Smorgasboard Post- Garden, Mildew, Sybil, Jaron

The soup bean plants have been flowering for a few weeks. G thought they weren't actually going to produce any pods, but Jaron found one. He really wanted to pick it. He's a picking monster. Anything he thinks he can pull on in the garden, he does. 

I thought we had escaped the vining plant mildew this year, but it has appeared. G thinks it's because it wasn't very windy for a number of days so the plants stayed damp. I sprayed them with neem oil, which Google says is supposed to help. 

I did another search and apparently mixing milk with water and spraying it on also does the trick. Hmm... we do have an abundance of milk right now...

Speaking of milk, Sybil has been seen eating in the pasture! She still would rather eat hay from the shed. Her milk production seems to be picking back up a bit. 

For a while, she did not want to put her head in the milking stand; my theory is that it was too tight on her neck. I adjusted the stand- pounded in a fence staple a little further in to give her another inch of neck space- and since then she's gotten a little better about putting her head in. 

Still, for a while it took both G and me to convince her to stick her head through. We actually resorted to using an old sheep halter from my 4H days to pull her head through once she was up on the stand. But, it seems we've turned a corner. The past two milkings G has been able to get her in there himself without help. 

A few fun Jaron moments from the past week: