We got a little bit of rain today, enough to do the garden some good. Supposed to get more tomorrow.
Since it was too wet to work in the garden this afternoon, I was at home to hear the phone ring when my son called, wanting to know if we'd babysit Granddaughter #4. Of course I said yes!
She is adorable. And spoiled rotten, just as a baby should be. :)
Once a year - and it seems like they always pick the hottest day possible - the local credit unions take their employees out to a baseball game at Autozone Park. The park reserves a section for us near third base, and there's food and booze. It's not free - the credit unions pay for it, and guests of the employees (spouses and children and such) cough up $50 apiece.
Last night was the night.
We parked at a pay lot about a block away from the park. Parking was $25.00, plus tax, for 4 hours. There was no attendant (that we saw); to pay the fee, one must figure out how to operate the self-pay station. There was a bar code to scan, and/or a code that could be texted, and a credit card slot. You should've seen us old people trying to work the thing. At some point, the system asked for a license plate number. You should've seen the number of people walking back to their cars to take picture of the plate number and come back to re-start the process. It took everyone several minutes just to pay.
With the fee paid, we walked to the ballpark, tickets in hand. At the gate, young people with cardboard squares compared the squares to the size of people's purses. If the purse was bigger than the square, it wasn't coming in. My purse, barely big enough to hold a cell phone and a pair of sunglasses, was about 1" larger than the square. Back to the parking lot we went. As I stuffed the purse under the car seat, I said to The Husband, "If a thief steals this, I'm counting on you to shut off my debit card!"
Back to the ballpark.
By this time, sweat is dripping into my ear canals. We wait patiently while our tickets and bodies are scanned. Twice. Finally, we enter the stadium.
Having had no lunch, I'm starving. We head straight for the food line. Barbeque and fixings await.
There is no server at the food line. We pick up our plastic plates and a packet containing a thin napkin and a plastic knife, fork, and spoon. There's a basket of hot dog and hamburger buns, still in bags. Everybody ahead of us has run their hands into the bag. Somebody ahead of me had probably touched my hot dog bun before I did. Everybody ahead of us has picked up the tongs and spoons in the serving dishes. I tear open my plastic-ware bag and use my own fork to dish up my food.
There are four or five picnic tables on the deck overlooking the field. They are packed with people, elbow to elbow. The Husband and I opted to take our plates to our seats rather than squeeze in at a table. We balanced them on our knees, trying hard to not drip barbeque sauce down our shirt fronts. The food was mediocre, at best.
Finally, the game started. At the bottom of the first inning, something went wrong on the pitcher's mound, and the game was delayed for 20 minutes while the problem was fixed. We sat through several innings, then went back up to the deck to socialize a bit. The home team was losing fairly badly, and it was getting late, so we decided to leave. On the way out, we stopped by the rest rooms. There was a sign on the door ordering us to wear masks while in the rest room for sanitary reasons.
REALLY?
I went back to the garden yesterday about 4 p.m. simply because I had nothing else I wanted to do. Over the weekend, while digging around in the freezer, I found a zip-lock bag full of seed packets that I'd ordered last year - brussels sprouts, broccoli, butternut squash, peas, carrots, lettuce - and wanted to plant a couple of hills of butternut squash. Weeded the butterbean rows. Turned the compost pile. Pruned the squash plants. While pruning, I found squash bugs, so I picked all the squash, got out the sprayer, and nixed the destructive little monsters.
While I was working, Nanny's driveway started to fill up with cars. It was her 80th birthday, and we were going to celebrate with a cookout and birthday cake.
Earlier in the day, The Husband had gone out to buy food for the cookout and to look for a birthday present for Nanny. He came home with a putter, an indoor putting green, and a box of golf balls.
As far as I know, Nanny had never even held a golf club, but she loves to watch golf on television. (This is something I do not understand; I'd sooner watch paint dry, but to each his own, I reckon.)
We wrapped the putting green, stuck the golf balls in a gift bag, and then tried to figure out how to disguise the golf club. The Husband stuck the wrapping paper tube over the handle of the club, and put an empty toilet paper roll over the head of the club. I tied a huge bow, which we used to hide the toilet paper roll. When the wrapping was finished, the golf club looked like a giant scepter. Before she opened it, she used it to "dub" everybody in the room with love. :)
I spent an hour or two both mornings this weekend just piddling around in the vegetable garden. Added a few more cardboard boxes, and rearranged some of the old ones. The cardboard has reduced our weeding by more than half. Of course, grass/weeds sprout from both sides of the cardboard. I've been chopping/pulling it out by hand, and throwing what I pull up onto the cardboard to help hold the cardboard down and kill the roots of what I've just pulled up. Once it has dried up, I move it to the compost heap.
