A Good Weekend (and garden check) - May 30, 2023

I had a good weekend.

Saturday was The Grandson's 16th birthday.  He spent Saturday and Sunday nights with us.  "My baby boy" is 6'3" and has facial hair, but he's still my baby boy.  Until his parents divorced, he spent almost every weekend with us.  When he was about 4, I bought a Nintendo game console and the Zelda "Skyward Sword" game.  He's played every Zelda game that has come out since then.  Several weeks/months ago, I pre-ordered the Zelda "Tears of the Kingdom" game, and it came in a couple of weeks ago.  We played ToTK this weekend.  :)

* * * * * * * * 

The purple hull peas that Nanny and I planted are beginning to sprout.  I ran the sprinkler on them and the peppers yesterday evening, hoping to encourage the peas.

I did a little yard gardening this weekend.  A local greenhouse was having a 40% off sale, and I made two trips for flower bed and flower pot plants.  My niece gave me some morning glories and moonflowers that she'd started.  I put them in a flower pot (along with some mini-petunias) next to a tall shepherd's hook.  Putting the vines in a flower pot may have been a mistake, but putting them in the ground (where the mower and weed-eater can get to them) might have been worse.  

In the flower bed, I planted some blue salvia.  Something dug it up last night.  I'll have to get the mouse trap out again to deter the critter.

My sister sent me some unusual squash seeds, and I planted those in little containers to transfer to the garden.

On this week's gardening agenda: (1) plant the extra tomato seedlings in the garden where the first seedlings drowned; (2) plant the rose bush that Son #2 gave me for Mothers Day; (3) get a new hose cart (and a splitter, if I can find one) for the vegetable garden hoses; and (4) plant the other halves of the great northern bean rows.  

How much of that do you reckon I'll get done?  ;)

* * * * * * * * 

We have the "privilege" of babysitting Lord Duffy the Cat while his family is on a camping trip.  He arrived Thursday and will be here until Wednesday.  He wouldn't be any trouble if he wouldn't try to get on my kitchen table and cabinets.  I can't stand that. Working on the porch as I do, if he's in the house, I can't monitor his behavior.  So Friday, I put him out on the back porch.  HE LOVES IT OUT HERE. At home, he has two dimutive canine brothers to molest when he feels like it, but most of the time he just lies around and sleeps all day.  On the porch, he hears things moving around under the floor (probably lizards and chipmunks) and stalks them, staring down at the cracks between the boards.  Yesterday, he chased a lizard that got onto the porch.  (It escaped, much to Duffy's annoyance.)  Other times, he stares through the screens at birds and bugs.  

When I go inside, I offer to let him in the house (in case he's thirsty or needs to use his litter box - ugh!), he glares at me.  No, thank you.  That suits me just fine.  We let (make) him come in at night but trap him in a spare bedroom so he doesn't snoop around in the kitchen or howl at our door all night.  He has not yet attempted to escape when we go in/out the screen doors.  I think he's too much of a chickensh*t to want out.  Scared-y pants house cat.  ;)

Replanted Peas - May 27, 2025

After saving Thursday morning's first post, I followed through with my plan to look for the right kind of gizmo to keep the tiller tire on its axle.  I was a little worried that the part was no longer available, since this tiller is about 15 years old.  I put on some shoes, grabbed my phone, and headed down Nanny's driveway to take a picture of the tiller's serial number so that I could find the right part.

Nanny spied me coming down the driveway and nailed me as I passed the back porch.  She and my sister-in-law were about to go to Walmart, did I need anything, and she hated for me to work out in the heat with nobody on the premises in case I got too hot and fell out.

I said, "No, I don't need anything.  And don't worry, I didn't come to work, I just came to take a picture of the serial number on the tiller."  To prove I was telling the truth, I waved my phone at her, and said, "See?  I'm not even wearing my gardening apron."  

Mercifully, my sister-in-law drove up about that time and distracted Nanny.  While she was helping Nanny climb into her lifted Jeep (she keeps a step-ladder in the back for just this purpose), I high-tailed it to the shed, snapped the picture, and came home to find the part.

