Stock Values

Today was another fun day on the farm. I spent the morning spraying the nasty perennial noxious weed, Canada Thistle with Milestone. Canada Thistle is also widely known as Canadian Thistle, California Thistle, Creeping Thistle, Corn Thistle, Cursed Thistle, Field Thistle, Green Thistle, Hard Thistle, Perennial Thistle, Prickly Thistle, Small-flowered Thistle and Way Thistle. Its Latin standard name is Cirsium Arvense.

I planted this "Giant Double" Peony from DirectGardening.Com in the fall of 2005. (Picture taken on May 27, 2009.) Now, almost 4 years later, it has finally grown big and happy enough to bloom. Granted, I didn't do a great job of selecting a site and planting it, but four years until the first flower is absolutely nuts! (Amazingly, it looks like the two peonies from Walmart that I planted just last year will start blooming in a few days, as well.)

Optima is Eureka's line of small lightweight upright, reasonably full-featured and inexpensive ($40 - $80) vacuum cleaners. Included in this line are the following models: 430, 431, 431A, 431AE, 431AX, 431AXZ, 431AXZE, 431B, 431BX, 431BXZ, 431F, 437AZ, 439AZ, UK431A. Some of these are older, refurbished or models unavailable in the US and Canada. Current model numbers for USA are only Optima 431BX (available from Amazon.com), Optima 431F (available from Target), Optima 437AZ (available from Walmart) and Optima Pet Lover 439AZ (available from Best Buy).

Choke Cherry (Prunus Virginiana)

Three years ago we planted 50 seedling wild plums (latin name Prunus Americana, also known as American Plum and Goose Plum) in front of what was previously a greyhound doghouse that prior to that was used for raising pigs. Last year we already had a few flowers on the trees, but none turned into fruit.

This year we once again ordered "Farmyard Assortment" from Sandhill Preservation Center in Calamus, Iowa.

Last year we had great success with our day old mail-order chicks from Sandhill. For only $20 (plus $12 for insured shipping by USPS) last July we got 6 Bantam and 22 regular chickens of various breeds, as well as a Fawn turkey. Of the six Bantams, half (three) have died very young, as did a Single Comb Light Brown Leghorn and a Buff Minorca. Of the 24 surviving birds from last year only nine are roosters (one of which is a Bantam).