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| Butterbeans coming along. They sprouted HUGE. |
The tomatoes are holding their own (knock on wood). A sprayer full of peroxide-water and one full of liquid copper fungicide and liquid Seven sit near the rows, ready to douse anything that shows up. I believe that the peroxide-water spray is helping to keep fungus down. If a plant seems infected, I spray both of its neighbors, too, even if they're not showing signs of infection.
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| Those fungi and bugs better stay away, if they know what's good for 'em. Cucumbers producing enough that we'll be making relish soon. |
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| The oldest green beans are beginning to bloom. The new ones at the other end of the row are coming along nicely. Squash plants are producing about all the squash we want, with a little to give away. The picture doesn't show it, but I raked up more pine needles this morning and used it to pave the middle between the squash and the green beans. Okra (between the beans and the tomatoes) is starting to grow. |
I feel like I reached a culinary milestone this afternoon.
I made caramel frosting, from scratch, with granulated sugar. Without a candy thermometer.
This may not sound like a big deal to you, but to one who has never achieved a "soft ball stage," it's monumental.
Back when I was in my early 20s, I had a craving for old-fashioned fudge - the kind you cook to "soft ball stage," not the marshmallow creme stuff. For years, I'd been trying to make fudge. It never properly set. Sometimes, it would come out a bit like taffy, sometimes a bit firmer. But always you could cut out a little square (or maybe dip it out) and go back to the pan an hour later, and the square hole had closed up, like you'd never taken a piece. I never achieved that firm yet crumbly texture I wanted.
So one night, I decided, This time I'm going to cook it long enough.
I cooked it.
The recipe said to set the pan aside to cool, then come back and beat it until it lost its gloss.
I set it aside to cool.
Made the mistake of leaving the metal spoon in the pan. BROKE THE SPOON OFF trying to get it out of the fudge.
The pan sat, full of water, overnight and all the next day, but the candy did not budge. Tried to warm it on the stove. Nope. We ended up setting the pan outside with the candy still in it. It never did come out. The pan went to the dump.
I never attempted fudge - or any type of candy - again.
But Granddaughter #1 is due a birthday cake this weekend. She asked for a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. I found a from-scratch recipe for a delicious-looking dark chocolate cake, and another recipe for chocolate buttercream frosting. It seemed to me that a layer of caramel frosting in the middle might be yummy.
I almost backed out of the caramel frosting when I saw that one part of it had to be cooked to a "soft ball stage."
If there had been such a thing as YouTube when I was in my 20s, my life might have turned out differently. Today, I saw what "soft ball stage" is supposed to look like. And achieved it!
Into the soft-ball-stage mixture (milk and sugar) goes hot, caramelized sugar. The thing about making caramelized sugar is that there is about a 5-second difference between not caramel-y enough, perfectly caramelized, and burnt. I somehow got that right, too. Beat it with an electric mixer for 5 minutes, and got it on the cake before it set up too thick. The cake is now in the refrigerator, ready to be frosted tomorrow.
Now, if I can manage not to screw up the chocolate buttercream.
In case you're interested, here are the recipes:
Dark Chocolate Cake II Recipe | Allrecipes (has coffee in it; made two nice, tall, dark layers)
Perfect Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Recipe | Allrecipes - we'll see how this turns out tomorrow
Caramel Frosting Using Granulated Sugar - Recipe | Cooks.com - totally yummy
When my sons and their friends were teenagers, and full of themselves, one of the friends drove up in his pickup truck and unloaded a tiny aluminum pontoon boat. The boys took it to the small pond on our property and put it in the water. Presumably, they poled around on it a little bit, then dragged it onto the bank of the pond, where it has sat for the past 20 years or so.
This past weekend, Son #1 fired up the tractor and bush-hogged around the pond. The pontoon was in the way, so he tied it to the tractor and dragged it to the edge of our yard . . .
. . . where Cousin Roger spied it.
Roger called over to our house the next day, wanting to know if he could have it, said he wants it for a "project" if we don't want it. We told him that it's not ours, that it probably leaks, and to call Son #1 to find out who actually owns it and if it can be given away.
Yesterday, Roger came over on his lawnmower to get the boat, said he'd talked to our son and had permission to get it. The boat had been sitting, right-side-up, under some trees all these years. It was full of dirt, saplings, and poison ivy. He needed help moving it.
I put on some shoes and followed him to where the boat was. There was an old rope tied to it. I tied the rope to the hitch-hole on the back of his lawnmower, and Roger proceeded to drag it up the hill. When he got to a steep spot, the lawnmower lost traction, and I had to push the boat to get it on up the hill. Roger dragged the boat across our yard to the edge of the woods, where we took hold of one side of the boat and dumped it over to empty it of the dirt and leaves.
Roger wanted to know how the boat was originally out-fitted, what kind of floor it had, etc. I had no idea and did not want to stand around discussing it, as the mosquitoes were feasting on me. "I'm going back to the house!" I told him, and ran for the porch.
The boat made an awful noise as Roger dragged it up the road to his house. It is now propped on its side outside his workshop.
It'll be interesting to see what he does with it. I should have taken a "before" picture.
I just got back from the garden a few minutes ago. Went down there to bury the stuff in my slop jar. I put it in the north end of the garden, in the low spot. Vegetable peelings, egg shells, coffee grounds and filters. Something will probably dig it up tonight. If it can get past the smell, it'll have to deal with the dirt if it wants to eat anything.
The blight/leaf spot is back on some of the tomatoes. I was afraid that would happen when I watered them. Watered with a soaker hose, but still . . . fungus likes water.
So I got out the peroxide/water sprayer and went through the routine - remove affected leaves, spray. I sprayed the plants to the left and right of the affected plants, thinking the plants probably spread the fungus to their neighbors when the wind blows.
This spraying would be so much easier if my sprayers would work right. :\
I finished watering the garden yesterday afternoon, and got up this morning to hear the weather-person claiming it's going to rain this weekend and/or the first of next week. Yeah, right. In any case, I did not water ridiculously. The previous day's watering was still obvious, but not seriously muddy, and I did not go over-board with the watering today. Hopefully, if it does rain soon, my stuff won't drown.
It took about an hour to complete the job. Did the second row of tomatoes, the green beans (new and old), and the zucchini that I missed the previous day. When finished, I rolled up the hoses, put the hose cart away, and came back to the house.
After cooking supper and doing the dishes, I said to The Husband, "I am glad this day is OVER." It was barely 7 p.m., and I was EXHAUSTED.
Thankfully, the garden should be on auto-pilot for a couple of days.
The weatherman had predicted nearly 100% chance of rain for yesterday, slightly less of a chance today. We didn't get a drop, so to the garden I went after work today. Last week, we bought 100 feet of soaker hose and watered the rows where we'd planted the butterbeans (they're coming up fairly well now). The hose was still on the butterbean rows, so I gave them another drink before I started working my way across the garden, 1.25 rows at a time (the rows are about 75 feet long, so the hose gets looped part of the way up the next row).
I did the butterbeans, the 3 rows of purple hull peas, skipped the pepper row, and did the first tomato row. Also gave the squash and green bean rows a squirt, but they'll need more tomorrow,. Got one more row of tomatoes to do, too.
I probably won't water the cucumbers. They seem to be doing fine. I surrounded the hills with cardboard when the plants were little, and the soil is still fairly moist under the cardboard. It surely is doing a good job keeping the weeds down. The cucumber vines reach for the tomatoes and green beans every day, and every day I peel them back and toss them back on the pile.
Got my first harvest today.
I picked that ripe tomato today so the critters don't get it. Another one will be ready tomorrow. Tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches for supper tomorrow!
Speaking of tomatoes, look at these boys and girls:
They are LOADED with fruit. And fairly blight-free at the moment. I sprayed a couple more plants with peroxide water this afternoon - one of them was actually the one I sprayed this weekend - and may just spray them all tomorrow or Thursday. Some of them are about to out-grow the fence, but maybe they can be trained to grow sideways.
Two varieties we grew from seedlings - San Marzano and Defiant. The Defiant plants are probably the ones in the picture. I say "probably" because we had three people planting tomatoes on planting day, and I don't know who planted what where. Defiants are supposed to be blight resistant, but I'm not sure they're doing any better than the other varieties. They are determinate tomatoes. I wanted to have a bunch of tomatoes come in at once so that it's worth the effort to fire up the canner.
The first ripe tomato came from an Early Girl. They are indeterminate, and I'm counting on them to keep us in tomato sandwiches all summer.
There are some Big Better Beefy Boys in the mix. I forget the right name. I can hardly wait to lay a slab on a plate, next to some home-made biscuits and gravy. ;)
We had a nice Father's Day. We invited the kids and the folks on the hill for a cookout. One of our sons and his family are out of town, but the other one was here, as were Nanny, The Nephew, and The Sister- and Brother-in-Law. We fed them grilled steaks and chicken, cheesy scalloped potatoes, green beans from last year's garden, a green salad, and banana pudding. The men-folk ragged on us ladies about having to grill their own steaks, until we reminded them who has cooked Mother's Day dinner since the beginning of time.
After work today, I went straight to the garden to check on things.
The butterbeans are coming up! FINALLY! There are skippy places in the rows, but I'll give the seeds another day or two to sprout before I replant the skips.
Two tomatoes will be ready to eat in a day or so. I could've picked one of them today, but decided to let it ripen one more day. It's a low-hanging tomato. If a critter gets it tonight, I'm going to be furious. Perhaps I should re-think leaving it in the garden overnight.
I picked a handful of squash and gave them to Nanny for her supper.