Well, guess what?  The "official" gizmo that keeps the tiller tire on its axle is a bolt and a lock nut.  The bolts are available, but the lock nut has been discontinued.  I was, like. . . WTF?  Who discontinues the nut without discontinuing the bolt?

Anyway, the official part was essentially the same fix that The Husband had come up with (except we didn't have a lock nut on hand).  We can go to the local hardware store for a lock nut (and a handful of spares). Crisis averted.

As soon as The Sister-in-Law rolled out with Nanny, I went back to the garden and started tilling up the purple hull pea rows.  I'd finished the tilling and was about to mark the rows when Nanny got back home from Walmart.  In nothing flat, she changed clothes and came out to the garden with the peas we intended to plant.  "Do you want me to start dropping these seeds?"

I wanted to say, "No, get your ass back in the house and leave me alone."  Instead, I explained that we weren't ready to plant, and I got a hoe and started dragging the trench for the first row.  This activity never fails to bring back the memory of Pop-Pop standing at the end of a row, saying, "Yer row's crooked," but then adding, "Well, you c'n plant more on a crooked row."

It was coming.  I knew it.  I had turned around and was dragging the trench for the next row when Nanny hollered, "Your first row is bowed.  Come look."  

I said, "I don't care.  We can plant more on a crooked row."

But nothing doing her until I re-did that first row.  

By the time we got the 4 rows of peas planted, I wanted to  . . . .   

But that's illegal everywhere.

What to do? - May 25, 2023

Mid-morning today, as I was walking home from Nanny's, I cut through a gap in the montage of foliage that lines one side of our driveway and noticed - really noticed - what our yard looks like from that angle.  I backed up and took a picture.  

Here it is:

I'm standing at the edge of the road, looking at the area where the tree almost fell on the shed.  We had 5 trees taken out where those stumps are.  Removing these trees created a whole new environment on that side of the yard.  This area used to be too shady to grow much grass.  I let the moss have it.  I like moss.  The treecutters' heavy equipment peeled the moss way.  I threw down some dollar store sun/shade grass seed mix that mostly washed into the pond (to the left, outside the picture - snaky, overgrown and creepy).  

I am pondering what to do with this area now.  There wasn't much I could do with it in the past, short of trying to keep the hill from washing away.  The ground is full of tree roots and nearly impossible to dig.  

What to do . . . ?

Fertilized Tomatoes, Planted Peppers - May 25, 2023

Around midday yesterday, having spent the morning "reading the fine print," I needed some air and decided to walk down to Nanny's to check on the garden and the 18 pepper plants I'd stashed under a tree last week when the soil had been too wet to plant.  I did not plan on doing any gardening; I just needed movement and sunshine.  

Long before I got to the peppers, I could see they needed watering.  Their little heads were staring at their little feet.  I did not want to turn on the outside faucet just yet, though, because it makes a noise that can be heard inside the house, which alerts Nanny to my presence. I'd hoped to get in and out of there undetected, come home, maybe have a bite of lunch and get back to work, so I left the peppers alone, expecting to come back and water them in the evening, and went to check on the garden plants.

Pitiful.  

Our garden is like an old mattress with a sag in the middle.  This spring's attempts at soil amendment helped some, but there's still a "dip."  The garden was no longer standing in water but the low part - really half the garden - was still muddy.  The only things surviving in that end of the garden were the cucumbers we'd planted on "hills" and a whole lot of "water grass," as Nanny calls it.  

The two half-rows of great northern beans were doing okay, though they are looking a little pale.  I guess it's from all the rain we had last week.  

Next to them is a row of squash hills that extends all the way to the other end of the garden - 12 hills, 5 of which had not been tall enough to keep their heads above the water.  I wasn't too upset about the drowned squash.  Twelve hills was too many, anyway.  

The tomatoes.  Pitiful.  Some of them had drowned.  The others do not appear to have grown an inch since we planted them.  And their color is not good.  They should have been fertilized when we planted them, or soon after, but weather issues got in the way.  In the garden shed, there was a box of (damp) Miracle Grow, the kind you apply with a garden hose, but the soil hasn't needed more water, and I haven't had any pellet fertilizer on hand.  

