Blooms in the Garden in August

Spring evokes, at least in me, thoughts of brilliant green new leaves and multi-colored blooms around the garden and yard.  The late days of summer evoke thoughts of dull, tired, sun-baked landscape.  But that is not always so.  Let's take a look at some things that are blooming in the garden.  Below is a row of buckwheat that I planted.  Although I love buckwheat pancakes, we're not going to harvest this row.  Buckwheat is known for sending down deep roots that pull up minerals.  Now that they've bloomed, I'll cover them up as a 'green manure' and will hopefully see the benefits in the spring when I plant something over them.

Blooming Buckwheat

Next in the garden are some Arikara Sunflowers.  These are a native American heirloom.  I had originally planted them back in 2010.  I saved some seeds from the first harvest 9 years ago and planted about 20 of them this year.  I was amazed to find that after almost a decade of storage, I got 100% germination!  These sunflowers grow 10 feet tall and follow the sun.  I'll save more seeds this year.

Decade-old seeds and 100% germination!

The pollinators love these flowers.  It is hard to see, but in the photo below there is a bee in the center right of the flower in the foreground.  I'll likely harvest the heads before they dry and birds get them.  I don't want birds to get into a habit of coming into our garden to eat!

Last year I planted a row of zinnias in the holes of the cinderblock edging that borders the garden.  They grew tall and spindly as the soil was not too good in the cinderblocks.  I let the flowers dry on the heads last year and collected a BUNCH of seeds that I stored in an old vitamin container.  This year I planted a full row of zinnias between the blackeyed peas and the buckwheat.  The soil is rich and the zinnias are giving us a feast for our eyes.  Check out all the multi-colored blooms!:

Zinnias

Here is a muted pink one...

And a bright pink one lined with miniature yellow blooms around the center...

This row is really attracting the butterflies.  The zoom-in didn't work well, but in the photo below, you can pick out a big butterfly in the center left, about to land on a pink zinnia.

I've never been a real big fan of flowers in the garden, but I'm starting to enjoy them.  I always prefer growing things I can eat!  Without further ado, here is the beautiful flower of something you CAN eat - OKRA!

I planted them late this year due to the weather, but they are 8 feet tall now and I've been harvesting every day.  We will be harvesting lots and lots of okra for the next four months or until the freeze knocks them out. 

Annie's Time Is Coming Soon

Annie is our Nubian Goat that gave birth to triplets back in early March 2016.  We named the little trouble-makers Buckwheat, Darla, and Jane.  They are fun to watch, but like we always say, they are like having some bad little kids around.  They are always getting into trouble.  The little family of four has entertained us time and time again.

Tricia let me know that she noticed that Annie is "bagging up."  This means that Annie is pregnant and will be kidding again within the next few weeks.  During all this rain, we've kept her in the barn where it is warm and dry and there is plenty of dry hay to serve as bedding.  She's really not fat at all, so I don't think she's having triplets again.

The expectant Annie giving you "the eye"

But here's the proof of the pregnancy and soon delivery of at least one kid:

Goats are different from cows in their lactation equipment.  A cow has 1 udder with 4 quarters.  There is a teat for each quarter.  If you watch a calf nursing on his momma, it will go from teat to teat until all are empty.  A goat also has four quarters, but has only 2 teats.  1 teat drains 2 quarters as there is an opening in each quarter that empties into the teat.

Regardless how many teats Annie has, they are filling with milk and we'll have another little one on the farm soon!  We will keep you posted.

His Work is Never Done

A singer/songwriter named Robert Earl Keen and his buddy, Lyle Lovett, wrote a song called “The Front Porch Song” and in part of the lyrics, he sings about a bull:

                                                        

This old porch is just a big ol' red and white Hereford bull
Standing under a mesquite tree in Agua Dolce
He just keeps on playing hide and seek with that hot August sun
He's sweating' and a-pantin'
Cause' his work is never done
Aw, no
I've known a whole lot of old bulls in my life
And their work is never done

It is summertime and although our bull, Chuck, is a registered Jersey bull and not a Hereford, those lyrics paint an accurate picture of the old boy.  He plays hide and seek with the hot August sun, lounging in the shade of the Chinaberry trees against the south pasture before venturing out when it is a little cooler to eat grass.  He likes to lay in the mud around the water trough.  It helps cool him off.

Chuck, like most bulls, likes to scratch his head on posts.  Unfortunately he really likes to rub his head on the water trough in his pasture.  It is made of a 30 gallon bucket that was originally a molasses tub.  If we allow it to get half empty, Old Chuck knocks the water trough over, spilling 15 gallons of water into his mud hole, and then pushes the tub into the fence destroying it.  Of course that means he’s out of water until we get there and get another tub filled with water.  Not very smart on his part!

Yesterday I asked the boys to come help me.  Chuck with all his head scratching, somehow was able to remove his halter.  I walked through the whole pasture until I found it lying in the grass.  I tried to put it on him, but he wasn’t cooperative.  Russ and Benjamin helped me run him into the corral and we were able to put a rope around his neck and put his halter back on.  Old boy is growing.  He’s muscular and solid.  He is going to be a force to be reckoned with.  I won't turn my back on him.

Chuck (El Toro)

Then we put him back in the pasture that he shares with little Buckwheat, our Nubian buckling goat.  We keep the males sequestered in their pasture, “male jail,” because at any given time, at least one of our cows and goats are in heat and it becomes a circus out there with hormones flowing and everyone jumping on one another.  Crazy, I tell you.  Keeping the males separated helps us manage breeding. 

We want to plan calving and kidding so that everyone delivers at the same time.  That way calving, nursing, and weaning all happens at once versus staggered out.  We didn’t do that this year and it sure made things difficult, making it hard for us to get away for a few days.  We won’t make that same mistake again, if we can help it.  Chuck will be a year old in December.  We'll try to put him with the girls when he turns one year old and shoot for September calving.

Robert Earl Keen’s song about a bull’s work being never done is accurate on a larger herd where the bull is in charge of an entire herd of cows to service.  Chuck only has four cows in his “harem,” so his work will be done relatively quickly.  Same thing for Buckwheat and his three goats to take care of.  But one thing’s for certain – ‘ol Chuck is playing hide and seek with that hot August sun, sweating and panting and longing for fall.