Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Baymule]

A hammock for sheep! Nap time! LOL

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Looks like "enhanced interrogation" there!

A hammock for sheep! Nap time! LOL

I was wondering where the glass of lemonade was!

 

[Mike CHS]

I have a lot of grass to cut today so I took a couple of pictures while moving the sheep this morning. Since we won't be working on the sheep again until we sort them next week, I walked them over to one of the far paddocks where I can rotate them every couple of days. Two of those don't have a shelter so I will move them again if it looks like we will have rain. The sheep wear their shelter but I always make sure the dogs have a place to go if they want.

 

[Bruce]

Lovely sight!

 

[Mike CHS]

Since it's getting close to planting our warm weather garden we spent a large part of the afternoon setting up germination tests for our oldest garden seed. We have one of a seed collection bought in 2016 that is 35 still sealed mylar packets that I don't want to assume are going to germinate. They are all wrapped in wet paper towels and in sandwich bags so we will know in a few days whether to keep them or pitch them. We already pre-sprouted seed for our okra bed and they have already been moved into 6 packs to wait on the heat.

 

[Mike CHS]

I just had the coolest thing happen a few minutes ago. I have had the sheep grazing in a paddock that is the furthest from the handling area where I feed them plus the creep feeder is there for the lambs. I was going to move the troughs down closer to where the sheep were so I only had to call them through one gate and usually when they see me, they come as soon as they hear me call. Today I had only left the first gate open about half way and even though they saw me and I was calling, they weren't sure what to do since it wasn't the way they went in this morning. As I was about to walk toward them Mel let out a big boom of his and ran through the gate. That was the signal to the sheep I guess since they came right on down. I had the other three gates open already and went on down to the troughs.

I know it was coincidence (or not) as Mel never barks toward me.

 

[CntryBoy777]

It is always nice when things work as they should....lord knows we never forget tbe times they don't.....

 

[Mike CHS]

It's supposed to be raining off and on all day today so will finish up starting another flat of vegetables and one of flowers on the porch although the majority of tomato and pepper plants are already big enough to transplant. I don't expect any more frosts but I didn't learn the first year but did finally learn my lesson the second year in a row that planting before May 1st around here isn't a wise move. We bought the last batch of seed that we needed for next year at our favorite Farm Center. They still sell seeds in bulk and we spent $25 for 15 different seed varieties and that includes 1 1/2 lbs of green beans.

 

[farmerjan]

Even though it looks doubtful that I will have a garden this year, I am going to go to the local farm bureau branch here and see what is available and buy some to have for even next year if I don't get a chance to plant this year. I have some old seeds here and will put them back also, and then probably just plant next year and if they don't come up, then replant with something else in that spot. Can always plant something like lettuce after the gr beans in the row if the gr beans don't come up... or plant something later. Usually I have found that I plant things that I am not sure of germination, along the side where the vines are going to spread. Of course I usually have more space than I need anyway.
But I have more than enough garden space and then I go and get more tomato plants that I don't need to fill up spots....

I am also thinking about availability of seeds in the future. And like @CntryBoy777 , want to have some of the "heirloom" open pollinated varieties to be able to save some seed for future if need be. You do have to worry about either distancing for purity of crops, or timing for blooming and pollinating to keep the crops from crossing. I have had volunteer plants that were definitely crosses of squashs and stuff.

Hey, I have grown a white cucumber that is very tasty and doesn't seem to be bothered by the bugs as much. In case anyone has ever wondered.

 

[Mike CHS]

I was going to post that Baker Creek (rareseeds.com) had their heirloom seed collection that we bought but I just looked and it's showing out of stock now.