Thanks for everyone who helped me identify this silly weed! Its Dead Nettle.
Also - I don't know about you but I'm shocked and saddened to hear about the storm damage in the South. I'm sure we all send our thoughts and prayers to the survivors and to the families who lost loved ones.
-ofg
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What the heck is this? Its something that I'm supposed to know - and our yard is lousy with it.. so can anybody identify it?
This purpley flowery stuff is everywhere!
I'm so glad our weather guy confirmed that I'm not crazy. We've had rain 13 of the last 14 days. Sigh. Between storms I've been out there trying to get a few things done.
Today's accomplishments included slogging around in the mud for most of the day and shoveling out the chicken house. And fighting with the goats to eat they hay they don't like. We are out of pure alfalfa and they have all turned up their noses at the "mix" hay. Everyone's milk production is down and they are all on my last nerve. I've been to 3 hay guys and still nothing suits those picky goats. The last guy allowed me to admire his lovely field of alfalfa - but of course he can't take it up until we get some dry days.
After the mid-day rain I got a few things potted up - some dahlias and some trays of seeds:
The three-row-tray has: Hungarian Sweet Peppers, Black Krim 'maters, and some seeds from a squash last fall, the 1/2 green and 1/2 yellow cushaw squash.
The two row tray has dwarf kale and Italian pole beans.
There may be some other news afoot - both Happy and Bianca/PigPen/Lady Gaga/Snowball seem to be setting nests! Happy was a singleton from last year and Bianca is the duck momma who hatched a clutch of chicken chicks a few weeks ago. She's also my best milking helper. Every night she peeps around the goat milking stand eagerly waiting for me to put some milk in her bucket. Its actually adorable. Since she didn't get the raise the babies she really wanted to set again. So I helped her out by putting more chicken eggs in her nest. She seems strong enough for another session on a nest - so we'll let her give it a try. And I'll keep her strength up with lots of milk.
Our momma goose, Penny, is still poorly but she's spending more time on her nest so hopefully she'll just sit down. OD the gander continues to chase Miss Duck around. I think there are "goings on" going on out there.
That's the news that's fit to print.
Happy Thursday everyone! Hope you are staying dry!
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10 comments:
The first time this came out about eight hours ago Blogger didn't let us read it.
Sorry can't identify those - look like mint, may be not.
You are your busy self as usual. And those goats are giving you a tough time eh. Mine eat any green shrubs they find, including my young durian plants!
We're having plenty of rains too, but the sun always shines after that.
Take care pal.
When you don't get rain then you get mock ten wind. I thought our house would blow away last night! I gues it dries up everything but enough already. I have a question, if we get this property that I blogged about earlier, will ducks stay at the pond if we put some there? Or do they all have the instinct to migrate?
Thanks
Looks like ground ivy. It's all over here, wish the goats & chickens would eat it. The pollinators do like the little purple flowers.
So that purpley flowery stuff looks to be of the mint family...maybe dead nettle. We have the white flowered variety and eat them in our salads...bon appetit.:)
Dead Nettle. As usual, there seems to be a blogger-mind-meld and Small Holding dig a post on it two days ago:
http://smallhold-pioneerpreppy.blogspot.com/2011/04/dead-nettle.html
As for your goats turning up their noses at the mixed hay, I feel your pain. We're desparately scrounding the county for some good (or even sorta-good) hay for our goats. Haying time isn't quite here and everyone's barns are empty of lasty year's hay. Those darned goats are wasting 75% of the hay I put out for them now and it's driving me totally NUTS!!!
Hope you dry out soon!
That there is purple deadnettle--a member of the mint family that will TAKE OVER. As it has in our garden. Irritating.
That weed looks like Henbit, but reading this on my phone, I can't see the pic very well. Check it out online.
Wow you are all really smart! Yep its dead nettle and I found out more here:
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/weedguide/singlerecord.asp?id=690
It is part of the mint family and is a relative/grows with henbit.
Grandpa - I loved you post - thanks so much and I mean that in all ways.
Mary - we had crazy winds last nite. Neither of us could sleep because it was so loud. If you feed your ducks, and give them a safe place to sleep they will stay around. Most of the domestic varieties don't have any interest in migrating. Always feed them at nite in their shelter so they know where to go. I did a quick post here for ducks:
http://adventuresinthegoodland.blogspot.com/2010/06/dos-and-donts-for-ducks.html
Not only are ducks lots of fun (I'm totally soft on them) but some are good egg layers and bug eaters!
Michelle, my goats wont eat it either. The article in the above link says it can be toxic to livestock - which is probably why they wont eat it.
But I'm sure we wont eat enough to make it toxic to us - and we'll enjoy some on salads like Mr. H does. Hi Mr H!
Thanks Carolyn! How funny we all have the same things on our minds. I picked a couple of buckets of thistles for my goats yesterday. It helped with production but wow are they stubborn!
Hi Kristin and THANKS! And yep - is getting everywhere.
Thanks Rae! I love that you are reading this on your phone!
Hey Java! I'm wondering if the ducks will eat it? How is Fran today?
There is probably 110 names for that plant ... I've always heard it called henbit.
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