Dog days of summer

We’ve been having a fairly wet monsoon this year. The watermelons are loving it. I’ve been picking melons that are between twenty and thirty pounds! It’s a good thing we like watermelon, though I have to admit, we gave the last one away because, well, we’re getting just a tiny bit tired of watermelon.

The weeds have also been enjoying the rains. We finally fenced off the watermelon patch and safeguarded the pomegranate and sage bushes, and let the alpacas loose in the yard. I figured they could weed just as easily as I could. Though it is just a little disconcerting to see an alpaca walk by the window every so often.

Molly isn’t too thrilled with this set up. She is not a huge fan of the alpacas and spends most of her time up on the porch giving me that accusing look. (You let them out on purpose? What were you thinking???) The feral cats are equally annoyed. Except for Rufus. 

He’s adopted the alpacas, and the alpacas seem to have gotten found of him. During the heat of the day, when the boys all find their favorite spots in front of the cooler, there is Rufus, fast asleep in the middle of them. And I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen Rufus, arched back, rubbing in and out of the alpacas legs. It’s nice to see they’ve all made friends.

Brian and I have been talking about setting up a new vegetable garden in one of the pastures. We figured we could block it off until it’s done producing, then open the gate, and let the alpacas clean up. Win-win. Brian decided to go ahead and get that started. He ripped up the soil and moved our compost pile to the new garden. We’ll keep adding compost and keep the soil somewhat moist so that it is well conditioned for spring when we’ll start planting. In the mean time, we’ll put the winter garden where the old compost pile was.