Well I was woken on my sleep in morning to pouring rain and thunder and lightening the inability to sleep past 5am. I opened the thunder door ( the the basement ) for the terrified dogs and went back to bed.
My attempts to catch another hour of sleep proved fruitless. 
The rain is good for the grass.
Though not so good for the big West Side fields because this week we hope to turn the cover crop of beans back into the soil and sow the transitional wheat and a buffer strip of alfalfa.
I will get that alfalfa in I think – with my little tractor. And we can start baling that next year. 
I need coffee. Hang on a minute – I will be back. 
Back
Above is the second to last stand of pig field. After I took this shot I looked down under the tall plants to admire all the undergrowth and there were three lovely melons – happily growing under there. So I am not moving the little pigs until my melons are ripe. They are big for plants I neither planted nor tended.
Today, when the rain clears up, I will fix up the chicken tractor and begin to haul the meat chickens around the grass. I shifted them to the tin hut so I could work on their traveling run and they are so sprightly – flying off in all directions. It was a bit of a circus. I will make a better plan for today’s move. They will be very happy to get into the regular greens.
Well, I suppose I should push off out into the farm for a while. Lucky I have my ankle length oilskin coat.
I wonder how long this thunder and lightening will last. It is all pretty dramatic.
High of 85. Low of 66. ( Good weather for growing grass)!
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
34 responses to “”
enjoy the ups and downs!
That’s life right!?
it certainly is
It looks like you have a lot of mares tail growing in your pig field. We have seen a lot of mares tail this year – I am wondering if all of the rain this year might have brought that on. The alfalfa will be wonderful. The weather has been much better the last week. We’re enjoying the cooler temps all through the Midwest.
Is that what it is called? Yes. I see something similar raising its head in my hay field too. Might be almost time to resow that!
I hate that when you can’t get back to sleep! It’s so annoying. It seems to always happen to me if I have to be up early anyway, but that extra hour would make so much difference. Have a great day anyway. Lovely here at the mo, it’s like mid summer.
And then my children started texting from around the world for no apparent reason – no sleep after that!
Serendipitous melons!
One is quite big too!
Short detective story idea (short detective especially; might more easily follow the trail in all that green): where did the seeds come from, and why there . . .
I love finding volunteers in our compost pile, although we usually just end up with tomatoes or zucchini, not anything as wonderful as melons!
Zucchini is such a washout here – I would love to have some volunteer. Though now that I am surrounded in organic fields the bugs might let me be a bit.
Your field is a feast for the eyes. Nature doing her thing. I love that!
Same! They are great late summer fields because the pigs sleep UNDER the tall weeds – I love that
Would love to have some of that rain down here! It is quite dry and the garden beds are yearning for rainwater! Can’t believe it’s still in the 90s in here
mid-September! But I always love hanging onto the summer! We are still swimming in the lake! Happy Sunday!!! 🙂
We did not get into the 90’s much at all – just high 80’s and humid. Love that you are still swimming!
Wow C! Been perusing all the greenery – only on my phone screen, mind you – and full of questions… Are Foxtail Grass and the Mare’s Tail mentioned by Little Sun Dog the same thing? (SO many Common Names, lol) And do I see Velvet Leaf ripening? (https://pfaf(DOT)org/user/Plant(DOT)aspx?LatinName=Abutilon+theophrasti)
Oh, and is your Melon vine also in this shot? What a lovely surprise to suddenly come upon!: )
Oh merciful heaven – I don’t know what their real names are. I have my own names for them. This was all swamp though remember so I bet a lot of them are from that period.
Lol, well I just know I’ve had Velvet Leaf, aka China Jute (and a bunch of others; ) show up under the bird feeder. Not sure if I’d brought it (or the birds made a ‘donation’, lol; ) but it does produce a lot of seed…
Some if these weeds are really deep rooted too / which is good for the soil’s recovery.
That’s a lovely diverse pig field, and you’ve got to love the volunteers. I wish we could get some of your rain. Down south the bush fires are raging; inland, towns are running out of water and it’s having to be trucked in at some outrageous cost. And as always, the farmers are stoically raising our food in the face of no rain for years…
We don’t have anywhere our Marlene can hide during thunderstorms. The poor girl is terrified. We tried one of those “Thundershirts” and it helps a wee bit, but we’ve started to put a little chamomile tea in with her food each day and it seems to have calmed her a little bit!
So sad when they get that afraid – chamomile tea sounds great!
Boo has a special bed in my wardrobe where he goes – he hides behind the coats. But Ton has to have the basement door open or he will rip at the walls trying to open it himself. He has literally torn doors up in fear
I wish we could tell them in doggy-language that they are safe!!! 🙂
Yes! Isn’t it awful when they shake with fear / even if they are right beside you.
My dog heads to the bathtub and hides in it behind the shower curtain. I bet the earth smells lovely after the rain. Good luck with your plans and melons!
Achieved everything on my farm
List so far today! Now the day us heating up after that rain so I am glad to be back inside doing inside stuff
melons! Yum!
Lovely summery phòtos, and rain going into autumn is good. Our Deez dog barks and tries to attack the thunder but prefers to be indoors away from noisy rain on the tin roof. Ginger cat pics always welcome.
what kind of coffee?
Very dull I am afraid – I buy the beans from intelligencia in Chicago and grind them every morning/ I have a little espresso machine, I like my coffee strong.
Like your men.
Snort!!!
Here, once the cat’s up, you might as well get up, too. It is the big last chance growing season for so many plants – and all this rain is really going to encourage that. We’re still getting tropical rains – maybe a slight break for a bit between bands today as the storm moves north. Soggy indeed.
Take care of those ankles in shoe grabbing mud!