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The Weekly Digs #167

Written byBecky Updated

Well the heat is still raging here and it’s been killer! I’ve been working full days in the garden but not really getting a ton done because I have to come inside to cool off, or fill up water for the 10th time. I also find I am much more sluggish out there in heat. So if I take a couple breaks, I’m usually more productive.

Tomatoes and peppers, they look so much better! They are thriving in the dry weather and heat.

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My kids are also not as willing as usual to help which is totally understandable. We have been using the sprinkler a lot for cooling off and Cam got some water balloons for the kids to play with while we were working outside. 

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Kids helping plant Jacob’s cattle beans

It’s not dropping below 70ºF at night anymore so even early in the morning it is already hot and very humid. I’m trying to get the garden all planted and cleaned up in the hopes of doing a garden tour video soon.

In the garden

  • Transplanted jalapeno peppers
  • Transplanted brussel sprouts
  • Planted Jacob’s cattle beans
  • Started Tying up tomatoes
  • Knocked down most of the oat cover crop in my tunnel
  • Harvested peas, the rest of the first carrot planting, new potatoes, lettuce, arugula, dill, a few raspberries and blueberries 

I also found a bunny in my garden! I’ve seen them on our property but never in the garden. I thought they wouldn’t come in because the garden is more exposed and out in a field instead of by trees where the rabbits usually take cover. 

At our old home we had a few problems with rabbits that we were able to take care of by adding hardware cloth around the base of the fencing. Our garden here is 5 times the size so I’m not sure that would be affordable. We set out some traps for the time being.

brussel sprouts

One day we had strawberries and the next it was almost like they disappeared. I figured it was because it was getting hotter but then I saw the rabbit scurry out of the strawberries and it all made sense where they were going. Their season is pretty much over but the rabbit cleared out the few that remained.

Turkeys

We moved the turkeys out into the next tractor a few weeks ago. All was going well, then one morning Cam found a great horned owl stuck in the turkey tractor! It was flying around like crazy and Cam took a video thinking it was cool until he saw two dead turkeys. 

It got our runt turkey and the mom, which was probably protecting her young. We couldn’t figure out how it got in, whether it was through an overlapping piece of tarp on the top of the tractor or it somehow squeezed underneath the base. 

Cam fixed the tarp, then moved the tractor so it was on deeper grass which covered the gap at the bottom, mostly. The next morning there was another dead turkey so we discovered it was getting under the tractor. 

There is only a small gap at the bottom from the wheels but enough space an owl could get in! I am always surprised at how tight of spaces an animal can get through when it is determined.

Then we moved the old cage/tractor over to the next to the new one and moved them in there the next night. All the turkeys were good and alive the next day. Cam is going to build a secure nesting box inside the tractor that we can lock them in at night. But for now we are moving them over to their old tractor each night until that project is complete. 

Preserving

We froze 6lbs of snap peas and a large amount of shelling peas. I haven’t weighed it yet because it still needs to be bagged, we usually flash freeze it first.

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4 Comments

  1. I just recently found your YouTube channel and it really resonated with me. We have a similar journey. I started eating Whole Foods to help with health issues. Read Nourishing traditions and started to ferment. We move frequently, but I always garden and have chickens and milk goats. This is my third season in panhandle Florida, and has been my best year to date gardening. It has been a learning curve when I am constantly learning to garden in new climates. I love that you produce 95% of what you eat. I think that is so admirable. I too am LDS, and I cook with my food storage, make fresh sourdough with whole wheat and supplement with the garden and fruit trees. I definitely wish that we produced more. I have never left a comment on any blog or any YouTube…. But you have really inspired me! I wish you had a recipe book. I keep finding myself wondering about stuff in the middle of the day, like: I wonder what her salsa recipe is! And I wish I could just ask you! We also homeschool (we started by being told we would homeschool when my husband took a job at the church’s ranch in Brasil, where he was doing an overhaul of the finance staff.). We loved it so much we stuck with it. Although some of my kids prefer public school. But it’s nice to have good hard workers with me in the garden… and the kitchen. Wish I could rack your brain, but I will just have to binge read you blog instead and watch all your videos! Thank you for creating this content, I garden to combat anxiety as well, and it’s good to hear others are in the same boat.

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  2. I’d seen photos of a local Cooper’s hawk that squeezed into an unprotected corner of a pasture coop near here. But I am surprised an owl of that size would do it. Now we know. We’ve had owls here for decades, I hear them every night, and they never bothered our birds. So when i start up again, it will be something to remember.

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  3. I’m sorry to hear about your turkeys 💔 I was wondering if anything could bet under at night. Im with you on the heat! I couldn’t imagine going out there at all to garden! 🥵 Now I understand why we haven’t gotten a garden tour yet

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  4. I had a small disappointing sugar snap pea harvest. I think the early heat got to them so I pulled the plants yesterday. I am going to direct sow some Swiss chard and spinach today.

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