August on the farm

Craig and I head out to the farm pretty much every evening, to check on house progress, cut grass and work in the garden.  We usually stay til just about dark, and sometimes just beyond, as there is always plenty of work to be done and we just plain enjoy being in the great outdoors.

Full moon over the sunflowers
They are all done now, after topping out at 11 1/2 feet tall.  

I usually start out harvesting whatever is ripe.  We were glutted with watermelons for a while, but managed to offload five 25-pounders on our trip to Maryland, plus fed several overripe ones to a cousin's horses.  Several of our tomatoes have gone belly up and the cucumber has about quit (thankfully), but the eggplants and okra are having their moments now.

I feel like Bubba from Forrest Gump:  eggplant enchiladas, eggplant salad, eggplant pasta... 

You have to pick okra every day.  EVERY DAY.  The pods grow quickly and once they get past a certain size they are too woody to be edible.  I have 3 varieties planted, one of them red.  I like them just for the color (both the plant and the pods are burgundy colored) but they taste the same as the green okra.

This is what happens when you go out of town for a long weekend just as the okra is coming on.  The clippers are in the picture for perspective; I couldn't actually cut the big okra with them.

I had to use tree trimmers to cut the big okra!  

We are still getting peppers (bell and jalapenos) and we planted some new tomato plants to hopefully get another harvest.   

There is one sadly stunted cucumber hiding in the box.  

I planted pumpkins just to use for fall decorating. I planted a bit later so they'd be ready for Halloween, but it was still too soon.The good news is I'm going to have a spectacular Halloween display; the bad news is that display is going to be in August!  I've picked all the mature pumpkins and I'm hoping for a second harvest by Halloween.  Thanks to my Aunt Wanda for suggesting what should have been obvious but wasn't! 

The pumpkins didn't get the message about "normal size".   

Arriving unfashionably early.  I had to roll this monster over to the barn; it was too heavy for me to lift.  

We haven't had as many critter sightings lately.  I blame the heat, and the possible, probable gator in our pond.  I'm afraid I have to report sad news:  we lost a goose.  We noticed that the two geese families, which used to spend most of the day at the front pond, had recently started avoiding it. Then we did a headcount and came up one short.  Coupled with some suspicious muddy drag spots on the bank of the pond and lack of any goose-shaped chalk outlines elsewhere...

The grieving goose family appears to have left for greener, less gatory, pastures.  The smaller family has stayed, but spends their time down at the bigger pond.

Craig made the (brief) acquaintance of a small water moccasin when he turned over a piece of wood in the field.  He very prudently did the turning with a stick.  We've both learned to be cautious of picking up/turning over things outside, as there is a good possibility there will be some sort of creepy crawly underneath.  Said creepy crawly will probably be just as startled as we are and want to avoid us too, but in the panic (ours, possibly theirs) might do something regrettable.  Breathy screams, arm waving and biting (them, possibly us).

This scary lady was minding her business under a cooler that covers a spigot until I turned it over (with my foot!).  After playing paparazzi I just turned her house back over and left her alone.