usually spray fungicide every week and I haven't sprayed at all this year.

Thye weeds between the rows of pumpkins are now 6 feet tall.  The bad thing is if I let them go to seed - then I will really be over-run with weeds in the future.

This is supposed to be the center aisle in the plot.

Some evidence of the mold.

In this area, I went in with clippers to recover some squash plants from the weeds.

It's surprising but the squash (and pumpkin) plants are doing fine under all of those weeds.

An example of the harvest extracted from under those weeds.  The zucchini on the left is at least 3 feet long.

When the mold affects the pumpkin plant, the fruit ripens early and doesn't grow as large.

Most of them haven't started to turn yet.

I also planted some winter squash and various gourds.  I'm not sure what is what.

I guess I'll just wait for a frost and then collect what's left.

The soybean fields are looking very good - the best ever.  They're growing faster than the deer can eat them (which is unusal).

This is a new plot near the hi-rise stand.

You can see the stalks where the deer have been munching down.

This is also a new plot (fall planting).  It's just coming up in turnips.

Even my newer apple trees are producing fruit this year.

There has been quite a selection of butterflies.

In general, all varieties of insects seem to be prospering.

Saturday night was a beautiful evening.

Sunday morning I uncovered these plants which I think may be acorn squash.

Van replaced a defective frost-free spigot in the barn.  In order to do so, he has the water shutoff at the meter.  When we arrived at the farm, we had low water presssure so I went out to the meter and played with the valve.  We eventually discovered that the water company had a line break and it wasn't any problem on our property.

On Sunday during our tour, I found this hydrant gushing (where I had played with the valve the day before).  I was afraid that it had been running for 24 hours and I shut it down.  A few minutes later, a water company guy showed up in his truck - he had just opened the hydrant to get air out of the main line.  Whew.

Sunday mid-day we had a gully-washer blow up.  It probably only lasted about 45 minutes.

In that short time, we got 1.1" of rain.

During the rainstorm, I mounted a new scope on my 30-06.  I got a Leupold VX3 3.5-10X 40mm.  My old 3-9X VX2 is going back to the factory for warranty repair - the magnification ring is stuck.

I got the new scope sighted in and then revisited which muzzlebrake (Boss) setting was best.  I had been using a 6.5 setting and on my inital experiment, 3.5 was the 2nd best setting.  This time, 3.5 was better.  I shot groups of 5 and had about a 2.5" group.  The first 4 shots wer 1.5".  I'll play with it some more later.

I guess this is an indication of the growing season this year - funky looking mushrooms growing in the middle of atv trails.

While I was in Australia, Van got a free day and got my bush-hog fixed.  He and his friend Donny did alot of mowing to get me caught back up.  Van's on the little finishing mower here.

This is Donny on the old John Deere.

And Van headed out with the repaired bush-hog.

The trailcam had this photo from Amy's visit in July.

And my usual camera tour shots.

Aren't bifocals great?