Hill of Beans, farm notes, and broody update

I'm thrilled to finally be doing some planting. Of course we went directly from cold winter to unbearable rain to.... hot summer. Thankfully its starting to dry out but now all the seedlings need to be watered so they don't just dry up!

Roma bush beans - growing like weeds!

I've been working on my Hill Of Beans. For now I have several rows of Roma bush beans and I'll do a couple rows of Bush Lake in the next couple of days. I also have seeds for what are locally called "horticulture beans" - I think they are just kinda pinto-like beans and wow are the delicious canned. I tilled up the area for the horticulture beans today.  Next to the potato row, on the other side of the beans, I planted more cow peas mixed with turnips.

Pears are doing beautifully

In the hillside pepper patch I added a couple six packs of "Big Bertha" and "Super Heavy." I also found a volunteer squash and I moved it to a heavily composted pile. I planted a row of seed-started Black Krim. I think I mis-identified this Black Krim as a Tula Black last year. Or maybe they are the same thing, just named differently.  Between the tomato row and the fence line I planted a mix of carrots and turnips.

There's a million baby grapes - a bit of frost damage but they are bouncing back.

I've also been working on this area outside the gate. The "hay field" (ha! more like a patch) was tall enough for us to take about a third of it down and give it to the goats. They loved it. And it was nice to get some freebies for them. I tilled up the mowed-down section and will plant it with clover and black oil sunflowers. The sunflowers I planted earlier are doing great - and they will be great snacks for everyone this winter.

Peas are going to be ready any second.

In broody news, my little duck friend with one chicken baby is doing great. She hadn't gotten up for about a week tho and was starting to breath hard. We decided to take action and give her some relief. I took up the little one and put him in my shirt, then carefully picked up the momma right off her nest and put her down outside the garage where The Big Man was waiting. As soon as I stepped back he gently showered her with water from the hose. And then... whew wow she was relieved all right.

For those not in the know, when a poultry momma sits on her eggs she usually won't poop on her nest. She normally will get up to relieve herself only once a day or so..and well... this poor little momma was really full! We knew the water would help stimulate her - and she got a quick stand up bath which will help keep her eggs at the proper humidity. After a minute or two she shook her feathers, preened a little, and went and sat back down. I put the baby back and both were back in business. Remember that setting a nest is really hard on the mommas - some hens will actually die on their nests. So its important to intervene if you think its required. Ideally you'd want to put their food and water where they have to get up to reach it.

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend - and finally getting some planting done!