Evidence of the Occurrence of Good Things

So, guess what?  Flies like chicken poop.  Even in a healthy environment with room a-plenty, flies can be a nuisance now and again in the immediate area of the coop.  Enter the hornet I found hanging from the roof of the the coop yesterday, just decimating a fly.  I don't know exactly what maneuver it was using on the fly, but that fly was not moving, and I was glad to see it.  Folks love to prattle on about how awful hornets and yellow jackets are, but they are truly predators on a mission, and seeing this one kicking a fly's ass was a welcome addition to my morning chores.

In other news, our niece Emma is visiting and has been an awesome help in everything from building bee boxes with me to digging potatoes, as evidenced in the last photos.  We were picking tomatoes today and made a welcome discovery of lacewing eggs laid on a particularly lucky tom tom.  It's not a bad spot to lay those eggs, as the tomatoes do have aphids for the larvae to eat when they hatch, but I'm glad I spotted them and was able to deposit the tomato back into the garden.  It has been so lovely to have Emma here, and be able to garden, cook and generally hang with her.

Summer is flying by...all the more reason to savor those sun filled summer evenings, right before the sun sets, which I plan to do each evening I can from now 'til fall!

Free Ranging Evening

Blurry documentation of hornet killing fly

Don't Eat Me!! Lacewing eggs laid on a Juliet tomato

Jason and our niece Emma digging potatoes

Digging taters (a little early) to make room for fall crops