I've been busy! Guess the Vit D therapy is working as my energy levels are much improved. The sheep are doing well and Hattie works with them every day. We took them out to the neighbor's yard as a test of her ability to keep them under control outside the fences. Bob was worried the sheep would panic and run around the neighborhood but all went well. The neighbor was impressed by our little dog's speed and skill.
It's been very dry which means we have to water constantly to keep grass green in the pasture and we've been putting temporary pens in the back yard to let the sheep mow it. The garden veggies have been doing well except for tomatoes. I planted them in bags of potting soil and now I'm getting blossom end rot, a calcium deficiency. Either the soil in the bag was so compacted that water wasn't getting in to the root zone so the plant could uptake nutrients or the bagged soil is just deficient. We opened the bottoms of the bags to let the roots into the greenhouse soil and I've been spraying with calcium solutions specifically for blossom end rot, but not having much luck. Lime really needs to be added to the soil in the fall to be available for the plant to use the following year. Such a disappointment. I won't be repeating this experiment again. I hope the slower growing Cherokee Purples will make it OK, but the fast growing romas are pretty much duck food. Live and learn.
