This little lady was crawling across my computer keyboard this noon. Must have come in on the flowers I have close by. I took her out to the beans in the hoophouse, which will probably be the last crop I pull out (have started thinning out the tomato plants). It is a ladybug nymph. Many of the beneficial predator insects look sort of like alligators in their nymph stage. Even if I’m not sure which they are, when I see little alligators I either leave them alone or try to help them.
This newsletter was supposed to lead off with a video I took of our bees today, but I can’t get it to load from my phone to the computer for editing. Short version: finally extracted the honey and put the empty frames, which still have lots of honey in them, back out for the bees to harvest. They were VERY active and focused.
Only other news/story is that we spent ALL DAY Saturday replacing the well pump for the irrigation well. I had noticed for several days that I got a trickle or nothing when I wanted water. Troubleshooted for kinked hoses. Checked that water was not flowing to any of the outlets. Asked Tony for help Friday evening. So Saturday he rechecked the electrical box and stuff I had already crossed off. Finally pulled the pump, over 100 feet of pipe with a heavy pump on the end. Started testing for power. Sometimes we’d get a beep, others not. Finally no beep right down into the (21 year old) pump. Tony decided that the internal wiring was probably beyond him so headed into Hulburts (open until noon on Saturday) and bought a new pump. Hooked it up and nothing. Oh, and had to make another trip to get heat shrink wire wraps. Started testing and looking farther back up the wiring that goes down along the pipe to the pump. Found a spot where it had abraded (Tony says the wire torques every time the pump comes on, causing it to rub). Need more of the heat shrink sealer. Trips to Keeseville, Peru, and finally back into Pburgh Lowes since Hulburts was long closed by then. Spliced the wire. The pump turned on. Whew. The pipe, wire, and safety/hauling up rope had been ziptied together every 10 feet or so. Because of all the abraded spots, they are now electrical taped together about every 3 feet up the pipe. Took awhile. But when we had the well dub the well driller worked to get 10 gallons/minute. We pulled the 8 gal/min house well pump for the irrigation well and put the new one in the house well. Tony got a 12 gallon/minute pump this time – we’ll see if the well will keep up. I can tell the difference in the flow rate, and will have to throttle back some of the irrigation fittings to not blow up the drip tape (that is OK – I’ll take more flow).
Farmwise, sort of coasting.
Have a good week, maybe coasting for you too.
