The tomatoes were never staked, because my mom said her grandmother never staked hers and they did just fine. Well, we should have staked some for comparison, but the tomatoes do in fact seem to be doing well without stakes. It looks like a jungle, but only the very large heirloom varieties are touching the ground and rotting before we can pick them (maybe we should stake those next time). Here is a photo of the first big harvest we got... we get a colander full of tomatoes almost every day. My mom and I eat a lot of tomatoes so not a single one has gone to waste. The sun golds are especially special... they taste like candy.
The chickens are growing rapidly... they are 9 weeks old now. I still call them "babies" when I go out to feed them, which is starting to feel a bit silly. Right now we are feeding them a non-antibiotic feed, but our goal is for them to be totally fed on a pasture diet, supplemented by things like grains and seeds that we buy in bulk. I haven't ordered the moveable electric fence yet because my dad and I are still designing a moveable chicken coop.
There is even a tiny pear on one of our pear trees! I wasn't expecting these trees to do anything for at least a couple of years, so that's promising.
There is a mystery plant growing out of our compost pile... anyone know what it is? Looks like something either in the squash family or the melon family.
