Where I Stand Sunday

Garden has again suffered this summer, mainly from no one able to tend it

and the heat.  Go ahead, you can say it ~ "Out of Control"!

Most seeds that grew were not planted this spring...like this one, it came up where I usually plant sunflowers.  It's almost ready to rain in this photo and now it IS raining!

I have had several deer fly bites, which I am allergic to...so we have a fly exterminator jar.  You can see the black stuff almost filling this jar - they are flies.  It's so gross.

We have had a good crop of anaheim peppers and green peppers.

I planted these last year, but none came up.  Froze the seeds, and planted them again this year.  Now they are everywhere!  They are birdhouse gourds.  I will have a nice crop in October and November which I will hollow out and

paint and hang from trees in the spring!

Sometimes, if you aren't watching, they start growing between the fence wires.

So do these volunteer mini-gourds.

These are all volunteer and I swear we cleaned out the garden

good before planting this year.

The popcorn is growing nicely...but wait...

what's that I see on this one.

Looks like I may need to spray some Sevin again.

Ants are eating some aphid looking bugs on this cob...only one I see, but it is on the outside row of the crop and near the sunflowers...which have lots of ants.

And then there is these three guys...one guy and two gals.  Notice how small the banty hen is ~ compared to the chick that we got from the neighbor standing behind her.

The little one is Chickenator, Harlough (behind) and Queenie the Bantam Rooster.

I swear when I look at this chicken, Chickenator,

 I see the missing link to dinosaurs - don't you?

There are pieces of zucchini in the pen, they love them!

Love to watch Queenie puff up - like the fighting cock he could easily be - but he seems mild-mannered for the most part. Earlier we took a hike to catch grasshoppers for them...they don't seem to want to jump into their chicken run, so we bring the hoppers to them. Always fun to watch - it seems the biggest usually gets the catch...the little hen gets leftovers, but we manipulate it so Chickenator gets at least ONE.

Chickenator, you need to keep your feathers.  You are too small to lose even ONE!

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places I spend my life standing.

Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on.

There are several others who also write this on Sunday, see sidebar.