Coon Mystery, Skunk, and Too Wet to Plant

About 2.5" in the rain gauge when we arrived but it had been a couple days since the last storm.  Everything was wet and I couldn't get right into the pumpkin patch.  So I went to check cameras and I found this in the pond field.

I spotted two shapes just laying in the field about 5' apart.

I went over for a closer look and it was two young coons.  No obvious signs of trauma and they hadn't been bothered by scavengers.

When I checked cameras, there they were wandering into the field with Momma a couple of days ago,  It's a mystery - what killed them?  I sent the photos to the extension office just in case it was of interest to them.  When I went back by that spot about 6 hours later, there was no sign of them.  Body snatchers?

This was an interesting interaction between a skunk and a young buck.  I was familiar with that bristle tail because I ran into him in almost the same spot as the coons.

Here the skunk has moved to the other side of the buck.  This video is from me filming with my phone.  Skunk Interaction

Anyway, the pumpkin patch was soaked and I was planning to spend the whole day planting the other half of it.  I let it dry hoping to get into it late in the day.  No go. I'm staying over hoping to get into it on Monday.  It's now 7:00am and it still looks pretty wet.

We have some germination in last week's plantings.  Some rows in completely, other rows nothing showing yet.

The strip of sunflowers is showing a carpet of weeds in addition to the flowers.

The big field of sunflowers is also showing a lot of weeds and I watched the deer in it last night munching.

The powerplant field is a carpet of weeds.  I really have not had a lot of success with that product.

Buckwheat is pretty good although my planting may have been a little streaky.

The soybean field is a mess of weeds.  I put roundup ready soybeans in it just to work on the weeds.  I did spray that field and, in the course of it, somehow lost the lid for my spray tank.  I've looked everywhere and haven't found it.

Out for a tour.

BTW, this was a good podcast episode on ticks and the diseases that they carry,  This guy doesn't recommend using alcohol because it may cause them to unload into your system before detaching.  But he also says that the "seed ticks" haven't picked up the pathogens from their first host yet.  So maybe ok to use it on those little buggers?  Tick Podcast  It's about an hour long discussion but a lot of the practical stuff starts after about 40 minutes.

Keeping the minerals stocked.  

The fawns are showing up on camera regularly.

A good Mom photo.

And a hen.

The gobblers.

Gray fox.

Bobcat.

A hawk in action.

Coyotes.

Groundhog.

And the bucks developing nicely.

Some does still seem to be pregnant - 2nd rut?

Wonder what spooked these guys?

Fawns, Pumpkin Planting, Plot Progress

Due to some travel and grandkid visits, it's been a couple weeks since I've been to the farm.  There was over 4" of rain in the gauge but the weather was beautiful this weekend.  All of my machines are repaired and working properly (thanks Van).

The last time I was out, I sprayed some of the clover fields so I was interested to see how they looked.

The story was a bit mixed.  The orchard field looked pretty sparse.  It's apparent there were a lot more weeds than clover in that field.

The barn clover was great and the weeds - including the thistle - seem well suppressed.

The pond clover was looking pretty good too.

Of the fields that I had planted, the buckwheat seems to have come up well but there are a lot of weeds in there too.

The roundup ready soybeans in the driveway field don't look great.  I'm going to give them another week or two before I give them a dose of roundup.

The soybeans are up in there and I think I'll let the weeds hide them for a while to hopefully get them a decent start before the browse wipes them out.

The powerplant in the main field looks pretty weedy - we'll see if it develops any better.

There are a bunch of sunflowers up in the long main field but also a bunch of weeds.  Time will tell who wins that race.

I have a strip of sunflowers in the pumpkin patch.  There are some up but too soon to tell how dense.

I got 1/2 of the patch planted this week with zucchini, melons and the big pumpkins.  Hopefully I can get the other half in the next week or two with winter squash, gourds and specialty pumpkins.

The wineberry is developing nicely down in the woods.

I'm continuing with the minerals and it is prime time for both antler growth and fawns.

I'm not sure if these photos are all the same fawn.

I'm sure there are more on the way.  Starting to see some antler.

Lots of predators who would like to find a newborn fawn.

The turkeys survived their spring hunting season - I wasn't much of a threat.

And a few novelties.