This season so far...

I know, I know, not many posts lately. ...It's just been hard keeping up while dealing w/everything.

Our crops have been slow coming in, partially due to the cool weather, partially because of the weeds that we haven't been able to keep up w/regardless of all the help that we have had and finally because of the guineas. The tomatoes started coming on strong the 1st week in july but so did the guineas. They started hopping over the 6 foot garden fence via the raised beds going around them.... they have eaten almost everything. We have caught some and clipped their wings but still to no avail, they still had enough push to go over that fence. They have pulled down the vines and eaten the Purple Carbons, the Lemon boys, the Black from Tulas, green or red they have no preference. What tomatoes had the time to ripen w/their voracious appetites anyway? We were getting much flack from the customers about the lack of salsa so late in the season. Then Claire at Double Star Farms started chomping at the bit and donated some tomatoes and we bought some seconds from Centennial Farms and along w/a FEW from our plot we were able to get salsa going. Billy(you remember my loving husband) designed a chicken tractor for the guineas. We captured the female that had chicks which kept them and her mate there. In a 2nd he put another female which kept her mate outside the cage, but close and out of the garden. We're making progress.

Now as for the grant, you've seen the ducks and posted is a pic of some of the Thai Red Turtle Eggs which are changing color. I'm pretty sure that we have some Amish paste also as I seem some plum tomatoes in the garden but I won't know for sure until they ripen. I believe that I posted earlier that we would be exchanging the Orange Bananas for the Plum Lemons as we have had almost a complete crop failure of those and the Plum Tigris. Hard to figure why, last year both did so well. This year, low germination of both and what was left was put into the ground to sit there and do nothing. Some are still only a few inches high and they have been in the ground since late May. Puzzling. I can understand the seed being bad but after germination, growth is what happens....usually. Other tomatoes around them are flourishing nicely.

Concord Baptist Church Sunday school group was here a few weeks ago helping out via my sister. While they were here, they help Bill move everything out of the greenhouse so that he could do more serious work on the greenhouse to make it more airtight as we planned for in the grant.

So that is what is going on. Hopefully I can get myself together enough to be consistant at this again. TTFN