I think there is a change in the air....

Well, the massive heat wave that has been sitting on the Memphis area for about 2 mos. now is finally starting to dissipate. It has actually been in the low 90's during the day and less humidity. That will make the vegies happy as they have been overheated and thirsty.... especially the tomatoes.

We have been busy picking what is ripe in the garden; squash, zucchini, lady peas, okra and cucumbers. The cucumbers are beautiful but some have a bitter taste to them due to the stress of the heat and no rain. We plan to buy the stress resistant variety next season so there is no bitterness. Everything else has been great despite the squash bugs coming to pay us a visit and having to pick caterpillars off the tomato plants but we have been using organic bug spray to help with that. There is a great organic nursery in Collierville that has all the stuff we need to keep the bugs away. We have heard from other farmers who say the squash bugs have invaded their gardens as well, so I am glad it is not just us who have the problem.

We also planted a few zinnias this year and they turned out so pretty that we will plant a bunch more next year. The butterflies love them. The bees are having a great time on our sunflowers as well.

The tractor has turned out to be more work than anticipated.... it is nothing that Cris can't fix but it is just finding the time to do it. There are not too many actually parts to an old Ford 8N tractor. He fixed the alternator last week and now it is charging the battery just fine but he thinks the engine needs some work; especially after the tractor starting spewing smoke. He ordered the parts and plans to bring the tractor to our house to work on it in the garage next week. By the time he is through, the tractor will have all new parts.

We started cutting down more trees and brush around the pond to get some sunlight there and grass growing. The blue gill fish are alive and well and growing. They are used to us coming to the pond now and throwing fish food in for them. They hear Cris start the water pump for the garden and they come running (or swimming) to the edge and wait for the fish food. Cris wants to add some bass this fall.

We finally decided on a name for the farm.... we at first were going to be Watson Organic Farms but I wanted something other than our name and really didn't want "organic" in the name. We wanted Firefly Farms but it was already taken in Tennesssee (someone licensed it in July of this year..... uuuuggghhh I was too late). We decided on Renaissance Farms, LLC. We were always big Renaissance Fair goers in Maryland and I made each of us an outfit to wear each year. So as long as the State of Tn. approves it, Renaissance Farms it will be.

Due to Cris receiving a decent bonus this year, we are able to order the gravel for the driveway and barn area and get set-up for electric. They will have to install about 3 utility poles to run the electric to the barn.

We are deciding rather to have the builders start on the house in the spring before we sell our house in Memphis or just buy a trailer or mobile home to live in at the farm after Alex graduates high school, sell our house in Memphis, then start building after we sell the house. We will probably go with the 2nd option due to the economy and crazy housing market. I would hate to have to pay for two homes at the same time.

I was able to get some more butterfly photos this week and even saw a monarch. These were in Mississippi at a house were we picked pears. The man advertised on Craigslist that he had pears that needed picking so we picked 3 brown grocery bags full and have been busy making pear butter and canning pears. We are going to plant our own fruit trees in October but it will take a few years for them to produce a decent crop.

Another Hot Weekend in Memphis

Sandy Bush-Hogging

(I love my hat! It keeps the sun off)

The Dogs and the "Turkey Incident"

(Notice Teddy's mean bark...he was ready to kill)

What we picked Friday

With all this heat, we have been trying to do only what is necessary on the farm so we don't get heat stroke.

The past two weekends we have bush-hogged the fields. The tractor's alternator is not charging the battery so that is something to add to Cris' to fix list. We have to stop about every couple hours to charge the tractor battery with the truck for now.

We use a pump at the pond to water the vegie garden since it has decided to never rain again. The tomatoes are very slow growing in this heat but once it cools off, we are hoping for great things to happen. The cucs, zucs, okra and squash are growing like crazy. We have pickled alot and plan to make zucchini bread this weekend.

This weekend Nugget chased a wild turkey into the pond. Teddy, who hates the pool and will NOT swim, decided that a turkey was reason enough to learn how to swim. They chased this poor turkey around the pond. Teddy kept trying to pull it closer to shore but ended up only pulling out turkey feathers. I really believe Teddy would have killed it if he could have gotten ahold of it. The turkey would peck at Teddy every time he went for the poor things head. We managed to get the dogs and tie them up to the barn to give the turkey a chance to run away; which it eventually did. Nugget was exhausted from swimming around the pond. It was funny to watch.

Could it get any hotter??? Oh yes it can!

This weekend (July 31, Aug 1) was the hottest weekend by far. Saturday we drove to an Apiary (bee keeper) near Jackson, Mississippi and picked up another hive for our farm. It was a long day of driving but we met a very interesting man who has been beekeeping for a very long time. He owns Russell Apiaries and knows his bees.

Cris had to move the hive from the truck Sunday morning to their new home near the pond. He had to take apart the 3 layers because they were so heavy. Cris was in his bee suit though so he did not get stung. Safety first! We checked on them before we left the farm around 4:30pm and the queen bee had her workers busy outside the hive fanning to keep the place cool. I can't wait to harvest the honey but we have to get some more trays to put in place of the ones we pull out to harvest from.

So the bees took up all of Saturday.... Sunday we got to the farm and inspected the garden; pulled off and killed any tomato worms and army worms we found (caterpillars really). At first I felt sorry for the caterpillars but after pulling off the 5th big green one that was busy eating my tomato plant, I was in seek and destroy mode. We put some organic caterpillar killer on the plants and that has seemed to help.

The tomato plants have some green tomatoes on them...I can't wait to see what develops.

We have been harvesting cucumbers and yellow squash and one giant okra so far. The cucs we used to can some bread and butter pickles and the yellow squash is part of tonight's dinner. We are also going to make some dill pickles.

