R.I.P. Munatee

Tragedy struck 2 days ago when I found my favorite chicken Munatee dead. The heat of the summer was just to much for her. Munatee was brought into my flock by my brother Jacob, he wanted chickens but couldn't keep them at his place. So when I bought my chicks I told him he could by his own chicken and keep it at my house. He soon showed up with an Americauna chick and named it Muntee. As Munatee got older and turned into a hen she developed a real funny character. This was strange to me because I've always thought chickens were pretty much just dumb ole chickens. Muntee's name was soon changed to Munatee because of her huge appetite, she reminded me of the giant sea cows called Manatees. Munatee never missed a meal and was always the first one to the diner plate and last one to leave. Whenever the chicken feeder was empty she would run around the yard squawking as loud as she could until the feeder was filled back up. At a family bbq she snuck up on my sister, ambushed her and took a cheese quesadilla out of hands. All I heard was my sis screaming and then I saw Munatee running through the crowd of people with the quesadilla in her beak. She stole a pulled pork sandwich from my mom at another family bbq. I know these stories sound like some rogue chicken running amok stealing peoples food, and they are, but Munatee has been a part of some of the funniest backyard moments around here and she will be greatly missed. I don't know if you can tell from the writing above but at one point Munatee became mine and she soon became my favorite pet. Munatee was my best laying hen even at almost 4 years old she still would lay one green egg a day. I buried her in the yard with rest of deceased pets.

Aaron and Munatee avatar.

Rise of the striped cucumber beetle

Every year a new pest invades my garden, I thought by now I'd seen them all.

I was wrong, see these cute little guys fornicating away in my pumpkin patch. Harmless right? Wrong. These striped cucumber beetles showed up over night and by the time I figured out what was going on, they had a solid foothold in the garden. The adults feed on the foliage of cucurbits (squash, pumpkin, cucumber, gourd, watermelon, and cantaloupe). The larvae feed on the roots of cucurbits, and they are known spreaders of bacterial wilt. All around nasties, I've been handpicking and vacuuming them off the plants and I think I'm getting the upper hand, but the damage has been done. Sometimes I wish I hag a big ole barrel of DDT.

Beetle damage to armenian cucumber.

One of the reasons I don't use pesticides, that's an assassin bug eating a striped cucumber beetle. The beetles do have some natural predators. The main problem is for every assassin bug there's a 100 beetles. That's how the pest survive, sheer numbers. It's an easy way to tell between beneficial insects and pests. If you don't know if a bug is good for your garden or bad just take a head count, if there's a bunch of them they're probably bad if there are only a few they're probably beneficial.

Now some good news, it's the beginning of August and I'm still harvesting tomatoes. There not huge, but I'm still getting fresh tomatoes in the middle of summer.

That's the tomatillo, black eyed pea, and tepary bean patch bustin out

black eyed pea

Pumpkin patch with volunteer tomatillos and bisbee red black eyed peas.

Monsoon garden planted with corn, sunflowers, beans(climbing and bush), and squash. The 4 sisters, the corn and sunflowers will grow tall to shade the garden. The climbing beans will use the corn and sunflowers as a trellis. The squash and bush beans will crawl along the ground cooling the earth and naturally mulching the soil. All the seeds I planted are native to the southwest and can tolerate the high heat and dry conditions. I bought them at native seed search they sell seeds native to the southwest. Very cool, all their seeds have performed excellent and I'm giving them a shout out. 

BOOYAH NATIVE SEED SEARCH!!!