The purple hull peas had sprouted sporadically.  As I stood there pondering whether to plow them up and start over or re-plant the skips, I heard Nanny's back door slam shut.  

Busted.  Might as well go ahead and water the peppers before I walk back home.

This activity gave Nanny opportunity to run through her list of complaints, most of which I cannot do anything about.  One of her new worries is her FEMA application.  The tornado that came near us on March 31 tore some shingles off the front of Nanny's house, and completely took off the roof covering on her back porch.  Her homeowner's insurance barely covered half the cost of the repairs (which still haven't been done).  FEMA set up a local office to help people file applications for disaster assistance, and Nanny filed an application in person.  She has not had a minute's peace ever since, worrying about the application and how she's going to pay for a new roof if she is not approved.  FEMA has been responsive, but - you know, government things take time, and Nanny's damage pales in comparison to the homes and businesses that were completely destroyed.

I made the mistake of offering to call the number on the FEMA papers to make sure Nanny's application was complete and ask about its status.  When we finally got to a live person, the phone connection was bad, plus he did not speak Southern.  He wanted to speak to Nanny, herself, so we put him on speaker phone, which made matters worse.  She wanted to explain everything that happened since the time she was born, and we had a hard time keeping the conversation on track.  We finally learned that the application was complete and was being "processed," and we also learned that we could go online and see the status any time.  

My second mistake was offering to help Nanny find the application online.  Nightmare, but we finally got it done.

By this time, it was 2 p.m.  I had decided to go on the hunt for some fertilizer for the tomatoes and ended up finding a shaker bottle of slow-release pellets at the local dollar store.   When I got home with them, I gathered up my gardening paraphernalia and went back to the garden, where I loosened the rain-packed soil around the tomatoes, applied the fertilizer, chopped a little grass with a hoe that needs sharpening.  Meanwhile, I'd decided to start over with the purple hull peas, and so I dragged out the big tiller and made a couple of passes on one row.  You might remember that the last time I used the tiller, the tire fell off, and I "engineered" a solution.  Well, my engineering wasn't working so well.  The good tire turned like it was supposed to; the bad tire turned when it felt like it, which was not nearly all of the time, and when it did turn, it was kind of wonky.  The machine was a beast to control.

I put the tiller back in the shed and planted the peppers (with fertilizer) in the row I'd just tilled.  It was now 4 p.m.  Clearly, there needed to be some work done to the garden equipment before gardening could proceed.  I began to plan The Husband's evening for him as I walked back home, faint with hunger (I'd never gotten around to eating).

Thankfully, I'd put a pork butt in the crockpot early in the morning, and it was fork tender and soaking in spicy south-of-the-border sauce - street tacos coming up!  I made some slaw, and as soon as The Husband came through the door, before he could even go pee, I sprung the agenda on him.  Happily, he agreed to the plan after I promised I would not ask questions or make suggestions and would try to keep Nanny occupied while he tackled his chores.  We ate our tacos, packed up some leftovers for Nanny, and went back to the garden.  

I've been paving the tomato row with disassembled cardboard boxes to help keep down the weeds.  (It is not totally effective, but it helps.)  While The Husband set about working on the tiller tire, I went to the garden and started taking apart two more boxes I'd brought from home.  This inspired Nanny to gather up boxes from the big shed, where The Husband was trying to find something to fix the tiller tire.  He stopped his search to help her bag up debris from the boxes, but once we got her boxes to the garden, I kept her busy opening them up while The Husband put a bolt through the tiller axle.  

[I think we've tried that bolt solution in the past, and the nut will come off eventually.  I should stop now and order the correct part.  See ya.]

Sh*t Storm - May 22, 2023

If you just ate, or intend to eat soon, either close this post now or scroll down past the * * * * * * * * *, for this is disgusting.

I finally called my doctor last week and asked him to phone in a prescription for bronchitis.  We do this every spring, so he knows the ropes and prescribes a round of penicillin.  I started taking it Thursday and was feeling a letter better by Saturday.  Yesterday, "the antibiotic poops" started. 

I had just showered and dressed, intending to go to the office for a little while before picking up my grocery order, when this morning's second sprint for the bathroom occurred.  (I made it to the hallway bathroom in time.)  After the flush, as I was washing my hands at the sink, the commode belched, and brown poop water came pouring over the rim of the bowl.  The neighbors across the road probably heard me yelling, 'Oh NO!  OH NO!  OH NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Normally, there would have been a plunger beside the toilet, but because we'd had cookout guests last weekend, I had hidden it and the scrub brush in a closet in another bathroom.  As I raced for the other bathroom, brown water continued to pour onto the floor.  When I got back with the plunger, I waded in and shut off the water valve (should've thought of that sooner, eh?).  When the flooding finally stopped, I went to work with the plunger, sending more water pouring over the bowl.

This plunger works kind of like a bicycle pump, forcing air into the pipes.  It will usually unclog a clog with the first couple of pumps. 

Not today.  

After 5 or 6 pumps, brown poop water began to spew out the top of the plunger cylinder, right into my face.  The next few pumps soaked the front of my shirt.  And, of course, my feet were already soaked. But still the bowl did not empty.  

Plan B:  Open the access drain outside the house.  This drain is in a flower bed beside the front porch.  Its PVC cap was half-buried in mulch.  I dug the mulch away and tried to open the plug, but it would not turn.  Had to find a pipe wrench to open it.  And, of course, my feet got soaked again when the brown poop water came pouring out.  (My sandals are now out in the yard, awaiting disinfection.)  

Once the clog was out (ewwww), I had to deal with the poop water in the bathroom floor.  Fortunately, our mop does not require hand wringing.  I sopped up most of the flood with the mop and a bath towel from the laundry hamper, then I mopped the floor with disinfectant.  The towel and the mop head went straight into the washing machine (with bleach).  I went straight to the shower.  Again.

While showering, it occurred to me that I had tracked poop water all over the house while going for the plunger, the mop, and the wrench.  I'll have to mop the entire house after I get back from picking up the groceries.  And I'll have to do something about the sandals.  :-\

* * * * * * * * 

The instructions at the top of this post were for your own good.  

Graduation Week - May 20, 2023

Well, it's a done deal; Granddaughter #1 has officially graduated from high school.

It's been a busy week.

Monday night was awards night.  Having attended many such events over the years, I got there an hour early, hoping to get a seat on the low bleachers.  By the time the ceremony was over, I'd been there for almost three hours, and my behind was seriously tired of sitting.  

#1's award was for academic achievement.  She did not make the Top Ten list, but we are nonetheless proud of her.  In the past 5 years, there have been some upheavals in her life that were beyond her control.  She has attended three different schools, two of them all the way across the state.  Yet, she has studied hard, participated in school activities, and cared for her younger siblings.  She is kind, and thoughtful, and lovely.  I could not be prouder of her.  

When she goes off to college, it's going to wreck us all. 

Tuesday night was baccalaureate night.  Instead of going to the ceremony, The Husband and I babysat the Little Rotten Baby and Granddaughter #3.  After a delicious dinner of frozen pizza and M&Ms, there was ukulele music - "The Wheels on the Bus" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" - in which the LRB enthusiastically participated and called for encore after encore.

Thursday night, we attended Granddaughter #2's band concert.  

Last night was the big night:  graduation.  The ceremony was at 7.  We arrived a little after 5:30, hoping to get a seat.  The football stadium was PACKED.  We were afraid that it would rain, but the rain held off until later in the night.  It was a perfect evening.

Today, there's a graduation party at 2 p.m.  

Whew.

* * * * * * * * 

It has rained and rained this week (it's raining right now).  I fear that our garden is drowning.  

Garden Check - May 15, 2023

Late Saturday afternoon, I went to the garden intending to plant the 18 pepper plants that had been living on the front porch for a week.  The soil was too wet, so they're back on the porch for a few more days.

All but four of the tomatoes are hanging in there, though they're looking a little yellow from all the rain.  There are still a few tomato plants on the patio table, but I may not use them to replace the dead ones in the garden, since I planted too many, anyway.

The great northern beans are showing out.  They'll need thinning when the soil dries up enough to walk on.

Cucumbers and squash are going strong. 

