Devonviolet Acres

Baymule said:
It’s HOT! Y’all be careful and don’t stay outside too long!
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Yes, it IS hot!!! Right now it feels like 111° out!!!

Our goal is to come in around 10:00 or 11:00. But sometimes I’m not at a stopping point and I end up going a little longer. I have a 2 gallon water cooler. I always fill about 1/4 of it with ice cubes. We take water breaks about every 30 minutes. If I get too busy and don’t want to stop, HE brings me my water and vice versa. I am SO looking forward to the weather starting to cool down a bit.
 
Our house has been full of black crickets. they usually appear in the evening. I catch them and toss them outside. We also have some "Rabid Wolf Spiders" living in the house. I thought they were juvenile tarantulas but DS1 identified one with his phone and that is their name. They don't transmit rabies but Rabid Wolf is their name. LOL
 
Ridgetop said:
Our house has been full of black crickets. they usually appear in the evening. I catch them and toss them outside. We also have some "Rabid Wolf Spiders" living in the house. I thought they were juvenile tarantulas but DS1 identified one with his phone and that is their name. They don't transmit rabies but Rabid Wolf is their name. LOL
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We have lots of crickets in our garden. I haven’t seen them in the house though. I know they eat plants and seedlings, but I’m not sure how to get rid of them in the garden.

Years ago, when I lived in Burbank, California, we had a neighbor get bit, on her thigh while in bed, by a brown recluse spider. So, my rule of thumb is, if I find a spider in the house, it gets squished. If it is outside, it goes it’s merry way. We also have the wolf spiders. However, I haven’t seen any in the house. Recently, while working in the garden, I have seen several LARGE wolf spiders carrying a big white egg sack on it’s rear end. :ep
 
Ridgetop said:
Our house has been full of black crickets. they usually appear in the evening. I catch them and toss them outside. We also have some "Rabid Wolf Spiders" living in the house. I thought they were juvenile tarantulas but DS1 identified one with his phone and that is their name. They don't transmit rabies but Rabid Wolf is their name. LOL
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They creep me out - BUT they are voracious hunters and are harmless to to people ... unless you grab one with your hand or something crazy. They are one of the species that don't spin webs but will actually stalk and chase down their prey. I've got one on my front porch that is as big as my spread hand!!!! She could probably take down a small FROG.
 
We continue to work in the garden every morning. I got two rows of sweet potatoes planted last Monday, with hay mulch spread around the row, allowing the plants access to light and air. I also planted two 20 foot rows of Burgandy Okra - YUM!!! We are now keeping those rows watered.

Yesterday we took a day off, because Tuesday did us in. We were exhausted by the time we finally knocked off for the day. So, this morning we went out and started preparing the dirt under half of the two 35 foot long double trellis’s. Half of that area still has too much Bahaia growing, so it needs to be tilled one more time before I can plant that area.

We haven’t had any rain for about a month, so I’m finding that the ground is too dry to dig or probably even till. The rototiller tends to ride along the surface when it is that dry. So, when I reached my limit with the hard work, I started watering areas where I want to do some tilling after I get the rest of the sweet potatoes, sunflowers, zucchini & yellow squash, pole beans, cucumbers, radishes, collards, kale and Royal Burgandy Bush Beans planted.

While I was watering along the foundation, on the East side of the house, so DH can pull the 3 foot high grass out of there and I can plant sunflowers, I noticed that a cute yellow butterfly was landing on my florescent yellow gardening gloves. If I moved my hand, it stayed there. :D A couple times, my other hand got too close and it flew away, but came right back. After I put the hose away, it followed me back to the front porch, where I sat down to drink some water. It stayed there for the longest time. That gave me the opportunity to take a closer look, and I realized it had it’s proboscis out and was probing my glove. :ep I just let it do it, because it didn’t hurt at all. That told me I need to make sure that I plant lots of yellow flowers, when I get around to adding plants to attract pollinators. 😊
 
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Last night, I heard the dogs barking up a storm, which usually means something is going on out in the goat yard. So, I asked DH to go out and see what was happening. He was gone for a while, so I took my phone and headed out there.

It turned out they had a 5’ rat snake cornered and they were beating it up pretty badly. As usual they were working as a team. Violet was barking at it’s head (to distract it) and Deo would grab it by the tail and fling it against the goat shed wall. By the time DH got there, it was in pretty bad shape, so he finished it.

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As it turned out, there were no eggs in the chicken coop, but in the past, DH has found six footers in the coop with several large round bulges in their belly.
 
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