I know because the plants are coated with aphids and whiteflies. It had not excluded the spotted cucumber beetles as I hoped it would but it did exclude the ladybugs. A few days after disking in the squash, I pulled the row cover off the cucumber. Good riddance! All that remains of the cucurbits is one row of cucumbers. In my eyes, the most beautiful thing on the farm right now is the 5,000 square feet of bare soil where I made the squash disappear. Our fall garden is brimming with lush green growth, which is good because the plants are under assault from summer pests looking for new hosts and a return of the cool season pests of spring. That dog had better start killing some rabbits.Ī slow, gentle rain Sunday evening and all day Monday gave the whole farm a good watering and broke up my 15-hour disking chore. Rolo broke into the brooder and took two chicks out to “play”. We lost one chick when it was a couple days old to unknown causes, but it is normal to lose one or two.

Unlike our chicken rearing experience of spring, which involved elaborate emergency interventions and 24-hour surveillance, this round has been pleasantly uneventful.

There they will enjoy green grass, insects and sunshine for the remaining four weeks of their life.

Thursday the three week old Cornish Cross chickens moved from the brooder out onto pasture. They have been spending a suspicious amount of time in the bushes across the street. Or rather, the number of eggs we can find has dropped sharply. Now that we have ended their tomato-eating fun by fencing in the garden, the chickens have retaliated by lollygagging around in the road trying to get hit by cars. Why did the chicken cross the road? To hide her eggs from the farmers.

Why did the chicken crossy the road