The garden needs water. I had hoped for rain today - the weatherman predicted a 100% chance - but it has mostly gone south of us. Looking at my phone weather app, it looks like there might be a straggling cloud or two that might give us a little relief. And my phone just announced that lightning has been detected in my area. Keeping my fingers crossed. If it doesn't rain by tomorrow afternoon, I'll have to drag out the water hoses.
I am tentatively hopeful about the tomato plants. After last week's fungicide regimen, I'm not seeing any new leaf spot damage. The plant I sprayed with the hydrogen peroxide and water mixture doesn't seem to have minded the treatment. I'll probably do the rest of the tomatoes with the peroxide, and follow up a couple of days later with fungicide.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've seen social media posts about fermenting banana peels in water, and using the water as fertilizer. A week ago, I cut up two banana peels and put them in a quart jar, which I then filled with water and capped with a lid. I set the jar beside the kitchen sink so I wouldn't forget about it. Little bubbles would occasionally rise to the top. This past Saturday I took the jar to the garden, mixed the banana water with a gallon of plain water, and poured it around the roots of the six puniest plants. We'll see if they suddenly grow muscles.
And since there were peels from the Father's Day banana pudding, I started another jar.
I was on the back porch this afternoon, working on my sprayers, when Cousin Roger came driving up on his lawnmower. He had a plastic deli meat bowl in his hand.
"Brought you some watermelon. Whatchoo doin'?"
"I don't know," I said. "Never worked on a sprayer before, but I have to get these working right because the blight is wearing my tomatoes OUT."
Roger said, "Reckon that's what's wrong with my tomatoes?"
I asked him to describe the symptoms, but because Roger's not very articulate on a good day, I ended up saying I'd just go over and have a look at them.
Roger built himself a raised bed for his tomatoes, one tall enough that he doesn't have to bed over to tend them. It's about 4 feet long x 2 feet wide x 2 feet deep. It's made out of slats and lined with black plastic, which he brought up all the way up the sides and stapled to the top rim.
He had SIX Big Beef tomato plants in it. They looked rough, spindly. The tops of some of them were almost crispy brown. The lower leaves were yellow and spotted. It also looked like there were some tiny bugs walking amongst the leaves. I said, "Roger, I'm not sure what all is wrong with these tomatoes. This black plastic might be absorbing the heat and cooking them. But I think we could start with a dose of fungicide and bug spray." I said I'd be back over to spray them, later in the afternoon when the sun wasn't so hot, if I could get my sprayers to work.
I did get the sprayers fixed. Earlier in the day, I'd been to the hardware store and bought some rubber o-rings to replace the felt ones that were between each screw-on piece on the sprayer nozzle. After I installed them, I cleaned out the nozzles with a pipe cleaner, put everything back together, and they worked. I filled up one of the sprayers with some experimental peroxide/water solution, and filled the other one with fungicide and bug spray. After I did my experimental spraying, I headed to Roger's house and sprayed his tomatoes.
He came out while I was spraying and said that his dad (who lives next door to him) wanted me to come do his tomatoes, too. And he wanted me to take a look at his mother's rose bush by the front porch. Said he could see through the leaves. I knew what was wrong with the rose bush before I laid eyes on it. I'd seen Japanese beetles on my roses earlier in the day. They'd had a dose of what was in the sprayer, too.
Uncle B came scuffling outside when he saw me drive up. Roger had made Uncle B the same kind of raised bed that he'd made for himself. Uncle B's tomatoes were crispy, too. I mentioned the black plastic and the heat, and said it might not hurt to cut that plastic down to about an inch above the soil. Uncle B said that if I had something to cut the plastic with, have at it. I took out my pocket knife and cut the plastic away. I didn't see any fungus or bugs on those tomatoes, but I sprayed the tomatoes anyway, because if they don't have fungus and bugs now, they will have in a day or two.
Uncle B said I could spray the rose bush, too, if I felt like it. It's a Knockout rose. What worried Roger and Uncle B were all the dead blooms. What worried me was the lacy leaves and the beetles copulating on the dead blooms. I cut off all the spent blooms and hosed the rose bush down. Hopefully, it'll bounce back.
In all these years of growing tomatoes and bitching about tomato blight, I have never actually examined the spots on the leaves to determine exactly what type of fungus is present. I see yellowing and browning of the leaves, and think "BLIGHT!" and start panicking.
After watching some videos yesterday (links below), I got up close and personal with the leaves. What I've been referring to this year as "early blight" has probably been septoria leaf spot, not official early blight. Here's a picture.
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| June 19, 2021 |
This plant has been sprayed three times this month, the first two times with baking soda/cooking oil/dishdetergent/water, the second time with liquid copper fungicide. Before each spraying, I've removed the yellowing leaves, so I'm pretty sure this leaf has developed this fungus since the copper fungicide treatment three days ago. The treatments may have slowed the fungus, but they haven't killed it - not that I can tell.
