Tomato Crop

This year's crop of tomatoes is coming in at full bore. Canned 17 quarts of tomato purée yesterday and will be working on stewed tomatoes tomorrow. Each of these tomatoes are over 5 inches across.

Size comparison of the tomatoes with a baseball and softball.

The three tomatoes weighed 6.8 lbs. (3.1 Kg.), with one of the tomatoes weighing in at 2.5 lbs.

Spaghetti Sauce Batch #3

This year's crop of tomatoes is still producing and batch #3 of spaghetti sauce is done. Another 16.5 quarts of sauce for a total of 49 quarts.

Not So Wild Turkeys

Yesterday I was doing my evening wildlife drive at the cabin property when I had to stop because of turkeys blocking the road.

The turkeys didn't leave the road so I slowly drove forward, the turkeys responded by slowly walking in front of the truck for the next 100 yards until I turned off the road to check the food plots.

I went back to the same area today and the turkeys were about 100 yards from where I last saw them yesterday.

I was able to drive within 20 yards of the turkeys as they were having a meal of grasshoppers.

On this evening's wildlife drive the turkeys were still in the same area.

Shedding Summer Coat

As we approach the unofficial end of summer, Labor Day, some of the neighborhood deer are starting to shed their summer coats. This young fawn still has its spots, but is starting to shed in the face and neck.

Spaghetti Sauce Batch #2

Cooking down our second batch of spaghetti sauce on a propane burner in the garage.

Ready to put the spaghetti sauce in jars.

16 1/2 quarts of spaghetti sauce.

Turkeys and Food Plots

Its been a week and a half since I've planted some wildlife food plots and this marauding flock of turkeys has been pillaging the food plots. I chase the turkeys out of the food plots every day, but they don't go very far. I chased them into some thick brush yesterday and when I walked over to the brush they were 10 feet away watching me. It's hard to throw rocks into thick brush.

Their primary target has been the food plot with winter wheat, alfalfa and clover. They think of this food plot as a big winter wheat bird feeder. They destroy the alfalfa and clover seedlings while digging up the winter wheat seeds.

We've had a half inch of rain in the last couple of days This food plot of brassica, rapeseed, turnips and white clover is starting to "green up". Maybe the lack of winter wheat seed in this food plot will limit the amount of devastation by turkeys.

Time To Make Spaghetti Sauce

This year's crop of tomatoes are starting to ripen.

These early peppers will go into the spaghetti sauce.

Just a few of this year's abundant crop of large onions. (The baseball is for size reference)

This year's crop of garlic curing (drying) at the barn.

The first batch of spaghetti sauce, 16 quarts.

Evening Wildlife Drive

The recent heat wave has forced most of the local wildlife to find a cool, shady resting place during the heat of the day. Once the sun starts to go down, the deer come out.

As I returned home from my drive around our cabin property I found this herd of deer mowing the lawn at our barn. In the background is my vegetable garden with an electric fence to keep the lawn mowing crew out.

Snake In The Grass

Mowing the lawn today and had to escort this Garter snake to a safe location out of the path of the mower.

Wildflowers - Teasels

The Common Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) is starting to bloom on its prickly, egg shaped flower head.

Classified as an invasive weed, this uniquely shaped, tall flower is easy to spot growing along roads.

The spiny teasel seed head before flowers start to bloom.

The blooming teasel flowers attract insects and butterflies.

A honeybee covered with teasel pollen.

Most of the teasels in our neighborhood are white ...

There are a few small patches of lavender teasels.

Wildlife Food Plots

Some of my older wildlife food plots were starting to fade and become overrun with weeds. We've received 2.5 inches of rain recently which was enough to moisten the ground and green up the grass. Time to reseed some of my wildlife food plots. About a week ago I sprayed this food plot and two smaller plots to kill off the old grass and weeds so I could do no-till planting of the food plots.

This 3/4 acre food plot was planted with a mixture of winter wheat, alfalfa and white clover. I also threw in some turnip and sugar beet seeds for late season grazing. The two smaller food plots totaled another 3/4 acres and were reseeded with a mixture of brassica, Rapeseed, turnip, red and white clover.

Within minutes of taking the picture of the food plot I had an 8-point buck and these turkeys walk into the food plot.

It was less than 24 hours since the food plot was planted and the turkeys were already eating the winter wheat seed. I drove my truck within 40 yards of the turkeys to deliver my eviction notice. The turkeys seemed to know that turkey season was closed and didn't appear scared of me.

Peppers

Starting to get a few of this year's pepper crop. The Eastern Rocket peppers that I started from seed are doing fantastic and taste great.

Storm Danage

Over the past week several storms have passed through our neighborhood dropping almost 2.5 inches of needed rain. A couple of the thunderstorms contained high winds and hail, which tore off a large section of this massive maple tree at the edge of our back lawn. I still have firewood from the clean-up of last year's wind storm.

Skunk Release

We had a strong thunderstorm move through the neighborhood late yesterday afternoon. The storm lasted for only one hour but dumped 1.10 inches of rain and small hail. Time to check out the garden this morning.

As I walked to the garden to pick some string beans I noticed a woodchuck strolling through the potatoes and checking the produce that was available. By the time I got the rifle from the truck the woodchuck was gone. As I approached the string beans I could see my "keep alive" trap was sprung. Maybe it was the woodchuck ...

I had placed the trap next to the beans to catch, rehabilitate, and relocate freeloading rabbits. My catch of the day wasn't a rabbit or woodchuck, but a small skunk.

After propping the door to the trap open the skunk was hesitant about leaving the trap.

The skunk eventually left the trap and headed away from the garden. I'm still looking for the woodchuck.

The Bears Eat My Blueberries

With thoughts of blueberry pie, blueberry cobbler and blueberry pancakes I went to check our blueberry patch, only to find bears had got there first.

The bears weren't very delicate with their berry picking technique and damaged most of the bushes and unripe berries.

The current temperature has been in the 80's to 90's and the bears created a muddy trail between the blueberry patch and a nearby spring where they cooled off.

The bears also left a "calling card" to let us know they were in the neighborhood. After eating our blueberries, the bears left this pile of poop in our yard, 20 feet from the house.