Squeaky Frog

Several dozen vultures circling over my property... Either they found a really great thermal to climb, or the end of the world is nigh. I've never seen this many congregate before, it's actually a pretty awesome sight. #farm #nature #wildlife #birds

This fuckin' guy... Fur like velcro, and he has to roll in leaves and grass clippings every damn day. He's lucky he's awesome enough to be worth it. #dog #cute #dogstr

Let's talk about watering wands. The one on the right is store-bought. It costs about $14, and after a season or two of moderate use, it will leak all over the place, and you will throw it away in a fit of unbridled rage. Its soft aluminum tube will bend if you raise your voice at it or use it in a strong breeze. The one on the left is homemade from inexpensive plumbing parts. The aluminum rosette on the end costs about $5, the rest of the parts total another $5. It is sturdy and durable. If it doesn't get left out to freeze in the winter, it will last many years. It comes in infinite lengths and configurations, because you're making it yourself. If you make it using threaded connections, you can replace the valve if it ever wears out (but it won't wear out). Since both ends are garden hose connectors, it can also be used as an impromptu control valve between two hoses of you unscrew the rosette and attach another hose to that end (I do this when running a sprinkler, as it's easier to fine tune the flow with the ball valve on the wand). Thanks for coming to my TED talk. #garden #water #farm #diy #grownostr #tools

Yet another neat ectothermic creature hanging out in my composting area. This one is a Texas spiny lizard, and he's copping a little bit of an attitude with that look. #lizard #texas #garden #wildlife #reptile

Planted sunn hemp for the first time this summer as a cover crop in some garden beds. I knew it would grow tall, but I didn't expect the flowers to be such a beautiful shade of yellow! The photo doesn't do it justice, in person, in the sunlight, they're almost luminous. #garden #flowers #bloomscrolling

More than a year ago, we built some Johnson-Su bioreactor bins and filled them with wood chips. They've been cooking along quite nicely and breaking down into an awesome soil amendment. I was watering them last night and saw that they're full of wee tiny baby frogs! I counted at least a dozen of the little guys. Nobody told me that this was a possibility, so now I have to postpone harvesting from the bins until the wee tiny baby frogs are all grown up and moved out! Unfortunately for the frogs, they live in a tough neighborhood. I've got snakes living in the leaf mold bins right next to the bioreactors. Good luck, wee tiny baby frogs! #garden #snakes #frogs #farm #wildlife

I had a tooth implant installed today, and the dental assistant told me to try to avoid touching the stitches with my tongue. This is an impossible request. 95% of my brain power all day has been devoted to trying to control my tongue, and it ain't working...

I set up a couple of large bins in the spring and filled them with leaves to make leaf mold compost. They've been breaking down all summer and are some beautiful compost now, but I found this guy making a home in one of them yesterday. Just a harmless green snake, but when you reach into a pile of leaves and feel slithering scales, your heart stops for just a second... He moved on up into the tree pretty quickly, and I harvested the compost much more carefully from then on. #garden #snake #wildlife #farm

#flowers #bloomscrolling #garden

Yesterday I was working in the front yard, cutting up some limbs that had fallen out of our pecan trees. Two of the neighbor kids ( are 4 and 6) came running over to "help". They enjoyed chopping up the smaller branches with loppers and then I taught them how to use a hand saw. Much fun. While we were doing that, two older boys (age 10 or 11ish) from down the street showed up, carrying an old ironing board with a kayak seat strapped to it and wheels from a lawn mower. They are building a "go kart" and needed me to weld the front axle to the swivel caster they intend to use for a steering mechanism. It's so heartening to see kids doing real things instead of just staring at screens. I didn't think kids tinkered around like that anymore. Maybe our society is finally leaving the paranoid safetyism of the past couple generations behind, and we're getting back to kids getting dirty and skinning their knees. I sure hope so. #diy #grownostr #kids

It took me fifty years to suddenly realize that "critter" is just a colloquial version of the word "creature". I'm smart, guys, I promise! #language

Okay, sure, he doesn't look terribly smart, but he's really a dog genius. #dogstr #dog #grownostr

This afternoon, I was out in front of the house working on transplanting seedlings. Two young men who work for a roofing company approached to ask about inspecting my roof for damage from recent hailstorms. I talked to them about that for a few minutes, then they asked about the plants I was working with. We ended up talking about the garbage produced by America's industrial food system, and both of them said they were interested in growing some of their own food, but didn't know how to start. Long story short, I gave them each a surplus pepper plant with instructions on how to transplant them into a larger pot and care for them, and some fresh vegetables from my garden. They left stoked with enthusiasm for learning a new skill that could put them on a path to greater self sufficiency and better health. Good luck, Austin and Cody! I hope you have success with those peppers and it inspires you to go on to a lifelong joy of gardening. #gardening #grownostr #growfood #growyourown

I know all cats like cardboard boxes, but this little idiot has an unhealthy compulsive obsession. Literally any paper product left unsecured for 30 seconds is commandeered. #catstr #cat #grownostr

Loofah vines coming on strong this year. If you've got space for them to climb somewhere, they're a fun crop to grow every few years. They last a pretty long time in use, so a couple vines will provide a few years' worth of sponges, which store indefinitely once dried. We just let them dry on the vine (not a problem in our hot summers), but they do take a fairly long season to grow from seed, fully ripen and dry, 120 days or longer. Once dried, you simply peel them, slice them to the desired size (a serrated bread knife works great), and shake out the seeds. On first use, you'll want to rinse them out thoroughly, as they can retain some residue from their former life as a gourd. I've been told some people give slices of the dried sponges to rabbits as chew toys, as well. We don't raise rabbits, so I can't verify that. They're also just an attractive vine in their own right, with lots of bright yellow flowers. It wouldn't be a half bad ornamental even if you didn't collect the gourds. #garden #homesteading #plantstr #flowers