Harvests, Bees, Storms, Huge Horse Fly, Making Room For Freeze Drye...

Woke to some clouds moving over and when I looked at the doppler there was showers to the west over the basin. It was rather nice as it helped keep the temps down quite a bit but it did up the humidity.

21 pounds of squash has me to nearly 300 pounds in the cooler. I have to go back to the earliest and cull any bad today.

I noticed the bees going great guns and large numbers going in and out the entrance. I donned my bee suit and after smoking them for a bit popped the top to find a nice sized hive. I grabbed another deep super and added it to the top after dusting the lower with DFM powder. I put a pollen patty on top and closed the hive back up. It seems the other hive did not last and is sitting empty now. Thankfully this hive has done really well.

The clouds got thicker mid day as the storms began to move past.

The boys came running up to me with this in a cup. It is a seriously massive fly. The thing was 3/4" long with huge eyes. It did not want to fly far after I let it out of the cup and landed on the branch of the plum tree nearby. I nudged it with my finger and it flew to another branch a foot or so away. I found it in my National Audubon Society field guide and it is the Black Horse Fly (Tabanus atratus). I have a feeling this one was a male since they drink nectar and the females drink blood so it's mellowness probably meant it wasn't a vampire.

At noon I went for a walk up the hill and ended up going to the south gate and back for a mile. I grabbed a bite to eat then headed out to the garden to pick beans while the clouds obscured the sun and kept the temps moderate. Near the top of the row I found more herpes that I had somehow missed when it was smaller and now the flowers gave it away quickly. I yanked it out of the ground and threw it on the plastic to die in the heat. Stupid tomatillo.

I got right on 10 pounds before the sun came back out and began to bake me so I bagged the beans and got them in the cooler, which helped me as well after sitting in the heat.

I went through the cucumbers again and wound them into the wires and fencing. It seems to be a daily need. I found 6 cucumbers that were ready to pick which ended up in the house. I am getting enough to warrant using the tub for harvesting now.

The afternoon was spent in the house. The freeze dryer has been buried in the kitchen and the pantry was clogged so there was no room to move it in. Between the basement and the pantry I was able to make enough space to roll the unit into the pantry where I have the perfect amount of power wire to reach the plug on the center island. The exhaust will port out the window and the a/c is in the window to the far left. I have to get it going today with a load of veggies from the garden.

I have locked the birds out of the brooder hut as I have to ready it for the turkey chicks which will be here ion Friday. They were not too happy about it and I had to lug them all over to the coop and drop them in the window. The turkeys are fine in their pallet hut.

Today I have squash and beans to pick, the cool down has begun and we will be only about 90F today, I will get the freezedryer going with a batch after I change the oil on the pump, and I have more cleaning out of the basement to do. I am going to have to rerun a bunch of stuff in the freeze dryer as I did not mylar bag it so it has regained some moisture and if I want to store it in the basement it has to be be in the mylar so as not to absorb the humid air down there.