Greetings from Benpensa Farm in Parker County

[Mugtoe]

Ever ready



This is the old Mahan tree that was so covered up with junk the other day.



Rowdy doin his bit. He thinks chickenpoop is candy still, but he rides wel.

[Mugtoe]

Picked turnips today, so Dad could make Arabic pickled beets and turnips.



Somethin about this pic makes me feel naughty, and I don't know what it is.

[Mugtoe]

Voila!

[Mugtoe]

Things are really startin to take off now. Here's the blackeyed peas and bush beans we planted just a few weeks ago.



Here's the sweet potatoes and some of the peppers.



Pole beans are hittin the strings now, and we're not quite done tyin em up. I should say Dad's not quite through. I've gotten rather work brittle over the last few days.



This is lookin back across the pole beans with the limas just visible in the foreground.



Here's the new batch of corn I planted comin up now after only a few days. There's peanuts just to the right, but you can't really seem em well in this pic.



Here's the old corn flowerin now.



Here's the other end of the pole beans with okra to the right just this side of the corn.



The watermelon patch looks overgrown with weeds, but most of that is simply watermelon vines.



Dad's started makin pickles already, and he'll be doin so from here on out. He's also gonna make some pineapple date chutney this week, and we'll likely send some out to smug.






Maters'll be done soon as well.



Here's some of the onions I picked yesterday.



This is the first apricot I've picked this year. There's only a couple of dozen on the tree, but it's more than I thought we had. This one was firm, but very sweet. There's also quite a few more quince than we thought.



This is the tater'n onion'n anchovy casserole Dad made this mornin for lunch. All a that 'cept the fish came outta the garden. :)

[pmondo]

Great pictures Mugtoe BTW what camera are you using I need aone and was wondering which one you are using

[Mugtoe]

I use an HP215, and sometimes I'll photoshop the pics to increase saturation and contrast. The cam tends to leave pics lookin a bit washed out.

[Mugtoe]

It was a beautiful evenin, so I thought I'd snap a few pics. go figger.





Here's one of the pear trees.







Here's the mesquites in the third paddock. Most people round here think of em as trash trees, I guess, but I like em.







This is the pond cypress. We thought we'd lost it to chlorosis, until Dad treated the soil around it with our special recipe. It's goin great guns now.



This is one of the burr oaks. They grow to be truly magnificent trees.







This is one of the gincko trees.

[Mugtoe]

Two weeks of rain and a week of bein laid up after that wreck have left the garden a jungle. I got out there today and dug up a tub full of carrots out of one row and half a bag of taters from about eight feet of one row of them. The tomatoes are startin to turn red as well, and the peppers are comin on. I'll be buried soon in this stuff.

[Gar]

Good to have you back. I was begining to get worried that something had happened to yous guys out there. Glad to hear your garden is doing good.
What wreck are you referencing? My tomatoes are also starting to turn read. Gotta keep after the tomato horm worms though. I killed 6, off one plant yeaterday, and a couple off another plant today. They make great compost material. Sure enjoy your posts and pictures. I agree a garden that size is alot of work, but well worth it. Can't beat fresh grown veggies.
Keep the posts and pictures coming.

[Mugtoe]

This is the wreck I was referring to. My ribs are bruised and battered, and my shoulder was sprained, but it could've been a good deal worse. However, it kept me out of the garden for a full week after having been rained out for a couple of weeks prior. I mowed down all the old Swiss chard and romaine today, along with a few onions I could've likely harvested, because those first three rows were so overgrown with Johnson grass, and we'd harvested everything we had any use for out of it already. After that, the place looked a good deal better immediately. I took the spading fork and started diggin up taters, until I realized that the carrots were in much softer soil. The taters I dug up were mostly from the other end of the row where it's out of the hardpack that it starts end on the near side. I should've started the entire garden ten feet further west, and I'd have missed that swath of hard clay altogether. We can do that next year and plant some grape vines of a few fruit trees along that patch.

