Saturday, July 6, 2024

Sunflower Wars and Happy 4th!

I planted three fields of sunflowers this year and I'm fighting to save a portion of one of them.  The rest have been lost to deer and weeds.

I was sitting on the porch at 5:00pm and saw this.

Can you believe it? A deer inside the plot-saver tape munching away on the sunflowers.  I yelled at her and chased her away.  When I came back 5 minutes later, there was a little buck in there.
I went over to check the pumpkins, and there were deer prints everywhere.
And in the plot, chomped stems.
Lots of chomped stems.
I thought the tape might be a little low this year so I went and got some fence posts to add another layer of tape.
I only did two sides of the the plot.  Might have been wasted effort.  Time will tell.
Later, when I checked my trail cameras, I noticed something in the background.
As if I needed more evidence.
This field was planted in sunflowers.  They germinated nicely but were browsed heavily.  Then the pigweed took over.  I decided to just spray this one to kill it.  I sure don't want all of that pigweed going to seed.
In this field, I planted some clover and chicory with the sunflowers.  The sunflowers have been hammered by the deer and there is a lot of grass (probably johnson grass).  I decided to mow this one and see if the clover and chicory can compete.
It seemed like we had a lot of rain but only 1/2 inch in the gauge.
On my walk, I found this maple down across a trail.
We have a ton of milkweed but I haven't seen the first monarch yet.
Poop of the week - a bomb in the orchard.
The pond is still running a bit low - even with the aerator only running at night.
My company came up with these handy giveaways.  Magnetic beer koozies. 
Dinner in the gazebo.
A relaxing evening.
For the 4th, we went to the fireworks at King Island.  They also have a drone show.





Hope that you had a great holiday.  

This weekend celebrated by picking more wineberries and stopping at Dairy Queen for some ice cream to go with them.
Chores - mowing.
Spot spraying.
Hens and poults on the trailcams.


We haven't seen bobcats in awhile but they're back.


The fox.
Coyote.
Some young bucks.

The fish-poaching heron.
A faceoff between a doe and a skunk.
The fawn that seemed to have some eye issues.
Twin fawns.





Check out the ticks on this doe.  How do they stand it?