Black Walnut Trees and a Grain Mill

Country Living Grain Mill

I don't know if you remember, but I ordered 21 black walnut trees to plant along the driveway?? I received them last week, and since then have changed my mind about where to plant. According to several "experts" black walnuts are very caustic to the earth, and nothing will grow under them. I don't want that ugly look along the driveway, no grass, etc., so we decided to plant them 20 feet apart along one of the fence lines, as a sort of fire prevention tool. If nothing grows under them, that won't give any wild fires anything to burn along the ground. Planting them along the north fence, the direction the wind comes from, should hopefully prevent wild fires from ripping across our property. It's a plan anyway. We temporarily planted 10 of the saplings tonight, and will do the rest tomorrow. This is a holding place for them for about a year, until they grow big enough to transplant.

We spent more time at the land tonight, me reading and watering the garden, and Rodney, Taylor and Mr. Edge working on the fence, still. 10.5 acres is a lot of land to fence in....

I picked up my Country Living Grain Mill today along with two additional buckets of wheat. I have enough wheat, and will concentrate on picking up more rice, due to the pending shortage. Local SAMS and Costco are about out, and prices are skyrocketing. HEB seems to have plenty of small 1 lb bags, but not much larger than that....Vegetable oil is increasing too, so be prepared.

The wind tore up my canopy. The fabric was still good, but the frame is damaged. Taylor, Mrs. Edge and I folded it up and put it away. I moved the table and chairs along the fence line, underneath the two trees that provide a little shade.

The girls used the slip and slide, and put the plastic pool at the end, so that they could slide right into it, after sliding down the slip and slide.

We arrived home around 9 p.m., and everyone has settled down to watch t.v. and to go to bed.
We plan to go to Sea World on Thursday (without Rodney), to use the Season passes we decided on in lieu of a summer vacation, and will go to the Strawberry Festival on Friday. Hannah is very excited, as she has never been. She might be disappointed after we go, it's not that big a deal.

ETA: planted 50 feet of okra Monday night, and a 10 foot square section of Mescullin (salad greens mixture)

Need to plant more cucumbers and beans, then I will be done with the main garden. I want to plant a 100 X 100 foot section of only pumpkins to sell in the fall.

I keep forgetting to document all the "farm" happenings. I bought a leather bound journal for this reason, but want to post it here too.

The 1o live oak seedlings I received from the Arbor Day Foundation, appeared to have died. What a bummer!

I also bought a 50 lb bag of laying mash, and chicken scratch for the chickens. Hopefully, the laying mash will provide the needed nutrients for them to start laying more. I also picked up 5 lbs of oyster shell, that they need to make strong shells. Normally, I give them the cracked shells of the eggs back after I use the inside, but they have been cracking and eating their own eggs lately, so I am trying to discourage that....

Taylor bagged up the hay bale from the back yard into black trash bags, so we could transport it to the land. I filled each nesting box with hay, and tossed a flake into the coop, for them to eat, and scratch through. They were out of water again today. I guess the hot weather has them drinking more. I rinsed and filled both 1 gallon watering cans for them, so that should get them through until tomorrow, I hope.