We went to Lowes today and purchased four 12 foot farm gates for the barn. That way we can just lock up the gates now to keep the farm equipment from walking away. We got 3 of the 4 gates on before the heat just took it's toll and we decided to head home to relax and enjoy the AC.

SQUASH

FISH EMULSION - ORGANIC FERTILIZER-SO SMELLY!!

ONE OF OUR PEST CONTROL TECHNICIANS BUSY AT WORK

THIS IS IN THE SHADE

MORE PRETTY BUTTERFLIES

ONE OF OUR 3 BLACKBERRY PLANTS

THE CORN GROWING QUICKLY

ANOTHER BUTTERFLY...TINY BLUE ONE

OUR FIRST CROP - PICKLING CUCUMBERS

SQUASH PLANT

This weekend (July 23-25) we did some more watering of the plants since it just refuses to rain. The drip hoses are working great. We also fertilized with the fish emulsion, sheep manure and planted our 3 blackberry plants. Alex and his friend, Alex drove the truck and trailer to our friend's farm and picked up a load of more sheep manure. Cris purchased a scythe online and it works great to cut weeds. It is quite scary looking though and will take your leg off if you are not careful. It looks like the thing the grim reaper carries around.

Saturday night we had dinner with friends at Evergreen Dairy Farm in Middleton, TN. Dinner and conversation was great and it is nice to sample items from our friend's gardens. The dairy farm offers organic raw milk and I must say, it is delicious and their farm and operation is so beautiful and very clean.

Next weekend we hope to purchase the gates finally to put on the barn and we are also meeting with someone to discuss a gravel driveway.

Butterflies

SOME OF THE BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLIES WE HAVE SEEN AT THE FARM

Where to put all the water.....

This is the okra from last week - we had to put some organic powder stuff on it to get the aphids and ants off it. This week we saw that that ants were gone and the ladybugs were taking care of the aphids. Good ladybugs. :)

Beans - not sure what kind

My Fall front yard decoration from last year is now working in the garden.

Rain Water Run-Off Hose

TRENCHES BEFORE THEY ARE COVERED BACK UP WITH DIRT

Today we worked on the overflow system for the two rain barrels we have hooked up to the gutters on the barn. For now, we have decided to just dig a trench and run some plastic 6 inch hose to the ditch in the woods to keep the runoff away from the barn. The barrels fill up so fast when it rains. Our goal is to purchase a big water storage tank and fill it with the rain barrel overflow, then use that water for the garden drip hoses.

The garden looks good, did some weeding today and no need to water since it rained like crazy this past week. The 3 row fencing seems to be working to keep the deer out.

I Would Love To Be Singing in the Rain

3 ROW FENCE LINE TECHNIQUE

Well I guess Mother Nature decided we had way too much rain this past Winter and Spring because she is sure holding back on us now. We see the rain clouds all around but they seem to part like the Red Sea when they get close to the farm and then....no rain.

Thank goodness we have access to water at our pond. With a pump, couple hundred feet of hose and 2 water sprinklers, we have been able to keep our vegetables alive and more importantly, nicely growing. The tomato plants look wonderful as well as the squash and cucs....these we started out as seedlings. The seeds we planted right into the ground are growing nicely but the deer have discovered the garden finally and seem to enjoy the Lima beans. I thought it might be a rabbit but the deer tracks made me think otherwise.

This weekend we are putting up electric fencing around the garden. We are trying the 3 row method of fencing which is suppose to keep the deer out because they can't determine the depth of things. This is suppose to keep them from jumping over the fence. We will have one row of electric fencing and two inner rows of just regular twine type fencing. I will let you know how it works out.

Alex has become a pro at using the tractor and bush hog. He has been clearing out the terrace areas and Cris cleared some paths around the pond. Alex likes the path around the pond; he times himself on the ATV to see how fast he can do the trail.

Cris picked up a cool gadget at Radio Shack this week. It's a weather station that has a part that you hang up outside and its measures the wind, temp, humidity and rainfall. It has a sensor and it will remotely transfer the information to the indoor unit and store up to a week's worth of data. That way we can keep track of any rain that may come along. It was originally over $100 and marked down to about $40. I am sure it will be useful if it ever rains again. (NOTE: We have since found out that it only keeps 24 hours worth if information, not a weeks worth. The week's worth one was over $200.)

I got to thinking today as Cris was hooking up the electric fence and Alex was bush hogging in the field, the dogs were chasing dragon flies and I was on the trailer shoveling sheep manure into the compost pile...... if someone would have told me ten years ago, we would be doing this, I would have laughed in their face and said they were crazy....heck, even 5 years ago. I appreciate all the support and encouragement we have received as we start our new adventure... my dad thinks I am nuts but that is because he worked on a farm from around the age of 10 and knows what hard work it is.

So, why are we doing this? Cris always wanted to have a vegetable garden but the last two houses we have lived in did not have enough sun in the yard to accommodate a garden. After moving to Memphis, we started shopping each Saturday at the Memphis Farmer's Market, something we did not have nearby when we lived in Maryland. I guess what really opened our eyes was watching the film, Food, Inc. and realizing that we needed to know what was really in our food, how our food was grown and how important it is to read labels.

The other factor that made us decide to purchase land was the fact that we lived within the city limits of Memphis and it is just too expensive to live here anymore. We are taxed for everything here and I don't see it getting any better. Crime in the city is high and again, I don't see that getting any better.

So we bought some land, built a barn, started a garden and hopefully next year, we will build a house. We are learning a lot and of course, making mistakes but it has all been worth it.