Zucchini Mania Begins

Not much in the rain gauge this week.  There may have been a shower early in the week that mostly evaporated.

The zucchini plants are starting to produce.  When I left last week, none of them were over 3" long. 

This is what I harvested this week.

The pumpkins really look pretty good at this stage.  

A serious gardener would probably do a better job of weeding the rows.

That's not me.

The dogs and I had a pretty good romp.  The heat broke this weekend - only a high of about 82.

Did some mowing and bush-hogging. It seems that I'm always behind on it.

This is last week - broadcast seeding the brassica over the soybeans.

I used this roller/cultipacker to get seed to soil contact.

More bush-hogging action.

The soybean plots are really thin due to over-grazing by the deer.  They are roundup ready so it allows me to spray and fight weeds.

Last week I over-seeded these plots with brassica.  We didn't get much rain but the wet spots have germinated.

I'm surprised how well the soybeans survived the rolling.

The fields are dry and we really need more rain.  Currently, about an inch is predicted for Thursday/Friday.

The clover fields are looking decent again after spraying and mowing.

Ticks and flies - I'm not sure how the deer tolerate it.

I'm always in competition with the deer to get some of my apples. They can reach pretty high to pick.

Little buck - about another month before the velvet starts to come off.

Fawns are getting bigger.

Lots of turkey activity.

And the turkeys don't seem to appreciate the visits from the migrating geese.

I believe that this is a turkey vulture.

Some small hawk on a perch.

The usual fox.

It's hard to see and it's been a few weeks since the last visit, but I think that's a bobcat.

Raccoons and possums are always about.

There was a ton of coyote activity.

It seems that there was a litter with at least triplet pups.

Rain!

 Finally some real rain.

And everything looked healthy.

Including the weeds.  This grass has taken over what was supposed to be a sunflower patch (for the second year in a row).

I think it's Johnson Grass and I don't think tilling helps.  Might have to go fallow for a year and just fight it.  For now, it's mowed before it seeds.

I hoed the zucchini row.

The pond came up a little bit - still low.

I relented and bought one more mineral application.

Beautiful weekend and spent a few minutes in the gazebo.

Some of the fruit is producing - these are apples.

And pears.

The butterflies are abundant.

This is the state of the soybean fields.  Roundup has killed everything except the beans.  Lots of exposed soil so I'm no-till planting brassicas and oats for the fall.

After spreading with a broadcast spreader, I rolled them with this cultipacker.

I also weeded the pumpkin rows with a weedeater and spot spraying.  The plot is 1/2 size this year.

First harvest of zucchini.

On the tour.

The fawns are fun.

We've been getting visits from migrating geese recently.

You can see the flock in the background.

Feisty.

Not sure if the turkeys appreciate the visitors.

Woodpecker?

This little one sided buck shows up everywhere.

The usual predators.

On tour.

Spraying last week.

Mowing this week.