Still in the Squash Business

I noticed a few weeks ago one of the rams was growing his own garden. I actually figured it wouldn't take him long before he ate the plant I saw sprouting out there but he didn't.

It turned into a perfect Pattipan Squash plant and has actually been producing squash. I also kinda figured the ram would begin eating said Squash before I got out there and picked any but believe it or not, for whatever reason he hasn't touched it. The Squash bugs never found it either as a matter of fact and it's a damned healthy looking plant.

This afternoon I went out there and the blooms were being worked by the bees and I also discovered a watermelon had come up along with some new Cucumber shoots. I am now interested to see how long the ram let's these plants grow and if he decides to eat the fruit if they ever produce.

The Wife seems to think the ram just decided to grow his own snacks :)

We began the big garden tear down this afternoon as well. I am still harvesting Cow Peas, Tomatoes, Peppers and have a row of Potatoes and bed of Sweet Potatoes going but I am kinda in a hurry to get the cutting crew out into the garden. The weeds really got out of control while the rains started back up and I got caught up working four days in a row. As late as it was I just didn't care really but I would like to get the crew out there while the weeds are tasty for them.

We have a major grasshopper plague going on that are eating the remaining Tomatoes up pretty fast now. They are taking huge chunks out of the green ones long before they ripen. If we weren;t already stuffed full of Tomatoes I would stress over it and try to kill em off but at this stage in the game who cares. We still pulled over a bushel of Tomatoes out of there this morning for the Mrs. to make some more sauce with.

I figure I will continue to harvest and take down the garden this week and hope to get some new fence run before we start weaning this year's lambs. Once we bring em up here and separate them into the three over Winter flocks (Two breeding groups and the yearling horde) I will allow the yearlings to graze the garden remains all Winter. By December we will have the slaughter lambs removed then the ones we are selling and all that will remain will be the young ewes that need to grow up some more before breeding and a couple of whethers.

They should do a good job of cleaning out the garden area before the cold really hits and kills off all the weeds. Or that's the plan anyway. The Cutting Crew has done such a fine job in the other overgrown areas I am now just going to start using em in this manner all the time. If I leave em in a space long enough they even kill off the thrice damned Morning Glory believe it or not.

Gonna go check on the Pumpkins and Persimmons to see if this cold snap ripened any up.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!