The potatoes are growing like crazy. Currently 2 tires, soon to be 3, high is a batch of Yukon Gold.
The original seed potatoes were planted at the bottom of the first tire, and as the stems grow I add dirt and tires. This will continue until they either stop growing or flower, which should be about 3-4 tires high. Come harvest time, each tire should be filled with plenty of potato goodness and plenty of food to last us a good deal of the winter.
I'm also growing a few potatoes in a raised bed, basically to test the difference between the two methods.
There is about 6 different varieties growing in this bed. Can't wait to harvest these as not only will I get the common yellow skin/white flesh and red skin/white flesh, but I will also get red skin/pink flesh and blue skin/blue flesh. Can't wait to make some purple smashed tatoes :)
Took some pictures of the Reptiles over the weekend, and the snake pictures came out so well I felt it was worth sharing. Most of them are of my newest addition, an Albino Spider female Ball Python. This morph is quite intriguing as both the recessive (albino) and the dominant (spider) traits are visual, as apposed to looking like one yet being a carrier of the other (spider het. albino).
And here is one of my Piebald male, a little dark but damn he sure is hot.
Today had turned into a fun, yet really busy, day for us. This was the first meet up/party we've ever hosted and now, sitting on the couch after the long day I have a better understanding of how much work it takes to have fun.
It was great seeing so many faces, both human and furry, some I haven't seen in a long time while others for the first time. Tom managed the grill and cooked up some great meats, while our pups were tied out in the back of the yard away from the action. My guys aren't used to doggy visitors, so it was best to keep them back there or bring them inside the house. The latter proved to be a bad idea with more than one, as each time someone was leaving Tetsu would sneak through their legs as they tried to stop the other dog. Twice he got out and was enjoying the romp around so much that he didn't even notice all the dogs and people sitting right by the door.
Anyways, words are useless without pictures so here are a few taken by me, as well as some taken by others who attended
Even the chickens got to join in
Tetsu surprised us with his gentleness towards Sophia
It was just such a fun day and I'm glad that everyone who came had a great time...Can't wait to do it again ;)
Since no one showed up for the meet up today and the dog park was extremely crowded, we opted to take the pups to the pond for a little watery fun. They all enjoyed getting wet, and the long walk that followed. In the end, we all had a lot of fun and ended up smelling funky.
Yesterday, we brought in a few guys to remove all the oak trees in our yard as well as clear out the overgrown area that will be our future vegetable garden. First off, some before pictures taken on Thursday from the roof of the house:
They came early Friday morning, five guys and tons of equipment. The first thing to come out was the Bobcat, drove straight to the back to clear up all the overgrowth and anything that would block the trees they were cutting.
Once the Bobcat moved most of the major stuff out of the way, in came the big toys. They brought in a log Truck and a decent sized chipper, and began to butcher the trees.
Starting from the back, they chopped down the trees and ground down the branches. They managed to fill the back of the log truck with trunks, fill up the chipper truck twice and break two teeth on the stump grinder due to metal in the stumps. But they did get 17+ trees down in one day, giving us plenty of entertainment throughout the day.
When they were done with the trees in the back, they had the last two trees along the road to deal with. This task required a Cherry Picker:
At the end of the day, this is what our yard looks like:
Now we have a blank slate to work with, along with a great deal of fire wood to chop up, wood chips to spread and enough empty space to burn any left over waste wood. We're already starting to set up the vegetable garden ad greenhouse, and took measurements for the future dog run. It may look barren now, but soon enough this yard will become a great place to be in.