Purple hull peas and okra are being lazy, sprouting sporadically.  I worry that the garden critter(s) may have dug up and eaten some of the pea seeds as soon as they were planted.  If more plants don't sprout this week, I'll re-plant.

The low spot in the garden is thick with what Nanny calls "water grass" (I don't know what it is), and I can't get in there to do anything about it until the ground dries.  

* * * * * * * * 

We had a good Mothers Day weekend.  

My original plan was to cook a full-blown Sunday dinner for Nanny and the daughters-in-law, but I was sick with a cold all last week (and am still hacking and snotting) and did not feel up to it.  Plan B was to buy barbeque and fixin's from a local BBQ joint.  The Husband said he would rather grill hamburgers and hot dogs.  Saturday we went to the grocery store for supplies, and Sunday at 5 we served up the food.  Son #2 and Granddaughter #1 had to work, and The Grandson couldn't make it, but the rest of the family was here.  We had a good time.  I did manage to make a cake for dessert - a butter pecan praline cake.  It was scrumptious - so scrumptious, in fact, that I made The Husband take the leftovers to work this morning.  

There's a pop-up garden center on the corner near the grocery store.  Earlier in the week, I'd told The Husband, "If the kids ask what to get me for Mothers Day, tell them I want two shasta daisies - one from each son."  (They must not have asked, for one day last week, Son #2 dropped by the house with a wonderful rose bush, and Son #1 showed up yesterday with a cute metal garden ornament.)  When we left the grocery store, The Husband said, "Do you still want two shasta daisies?"  I said I might take just one, so we went over to the garden center.  While browsing, I spied a "Blushing Bride" hydrangea and ended up bringing it home for the hydrangea "island" I am trying to create.  The Husband was kind enough to dig the hole for me.

I still haven't planted the rose bush.  Every day, I look around the yard for the best spot.  The best spot is currently full of daylilies.  This will require some snake boots and a lot of digging.

Rain - May 12, 2023

Yesterday morning's garden check had a few surprises.

The tomatoes did not get beaten down from Wednesday's rain and hail (but yesterday's rain and this morning's rain might have changed that).  I went to the garden with a pocket full of pantyhose strips to use to tie them to their metal fence post supports, but they are not quite close enough or big enough to be tied to the posts.   

Purple hull peas are starting to come up, as are the okra, squash, and cucumbers.  I don't know what got into Nanny when we planted the cucumbers (I made the "hills," she dropped the seeds).   She planted WAY MORE than our usual 5-6 seeds per hill.  Maybe it was because I'd told her the seeds were old and might not be viable.  

But those great northern beans that I planted from a bag of grocery store dried beans?  Mercy!  I was liberal with the sowing, and it looks like every bean has sprouted, thick as cat hair!  I'll have to do some thinning once the soil dries up enough to walk on.

It appears that the wood chips and shredded leaves that we worked into the garden soil in the low spots might have helped the drainage situation.  There was no big puddle standing anywhere in the garden, though the soil was mighty wet.  

Rain and Birds - May 11, 2023

This cold/sinus problem will not turn loose of me.  I am considering a trip to the liquor store, thinking if I get my blood alcohol level up enough, it might kill the virus.  ;)  

Just kidding.  Do not try this at home.

We got a bodacious rain with hail yesterday.  It probably beat the tomato plants over.  The weatherman says we'll get more this afternoon.  I should go tie the plants to their stakes, both to raise them up to wash them in the coming rain, and to keep them from being beaten plumb into the ground.  Might do that when I'm done here.

Yesterday I read that there is a bird migration in progress.  It's true!  Living on the porch as I do, I know the "usual" bird crowd.  For the past couple of days, I've heard new calls.  This morning, there are brown cowbirds (I think) in the back yard.  They are HUGE.  

I wonder where they're going.

Violet Seeds Started - May 9, 2023

I planted the violet seeds this morning.

Here's the pod, laying on an index card.  Had to hold it with tweezers while I sliced it open with an exacto knife.  See the tiny specs around it?  Those are seeds.

I dug the seeds out with the point of the knife.  Here they are:

I planted them in a recycled deli container full of moistened seed starter mix.  The soil wanted to float on top of the water, even though I stirred it with a spoon.

