I have been so busy lately but in a good way. I am happy that Fall is finally here. Well I set up Minion and Whitey for breeding at the end of last month. Whitey is super ready to be a mom, but I think Minion is a moron preferring his perch to a real hen. Whitey does the banana pose so much as ACTipton80 calls it and all Minion does is kiss her. She even turns left and right in case he might have a preference. Minion's an idiot. I'm lovingly mad at him right now. I've let him watch budgie mating videos. That didn't work. So today when Whitey was out I grabbed them both and showed them. It's not the first time I have had to do this with first time breeders that don't get it. I was also worried Minion was eating all the calcium. This is typical that the males eat the calcium and the females don't. Very annoying. But Whitey really started ripping into the cuttlebone the other day. On Sept 11, 2021 at night she laid her first egg. I told my friends on text and tried to not get too excited. It's likely Whitey decided to start without Minion, which is not going to work of course. Let's hope today's lesson sunk into the little budgie brain.



Here is a pic of the three. I'll know on the 5th or 6th day if that egg is any good. If and once we get past that hurtle then I can start to worry if Whitey will be a good mother and not abandon her eggs like Emma II her mom did.

Well I have also been busy with pumpkins. The types that have sprouted and I have planted are: Moonscape, Midnight, Sunlight, Seminole, Cassabanana melon, Atlantic giant, La Estrella, One Too Many, Dickinson, Green Cushaw, White Cushaw, Orange Cushaw, Big Bear gourd, African Wine Kettle Gourd and Indonesian Bottle Gourd. Something has to make it to harvest I hope. I'm also excited to try some actual giant pumpkins with good genetics from professional pumpkin growers/competitors. It's a bit of a dream to win the Florida state record. But just growing a regular pumpkin here is near impossible. I'm growing in the off season hoping things will work out as IN THEORY there should be fewer, bugs and diseases and less heat. I still have had to get an arsenal of organic chemicals, no because I care about the environment, but because I may eat some of my harvest later on if this works out. I have a theory that the time to grow pumpkins is a very short window from Sept - end of Dec and then again on Valentine's Day through end of April. By June it's too hot and bugs are out in full force. Also end of April might already start seeing too much heat. So no we don't have nearly a year to grow all season long despite not having snow and only Jan through Feb as winter. Two short windows of opportunity for pumpkins here. Gourds do better and most can grow in the heat of August or July. By gourds I mean Lagenaria spp.

And in other exciting news. We finally got a new fences for the back yard for free. But I think I'll write about that next entry. It's an answer to prayer for sure.
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