Harvesting has Begun and Eli at 6 months in his Birthday Suit!

Little Roar and Mid July Garden

I love seeing these bibs hanging outside to dry. Thanks Aunt Dee!!
Everything in the garden is doing well so far this year except for the squash and zucchini. Clay and I use to think those were the two easiest plants to grow, but we've been in a full blown war with the squash bug this year. We finally got some diatomaceous earth to use, but I think we started it too late. I spent a lot of time hand picking the adults and scraping off the little eggs that are so strategically placed near the veins of the leaves where it is all but impossible to rub them off with out tearing up the plant. In this picture we have two varieties of beans on the left, okra near the back/middle. We have peppers, and tomatoes on the right. We moved our corn to the back and did two separate plantings. We've had some bad thunderstorms that have tried laying the corn down flat. We also tried a row of sweet potatoes this year in the middle. We have basil in the front right and it seems to be going so fast that it may be spent before the tomatoes come in for capris salad. I did make two batches of pesto to freeze in ice-cube trays and I dehydrated some as well. I think one of the best things we did was not plant potatoes this year. For the past two years the potato beetle has been too much to battle and I think rotating potatoes and beans every other two years or so would be a good strategy.
Close up of the beautiful Thai Basil.
Happy Mid-July :)

Eli's Song by John Denver

Eli's First Hike and First Pony Tail

We took Eli on his first hike up at Mountain Lake on the War Spur trail. He seemed to really enjoy his new backpack. It took as a while to figure out all the adjustments, but I think we're all pretty happy with it. It was great getting Eli out in the woods. War Spur is only about 2 miles. We gave him one bottle on the trail, the pack has plenty of space to carry all that Eli needs, including a little canopy cover, but this trail was very shady, so we didn't have to worry about the sun :)

Eli was zonked out by the end of the trip!