I held the index card over the soil and tapped it, trying to evenly distribute the seeds over the soil.  Since the soil seemed to be floating instead of soaking up the water, I misted the seeds with a spray bottle.  After that, I covered the container with press-n-seal wrap and set it under the grow lamp.

I do not know which violet pollenated the "mother" plant.  The mother plant blooms are variegated raspberry/white.  The other two violets on the windowsill are solid pink and purple/white.  Since I was just experimenting, I touched both of the other two plants and then touched the mother plant, so I don't know which of the other two is the parent.  

When Granddaughter #3 was here a couple of weekends ago, we used a tiny paint brush to pollenate the pink violet with pollen from the purple/white violet.  See that little green dot under the stamens?  I think it worked!  #3 will be so excited!

Ugh. - May 9, 2029

Ugh.

I feel like sh*t.  Sinus pressure, sore throat, no fever.  Can't sleep for sneezing, coughing, snotting.  Did a covid test this morning; it was negative. I guess it's "just" a cold.  Ugh.

About lunchtime yesterday, I perked up a little and decided to have a walk around the yard to check on the things I planted this weekend.  The zinnia seeds are starting to sprout.  Hopefully, this year's zinnias will make a better showing than they have done in the past, since the tree removal has made the spot sunnier.

In the same bed with the zinnias, I had planted four snapdragon plants that I bought at Saturday's garden expo.  Two of the four plants had been dug up and were laying on the ground beside the hole.  My mind went back to a year or two ago, when something (probably the armadillo) kept digging up a newly-planted rose bush.  I finally stymied it by setting mouse traps around the bush, so I tried the trick again.  

The critter was in the flower bed last night, but not long enough to get to the snapdragons.  

Today, I am going to plant some african violet seeds from a plant on my windowsill.  I pollenated the parent plant with my finger earlier this year.  A pod formed and dried up on the stem.  I was afraid to leave the pod on the plant any longer for fear that it would pop open and scatter the seeds, so Sunday I cut the pod off and put it in a cup.  I have seed-starting soil and a grow light.  Let's do this and see what happens.

Proclamation: Winter is Over - May 8, 2023

My tailfeathers are dragging this morning.  

For a person who seldom goes anywhere except the grocery store and the Dollar General, last week was extraordinarily busy.  Work, grandchildren events, yard work, gardening.  I even left the property Saturday morning to meet my sister at a gardening expo.  Yesterday morning, I woke up with a stuffy head and a sore throat.  I'd been attributing the stuffy head to allergies and all the dust I breathed last week while mowing and tilling, but it could be that I picked up a bug at one of the events I attended.  In any case, I'm moving kind of slow this morning.

The gardening expo was a good outing.  There were vendors and hourly lectures on various topics.  My sister and I went to a talk on landscape design, and another on backyard chickens.  

The chicken house I bought - what, two years ago? - is still in its unopened box under a love seat on the back porch.  Now and then, I'll look at it and think, I should put that together.  But then, I think, Nah...it will take days, and it might rain...too hot...too many critters.  I guess I'm waiting on a firm decision about getting chickens.  

I don't really want chickens.  I want their eggs and their poop (for compost), but I don't want the chickens, themselves, or the work that comes with them, or the guilt from exposing them to near-certain death at the hands (claws?) of the other critters domiciled on this property.  (Did I ever tell you about the unfortunate Easter ducks?)

But it wouldn't be so bad to have a chicken house, decorated all cute.  

With a "Vacancy" sign over the door.

The expo landscape design talk was very basic - practical stuff, like figuring out your "style" before you start digging.  The slides that went with the presentation were absolute eye candy.  Among the pictures was a picket fence painted with giant echinacea flowers.  I don't have a picket fence, but I have a compost bin that needs to be hidden, so I came home and painted one of the 48" x 52" plywood shipping panels that came with our flooring.

The original was far cuter.

At first, I intended to mount this on hinges as a door for the 3-sided compost bin I built.  But you know what would happen, don't you?  The hinges will give way.  The panel will warp and peel.  Besides, the compost bin needs air.  So now I have this big panel that I don't know what to do with.

I might just nail it to the side of the gardening shed at Nanny's, if she will let me.

