Well, evidently you got enough rain at the right time for those guys. They look plump and yummy. Good crop of tomatoes too. Are those the first of the year or you've been getting some already?

how many rows/plants did you have to get these? maters look nice too. (corn envy) mine did not mature :(

tom's on the other hand are gonna be GOOOOOOD this year.

ESH, the corn is compliments of rain in the past... I watered as much as I could. Most have done went ... hmmm belly up? I planted this on the 27th of March and I think it is 78 days to maturity. Different websites give different days.
RJINGA, I have about an acre of this corn and this was picked near the rain bird. Some rain moving our way from HOTLANTA... hope it holds together and then there would be hope for the Silver Queen corn which is just starting to silk.

I pulled this corn and then my wife and I picked a mess of pinkeye peas. While I was creaming the corn, she shelled the peas. Just put a large pork roast (uncut pork chops whatever you call it) on the smoker... be some good smacking in the country later on... yum yum.

Didn't even think about the tomatoes when I took the picture. These come out of my wife's raised bed and yes, these are the first of the season. She plans to can some later, I think. Not my department...

ESH, hope you are getting some of this rain... and be careful in the woods..... big bad wolf you know... hee hee.

Shot

Yep, we got a dollop of rain about an hour ago. I expect we might see a little bit more before the afternoon is through.

I am safely back from the woods and not a critter in sight (I stomp pretty hard). I did walk all the way to where they have clearcut the area for building (or whatever). Now that's a scary sight!

ESH, real glad to hear that you got some rain. Don't it smell good after a rain???

We use to take walks around the property on a regular basis, but my health not so good anymore so I mostly ride around on the tractor. AFTER we get some rain I am going to hook up the 6 ft. mower and mow around then hook up the 60 gal. sprayer and roundup it so kinda keep it walk-able. Next weekend my bro-in-law from Jax suppose to come up and he enjoys taking a walk about.

Yeah, you stomp good, Lady. Don't want nothing to happen to ya. Be careful.

Shot

shot & esh -- Don't even PRETEND to know what y'all are talking about, but I was trying to find a place to post my interesting news today and since you are talking about some "critters," this might be it! :)

My husband and I, on four separate occasions now, have seen...in our backyard...

...wait for it...

...a fox.

Now if that don't beat anything I've ever heard of. I realize that foxes exist and I know we have woods on three sides of our house, but as far as I know, I have never heard of anyone around here (suburbs...lots of activity) seeing one. We have seen it twice together and then each of us has seen it once, individually. When we see it, it is because it is running down the length of the woods from one end to another end. Probably chasing rabbits...we have seen a good many of those this year.

mk87, I think a fox is exciting news! I have maybe seen one in my lifetime (and now I can't even remember for sure).

I was talking about going on a GNPS rescue. We sometimes go to large wooded tracts that are scheduled for development. I have seen snakes and turtles, but nothing more serious than that. Just in case, I try to make as much noise as I can so that any critters run away in advance. And there are always several people on a trip, so I am never alone.

esh -- Isn't it though? Hubby didn't believe me the first time I saw it; but now he's seen it too. At least I GUESS it's an "it." I suppose "it" could be more than one and we are seeing different ones at different times. But, we think it is the same one. We have actually seen quite a bit of wildlife, since we live next to a pond. We've had geese visiting for a few weeks at a time, and taking their daily parade through our yard. We almost always have deer in the fall. Two or three in our backyard. They like young mimosa leaves! Who knew? Wish they'd eat up all of the dang things. We've had herons and possums and armadillos, but, to our knowledge, this is the first fox.

Mk87 -- nice to see a fox except when you have chickens. When my bro-in-law (dead now) was due to come home from the hospital my wife and I went over to his house early in the morning to check on things before my sister arrived with him. Before we pulled into the yard we could see chicken feathers.... all over the yard and dead chickens. A neighbor had heard the chickens and looked out and saw a fox running them down and killing them. He lost 38 chickens! I always thought a fox would only kill what it ate, but not so.

Speaking of a rarity... when I was a teenager, my best friend and I were going to his house late one night and saw a black panther cross the road. The panther paused for a few seconds on the shoulder and we stopped and got a good look at this beautiful creature. It then gracefully bounded off into the woods.

Fox are pretty things and glad you got to see one in your yard.

Don't try to keep up with Esh & me.... lol I sometimes wander off into la la land and like a good friend, she puts up with me. We have an attic (guess that's what you call it) over the garage with a pull down ladder. My wife stores Christmas decorations up there and it is so funny to see her go up the ladder making all kinds of noises to scare away any mice that might be near the entrance.

When I go (or use to) walking in the woods I would do the same as Esh... STOMP STOMP... RATTLE RATTLE... We let the dogs go in the pea patch when we are picking so as to scare away any snakes that might be taking a shade.

Gosh, didn't mean to write so much... just happy to be in the nice a/c house. Started out pulling two messes of corn (one for me sister that is in her 70's) and a bucket of peas for her. Then I cleaned my mess of corn so ready for creaming... ESH, that P & C corn is already almost too hard! DANG!

Oh yeah, we have armadillos and possums come into the yard, but don't generally make it back out as the dogs are territorial. They won't eat either though, but love squirrels and rabbits.

Shot

Funny...I did the same thing cleaning out one side of the garage last fall...except my critter-of-concern was spiders. I had a broom handle out there and banging it all around the various boxes and crates. Hubby thought it was hilarious. Hey...we aren't stupid. Y'all just chase the things away and say, "Don't worry honey...it's (whatever it was) is gone." We know better. It's not "gone," because you didn't kill it. NOW, we just don't know where it's going to jump out from next! LOL

Fresh, homegrown corn. Yum! Lucky thing! :)

MK87, as the old song goes - I don't like spiders and snakes --- either! Got popped on the thumb yesterday by a wasp... no biggie though. I think most critters will get out of your way if you don't surprise them. That is what Esh and I try to avoid.

