For The Garden Geeks

OK. Ranch stuff is not the only thing I do. There is still survival and hustling for work. Always fun, but not terribly interesting or more yet, photo rich.

I have never had such a hard time with a garden. I could never have guessed that I would be in a 6 month death battle with squirrels. A worthy foe, but ultimately vanquished. Until spring anyway when it all starts again. More in that later.

So after all of this time, we are finally getting vegetables. Mostly squashes. It took creating impermeable barriers and a lot of trapping but it is done.

The Vegetables

 Above are a watermelon and a pumpkin. They are growing on a trellis so need some support as they get bigger. The dream was one pumpkin per grandchild. Now we are hoping for one per family and out of area families are out of luck. 

 The pumpkin and watermelon patch

 Besides being eaten by squirrels this one was also attacked by disease. Once I got it squirrel proofed I was shocked that it came back and is producing one normal sized fruit.

 Celery. By far the slowest grower in the garden.

 I believe this is a butternut squash.

 I have no idea what these are. I ripped out and replanted so many times I stopped keeping track. They may be a Japanese squash seed I had. Not sure.

 In the midst of a completely non-productive bed which was decimated by varmints - and CHICKENS I might add; they loved jumping up here and ripping everything to shreds - one lone pepper plant survived. It has two peppers on it. Woohoo. 

 

  

 And in the never say die category, I have planted the fall crops of broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and above, spinach.

 The strawberries took forever - oh yes, squirrels - but are finally producing and we get to be the ones to eat them.

The Animals

 Winter quarters for the chickens. The coop was moved into the stable. Once I moved it they sleep on its roof instead of inside the coop itself.

 I set traps for the squirrels. As I did not have a humane way to kill them, I ended up relocating them. This was a hole I just found in the chicken stable. So I am making it hard to do anything upon entering except to go to the nice nuts at the end of the trap. We shall see.

I trapped about a dozen squirrels. There seem to be one or two left but so far no problems. Bird netting is enough to discourage the chickens, luckily.

 The chickens have one place they are not allowed to go. And this is it. 

They laugh at our barriers.

Missed photo op: I saw something black on the carpet as I came out of my room. With no glasses on I bent to pick it up and voila! it was wet. It was wet because it was chicken shit. And who should I find lollygagging about in the living room? The same girls you see above - instigators.

First egg produced by the girls. Snowflake design.