Creepy green worms.

These yucky green worms have been eating away at our tomato plants. I got them under control in the big garden but had not been paying attention to the small "eyeball" garden. I noticed that the plant looked shorter and went over to take a closer look. Well here is why. These worms can eat a great deal overnight, leaving behind little black grenades as one gardening site called it, (worm poo) on the leaves and on the ground. A tell tell sign that you have a big problem.

ICKY!

Double nickles.

Yep, today I'm 55. What a character, right!

LB Con 2009 - St. Louis

Nancy and I spent the weekend at the first ever letterboxing convention. It was just our luck that the convention was in St. Louis, only a few hours from us. We stayed in the dorm at the University of Missouri at St. Louis.

They also had a letterboxing card exchange scheduled, so this is the card I traded with other letterboxers. I made 18 to exchange and got some cool cards back.

Exchanging signature stamps with other letterboxers at the JCPenny Center.

The trading frenzy continues.

Nancy stands in front of the map with the individual personal stamps attached to a string that goes back to the state that you came from. About 300 people from across the US attended. We collected almost 200 stamps in the 2 days we were in St. Louis.

We walked our tails off searching for boxes planted all over the campus. A night boxing event found us hunting for boxes in the cemetery behind the campus. With flashlights in hand we followed clues to some real cool stamps. I will post some of our finds later this week.

What's growin in the garden this week?

Looks like some nice zucchini and peppers are on the dinner menu this week.

Morgan is inspecting the bucket of tomatoes to see if they pass inspection to go into Sue's garden fresh, sassy summer salsa.

Now Shadow, the neighbors dog, he has become a problem. This past week he has taken to pulling off the red tomatoes in his mouth leaving teeth marks in the skin. He must think they are balls. Today he pulled one off of the vine and put it down next to me so I would throw it for him.

This dog is ball happy!

Giant Sunflowers.

Here is an update on the giant sunflower seeds Peg and Scott gave us before we moved from Trappe. At last, we have flowers. It was windy when I took this photo.

Tub of Wild Flowers.

The Black Eyed Susan's were growing on the edge of the garden in the way of the mower. I didn't want to cut them down so I decided to create a tub of wild flowers. Nancy added a few of her own flowers on the back side of the tub. We shall see if they take hold.

What's that in the sky?

The Stealth B2 Bomber, that's what it is. All week we have had 2 to 3 of these planes flying over the house. I was lucky to get a photo of one yesterday. Almost looks like the sign for Batman!

Snap!

Well look who showed up in our back yard this week, a snapping turtle. I was out cutting the lawn when I saw Morgan leap up off the deck and bolt down to the back of the yard. All I could see was something brown and low to the ground moving slowly by her. An hour later he was gone. I guess he walked over to the big pond for an afternoon swim.

And the winner is?

Scott-T-Dog takes a blue ribbon at the Johnson County Fair this week. I also got a blue ribbon for my potato stamped fabric napkins with the Mexican theme posted in my June blog.

Sad to say our bird houses did not place at all.

But, hey, two out of three ain't bad!

Curious green balls.

We have got lots of these melon balls growing in the garden. At first we thought they were watermelons, but because of the rough outside skin we now think they may be cantaloupes. Time will tell. On to other news, Diane has talked me into joining the garden club. Watch out Martha, I may have my own show some day!

Hold up in Holden.

Sorry, no photo on this one, but we had big excitement on BB this week.

I was on my way into town on Wednesday at about 9:30 and passed a police car with his siren and lights going. An ambulance was in front of the police car heading out toward our house. I headed back home around 12:15 to find both side streets on either side of our house shut down with police road blocks and guns at the ready. I saw two helicopters in the air in a search pattern, one which was in our back yard flying very low. I decided to go over to Tom and Diane's house to see what the heck was going on. I was stopped at the corner of our property by a police officer asking me what I was doing, and where was I going. As it turns out 2 bank robbers dumped and burned a stolen car on the road behind our house. It took police two days to find them, but they were caught on Friday.

Home on the range.

We were in town today when the guys came over to load the bales of hay. Now I have to decide to mow all 5 acres or let the meadows grow back in.

Ready to bale the hay.

We were able to get 8 bales of hay from our land. Tom said that this is about 2/3 the size of a normal bale of hay and is about 1200 lbs.
A snack size or a Happy meal for cows. One of these will feed about 40 cows a day.

Making the hay bales.

After the field is raked you get neat rows of hay.

Morgan is inspecting the quality of the hay. This field had lots of clover.

Ready for the rake.

Travis sets up the rake while Morgan supervises the job.

View from inside the cab of the tractor. That's right, I'm up in the cab raking the hay with Travis. Farming is hard work!

Cutting down the meadows.

Tom cuts the meadow with an industrial size mower.

Cut meadow ready for the rake.

Cutting the south fourty.

Buffalo for Barb.

These are buffalo that were being taken care of by a farmer down the road from us for his son. Each time Nancy and I would pass this farm we would say to each other, we have to get a photo of them for Barb G. Well we never got the job done and the buffalo were moved a few weeks ago. The good news is Tom had taken a photo and sent it over to us. Thanks Tom!

Salsa time!

The first toe-maters are ready and we will have plenty more to come. The plants are just loaded up with green tomatoes. However, I now have to deal with the yucky tomato worms. They are neon green and nip away at the plants eating away at the tops.

The salsa factory is now open. Come and get it!!!!!

Garden update.

The jalapeno peppers are ready to eat. So far no one has stepped forward to try one. How about you?

Composting, a way of life.

We have been composting all our egg shells, fruit and veggie scraps, and coffee grounds. This is another of Nancy's little hobbies. If she is not seen burning the trash in her burn barrel you will see her and the little blue bucket going down the path to dump on the compost pile.

We also recycle all our tin cans, aluminum, plastic, glass, newspapers, junk mail, and magazines at the co-op in town.

Now Nancy is working on having a rain barrel installed under one of the rain gutters to collect rain water for the garden.

Doing her part to save the world, one scrap at a time.

Fourth of July.

We may not be in Philly but we have our own Liberty Bell!

Due to inclement weather we moved the picnic inside. As always with the Friel family games are played . Here we see a round of "Imagine If " being played. You can learn plenty about what people really think about you. Some good, and some well, try a round and see for yourself!

Now the dogs had a problem holding the cards so they went down to the meadow to play a game of their own. For about 20 minutes they chased each other weaving in and around the tall grass and wild flowers. At times all you could see was the tops of their heads bobbing and weaving in the grass. It's all good, down on the farm.

Look what's growing in the garden.

What is this, Morgan-mater?

I see you little toe-mater, you can't hide from me.

Big beefy toe-maters.

The giant sunflowers are still growing. The flowers should be out any day now. Thanks Peg for the seeds!

The tomatoes are growing so big I can't wait to make some fresh salsa!

Toe-maters on my lawn?

Every time I cut the lawn I have to be careful not to run over these rogue tomatoe plants. So today I decided to give them a nice brick border to grow in. Little do they know they will soon become salsa!

DIY project designed by Sue herself! I got my "eye" on you toe-mater!