Monster hunter

Rainy days. Went out too feed the chickens but ended up spending an hour just checking out different things. First off I encountered this beast stretching itself on the accidental tomato plant in the backyard.

Oh hai big caterpillar

It wasn't even trying to hide. Now I don't think it was eating the mini tomatoes, at least not anymore. But it was definitely eating something so I took it (It had a real strong grip on the branch, I had to yank it several times before it let go) and gave it to the hens. But they just took a look and didn't show any interest in eating it... maybe it is poisonous or tastes bad, I dunno. My chickens usually eat anything alive, including lizards. Hmm, anyway I squashed it and left it there for them to decide what to do.
Went back to and checked the tomato plants and found 3 more caterpillars which looked more guilty of making the holes in my mini tomatoes. Basically they were the right size. They got squashed too.

One of them

I noticed also that the green peas already had germinated in the backyard and at the entrance. Although it looks like I planted the seeds a bit too shallow so I covered them with a bit more dirt now.

not wasting any time

All the recent rain is making the mikan fruits big and juicy. There's only 3 but not bad for the first year.

mikan sapling is right in the middle there

In the backyard, I took a few minutes to thin out the carrots in the same way as I explained in my previous post.

The original carrot bed

Then a few rain drops later and the carrots I had moved looked like they were dying

Oh geez..

But they actually recovered after a few hours and stood up by themselves

One more spot where pulled carrots are transplanted to

The broccoli have sprouted and still not eaten up thanks to the tent I put on top.

I thinned those out too, but didn't move the pulled ones anywhere new. Just threw them away. I guess I could have mixed them into a salad but it was too little to care.

After thinning out

The chingensai too has sprouted, so I will need to thin them out in a week or so. Right now they are all over the place.

It's all those tiny dots

Other than that, not much going on in the backyard. The potatoes on top row are yet to show themselves.

Here are the red spinach. Still small. The bugs don't seem to like the taste

Oh and every day I find new marons that have fallen near the front door so I put them in the fridge. I have collected a lot in just 1 week.

One of these days I'm gonna eat y'all

The mini tomatoes in the picture are bought. Silly Chika asked me to buy even though we got plenty in the garden, just because they are not ripe yet. But then she never even opened the box cause she picked tomatoes from the garden to eat anyway. Guess they ripened after all.
I wanted to take a picture of the peanuts nearest the kitchen before they get too bushy like the other peanuts bed.

Can clearly see the plants dug into the soil and making peanuts

Then I happened to uncover a tarp next to the bed to find a big ant nest... these are the tony ones who ate my strawberries before.

I don't like ants but what can I do? They keep coming and making nests.

I guess I have to try and make the fruits not so easily reachable for them, or spread some D.E. powder around again.