Update on the Farms progress

Thought I'd start this post off with a picture of Big Ben. For those of you who may not know, Big Ben is actually the neighbors cat, but I don't think Big Ben knows that. Big Ben hangs around our farm and helps us tend to the veggies and the orchard along with some light mouse hunting, his daily doses of much deserved affection, and of course his daily handout of food. His idea of helping today was to lounge and roll around in the strawberries as I was picking the ripe ones, and before you ask....yes, I had to lift a leg or two off of the strawberry plants in order to check for any strawberries he was hiding.

So far, with Ben's help of course, we have managed to actually get some fruit trees into the ground.... a total of 6 to be exact. We have the yellow delicious apple tree, the Jonathan apple, both olive trees, a Meyers lemon, and a grapefruit all planted.

This tree here is the  Yellow Delicious Apple. It's the first apple tree that has gotten any blossoms on it so far and I'm hoping to have apples started soon on this tree. The yellow delicious and the Jonathan apple are both self pollinating and both  will pollinate my two Anna's apples along with helping to pollinate each other. When deciding that you want to grow your own apples you really need to do your homework and even though some apples are self pollinators you still should have at least two apple trees. You also need to know what types of apples will grow in your area.

 

 

Here on the Farm we currently grow two different types of strawberries. The strawberry pictured above is a Tristan Strawberry. The Tristan Strawberry has Pink to reddish flowers and  will produce medium to large Strawberries throughout the growing season, which starts early Spring and goes through mid to late Summer, and you can usually pick a good handful or so every other day. The other variety of Strawberry we grow is the Quinault Strawberry. The Quinault Strawberry is a much larger Strawberry. This variety of Strawberry has a white flower and does not Produce as many Strawberries as the Tristan. the Quinault Strawberries are the ones most commonly seen in the groceries stores and have a sweeter taste than the Tristan, but both varieties are easy to grow and very low maintenance.

 

Our Tomato plants now have flowers on them although I was unable to get a good picture of them. I am hoping for a good tomato harvest this year aswell as a good crop of blueberries. I have planted my Dragon carrots recently and they have started to sprout. Dragon Carrots are a purple carrot with a slightly peppery to spicy taste, unlike the sweet taste of the regular orange carrots we're all use to.

The onion's I planted last month are starting to make bulbs, the squash and cucumbers are hanging in there and I should have a few bellpeppers this year too. I also managed to plant my watermelon seeds and am hoping they do well. The only thing I have yet to plant are my regular corn seeds and my broom corn.

 

Well that's all for me for tonight, Guys, and Gals. So hopefully ya'll will have a great night tonight and I'll keep ya'll more up to date with the Farm now that we have gotten internet out here. 

 

 

Adopt a pet from a Shelter

 

This is my happy Jack. Jack was a rescue of sorts even though I didn't adopt him from a shelter.

 

JACK'S STORY

 

I was working as a receptionist at a local veterinarian's office right after Hurricane Katrina.

It was around Thanksgiving and about early afternoon when this man came into the clinic holding two small, slightly dirty puppies. The man Looked frantic and about at his wits end. He placed both of the puppies, one male and one female, on the counter in front of me and the other receptionist and told us that we had to take these puppies. He said he had found the puppies on the side of Airline highway near Reserve, La and that there had been a third puppy but that the puppy had been hit by another vehicle and died. We told the man that we could not take the puppies until they were adopted because we didn't have any room in the clinic for them. He said that he had tried every vet in town  to see if they could take them each one turning him down. He repeated again that we had to take the puppies because he didn't want to see them go to the pound and that he would rather pay to have them put down at our clinic then to send them to the pound. So since I personally couldn't let him do that I made a call to my landlord at the time to ask if I could have a puppy, which he agreed too given the situation and a hundred dollar increase on my rent. The other puppy was to be spared as well. A lady who was in the clinic at the time heard what was going on, and even though she was bringing her dog in for a check up decided to take one of the puppies home. The lady had asked me which one I wanted and I told her she could have first pick , even though I wanted the male. While the two puppies were on the counter during all of this, the female had crouched down and snuggled up to her brother who was standing tall and proud. The lady had fallen in love with the much fluffier female puppy and decided that was the one she wanted and I gratefully took the male. I didn't know what kind of dog Jack was, we knew his age, but that was all anyone could tell me. Most of the vets thought he was a German Shepard mix of some sort. I later found out that He is an American Dingo. Always joked saying he looked like a dingo you would see on nature shows, didn't know I was that close to being right. Jack is still here with us he will be 9 years old this September and has been a huge part of the family. He grew up with the two cats I already had and needless to say my female cat,Pogo, was not at all happy about having a dog in the house. She even had gone as far as to take every single dollar bill out of my purse one day and stack it neatly on the kitchen table, look at me, meowed, and jumped off the table as if to say "I will pay you to get rid of the dog." Her brother, scooter, had become Jack's best friend and they played together every chance they got. While Jack and my cats had been separated for a few years now due to trying to get situated in one place, and my sweet pogo has passed on, and scooter still living at my mom's until next month, Jack never forgot growing up with them in the house and has always been gentle to cats. He even has a new cat friend, Mini Monster, who follows him around, attacks him, jumps on his back when she can, and meows constantly if jack's bowl is empty. They play together all the time and Jack's been known to give Mini so many kisses on her head that her whole head is soaked, but she loves it.

So please if you want to get a pet, adopt one from a local shelter and give them a good loving Forever Home.