Sage's First Egg

I had some nice break from the watering duty in the past several days as the monsoonal moisture paid the desert a visit with a generous amount of precipitation. :D  It's not fun for the kitties and chickens to be cooped up all day, and the amount of mud that gets tracked into the house is no joke.  Still, rain in the desert is much more than just the much-needed water.  It gives us relief at a much deeper, psychological ... probably spiritual level.

After an overnight rain and cloudy morning, I went to open the chicken coop doors for the girls a little later than usual after the rain had stopped yesterday.  Much to my surprise, there was a speckled brown egg inside the younger girls' coop!  I knew it was Sage's first egg since she's the only brown egg layer of the three (Vanilla and Mocha are Easter Eggers, and their eggs will be green to blue.).  For a first egg, it was not weird like "membrane without hard shell", "malformed", or "puny".  Sage's first egg was maybe a little on the 'slim' egg shape, but evenly shaped with a nice hard shell!  The pullets are roughly 14 & 1/2 weeks old right now, so it's rather early, but they get to free range all day, eating lots of greens and whatever bugs they catch.  They seem happy and definitely healthy, so it's not surprising that they would start laying early.

Pullets outside of their run, but staying close to their coop.

We started letting the girls free range with supervision at first.  Dorito was a little aggressive at first, followed by some challenges made by Fiona to Mocha (because Mocha is physically largest of the younguns).  The establishing of the pecking order is natural and nothing was excessive.  No aggressive pecking to cause any kind of injury.  So we kept lengthening the amount of time the pullets stayed outside.  In about 5 days, we were letting them out during daylight hours.  Aggressive behavior by  the two grownups have subsided.  Now, on a good day, we see all five of them foraging in the same area of the yard.  But for the most part, they are in two groups of two and three in different parts of the yard doing their own thing.

Pullets venturing out in the grassy area of the backyard.  Now they move around all over the backyard.

The other day, I saw Sage catch a grasshopper.  She immediately started running away from Vanilla and Mocha.  Before Sage could make a getaway, the others started off running after her.  There it was!  The chicken football.  LOL  So much excitement and commotion.  It's a delightful sight to watch these girls run as fast as they can.  In the end, Sage successfully outran the other two (She has always been the most athletic, most curious, and most brave of the three.), and munched on the grasshopper happily.

Now the pics from the garden. :D

The fruits of the Goliath tomato plant have started maturing nicely.  My first crop was used to make one of my favorite summer dishes of all time - tabbouleh.  The tomato from the garden adds so much flavor to this all fresh, simple dish, I always feel it's the best thing ever. ^^;

Ichiban is my favorite eggplant.  It's the skinny Japanese variety.  I think the flavor is sweeter and smoother than the big fat Italian types that are prone to grow lots of seeds inside.  This is one vegetable I grow year after year and never get tired of.

I've spotted dozen ore more LARGE fruits ripening on my German Queen tomato out back.  The plant is over 4 feet tall now. ^_^

The sunflower fence is producing lots of blooms now.  The tallest plants are probably somewhere between 9 1/2 to 10 feet tall now.  It is at least as tall as the garage's eaves.  The Mammoth Russian sunflowers are still growing and I finally see them forming buds, but no flowers yet.  They're still growing. :D

Took this close-up of one of the blooms.  Isn't it mesmerizing?  It's almost like staring into a mandala...

August's Super Moon.  I love full moon in the morning.  I love the crisp cool air, the gently hazy sky with pastel tones... just so peaceful.   ^_^

Baby Tomatoes

   These Brandywine tomato babies are making a good progress.  Flowers are continuing to bloom and new babies are coming. :D  It's so exciting!!

   And here's a look at the Black Krim tomato babies.  Growing steadily.

   Also in the same Summer Veggies SFG Box is a Japanese eggplant "Ichiban".  The plant has a lot of purple in the stem and veins, and the star-shaped flower is lavender.  I've always thought eggplant to be a rather pretty plant.

   "Red Beauty" bell pepper plant is now starting to have white blossoms.  The plant is getting really dense with leaves.  The Summer Veggies Box is starting to look really filled out.

   And here's a look at the Spring Veggies SFG Box on Day 72.  The soy beans are starting to really take off.  Mesclun lettuce squares are still producing well -- enough for me to have one or two salads every day.  The Sweet Williams are really doing well and blooming profusely.  The marigolds are finally starting to show buds.   They were started right in the box from seeds so it makes me extra happy to see them getting ready to bloom. :D  The peas, despite the yellowing in the hot weather, are still producing.  The tallest pea plant is at 37 inches. You can see the corn box right behind them, and the tomato plants to the left.  I have two of my many cats strolling the garden in this shot.

