I hate squash bugs!

I checked the winter squash and found a explosion of squash bugs. They are by far the biggest problem here on the farm. We did fairly well with the summer squash by planting with lots of stinky herbs. When we planted the winter squash I just did not think to plant the herbs also. I have tried to keep these in check but the rainy days kept me inside and they really blossomed. There is not much we can do to to kill these guys so I will pick what I can and then burn the field. I really hate squash bugs!

Peek-a-boo I see you!!

Malibu checking every nook and cranny of the barn.....nope no raccoons here!!

Garden photos

Where has the time gone????

Good heavens I am so shocked when I look at the calendar and see it is AUGUST!!?? The kids go back to school Thursday, six more weeks of CSA and Coco (above) is 6 weeks old. Did you catch the Coco thing?? I bet you are wondering about HER??? Well you guessed it Mable had a GIRL!! Yahoo doin the happy farmer dance!! I am so happy that we had two girls. The girls are both doing great and growing like little weeds. We had their horns removed last week and they were a bit upset with me but seem to have made a full recovery. The farm is busy... a ton had happened. We have some new additions and we had some sad losses.
Reina our beautiful Maremma livestock dog passed away. She had horrid hips and got to the point that she could not walk. I was quite attached to her and am saddened by her leaving us. With her gone the wildlife found the all you can eat chicken buffet and have killed all but one of the chickens(we had 97) killed all the ducks,all the turkeys and got my geese as well. In all we have lost over 150 birds in a matter of weeks. I have some chickens in a tractor that are three months old so we are with out eggs. I am sick of finding dead chickens all over. I suppose with only one lonely hen I won't find many more.
Meatloaf our steer was struck by lightning. He was 30 days from butchering. We were not able to save any of the meat. That was our beef for the next year. I refuse to buy store beef so we are trying to get ribeye to gain quickly but we are careful with what we feed and weight gain is slow. He weighs about 700 lbs. I like to butcher at about 1000lbs. We will see he might have to go in sooner than that. Such a disappointment.
Good news we were blessed to find a new livestock dog and I think she will do well. We have only had her for three days. She is 15 months old and needs some manners but is a sweet girl.
Gardens are OK the weather has been so odd... it really didn't get hot and we have had quite a bit of rain. The tomatoes have suffered, this wet weather has them split and not so pretty. At least they taste good. We have been canning the worst and I have made some awesome pasta sauce. I haven't canned as much this year. I haven't felt like standing at the stove for hours at a time... wanna know why?? OK big drum roll..... we are expecting baby #6 in January!!