I don't know if it really makes much difference if it's septoria leaf spot or early blight. It appears that the preventions (spacing, mulching, etc.) and the treatments are the same for both types of fungus. And none of it really works to ELIMINATE the problem, so the battle continues.
I am going to try the hydrogen peroxide/water combo on this plant to see what happens. My best hand-pump sprayer is already about half full of fungicide left over from the last spraying. It wouldn't surprise me if there's still a little baking soda residue from the first two sprayings. I might not ought to add peroxide to the mix; it might create a rocket! ;) But I think that, somewhere in the shed, there's another sprayer that might work long enough to do one plant.
Here are a couple of links to things I found useful:
Gary Pilarchik (The Rusted Garden) (The Rusted Garden) - YouTube
Identify and Treat Septoria Leaf Spot on Tomatoes | Gardener’s Path (gardenerspath.com)
I took some other pictures of the garden today.
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| The first halves of the green bean rows - there's a row on each side of the fence. These are the beans I've re-planted FOUR TIMES. To the right are squash and zucchini. There will be watermelons at the far end of this row, once the seeds that I planted yesterday decide to sprout. |
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| The troublesome tomato rows. The tomatoes are LOADED with fruit, so I figure the electric-toothbrush-buzzing of the blooms might have actually worked. I have cut so many "blighted" leaves off the plants that I fear the fruit will scald if I cut any more. |
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Every cardboard box that comes into my possession goes straight to the garden for weed control. Yes, grass still comes up on both sides of it, but we just move it out of the way, chop the grass, and move it back. The fence posts to the far left mark where the butterbeans (second attempt) are planted. I think they're trying to come up. I see white seeds on the soil surface that weren't on the soil surface two days ago. I'm tempted to cover them with dirt but fear smothering them! The three rows to the right of the fence are purple hull peas. They need water. The tall green plants are various peppers, with an eggplant and a few basil plants at the far end. The middle between the peppers and the tomato plants to the right is heavily mulched with pine straw. Yeah, the grass comes up through it, but not like it would come up on bare ground. |
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Cucumbers at the front, okra at the rear. The cucumbers have a few thumb-sized fruits, lots of blooms. They keep trying to reach out and grab the tomatoes to the left and the green beans to the right. Every day, I toss them back onto the heap. This might be a mistake. In fact, it was probably a mistake to put them there, between two rows of fencing, but I was out of space elsewhere. |
I was so disheartened to find what I believe to be blight on the tomato plants. I mean, I've done almost everything humanly possible to prevent it: landscape fabric and pine straw mulch to prevent back-splash, a hog-wire fence for staking them so that the limbs are spread out for the best air flow, cut off anything touching the ground. I would sprayed fungicide sooner - preventatively, you know - except that it rained and rained and rained, which would have washed off whatever I sprayed on it. But I was ON IT as soon as we got a break in the rain. Of course, by that time I was seeing signs of blight.
So I cut off everything that looked faintly yellow. Some of what I cut off may have been yellowed from too much rain, and not from blight. In any case, I hauled the debris safely away from the garden. Probably should have burned it instead of pitching it down the gulley. Will do that in the future.
As for spraying, because I don't like scary chemicals, I tried what seemed a more natural remedy for blight: baking soda, cooking oil, and dish detergent. I hosed the plants well. Couple of days later, more yellowing of the leaves, some with definite blighty spots. I cut off the blighted leaves, hauled the debris away, and hosed the plants with baking soda again, and a couple of days later, more of the same yellowing/spotting.
Time to pull out the "big guns": liquid copper fungicide. Mixed a mild pesticide with it to kill off some little mite-y things I thought I was seeing (didn't have my glasses on).
This evening, I saw a couple more yellowing leaves.
Shit.
So I came home and did more searching. Found a guy that advocates using a mixture of 8-12 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide (the 3% stuff you buy at the store) with a gallon of water. The peroxide is supposed to KILL the fungus. Two days later (like a Monday-Wednesday-Friday thing), follow up with something like the baking soda spray, which makes the environment too acidic for the fungus to grow.
I shall try this peroxide thing.
First, I have to figure out why my sprayer is acting like a turd. I watched videos of people spraying their plants with little 1-gallon sprayers that DRENCHED the plants. Now, I have bought loads of sprayers, most of which lie abandoned in the garden shed (the rest went in the garbage can). Tired of wasting money on the cheap plastic things, last year, I paid $80 for a metal 2-gallon sprayer, thinking it would never, ever fail. Instead of a nice mist, though, I'm getting dribbles. I've cleaned out the nozzle; it sprays like mad in all four directions when the tip (which I've also cleaned) is off. The dribbling seems to be coming from between the nozzle and the hose. There are little felt o-rings between all the parts, and they seem worn. Can these things be bought at the hardware store? Are they brand-specific? Can I just cut replacement circles of felt from my craft stash?