Granddaughter Proud - May 5, 2023

Granddaughters 1 and 2 did us proud again this week.  #1 had her final high school band concert last night.  She was recognized for her good grades and for her band achievements.  #2 was inducted into the Junior National Honor Society this morning.  They are both beautiful.  And kind.  

* * * * * * * * * 

After the induction ceremony, I went to a greenhouse for peppers and found some that weren't outrageously hot - bell, cayenne, and jalapeno.  Normally, I don't put cayenne in my pepper jelly, but I might this year.

I also got a bag of high-nitrogen fertilizer and sprinkled a little bit of it - maybe a cup full, maybe two - over the compost pile.  My sister says nitrogen will heat the compost and speed decomposition.  I turned the pile a little bit to shake the fertilizer down through the leaves, and it's wet from last night's rain.  Maybe it'll get to cooking.

The rain we got was a gentle one, just the kind to plump up the seeds.  It's supposed to be warm this weekend.  I'm looking forward to a record-breaking seed-sprouting week.

That is, if my seeds weren't too old.

Squash, cucumbers, okra, great northern beans, and peas - May 4, 2023

Mercy, I'm tired.

I was outside working in a flower bed by 9 a.m. today.  Planted some zinnia seeds.  Pulled some grass.  Mid-morning, I went to a greenhouse for pepper plants.  All they had were those terribly hot ones, like habanero and ghost peppers.  I wanted jalapenos, pimentos, and bell peppers.  Nanny asked for a cherry tomato, and I found one of those.  Also found a pretty pink hydrangea and a healthy-looking daisy.  Those pepper plants that I did not find wound up costing fifty-something dollars!

As soon as I got back from the greenhouse, I dug the vegetable seed sack out of the freezer and went to the garden.  Even though the garden has been tilled twice in the past couple of weeks, it didn't seem deep enough, so I dragged the big black tiller out of the shed.  It cranked on the third pull.  I got four of the planned six rows tilled for purple hull peas when the right-side tire fell off the tiller.  Just fell off.  There's a bolt that goes through the shaft and is secured with a cotter pin, and it was gone.  Nanny and I searched and searched, but never found them.  I even dug out our metal detector, but didn't get any hits.  Now that I think about it, that tire may have come off last year, and we just stuck it on long enough to get the tiller back to the shop and forgot about it.  

In any case, I had not only the rest of the pea rows to till, but I also wanted to run it over the cucumber and squash rows so that I could make hills out of soft dirt.  So I went to the hardware store and came home with a pocket full of different-sized bolts and cotter pins.  The smallest bolt would go through the holes on the tire, but it would not go through the hold in the shaft.  I stuck the tire on, anyway, dropped a cotter pin through the hole in the shaft, and was able to do the rest of today's tilling.  I planted okra for as long as the seeds held out - probaby enough for the season if they all sprout.  Nanny came out and planted squash and cucumbers as I raked up the hills.  We probably planted way too much of those.  

There is no telling how old these seeds are.  There were half-packs of everything.  Two or three half-packs of some things.  The squash row has both crookneck and straight-neck seeds.  I ran out of purple hull peas after 4 rows.  Maybe it was fate.  For years, the deal has been that I will grow and pick the peas if Nanny will shell and preserve them.  Today, after the 4 rows were planted, Nanny said, "I've still got peas in the freezer from last year."  I think it was her way of telling me that the planting/growing/shelling arrangement is suspended for this year. 

There is room left in the garden - two or three long rows.  It's about to get too hot for some things.  I love beans, especially great northern beans.  There's a jar of dried northern beans in my pantry that I've been planning to cook.  Maybe I'll plant them, instead.  ;)

P.S. - I got off this computer and went and planted two half-rows of great northern beans.  Now, come on, rain!

Tomatoes Planted - May 3, 2023

Man, it's been noisy around here today.  

The tree cutters came.  Chainsaws.  Bobcats.  Beep-beep-beep backup noises all day long.  

See that red dot wayyyyy up in that tree?  It's a dude.  They put him up there with a crane.  He's fairly new on the job and seemed kinda nervous.  Can't say I blame him.  It was windy, and I bet the top of that tree was swaying.  And he's up there with a chainsaw.  I seriously respect this dude.

