It HAS BEEN HOT.
But it IS: Summer. Early summer. But nevertheless. SUMMER.
There is a chance of a sprinkle this morning and I am watching for it. But the winds are too high. I fear. It will blow straight past. Much to my despair – free watering would be much appreciated.
Every day now I drag hoses way through the trees and into the South garden and out by the field where someone planted tomatoes while I was away. Then I drag the hoses all the way back through the trees past the one faucet and all the way to the back in the West where the rest of the garden is planted in a little field sweetcorn, my cherry tomatoes, pumpkins, zuchinni, etc. and all the animals waters.
This is how I get THIS many steps. PLUS dragging hoses.
As soon as my seeds arrive I will begin sowing more greens, more broccoli, more zuchinni. None of my latest sowing of zuchinni have sprouted. What the hell? So I have ordered more from another source.
Grow only what you eat. This is my mantra. And I eat a lot of zuchinni!
Someone has been in the tomatoes.
To do a bit of thinning and fertilizing.
I wonder who that could be.
So yesterday I also dragged pig panels into the South to protect the tomatoes from the monster. I usually do not plant food this side of the property. We have to fence the vegetables in. The pig and the wild chickens spend too much time over there under the mulberries.
Go HERE for Mondays Free for All TkG Take Ten. Ducklings in and out of their pool in yesterday’s 95f heat.
It is 95F on the plains of Central Illinois again today – that is 35C for those friends of ours in my home land. (New Zealand) And windy. Not as windy as yesterday but enough to wear a farmer and her animals out. Farming is all about constant movement and constant watching for animals or birds in distress and this heat with its accompanying wind puts me on high alert.
I keep looking at the window hoping to see rain as I write to you. There is a cool breeze. But. Only a few spits at the glass so far. Nothing to write home about.
The days of getting cute piglet pics are over. The little pigs run towards me now. At speed.
We shifted the metal pig water into their run yesterday. They have no manners at all and were pooping in their water bowls. Then drinking it. Badly raised. Sigh. I was wasting way too much water emptying the stinky mess and cleaning their bowls out, two or three times a day. The metal water tank has a small side bowl, the right size for a snout. No bottoms can get in there. So the water will remain clean. I will take a picture of it today for you. It is old and bit leaky until it reaches a certain level so the pigs get a wallow and a clean drink.
No more Dirty Water!
When the calves are small they have a smaller water barrel. Very occasionally, when they are facing the wrong direction, a calf might poop in it. But a cow will never drink this contaminated water. So if the water level is not going down during the day we know why. The whole tub is dumped out, cleaned and filled with fresh water – they are so grateful.
Different strokes.
Ducklings – growing like weeds.
Today I am going to shift them into the chicken hospital by the barn. Quacker spends a lot of time over there and it will be easy to put the ducklings to bed behind the doors and into safety at night.
I hope.
They will be locked in for a week until they know where their honeymoon is.
Then once the ducklings are gone to their next home I will let the chicks and turkeys out under the tree a few hours a day.
These are all normal stages. Once the chicks are a little bigger and have all their feathers they will go into the tin tank chicken tractor (which is parked in the pigs edible flower garden) then when they are even bigger, to the chook house. They are layers.
The turkeys will stay on in the tin house and wander the edible flower garden – I hope it grows!
And now I must away!
Off to drag hoses and feed animals and birds! And do other stuff. It is important to get all the heavy stuff done before it gets hot. We will be in the 90’s all week.
No rain. 🥺 Sigh. Ah well.
What about you? What is on your agenda?
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
22 responses to “No more Dirty Water!”
Those piglets always look cute, as do the ducklings!
My courgettes all sprouted, so now I have too many, though the slugs are trying to rectify that. Fortunately I’ve kept the best two in a tub on my balcony for safety. I’ve sprayed the raised beds with natural nematodes which eat slugs. We will see…
Mad, do you ever have any issues with squash borers? They are a real killer, literally, of our zucchini plants here in Arkansas, U.S. We’ve tried everything and this year got some sort of squash borer trap that seems to be working, thank goodness! Hope you do well with your zucchine!
I have the same problem! It will be interesting to see if they are in the UK. We
Never had them
In NZ
No, I think it is an American native and not European. I hope you are successful this year!
