We picked up the trail cameras. Our bobcat is getting bigger and roaming at dusk.
Flip though the slideshow pictures below from the trail cameras. We also found dancing deer, a black bear cub, female deer, and some hogs roaming at night.
This video of the bobcat (below) is also from the trail cameras.
How do you know when to harvest a pumpkin? Look for the little vine close the pumpkin stem. When this little vine is totally brown, it is time to harvest. If the little vine is still green or partially green, wait to harvest. The first four pumpkins in the pictures below were definitely ready to harvest. The 5th picture shows a partially green vine next to the stem. This pumpkin needs a few more days before harvesting.
The first two pictures have today’s harvest and the three pumpkins we harvested previously. The third picture is of pumpkins we harvested today.
We actually have five pumpkin patches in different locations on the farm. Today we searched out pumpkins and harvested 12 pumpkins. All, but one, of the pumpkins harvested today were the smaller variety. The odd pumpkin was a very strange shape and could have been a cross between the two varieties. We will wait two weeks before we distribute the pumpkins to our friends. Next year, we will wait to plant our pumpkins a little later int he summer, so we have pumpkins for October instead of July. Below are pictures of the sling we made for our “hanging pumpkin” and pictures of all the pumpkin patches on the farm.
We weighed the pumpkins that we harvested today. The weights ranged from .6 pounds to almost 22 pounds. The small yellow pumpkin was not picked. It was another pumpkin harvested by gravity from the fence. The smaller hybrid pumpkins are supposed to get up to 16 pounds under ideal conditions. Most of our pumpkins of this variety weighed eight to nine pounds.
Our corn continues to grow. The corn in the back right corner was planted a little earlier than the rest. The last picture is of Brenda and Craig (CC). They were discussing the changes needed in our scare crow.
Bruce picked one of the larger sunflowers. This must have been mixed in one of the seed packets we purchased. After Bruce hung the flower on the fence to dry, Miracle decided she would have a bite of the leaves.
This plot (below) was previously filled with sunflowers and zinnias with a pumpkin patch at the back. The pumpkins are still at the back of this plot. The new plants will be cantaloupe and honeydew melons. The fence down the middle is an attempt to have hanging gardens. These melons should be small enough that gravity will not cause them to drop to the ground. (At least, that is what we have read.)
The goats (below) love zinnias. We decided to give them some treats. Most of our goats eat the flowers, but Padme starts at the flower and eats the entire stem. Padme is our largest goat (black and white goat on right of last three pictures).
There are four watermelons in this watermelon patch. Only two of our watermelon patches survived. We think the watermelons below will be small and round. We saved the pictures on the seed packets to figure out exactly what grew. All the seeds were heirloom varieties given to us by our sons. We also learned that just like pumpkins, there will be a little stem by the main stem that will tell us when to harvest. Yesterday, we learned that the main stem should snap off easily when the melon is ripe.
Fruit trees: #1  are pictures of the pear trees, #3 Persimmon #4, #5, FIG, #6 Apple blossoms on the apple tree, Slides #7, 8, 9 , 10 are apple trees;#11, 12, 13 are cherry trees. #14 and 15 are our struggling avocado trees. #16 is a fig #17 is a pear which is finally getting established. We are just barely into zone 9 which may be why our cherries and apple trees took so long to look decent. The deer or birds are eating our figs as fast as they ripen. We are considering netting these trees until they produce so much that we don’t mind sharing with the birds and the deer.
There were three great white herons at the pond this morning. By the time, I got my phone, two had flown into the distant trees. The picture on the left shows the distance (birds in upper left of picture) and the picture on the right is magnified.
As we pulled up the Zinnia plants to make room for the bush beans, we saved the flowers (below left) for seeds. If the flower has been pollinated (below right) the center of the flower contains a huge cash of Zinnia seeds.
In Evergreen, CO, we found this very old Dental Chair (below left) and a model tractor (below right). This picture is for all of our dentist family and friends. I am grateful for the improvements in both the dental chairs and the tractors over the years. This dental chair does not look comfortable and the tractor model looks a little rough.
