Thursday, May 21, 2015

Buckwheat, Baby Grapes and Potatoes





We been having some really cool temperatures this Spring and the rains although steady (for the most part) have been relatively calm as far as storms go so far. In fact I would say this has been the calmest Spring I can ever remember having. I only had to make one trip up onto the barn roof to fix a loose panel and the grapes have only suffered a slight bit of wind damage to their new leaves.

Come to think of it I believe I have only seen lightening once so far too. It's like the Small-Hold has been moved to a whole other place on the map or something.

Any rate the cool temps has really been good to the Buckwheat and it is shooting up pretty fast but as you can see from the pictures it has a ways to go if it is going to cover up some of the Missouri super weeds in the garden.




I imagine it will eventually beat out the Fescue as the Buckwheat has dramatically reduced the difference in size just in the last two or three days.




The Johnson grass, Morning Glory and volunteer Sunflowers however I doubt it will choke out. I don't really care about the Sunflowers but the other two are the most obnoxious evil weeds God ever invented. We will see I guess.




As I mentioned the grapes actually have undamaged leaves this year for the most part and I even have some baby grapes coming in already. I really didn't plant the Grape vines for a harvest although grapes will be welcomed. I planted the grape vine to act as a screen between the bee hives and the garden area. Sometimes the guard bees remember me for a day or two after I get into the hives and once the grapes grow in fully it should keep them from spotting me when I need to weed or something. It beats wearing a veil every time I go out.




The Potato bed is coming up nicely. I still have not planted a Sweet Potato bed yet because no one seems to have any seedlings for sale and like an idiot I didn't do any starts at all this year.  Maybe someone will have them in this weekend.

I put my regular bee building project on hold today to bang out a quick hose holder for the new sheep pasture. Starting tomorrow I am going to move the entire flock out there and leave them out most of the day. Up until now I have left the gate open so they could go and lounge in the barn and get a drink in there but I need to start some serious barn cleaning and with my new fence design I can now lock the flock into the separate sections. They needed a water tank however and that meant a long hose. I am tired of moving the hoses when I mow so I designed a simple hose hanger out of 2x4's and PVC pipe that fits over a T-post. I was going to buy a hose winder thing until I saw the price tag and thought to myself I can make a simple one out of scrap and save myself 50 bucks.




Now I just unhook the hose from the spigot and roll it up on to the hanger before I mow. It's still a pain in the butt but less so than getting off the mower and dragging the hose out of the way.  So far the sheep have barely made a dent in the pasture so I still have some breathing room to collect more posts before starting on stage 3. Now that I can lock em out of the barn paddock I can let the grass grow in there a bit too so I can start the rotation some. Once stage 4 is finished we will have three sections of roughly three and a half to four acres total to run them out on.

The forecast says one more day of dry weather and then more rain so I guess it's back to mowing again tomorrow.

At this rate I may get a break about the first part of July. At least the swarm season seems to be taking a break right now but I am betting that won't last much longer until the second wave starts coming out and hitting the traps. At least now I am mostly ready for them.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!


3 comments:

  1. Hey There Buckwheat,
    I mean PP, :-)
    You've got yourself there some nice looking buckwheat popping up. Give it a few weeks and it will cover up some of those weeds you've been talking about.

    Hey look at those potato plants growing, looking good my friend. I just go to the local health food store and buy me sweet potatoes and use them as my potato seeds. They always work good for me when growing my own sweet potatoes. Just cut them up making sure each piece has an eye. Then plant and water as usual.

    Were expecting rain all week, with potential severe storms. Oh the joys of May!!!

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    Replies
    1. Sandy - I should have started some Sweet Potatoes myself but didn't. Bad me.

      We are supposedly getting rain for the next five days ourselves. Good thing I got the mowing mostly done today.

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  2. just saw weather projection map--most of country except edges cooler summer than usual thanks to God!

    ReplyDelete

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