Red Tomatoes Finally!

The East Bay Area is experiencing another heatless summer.  On average we are having mid-60 temperatures. I have plenty of tomatoes on my 10+ tomato plants scattering all over the farm, but they are taking painfully long to ripe. I refuse to buy tomatoes from stores ever since I started growing my own 3 years ago. The tomatoes in the top photo are the first ones to turn red.

Historically, the squirrels also eat my tomatoes. Recently a neighbor adopted a very friendly outdoor cat, who's been patrolling Sand Village Farm. I haven't seen the cat chasing any squirrel yet, but Dusty has been quite upset at the sight of the cat. The cat seems mildly curious about Dusty but shows no aggression. Dusty on the other hand would thump his large hind feet and make a loud noise whenever he sees the cat. I saw the cat got startled and jumped up at the loud thumping sound. Hopefully I can get a video clip of that funny scene sometime soon.

An Unexpected Visitor

It's the second day of another heatwave. I put Dusty in his cage before I left for the cubicle job this morning. As soon as I got back, I started to water the plants. Suddenly I noticed two golden eyes staring at me.

"Oh, hey Kitty," I greeted the tuxedo cat resting in the shade. He got up and started walking toward me. Occasionally a cat wanders through the farm, but they never stayed long. I have never seen this cat before. I petted the cat and noticed how skinny he is. My policy is that everybody gets fed when they come to the farm. I don't have any cat food, not even a can of tuna; however, I do have some whole milk in the fridge. I knew he would like something cold to drink on this hot day. I went back inside to get the milk and Dusty's water bowl.

The cat sure wasn't shy about getting a free drink. As he drank the milk, I went to pick more figs. A lot of figs ripened from the heat today. I picked another full basket. Occasionally I turned around to look at the cat. He just stood there starting at my direction. I wondered if he was going to stay. After I picked all the figs, I proceeded to water more plants. The cat wasn't standing there anymore. Maybe he left. Oh, wait, he went back to the same spot where he was resting before.

After I watered all the herbs and vegetables, I checked on the cat again. He had curled up to take a nap. I left the rest of milk out for him and got another dog bowl out for Dusty's water.

"Goodnight, Kitty."