Bags, Weeds and Roses

From my garden diary in June:

The sun and rain has made the rose bushes all bloom like crazy.

It has also made a zillion weeds start growing in my garden. I have a weed control plan and need to put it into action today.

Meanwhile, the hens enjoy napping ON the porch, in the sun.

Mavis actually let me take a few photos in front of the weeds and roses.
She has always been a bit camera phobic, so her sitting and looking at me while I snapped the photo, was a real treat.

 

My farm friends gave me 50 empty grain bags so I could cover my garden with them and some straw so I could keep the weeds down.

My goal is to keep weeding to a bare minimum this year as I am busy with the Community Garden,  the 250th celebrations and organizing a Tour D' Coop. 

 

Mavis again laid down for a quick photo.

Must be a special day.

 

The hens came and pecked at the few grains left in the bags after I cut them in half.

 

 I have another 50 grain bags in the garage to add to the pile.

I need a lot to cover the garden.

I spent an hour opening the bags up and splitting them in half so they will lay flat on the garden.

The 6 bales of straw arrived a few hours later and of course the flock came by to check them out.

As they inspected each bale I went to collect some eggs.

I was pleasantly surprised to find 5 today.

There is nothing better than eating fresh eggs!

I laid down the grain bags along my paths in the garden as well as some newspapers around some of the veggie plants.

 

 Looks a little like the Fidelity path from the commercial....

Then I dragged a bale of straw out to the garden and proceeded to cover the grain bags with it.

It didn't take long before I had most of the "bag paths" covered with straw.

I am still working on it.  The rain came that afternoon and mashed the straw down perfectly.

What kind of weed control are you using this year in your gardens?
~

August Tails

Its been a little cooler here today, but still dry.   Very cloudy, but no rain.   You can not imagine how desperate all us farmers are for rain.  Apples have prematurely been falling off of all the trees for 3 weeks.

Rain, we need rain.       The drought has affected all kinds of things in this state

Flys, extremely sunny days, heat, dust, short dry grass, tall weeds and humidity have caused many of the herd to get pink eye.
Haven't had a case in 10 years.  The worst ones were vaccinated about 3 weeks ago and I have been spraying the herd every 3 days.   They see me coming and they run now.    One of my young Simmental cows has it the worst in one eye.  I want to put a patch on her and need to move the whole herd back to the farm so I can treat the new worst ones.    Frustrating situation.   The cloudy day today gave them some relief.

Any of you cattle ranchers have any good ideas for pink eye?     Unusual methods welcomed.

Anyhow, here is the herd yesterday at sundown as I circled them up to spray them down.

The newest calf and a proud heavy milking mom. Gotta love those Simmentals!

Tails Tails as far as I see
A sea of tails "waving" at me.

Red ones, white ones, black and brown
Stampeding away as the sun goes down

Spray them, chute them, get rid of the flys
Pray for cool weather to protect their eyes

To help the herd, need clouds and rain
Keep down the dust and stop the pain

Cows are a blessing, some work and a laugh
Especially cows very moody with calf

Watch those tails a swinging by
A parade of a herd with runny eyes.