Stink bugs and tomatoes

Right about the time the tomatoes really start producing here come the stink bugs.

We battle this every year and it’s so annoying. They do not bother with the yellow or the orange tomatoes but they sure do love the red and purple.

I had read to add 1 – 2 tablespoons of Dawn to a gallon of water in a sprayer. We did this 5 days ago and now the tomatoes are perfect so we will be doing this every week to get back our tomatoes crop.

Here are a few tomatoes from today one of our favorite ways to eat them is tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, and Italian dressing covered with foil and placed in the fridge for a few hours this will last a few days. This is yellow, red, and purple tomatoes in this mix.

On an average day, we pick about 30 tomatoes

Fresh vegetables are one of my favorite times of the year.

May 28, 2022 0

Lizard time

As a kid, I loved catching lizards.

As an adult, I no longer catch them I just photograph them.

I love their scales the teal blue around their eyes and almost all of them have battle scars.

The tiny lizards in your yard can entertain you and pose for pictures.

May 27, 2022 2

A Brindle Cane Corso Pup

This is the last one of Cricket’s pups I am babysitting while they are out of town.

He will be going to Connecticut next week by transport I have to get a health check at the vet for him to cross state lines.

I think his name is going to be Dallas he is 12 weeks old tomorrow.

He is very smart and knows commands to sit, come, and walks right beside you.

He is a very pretty brindle like his mom and has her big feet I hope he gets big like her. I love the stripes in the middle of his head it looks like his hair is parted.

Taking pictures of puppies is a lot of fun especially if they like to pose.

May 19, 2022 5

Babysitting a heifer calf

Our daughter’s cow Penny had her first calf a registered miniature Herford Heifer.

She is probably around 30#s and was born last Friday nite. It is hard to tell how small something is in pictures but Zoee is taller than this baby.

Penny rejected it which is not uncommon for first-time mama cows. She began kicking it and trying to get it out of her way. She would not even clean it in most circumstances, this only happens with the first calf so she should be a good mama next time.

They were getting ready to go out of town so guess who is babysitting. She gets two bottles a day 2 pints each. She follows me around like a dog when I let her out. She runs like crazy in our backyard trying to experience her legs.

Zoee wants to mother her so so bad but I have not let her do this she gets to visit through the fence.

Here are a few pictures of Nutmeg which with the help of a friend we named her I am sure the name will get changed.

Little baby calves and cameras get along pretty well.

May 17, 2022 2

Daisy’s Corneal Ulcer

I had to take Daisy to the vet on Thursday.

We are using a local vet that has a new practice. I felt like their charges were cheaper than the bigger vets in our area but at the same time, you need to be careful at these vet offices because they find reasons to charge you for one more thing.

Daisy had been winking at me all day Wednesday so I knew something was wrong with her eye. I was worried she might have lost her sight.

After staining it the vet discovered she had a corneal ulcer which is often caused by trauma like dogs playing, or a stick, etc. She and Zoee always play so this is not surprising but now Zoee is trying to kiss the eye back to good health like she knows it’s bothering her. This is driving Jack and me both crazy.

She has eye drops every 8 hours for a week then every 12 hours for 2 weeks and anti-inflammatories for irritation caused by the ulcer.

All in all, she is fine but it’s a good thing I noticed her winking at me lol.

May 14, 2022 3

Cucumbers to pickles

We have had lots of cucumbers this year.

You can only eat so many and give away so much. It was time to make pickles.

We have made 12 quarts of Dill Pickles we also grew our own dill because the more dill the better the pickles.

We have made 11 quarts of Bread and Butter pickles.

People are always asking if we sell our pickles the answer is NO they take too much time to make. We give pickles away to close family members and Jack eats the rest. Every now and then I will eat a dill pickle but I am not really a pickle person.

The house has the smell of apple cider vinegar today.

I am sure there will be more pickles made over the next few weeks.