Good grief! Has it been that long?

   Guess it has. Last entry publish on the 19th July. Now it is the 12th August, three weeks later! OK, my excuse is that we have had friends to stay and I have not had access to my PC which is my preferred instrument of writing my blog on. Anyway, lots to tell.
   On the sheep front sad news. Our old ram, Blackie, had to to been put down after suffering from blow fly strike. Not nice. The sheep are fed some feed every day and one day he was fine at feeding time the next he was pretty much a goner. To be fair he was old and we believe in not very good condition and we were expecting the worst at any time. Flies got to him first.
   In the outside veggie garden the blight won. Lost most of my very promising tomato crop. 

Blighted tomatoes

Such is the joys of gardening. You win some, you loose some. This one I lost, damn it! Other vegetables have been doing well. The haricot vert have come into production and has been very productive. I have been giving them away to the neighbours! For reasons unknown I have been having issues getting seed to germinate. I have had to replant lettuce, swede, beetroot and spinach and in some cases three or four times. Time to throw out older seed methinks! Potatoes have been very good this year and I have been digging up Belle de Fontenay, Rosebelle and Franceline by the kilo!
  We have slaughtered our crop of meat chickens, twelve in all. One we believe got damaged somewhere along the production line and discretion being the better part of valour it was thrown away! Rynsburger yellow onions and the Red Baron red onions have been a disappointing crop. Last years Rynsburger onions were very good. This year they are small. I have also concluded that one just has to accept that red onion sets do not produce a great crop and one should be happy with what one gets. As always the grass is growing and growing and growing and I play catch up mowing it. The weather has been on the damp/wet side with the odd nice day. Good for the garden except the tomatoes!
   In the poly tunnel the tomatoes have suffered from blight but the blight has developed more slowly allowing the tomatoes to ripen. There has been a reasonable crop of grape tomatoes, at least enough to satisfy demand. I have cut lot of Wautoma cucumbers but they are now coming to and end. Just in time the outside La Diva cucumbers are swelling up.  The chili looks good and the sweet peppers are turning orange! Yeah! 
   The squash is doing well. There are lots of squash set - buttercup, butternut. The pumpkins are also doing well, however, my bush courgettes are not as great as I would have liked but they are producing enough to satisfy our needs so I guess I must not complain. Melons has beginning to set. Fingers crossed that there is enough time for the water melon to mature.
   Planting for the winter is well under way. Spinach, parsnips, leeks, beetroot, swede and sprouts all up and growing well. I need to get my Christmas potatoes in!