Garden Scourges

Greetings, Ken here. We have been visited by garden scourges! Margaret found tomato caterpillers today. We were wondering what was eating our tomatoes and now we know. I picked them off, 6 in all of various sizes and fed them to the chickens. They had great fun with them and five minutes later ... no more tomato caterpillers. We also have something eating the potato plants and the brussel sprouts so tomorrow we are going to douse them witha 40 to 1 solution of water to dish soap and do the little scourges in as well.

We dug up a potato plant to check out our potatoes and found a good variety of sizes, I expect we'll get about 1/2 a bushel from one patch and maybe the other half from the side garden. The pumpkins are doing well, a couple of them are a chewed but otherwise good.

Our first rooster, Henry is feeling his age I think and one of the younger roosters is making a play to become Henry the Second! Ah, to be king and loose it all! Such is life.

Margaret is painting the foyer to freshen it up. The new paint makes the old paint look positively grotty! It should go well with the colour we have on the front door which is a soft yellow, a few shades lighter than butter I think.

I spent the day catching up on spring clean up chores, it takes no time at all to make a mess, but a long time to set things right again. I hope to have the shop and the outside cleaned up by the end of my time off. Then we can get on with doing the framing inside and get things set up inside. I want it all done before the snow flies.
Margaret here ..when we discovered the caterpillars on the tomato plants it made me realise what that might have meant in the time period we are trying to live/portray...1865, a loss of opportunity, a  winter without tomato sauces and preserves. And possibly hunger for my family.
In my defense..
Had this been 1865 I would not be working out of the home and my gardens would be a much more serious endeavour. Not that we are not serious but we also have the comfort of knowing that if we screw up we can drive into town and buy what we need. But regardless I should have paid better attention when I first noticed the tomatoes were being eaten. I origionally thought that the chickens were having a snack, then I thought perhaps the racoons. But I should have had a closer look.Next time I will.
I have given the grapes the 40 to 1 treatment and it worked wonders . Have done the brussel sprouts, the cauliflower,cabbage and the egg plants ...I am not sure what has happened to the potatoes, perhaps they are just ready to dig. This has been an odd summer for rain or lack of .
Looking forward to the film crew arriving this weekend to shoot a short film on our property. A period ghost story...
And our Grandchildren are coming this week, I am excited and looking forward to them coming..
That is all for now folks ...thanks for reading!