   The Corn Box on Day 56.  I measured them this morning and it's about 38 to 39 inches at the tallest point. I'm having to step back farther and angle my camera more toward the fence in order to capture the corn plants.  You can see the compost pile (the mound of debris) close to the fence in the upper left.  The corn box may have to be drip irrigated during the middle of the day.  We are now seeing daily high temperatures in the mid to high 90s every day.  I'm starting to see the leaves curl in the heat of the day.  Not to mention, the 6 inches of soil looks 'not enough' for these giant plants. ^^;

Day 61

 
   Day 61 already.  It's hard to believe that this box has been growing for over 2 months.  Everything except for the sweet williams in the lower right and the parsley plant in the lower left was started from seeds.  The Swiss chard keeps on producing strong.  I can make a harvest for one serving's worth of leaves for stir-fry one day and two days later, I can make another mini-harvest.  They just keep coming.  The same have been going on in the two Mesclun salad squares.  They have produced so much for me, I have nothing bad to say.  Some of the varieties are starting to try to go to seed (I keep trimming the flower heads.), and their leaves have developed the bitter/hot flavor.  When they were young, these were very mild in flavor (almost lacking in personality, some might say), so now they are starting to taste like their spicier cousins.  They totally wilt in the mid-day sun, but in the morning and after sunset, they're crisp and tasty.  Soy beans are now starting to really grow.  I'd imagine that they will be overflowing their square very soon.  Since my curly leaf parsley is slow to get going after transplant, I added Swiss chard seeds in the four corners of the same square (I'm such a rebel, breaking the rule. XD ).  I figure that I'd be eating the chard as soon as leaves get big enough that there should be plenty of room for the parsley in the middle (Also, the SFG book said I could plant 4 parsley plants in one square, so I was under-utilizing that square.).  The Alaska peas have slowed down the production although I'm always picking them when they are ready.  I think it has been simply too hot for peas.  The snow peas are steadily producing and I have a handful to throw into my sitr-fry or salad every day.

Corn Box on Day 45

     Here's a view of my Summer Veggies Box.  This was the fourth box we set up after the Spring Veggies, Strawberry, and Corn Boxes.  I bought the seedlings of some of the veggies from a few local sources: Red Bell Pepper, "Ichiban" Eggplant, Italian Parsley, Basil, "Brandywine" tomato, "Black Krim" tomato, "Yellow Pear" tomato.   I like "Ichiban" eggplant, because it's the long and skinny eggplant that I grew up in Japan.  Both the texture and taste seem milder and more delicate than the big, round varieties often seen at the grocery stores.  I decided to get one pepper plant because I'll most likely be the only person who'll be enjoying it on a regular basis and I should be able to get both green and red out of this single plant. :D  Both the Italian parsley and Sweet Basil are for spaghetti sauce and lasagna sauce we'll surely be making once the tomatoes start to produce lots of fruits.

   Speaking of tomatoes,  I had been pretty good about cutting the suckers (side shoots) off until I spotted the flower buds.  I got too excited about them and stopped checking for the suckers and today I realized that I had two large stems at the top of each plant.  I had to make a choice and cut one of them to keep the single central stem going.  Previously, I always let the tomato plants do whatever they wanted to do.  Plant them in a cage and let them just go wild.  I always ended up with more fruits than I could use myself or with my family.  This year though, I'm following the "All New Square Foot Gardening" book's suggestion,  the "Single Stem Method".  As the name says, you keep cutting the side shoots/ suckers off to maintain a strong central stem throughout the plant's life.  Since I am using a 4-foot by 4-foot square box here that is planted with plenty of other veggies, it makes sense to follow the Single Stem Method and train the tomato plants on the trellis support (to be built soon).  I will keep track of how they do.

   So far, the Summer Veggies Box has been free of pest (if you exclude cats trying to get in the box that is...) and disease.  Everything is growing nice and strong and I'm very happy about that.  It really is with minimal effort on my part as well. :D  I did notice though that there were cabbage worm butterflies coming to my boxes lately.  It really is amazing how they can spot my tiny broccoli plants out of so many plants and they lay eggs there since broccoli is related to cabbage.  They don't mess with any other plant's leaves.  Nature is really amazing.  I have been scraping the tiny eggs off the underside of the leaves.  Really, these seedlings are too small if they start to get eaten by the cabbage worms!  I still do have wasps patrolling the garden every day.  I know that if there were worms that escape my wrath, they'll be the ones to catch and use as food.  I have seen wasps kill juicy fat caterpillars, chew on the flesh and work it with their legs to turn it into a meatball and fly away to their nest with it.   I have been viewing wasps as good garden predator and pest controller. 

Another view of the Summer Veggies Box.

One of the flower pots on the back porch.  The plants are getting bigger every day.