Burning questions for tomorrow. :-/
Today I tilled and planted the other halves of the green bean rows. It might rain this weekend, so maybe they'll come right up.
I did not see any new yellow leaves on the tomatoes.
When I finished in the garden, I mowed our yard. It is dry and dusty. When I got out of the shower and blew my nose, two mud-pies came out.
Hopefully, the garden is on auto-pilot for the next few days.
If you found this page because you're looking for a good remedy for blight, you might as well move along, because evidently I don't know of a good remedy. ;)
Over the weekend, I cut yellow, blighty-looking leaves off of my tomato plants and hosed them down GOOD with a mixture of baking soda (3 tbs.), cooking oil (1 tbs.), and dish detergent (couple of drops) per gallon of water. This morning, there were twice as many yellowing leaves than there were this past weekend.
I went to the store and bought some liquid copper fungicide and sprayed the tomatoes again this afternoon. It seemed like more leaves had yellowed since this morning!
While I sprayed tomatoes, Nanny and The Husband did some weeding. We also strung a soaker hose across the butterbean rows, hoping to moisten the seeds so they'll sprout. If they don't sprout, I'm done with butterbeans this year. Maybe forever.
We mixed up 15 gallons of fertilizer water and used it on the tomatoes, peppers, and squash.
Tomorrow, I'm going to plant pole beans on the halves of the pole bean rows that I did not plant the first (second, third, or fourth) go-round. Probably ought to water the cucumbers.
Altogether, I spent about 5 hours in the garden today. My back hurts from lugging the 2-gallon sprayer. My feet hurt from standing on them for 4 hours straight.
I think it's time for a gin & tonic!
Nanny and The Husband re-planted the butterbean rows while I finished spraying the tomatoes for blight.
I re-planted the skips in the green bean rows for the third or fourth time.
I wish I knew why my seeds didn't sprout this year. Did I plant too early? Did something dig them up and eat them?
The horseflies are merciless. I sprayed my arms and legs with bug spray, but a horsefly got me on the back when my shirt came up while I was bent over. B*st*rd.
Been dreading it all day, but about 5 o'clock, we went to the garden to spray the tomatoes for blight and do some other maintenance.
I mixed up 2 gallons of water with 6 tablespoons of baking soda, 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, and a few drops of dish detergent. I also added some bug spray to the mix - might as well get 'er done in one fell swoop, eh? The mixture lasted all the way down one tomato row, and halfway up the other. About the time the sprayer was fizzling out, Nanny hollered from the back porch to ask if I needed anything from the grocery store. I asked her to bring me another box of baking soda.
While she was gone, I ran the tiller down the butterbean(less) row to take out the grass that has grown up in it. The ground was a tad too damp, but I'll till it up again tomorrow if it doesn't rain.
The Nephew said it's supposed to rain tonight. I heard distant thunder while I was in the garden. Hopefully, it rained somewhere else. Our garden has had enough!
Nanny was ready to go at 5 p.m. yesterday when I fetched her for The Nugget's birthday party. When she got in the car, I said, "We have to stop back by my house to get the birthday cake." The cake was so tall that I was afraid to have it unattended in the car for even a minute; Nanny was going to have to hold it in her lap all the way to the party.
The cake must've weighed 10 pounds. My son was outside when we got to his house. I told him, "Get a two-wheeler and come get this cake." We managed to get it inside the house and on the table without a mishap.
With the cake safe inside, I went back to the car for the poodle dress and the shoes. These were not birthday presents, so I went ahead and gave them to her before the party officially started. If I did one thing right, it was buying those shoes! The kid was ecstatic when she opened the box. She put them on immediately and wore them the rest of the night. She was thrilled with the dress, as well. As I was buttoning the back, I said, "The first thing you should do when I finish these buttons is twirl." She did, and that circle skirt flared out beautifully. She twirled all over the living room.
Cake and presents followed. She racked up.
Well, the birthday cake est fini.
And it is a freakin' MONSTER - four layers. It's so tall that I can't get the cake cover on it.
Layers 1 and 3 are the first cake recipe. They were made with orange cake mix, vanilla pudding, orange soda, eggs, and oil. They are HEAVY. I topped them with vanilla mousse.
Layer 2 is a white "poke cake" flavored with orange soda. There's orange jello in the poke-holes. Atop layer 2 is/was a thin layer of set orange jello. I say "is/was" because a bunch of the jello squished out when I stacked layer 3 on top. In retrospect, the layer of orange jello was probably a mistake, as it made the whole cake a little unstable (and most of it squirted out, anyway).
Layer 4 is just the plain white cake without any poke holes.
Before I frosted the cake (with yummy cream cheese frosting), I pegged it together with skewers. Cross your fingers that they survive the trip to the birthday party! Nanny will have to hold it in her lap!
