July Farm Activity

I was away most of July in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana.  Van and Teresa kept the place in order while I was gone.  I finally got out and caught up to a month's worth of trailcams.  I also did a few chores.

The one row of pumpkins was dry and overrun with weeds.  I watered and weed-whacked around the edges.

After 15 years of success using Plotsaver tape to keep the deer out of my garden, they have figured it out.  They decimated the sunflowers that I had planted here.

It has obviously been dry - the pond is low.

And the clover is starting to go brown/dormant.  This is the main field.

The barn field.

And this is the driveway field.

Look at this photo of the driveway field earlier in the month.

I had a sunflower field decimated by deer browsing and overtaken with weeds.  Before I left, I sprayed it with Roundup.

I decided to plant it in brassicas with no tillage.  No rain in the forecast but I have to do these things when I have time.

I rolled it with this cultipacker,  Not sure if that helps.

This area (top of the pond field) was also terribly overrun with weeds.  I sprayed it with Roundup on Saturday and planted it in brassica on Sunday.  Completely no-till with no drill.  Broadcast seeding and rolling.  Fingers crossed that something comes up.

I am always amazed to find these mylar balloons.  It's like my property is a magnet for them.

This is the stand plot in the main field.  I planted it in the spring with sunflowers and clover.  It was pretty much lost to deer grazing and weeds before I left.  I mowed it to try to give the clover a chance to compete.  It is waist high with grass right now.

Here I am mowing it a month ago.

Trailcam activity was wild.  Some cameras had 4000 photos, others had 20.

The twin fawns were everywhere.

Triplets?

Lots of general doe/fawn activity.

The bucks are still in velvet and developing.

Skunk encounter.

Turkey encounter.

This fox seems to have a chipmunk.

As always, lots of coyotes.

Bobcat activity.

And owl activity.

Lots of turkeys.

Poults are growing.

Annual visit by geese.

It's good to be back.  Lots to do.