Esh, rode down and took a couple of photos of the sunflowers that were waiting for the sun... Had a few minutes to spare while waiting to go get my ivories polished. The sun had not reached them yet as you can see it on the trees.
BBL

Shot

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Oh, that corn looks like good eatin'...so do those maters.
The best salad I ever ate was some blue cheese crumbled on heirloom maters, with raw fresh corn and some pomegranites (only all in season at once in California!!). Oh, yum.

I was away to Alaska for 11 days (good timing too, what with the heat here and all) and was worried about rain but hubby said we did get some. We are still eating lettuce and the first of the ripe tomatoes. I do not plant corn. Maybe someday, but not this year.

What do you do with the sunflowers Shot? Seeds or do you sell them?

GGG

Hi GGG - Sure envy you taking a trip to Alaska for 11 days. I watch a lot of the wild life shows and the place is spectacular! Did you have someone look after your garden while you were gone?

Don't really do anything with the sunflowers. Just let the birds, deer and turkey do what they will. We bought a 50 lb. bag of them at Wal-Mart for one of Deb's feeders, so I just planted some of them. Added a little fertilizer and nitrogen. I like to look at them... makes me feel good. :)

Shot

The sunflowers are gorgeous! You made me buy some seeds today to plant...

My DH looked after the garden. I give him the offical "watering schedule" "cat schedule" "cleaning schedule". He had to take the day off before I came home to rest up. It's always good for a little dose of "here's what I do in a day" to give someone a list of what you do and ask them to do it. I was very surprised to find he had called his dad and asked how you tie up tomatoes! Dad was supposed to come down and do some work on the garden on Saturday but couldn't make it. DH managed. He didn't come with me, not a cruise sort of guy.

The native plants of Alaska are pretty nifty. So many edibles, almost all edible! We went on a hike through the national forest up there and our guide was very young but really knowledgeable about native plants. It was a lovely day for a little hike too, in the low 70's and everyone up there was frying! I still had to wear my jacket...

You think the sun is strong here? Try Alaska in June when there is 18 hours of daylight!

FL

GGG or FL (???)
Sounds like a trip of a life time. Glad you returned safe to a loving hubby who cared enough to take care of things in your absence. Shame on him if you had returned to find droopy plants... I am not much of trip type guy either although we did take a week trip about 3 years ago up to the Smokey Mountains and to the Biltmore House. That place is amazing! Sampled their wine, but too dry for my taste. Guess I prefer the homemade wine... I am not very cultured.

Wow! 18 hours of daylight! How did your body adjust to it?
Next time be sure ESH goes along... she is good at stomping to let the critters know you're coming and I consider her the resident native plant expert. When she starts about those plants... I can understand a few words like AND, BLOOM... that's about it... lol It's heck to be a big dummy like me :(

Saw on the news this morning where 2 young ladies had gotten off the hiking trail and survived about a week in the Alaskan wild. That must have been a hair raising experience...

Good to see you back safe and sound. Photos always welcome.. (hint hint)

Shot

I love the updated picture, shot, especially being able to see the busy bees on the flowers. You sure make it sound easy. I'll have to try a few next year.

Aww shucks... thank you, ESH. I think bees are so important as I have heard it estimated that 80% of our food depends on them. That is scary, so just try to do my little part to help them along. Do a little research and see which sunflower suits your fancy. As previously mentioned, these are black oil and is preferred by the birds, but there are some out there that are a lot bigger.
GGG got her some seed and I know hers will do well.

Shot

Gorgeous stuff Shot!
Hanging tight with an Extreme drought ranking up here but it has cooled off a bit ( durn tater bins even started blooming again? Still no blooms for the Yukons though)

Hi Cozy. Been wondering how your taters were doing. Think you have a green thumb, no doubt. I still have one bin that I have not opened up yet... maybe tomorrow. The vines are dying and they never bloomed, so don't think I'm gonna be swamped with taters.
Sorry to hear that you are experiencing a drought too. We got 1.2 inches last Saturday. There was a 40% chance for today, but nothing even close.
My peas are doing good even without a lot of rainfall. Wife and daughter putting up some now.
Here's hoping you get some rain soon, my friend.

Shot

Good Luck with the taters and rain Mate! We danced around 100 degrees for 7-10 days and I thought my taters were goners but we have had a good run of days in the mid-upper 80s and the darn All Blue and Red Pontiac have started blooming again. So maybe something is still working.
I tried to log in last weekend ( I noticed the tomatoes and loaf bread too. I wanted to suggest some Dukes instead of the dish washing detergent ;)) but couldn't log in .... ended up having to take the keyboard out to the air compressor and blow all of the drool and slobber off of it!
Add the purple hulls and you must be in hog heaven! And that brings up a question that I have been meaning to ask you. It seems that you are always cooking up some pork; Do you raise your own?

Well, the rain missed us again this weekend, but good news is that others got some.
Yesterday, we took the other potato bin apart and only got about a third of a 5 gallon bucket.
Cozy, no I don't raise hogs. Think very few people do anymore. When I was growing up, everyone had hogs then I think the market fell out, so they moved onto other things.
I just love pork! A boston butt... slow cooked... a slab of ribs smoked just right... and who doesn't love bacon. What would peas or beans be without some bacon seasoning... or cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet in the oven with bacon grease on top... yum

Shot