I will also be taking the poodle dress that the birthday girl helped me make.
When we first talked about making a dress, she said she wanted a hair bow and some high heel shoes to go with it. Her family teased her about the shoes; she's a bit clumsy and has trouble walking barefoot on level ground; the family is not sure she'll survive high heels. Nevertheless, she's getting some grown-up-looking heels. ;)
She has already confiscated the matching purse and hair bow.
Happy birthday, Nugget!
Granddaughter #3 has a birthday coming up this weekend. Though she probably had a good bit of input from her older sisters, she asked for an orange creamsicle cake.
Two years ago, I made her an orange creamsicle birthday cake with cream cheese frosting and dropped it on the ground on the way to the party. I am hoping for better luck this year.
Of course, I did not save the recipe, and several days' worth of internet searches turned up a good many orange creamsickle cake recipes, none of which looked familiar. I picked out one of the recipes, and also a recipe for a mousse-like filling and one for cream cheese frosting. Bought all the stuff, plus some extra stuff, yesterday. (Some of the recipes called for poking holes in the cake and filling the holes with orange Jello. I am still undecided about that, but I bought the Jello, just in case.)
I made the cake today. The two layers collapsed into moist patties the instant they came out of the oven. It's no wonder; the cake had 3/4 cup of oil and a box of vanilla pudding in it. I'm not sure I want to use these layers.
There was a box of white cake mix in the pantry. I substituted orange crush for the water and baked two more layers. They just came out of the oven and seem a little spongy. I poked holes in one of the new layers and scooped half-set Jello into the holes. We may end up with a 4-layer cake.
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After supper we went down to the garden to lay down "my" cardboard in the middles. Horseflies started attacking the truck as we went down the driveway, and they followed us to the garden. Then the mosquitoes joined the party. We didn't work more than 45 minutes, and I am covered in bites.
I really wanted to clean off the butterbean(less) rows so I can plant some new seeds, but the ground is just too wet to work.
The tomatoes are getting blight. I cut off a bunch of leaves yesterday. They need to be sprayed for blight, but IT WON'T QUIT RAINING. Rumor has it that it's supposed to fair off this weekend. I am anxious to get to work.
I'm about tired of this rain, but it's supposed to hang around for another day or two. Most things in the garden are doing okay, so far, but the weeds and grass are thriving, too. Thank goodness for the pine needles and cardboard in some of the middles.
I have been saving the cardboard boxes from our Blue Apron meals and other packages to use as weed control in the garden. Two of them are folded flat and stashed behind the microwave cart in the kitchen right now. Last night, as I was puttering around in the kitchen, The Husband came through on his way to the back porch, saw the boxes, and said, "Oh . . . I brought you some more cardboard boxes from work. They're in the back of my truck."
I said, "Thanks," and kept puttering.
After a minute, it occurred to me that he'd said he'd brought ME some cardboard. I opened the back door and said, "By the way, you didn't bring ME some cardboard. Yo' ass doesn't enjoy hoeing any more than mine does!"
I should make him wade out in the garden and put down all these boxes when he comes home this afternoon!
The sun was shining when I came home from work today. Yesterday the garden was almost dry enough to work. I should've taken my butt straight to the garden to get the grass out of the butterbean(less) row and plant the butterbean seeds that finally came.
But I didn't.
I needed to go try Granddaughter #3's dress on her so that I can hem it and sew the buttons on. I was also itching to smooch Granddaughter #4. But, first, I wanted to work on some t-shirts I've been intending to do for the grandchildren. They're baseball-style shirts. The girls' shirts (and a matching one for my daughter-in-law) are light gray with aqua sleeves; the boys' shirts ("boys" includes my sons and The Husband) are gray with navy sleeves. My intention was to do some vinyl designs on them.
When I asked The Granddaughters what designs they wanted on their shirts, Granddaughter #1 said she wanted an infinity symbol made out of dog paw prints. Granddaughter #2 said she wanted a Batman logo (yeah, the same granddaughter that wanted the superhero quilt). Granddaughter #3 said she wanted a unicorn on hers. As she was wearing a unicorn shirt during this conversation, I begged off on doing another unicorn (but I have since re-considered). The Daughter-in-Law asked for her monogram on her shirt.
Anyway . . . .
I came in and got to work on the shirts. I'd done the infinity shirt last week and had already given it to #1. The Batman logo and the monogram were finished and just needed to be transferred from the computer to the cutting machine. I copied the files to a jump drive and fired up the cutting machine.
The vinyl is sparkly aqua glitter vinyl that matches the shirts. This stuff has a thick plastic "transfer" sheet on top of it, and it has to be cut upside-down without cutting through the transfer sheet. And the cutting design has to be backwards so that it's right-side-up when the vinyl is adhered to the fabric.
Well, guess what?
