Homestead Update

We've gotten over ten inches of rain in the past three weeks. Statewide the rains have varied wildly. Oklahoma City and Norman have gotten less than Little Ax and some places have gotten significantly more. When I get my new rain gauge set up, I'll start keeping a log of our rainfall.

We have a few days with only a twenty percent chance of more precipitation, so I'm busy getting things done outdoors. I threw a belt on the riding mower before all the rain started. This morning I put the mower up on the lift and cleaned out around all of the pulleys on top of the deck and got the old belt untangled. The new belt went on easily and I got the heavy mowing done. The grass had grown so high I ended up with windrows of clippings over about an acre. I'll have a large raking job to do tomorrow.

The push mower wouldn't run. This is a frequent problem--whenever we get a lot of rain the gas in the tank draws moisture. I tried draining the gas from the tank and carb, but fresh gas from the can didn't help.

We made a trip into town to get fuel stabilizer and I got a spark plug and air filter while I was at it. I also needed potting soil. Kathy found a torn bag of Nature's Care Organic and we got it for half price. I use a lot of potting soil in the greenhouse, so we always bargain hunt. I also bought a bag of EcoScraps Tomato and Vegetable plant food. The NPK ratio is 5-4-6. I've been interested to try EcoScraps for awhile. The price was right, so I'll see how it goes.

When I went to the greenhouse this morning I found that a herd of blister beetles had moved in overnight and started stripping my eggplant leaves. The little buggers are quick and caustic. Luckily I had my gloves on and I started squishing bugs as fast as possible. I didn't have time to get any photos of the bugs, but I think I killed them all.

Blister beetle damage on eggplant leaves.

The deer have taken over the lower meadow. We put on our boots and went hiking in the woods looking for possum grapes. We didn't find any vines, but when we came out into the open we startled a doe and her twin fawns sleeping beneath the boughs of a red cedar. We've been seeing two mothers and three fawns several times a day on various parts of the property. They've been around since June. They'll probably join a larger herd in a month or two. I'm sure we'll still see them passing through at times.

We have critters everywhere we look and most of them are beneficial. Dozens of lizards live in the backyard and scatter in front of us as we walk.

A western earless lizard eyes me disapprovingly. We also see skinks and six-lined racers and lizards as small as an inch long.

Leopard frogs hide during the day and sing at night. We have to go slow on the mower so they can flee ahead of us to safety.

A gray tree frog naps between canna leaves. They add to the music of the night along with a chorus of toads, crickets, katydids and owls. We see the grays a lot. Although they are nocturnal, they are drawn to the deck and the bugs around the floodlight and are often still around in the morning. We see them on the storm door at night and find them indoors in the houseplants in the winter.

We have birds ranging from bluebirds to vultures around our place, but none are as noisy as the neighbors' guinea hens. The guineas never stay still long enough for me to get a good photo, but they do a good job of controlling ticks.

A friend is going to weld the tine back on my tiller tomorrow, if I manage to get it to him. I have a large part of the garden to turn under and it's too much for the string trimmer tiller attachment. 

There's plenty of cleanup to do in the garden, downed limbs to cut up along the driveway and tall weeds to cut down along the front of the property. My mint plants need to be repotted, the carrot seeds have germinated and will need to be thinned soon, and the compost needs to be turned.

It's just another lovely day at the homestead.

Stephen