Lush Early Summer

"Happy 4th of July everyone."
The summer of 2010, up to this point, has been wetter than normal and a bit warmer than normal. And this means it's been an incredible growing season for the farmers and gardeners around here. There's an old adage in this part of the country that says your corn should be "knee-high by the 4th of July". Old timers tell me that even that was probably optimistic years ago and farmers would often have to stretch the top leaves of corn plants straight up in order to reach their knees.

Well, this year is different. Here are a couple shots from this morning. In case you're wondering... Yes, I'm standing, and there's no photo trickery involved...



Since I'm a tad over 6 feet, this corn is more like 7+ feet high. And if you look closely in the second photo, near the middle of the picture, that's a corn tassel that's emerging from the top of the plant. This crop is probably a full month ahead of schedule.

Our time here in Beaver Dam is growing short... we're down to about 10 days. All the chores and little projects and visits with family are going to bunch up now and we'll be hopping every day. I've decided to do some maintenance (oil and filter changes) on the bus-house myself in order to save a little $$ and make sure we're staying within warranty guidelines. So that'll put a little more pressure on me in the next few days.

Over the 4th holiday, we're "dog-sitting" one of our grand-dogs... little Zeus. His owners, JT and Kaytlyn, are off on a quick vacation to the west coast, visiting with Andrea, Gage, and the kids, and seeing the sights in the Great Northwest. It's a good way for us to get our dog-fix without the hassles of full-time dog ownership. We really enjoy keeping up with the little guy, taking him for walks, and playing with him -- aware that it's only for a week. It's good he's easy to take care of... very well trained, and not a problem at all. I'm told he's a Papillion.

Zeus, the Zany Papillion.

As of the 1st of July, we're starting our 4th year fulltiming in the bus-house. There's a few things I'd like to write about this anniversary, but I'll leave that for another post.

Comments

Unknown said…
Wow. With that kind of growth in less than two months, it must be pretty noisy at night as you try to sleep and the corn is stretching to that height. :-)

Thanks for the farm report.

Slightly Better than Most