First, I forgot to cut it upside-down. Fortunately, the cutting blade didn't cut through the plastic, so I flipped the vinyl over and cut again.
And guess what else?
I'd forgotten to flip the design backwards. So that piece of vinyl went in the trash. And that sucks, because the stuff is expensive, and I hate to waste it.
Anyway, I finally cut out an acceptable Batman logo and a nice monogram and got them onto the shirts without a problem. Then I decided to do a onesie for Granddaughter #4. I was going to put "Queen Bee" on the front, but I tore up the "Bee" trying to weed the centers of the "e"s. Plan B: just use "Queen" - and I put it on the back because she chews on her shirt fronts. And since I had one plain white t-shirt in Granddaughter #3's size, it got the word "Fabulous" (so she wouldn't feel left out of the t-shirt-gifting).
I'll work on the unicorn some other time.
And now it's raining, so I probably can't plant butterbeans tomorrow.
Rain was predicted for today, but it was sunny when I got up this morning. My intention was to go to the garden fairly early; the tomatoes have grown and need to be tied to the fence.
But since The Husband wasn't up yet - I just knew he'd want to help with the tomatoes - I poured myself some coffee, snatched a fig newton from the cookie jar, and went out to the porch to read emails before I hit the garden. The Husband got up an hour later and made omelets, and while we were eating them, I said, "We need to go tie up the tomatoes." He nodded like he agreed.
I came back out to the porch to work on an embroidery design while my omelet digested. It's an applique poodle - three of them, really - that will go on The Granddaughter's poodle skirt and matching handbag. When I finished the design and went inside to sew it, I realized that I ought to finish sewing the dress together and try it on The Granddaughter before I embroider the poodles on the skirt in case the hem needs shortening.
While I was doing these things, The Husband began to putter around outside. He washed the Wrangler and fixed the strap that keeps the door from flying all the way backward when the Jeep is parked downhill (that's what broke the strap). Some time later, I looked up, and he was doing a ukulele lesson on the internet. I hated to disturb him, so I decided to go ahead and make the little handbag that goes with the dress.
Then Nanny made a quick stop to drop off something, saying, "I need to get home before it rains."
And I looked outside, and the sky was darkening, and I said, "Shoot. We never got to the tomatoes," so I poured a glass of lemonade and spiked it with some pineapple rum, and brought it out to the porch.
I heard the rain coming before it got here.
It's supposed to rain all week.
Hang in there, tomatoes.
I worked on The Granddaughter's dress yesterday afternoon. She and I had not cut out the matching purse, and we had not marked the dots and centers and such. We also had not cut out the lining for the bodice.
The Granddaughter is between sizes. At least, I think she is. When I tried to measure her, she wanted to see the numbers on the tape measure, and she bent her head and looked down, and pooched out her belly so she could see. Her waist measured larger than her chest. I'm not entirely sure our measurements were correct, so I cut the largest size of the dress pattern, thinking I'll take it in where it doesn't fit.
I don't know what possessed me to use white fabric instead of black for the lining. Unless I sew the lining perfectly - and I rarely do anything perfectly - it might show. If I'd used black fabric, it still might show, but it would be less noticeable.
Good thing I only basted the lining onto the top.
This afternoon, I went over to The Granddaughter's house to see how the bodice was going to fit. I think it'll do as is.
Except the white lining might have to go.
Not today, though.
Granddaughter #3, Marley, age 6, likes to sew. When she comes to visit, she heads straight to the sewing room, picks out some fabric from the scrap basket, and gets to work. Here's one of her creations:
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| Actually, there's not a single stitch in this necklace, but it's cute. ;) |
A few weeks ago, I said to her, "One of these days, you and I are going to go to the fabric store, and you can pick out a pattern and some fabric, and you and I will make you a dress."
She has not let me forget that promise.
I also made a promise to my sister a couple of weeks ago. She has a lovely backyard garden where she grows a variety of hydrangea bushes (among other things). She called me one day and invited me to come see the hydrangeas when they were in bloom. She said she'd let me know when they were ready. One day last week, she gave me the nod; the hydrangeas were doing there thing, and I could come any time.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, I considered making good on both of my promises. But the weather was really nice, and we had a lot of catch-up work to do in our yard and in the garden, and I spent the weekend working outside.
Yesterday was a nasty, drizzly day. The Boss came in and said that she was tired (I was, too!) and that we were not going to stay at the office very long. This seemed like a good time to keep my promises.
I called Marley's mom to see if I could kidnap Marley for the afternoon, and she said yes. I called my sister to see if she was free, and she was. I picked up Marley about noon, and we headed for the big city.
Our first stop was the fabric store. Marley sat down at the pattern book table and thumbed through the pattern listings. It didn't take her long to find the dress she wanted.
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| She wants the blue dress, which she decided she can wear without a shirt underneath. |