[Nadine]

Mugtoe wrote: [url=http://www.spreadeagleranch.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2919]...until I realized that the carrots were in much softer soil. The taters I dug up were mostly from the other end of the row where it's out of the hardpack that it starts end on the near side. I should've started the entire garden ten feet further west, and I'd have missed that swath of hard clay altogether. We can do that next year and plant some grape vines of a few fruit trees along that patch.
:idea:
Have you ever thought about renting an aerator? I would not advise it until you are totally healed from your accident, but I think it would be a good idea once you are better and your ribs are no longer bruised. After, add about 1 1/2 inch of compost to the area.
Mulching bare soil helps a great deal as well. I have had incredible results with a couple cubic yards of it on my own mid-size residential lot. I am amazed at what it has done to the soil. In less than a year, the ground went from rock hard clay (my shovel would not even go in 1/4 inch when I stood on it and rocked) to workable (I dug a 18 inch hole with almost no effort. I could have gone deeper, but did not need to). Mulching 3-4 inches deep with cedar or hardwood bark on bare soil would keep these good rains we have had from escaping your soil. You could try it on one side of your garden and see the results.
If you did not want to do that, you could loosen the soil with microbes. BIO-INOCULATE is a great product to use. It has a lot more microbes than some other products. It has a guaranteed stated amount of microbes, but the actual is much higher. Make sure you follow the instructions and keep the soil in a proper state for them to work. You would be doing good to add a little liquid molasses to it.
Thank you for the pictures. The ones of the sunrise are beautiful. I really think you have some great scenery where you are. I think it is nice that you share with us. :wink:

[Gar]

So Mug, how did it happen? You guys were lucky you didn't get busted up worse then you did. I hate to see things like that happen, especially to those older trucks. If you follow Nadines suggestions your ground will turn into 'workable' and 'growable' ground. Hope you have a speedy recovery. Keep posting the pics and your stories. I always look forward to your posts and pictures.

[Nadine]

I just wanted to let anyone who previously read my last post on this topic that I changed the name of a product. I got it confused with another. Bio Inoculate is the microbial product I had meant to suggest, although Bio-Form does have good products as well. Pardon me for any confusion. :?

[Mugtoe]

Well, so it goes. I've got the garden and a new vineyard plot plowed but haven't yet taken the disc to them. I started to disc the vineyard this mornin, but I got stuck and had to dig the tractor out and finally unhitch the disc and leave it there. I'll drag it out later with a chain. Anyway, here's a few pics from today.

Leavin the front porch and lookin across the north yard toward the garden.



I stopped to let the chickens out. We've only got three left, thanks to Puddin, but we'll pick up some more at the next First Monday.



From the far corner of the garden lookin back toward the house. I made the plot about half again larger than last year. I felt limited by the size of last year's garden. I hate feelin limited. No sense in it with all these acres available.



We got great dirt.





Lookin through the old chicken yard into the paddocks. The hog pen is in the distance between the first and second paddock. Dad wants to put a few goats in the chicken yard. He's already driven stakes where I'm to ditch a water line out all the way to the third paddock and vineyard.



The old hog pen looks like hell, but I don't think it'll take much to fix it up and have more pigs again. I want to make it bigger and include the area of the former barn, which is no longer there. 'magine that.



Lookin across the hog pen and the site of the old barn. I have a lot of junk to clear out before it's ready, but that part's easy as long as I don't wait for warm weather and snakes.



The new vineyard! This is the view from inside the second paddock behind the hog pen.



The soil here is a bit sandier than that in the garden. It's like walkin through dry cocoa.



Lookin back at the house across the Turrentine Natl Forest.



The view back into the hog pen. It's really a mess. I hate it that it's the first thing people really notice when they cross the levee on the driveway up. However, perhaps it'll discourage visitors.



Lots of trailers here at the Ranch.



Yardbirds and junk on the porch.





The fleet.



Dad's opium pipe he got in Thailand.



Munner, one of our digeridoos and the ship's bell from the HMS Powerful.



Hopefully, we'll be making real progress very quickly. We got two tree orders in today, one from Vernon Barnes and one from Mail Order Natives.

[Nadine]

Yes, my reply is quite overdue.

:wink: Thanks for checking back in, it has been a while. Your photos are always fun to look at. :)