Very hot here too. We are going to take two ferries to two different islands so we can explore the lighthouse we see shining over the lake at night. I am enjoying exploring this new place. I only feel I know a place when I have walked it, biked it or spent time sitting on the ground. Drive by ‘knowing’ doesn’t count.
Drive bys don’t count. Looking forward to hearing about the lighthouse!
Off soon for a morning coffee with a friend. Then, staying indoors out of the heat.
We are finally heating up for the next few days!! It has been cold here far too long. Doing a bit of my own “fencing” as my pollinator beds are growing as quickly as the ducklings and were blocking the shared sidewalk path to our apartment units… I found some metal edging that will help to keep them off the walk and upright. Paperwork is the other major chore right now- starting older age benefits and healthcare insurance in a few months. Tima made me LOL enjoying her “wallow” although we all know she can be a handful…
I would greatly appreciate some of your heat! We actually had to cover the tomatoes and cucumber last night as we had a frost warning! Only 3 degrees this am upon rising! Ridiculous for June. We are now referring it to Junuary instead! Damn climate change!
Well. That does not sound like summer at all. Maybe warm weather will come soon.
Climate change is reaping havoc with life in the UK – and the poor farmers are suffering.
I love free watering too! We’ve had a bit of it and are now going into more sun and a bit more heat, although not much. I’m fine with that! The ducklings have grown immensely! I am going out to brunch then mowing my back lawn. Exciting, eh?
Have a wonderful to go out for brunch. That’s my favorite meal to have out. But I never do. Too far from anywhere. Hope the mowing went well.
some rain here the last couple of very hot days, but not until late at night. not great for the humans, but good for the plants
We really need the rain. I’m glad that you are getting some but it’s just hot and humid here in. I would just love an inch a week.
We are working on catching a kitten. It arrived Saturday – on the roof! There is no way a small kitten could’ve climbed up there (the squirrels have to jump a good 18 inches from the one branch to be up there and this kitten is too young (maybe 3 months old?) to have done that. I suspect a hawk might have had it and dropped it, but we’ll never know for sure. It’s a black kitten with some white on the paws. I haven’t gotten a really good look at it as it scoots under the back porch as soon as it sees or hears you. My step-granddaughter and her partner (he saw the kitten “jump” (fall?) from the roof – a good 9 feet to the porch deck) are doing the feeding and, hopefully, catching. Brat has seen the kitten from the window and meowed at it – the kitten hid.
I’m enjoying the heat – never did like it cold – and the 90s are wonderful. The grass is growing so fast it’s got to be mowed twice a week or the mower has trouble. Otherwise I’m researching and writing part of the family history (massive project).
I prefer the cold! How different we all are so did you catch the kitten down – dying to hear all about it?
No, we haven’t caught the little scooter. I did get a better look at it. It is a black kitten with white hind feet and whiskers and white on its chest. I suspect it’s going to take while to catch, very skittish and afraid, poor little thing. Brat meows at it from his perch on the window sill and it runs under the porch. We have kibble and water out for it, The big red squirrel and the tiny red squirrel were chattering at the kitten because it was at the bottom of the tree and they wanted to go down. The kitten ignores the squirrels. It did scoot under the porch when a rabbit hopped through the back yard. It doesn’t look like it’s hurt, which is a plus. I just would like to have the kids get it caught before we have any storms, it’s not dry under the porch. I’ll keep you updated.
I sure know what you mean about dragging hoses around Celi! We have only one water source outside on our place and there is quite a bit of hose dragging around here too! I’m surprised you are planting broccoli again. Isn’t it a bit too hot now? We had a great broccoli and cauliflower spring crop that we harvested a few weeks ago, and will plant again in our fall garden. We have cucumbers galore now, and beets, onions, garlic, potatoes, zucchini and green beans to eat. Also carrots and Brussels sprouts coming on. And we are starting to get tomatoes! Very exciting! I just love how all the animals are settling in on the Farmy! xo
You have so many vegetables happening. That’s pretty exciting. We had many failures with our seeds this year. I’m going to have to find a new source. I plant the broccoli for the leaves. I love the leaves.
Gosh, I’ve never eaten the leaves… For sure I’ll do it in the fall when we plant broccoli again!
Celi, I wonder if you could split the hoses and leave them in more convenient locations if you had a pump to push the water over the longer distances? We got a battery-operated pump to push our tank water all the way across the back yard to water stuff. It wasn’t expensive and it runs on a power tool battery. Google ‘water transfer pump’.