Author: admin

A got an email from Roy this morning (thanks for the note Roy) that reads:

Saw your posting on vultures, thought you might like to see this?
Who knew?? The black and turkey vultures are federally protected??

So I followed the link and found that Fox carried an article on the damage that they can cause. They are in fact covered under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The article goes on to explain that for $100 bucks a year you can get an annual permit to shoot them.

This kinda/sorta proves out the truth in the meme I posted a few day ago:

Now I live in an exceptionally remote area and, apropos to no subject/topic in particular, when I first moved here one of my absentee neighbors said to me. “If you see anyone messing around with my cows just go ahead and shoot them. Won’t nobody ever find the body.” I’m fairly certain that it was said in jest.

With all this said, I do appreciate Roy letting me know of the restriction (thanks brother)

A few photos taken over the last couple of days here in Southern Middle Tennessee. The first two are of a vulture that decided the best place to dry out his wings was on one of the wood fence posts around my garden. My best guess is that the wingspan on this bird nearly six foot.

The red headed scavengers are ok to have around. The black headed ones will actually group together and attack a calf if he’s separated from the herd. Calfing time for our herd begins in September so I’ll be loading 4 shot in the 12 gauge and keeping it close at hand.†

What Saturday and Sunday was like around here (shown below)

A neighbor came over and mowed, raked and bailed the hay in two of the pastures. I used the tractor and 15 ft. brush-hog in the cleared areas around the cabins that are not pasture and then the zero turn mower to around the the hillsides and tree’d areas. Not shown are the weed-eater. With roughly 80 trees in the mowed areas around the cabins, it has now become an extension of my body.

I panicked in the garden on Friday when I saw the cut worms chewing at both the tomato plants and tomatoes and so got some Sevin spray out and gave them a good dousing. Today I fertilized using Miracle Grow granules diluted in water. Each tomato plant got 32 oz (50 plants or so) and the 25 pepper plants got 16 oz. Strawberries got 8 oz. I followed up about 4 hours later with a good soaking from the hose.

Just when I think that I’ve gotten the last of the blueberries off the plants and into the freezer I see that bushes are continuing to push out great fruit. I ended up with another quart of them today. Not bad at all for something that was not expected to fruit this year. The reason I notice the blueberries was because I was harvesting cuc’s and the bushes were nearby. I pulled a couple of pounds (maybe enough for 3 or 4 quart jars worth) and will gather them again tomorrow so I can pickle them up.

I also pulled a few strawberries and I guess I’ll get a couple a day until August arrives and the second production of ‘Everbearing’ is said to occur (I really don’t know, but they are flowering up well again.

Finally, I chipped away at the basil plants and put almost 3 quart bags full of leaves in the freezer. I am now a Pesto maniac !

Y’all enjoy your 4th !