4th of July- Fireworks, Funnel Cake and Fixin' Stuff!

This year for 4th of July I'm hoping for fireworks of a different kind...I'm hoping to singe some deer hairs on my new solar powered electric fence. Farmer John got busy bailing hay and couldn't come out to hook up the system the day after we discovered the deer had jumped the 7foot fence and ate:

-half a row of soy beans

-4 corn stalks

-10 almost ripe roma tomatoes and stems

-4 early girl ripe tomatoes 

-stalks of 3 cherry tomato plants

SO- I stayed up late and ran out into the darkness a few times and no deer came back that night. HOWEVER, the following night we got hit hard. I woke up to discover that the rest of the row of soy beans was demolished, 4 more corn stalks were gone and multiple branches of tomatoes were eaten. That's when it happened. That's when I stopped liking deer. 

I realize I don't really "own" this land and if anyone does, they have more of a right to it than I do. I realize they are just being deer and following their instincts and it's me, the person growing food in a field, that doesn't fit in this picture BUT it's my edamame or them and I choose my edamame over tick infested, disease carrying, insatiable creatures with no natural predator. That deer who keeps coming back to the pear tree stays there for long periods of time, takes poops under the tree and makes herself at home. 

The comedian Louis CK has a really funny view on deer, like us, he used to think they were amazing when he lived in the city and rarely saw them but now that he lives in the country and has to deal with them he's changed his tune. *WARNING MOM: there's profanity, un-pc messaging and sexual gestures in this video (which is why I laughed so hard watching it).*

Here's the link in case the video doesn't play-  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-iqVd2llrc

Farmer John added another row of fencing above what we already had and electrified the top portion. I haven't seen any tracks or had any missing crops since. We also bought an amazingly powerful spotlight at HD and have big plans to keep the yard deer free with it.

So far today we've been celebrating our independence from England by doing manual labor. Hooray! We replaced the disgusting, dilapidated, rusty, wobbly, yucky mailbox and splinter ridden post with brand new ones. I painted the mailbox a robin's egg blue. It was a dull grey and who needs dull grey in their life? I'm hoping the country teens high on meth or grandma's prescriptions decide to spare it should they get the late night bashing itch.

Next on the list- fix up that old screen door I found for $35 at the antique place. Louis removed the old screen, sanded it and cut an inch off the bottom with his new circular saw. Then I painted it and it's looking pretty good!

I kind of liked the old chipping look but bright white matches the rest of the porch. 

BY THE WAY- our horrid plumbing situation is all fixed. A plumber came out and snaked the line with bigger and better equipment than the contractors used and told us it was just gunk buildup from construction and time. All bathrooms are in working order and the laundry room floor smells like bleach.

Early this morning I went out into the garden and dug up all the beans that hadn't germinated in over two weeks. I finally realized that because it hasn't rained in a month, the beans were too dry, despite my nightly watering. The soil was kinda dry when I planted them so I should have done two things differently- 1. Pre-soak the beans overnight and 2. soak the hell out of the dirt before planting.

I'm doing a massive bean planting and re-planting this weekend so I'm soaking all kinds of beans. We'll see if my results this time are any better.

The great thing about no rain is no humidity which means no mosquitos! It's felt a lot like a California summer so far and I'm fine with that. Now that we have the well water hooked up for the garden I don't mind how much watering it needs. 

The corn is thigh high this 4th of July, booyah! 

I didn't plant them until the last week in May so I wasn't sure how long it'd take them to grow but the little rows are coming along nicely!

I've still got squash blossoms everywhere and as you can see, zucchini is doing very well! 

That little watermelon is growing more everyday and it has a bunch of friends now. We're putting straw under them so they don't get too wet or attacked by slugs. 

Our fantastic neighbors took us out to dinner last weekend and when they heard that we didn't have a table to use they insisted on loaning us one along with a few collapsable chairs. They changed our lives. We use that table daily. This is the home office for the moment!

Our little town is having a fireworks display tonight along with a big outdoor barbeque and Louis' favorite, funnel cake. We're going to go check it out since neither of us wanted to risk burning the field and potentially the house by lighting fireworks on our crispy yellow grass. Hopefully the parking will be nothing like going to an event in DC!

Happy 4th!