* * * * * * * 

I am so sick of dealing with neighborhood critters.  Groundhogs.  Armadillos.  Ants.  (Even imaginary ants, but that's another story.)

I am determined to catch this stinking groundhog.  He is mining our gulley.  I'd love to plug up one end of his tunnel and do something vile in the other end, some Wile E. Coyote trick that will bring him, gagging and choking, out of his hole, where he would collapse with his tongue hanging out.  

Instead, I've gone back to trapping.  As nice as today was, he probably would have been out and about if it hadn't been so noisy.  When the cutters left and things quieted down, I put a salad in his trap, thinking he might come out to see what all the noise had been about.

As to ants, I raised our bathroom window this afternoon to let in some light and fresh air, and there was an ANT NEST in the groove between the window and the screen.  The ants grabbed their larvae and ran for it, and I went hysterical trying to find something to spray them with before they could get away.  The nearest spray bottle had Comet bathtub cleaner in it.  I grabbed it and let 'em have it.  It straight up did the job.  But then I had to sop up the Comet and the ants and the larvae.  It was disgusting.  I did not want to put the paper towel in the garbage, so I took it outside and set fire to it.  Then I vacuumed the window and dumped the bin in case a survivor was in it.

After the cutters left, I talked The Husband into doing some tractoring in the vegetable garden.  We tilled the soil two weekends ago and hadn't done another thing since.  Haven't made up any rows or even made a plan to make up rows.  The ground has been too wet to work until a day or two ago, and it's supposed to rain again tomorrow.  The tomato seedlings are looking pitiful and need to be in the ground.  So we took them to the garden this evening.  The original agreement was just to drive tomato stakes in the ground, and I'd plant the tomatoes tomorrow morning.  Since the tiller was still on the tractor, it was not hard to convince The Husband to make one more pass over the garden.  Then we drove the stakes in with the tractor bucket.  Before we left the garden, we planted 38 tomato seedlings.  There are more still on the patio table.  

(I distinctly remember telling The Husband, "Don't let me plant this many tomato plants next year."  And look what happened.)

Nanny is having problems with fire ants in her yard.  I mowed her yard yesterday and ran over about 10 hills.  Talk about creepy.  Horror movie stuff.  We have been dosing the hills with fire ant killer, and it seems to kill the nest.  But they may just be moving. 

They'd best not move to the vegetable garden.

Birthday Cookout - May 1, 2023

We had a family cookout yesterday afternoon, a late birthday party for The Husband.  Hamburgers, hot dogs, birthday cake.  All of our children and grandchildren (except for The Grandson) were here.  Son #1 brought his guitar, and we serenaded the neighbors.  It was a good finish to an otherwise moderately crappy weekend.

Saturday morning, we went to a graveside funeral service for The Husband's aunt, Nanny's last surviving sibling.  It was cold and windy, and a light drizzle started to fall just as the service concluded.  The aunt's children, who have acted like shits toward one another all their lives, are scrapping with one another over their mother's possessions.  I was glad for the drizzle, for it gave us an escape from post-funeral "he said/she said" chatter.  

We came home from the funeral, changed clothes, and went to Home Depot to return 5 boxes of flooring left over from our flooring project.  I had called Home Depot earlier in the week to see if we could return it.  We had bought the flooring in pallets, not in individual boxes, and I was concerned that they might not take back the leftovers.  But the store said sure, just bring the invoice.  And we did.  Unloaded the heavy boxes in the rain and hauled them in the store.  And they wouldn't take it back.  I was so mad.

By the time we came home again, it was mid-afternoon.  I puttered around, doing a few pre-cookout chores, then settled down on the porch to read for a while.  About 6:30, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up just in time to see a furry tail disappear behind the compost bin.  In a minute, a big, fat groundhog came out and began nosing around in the back yard.

I eased out of my chair and sneaked into the house, where The Husband was playing his ukulele along with a youtube video.  I said, "THE GROUNDHOG IS IN THE BACK YARD.  WIDE OPEN!"  He put the ukulele down and went to get the rifle.  I said, "Go around the front and sneak up on him from the side of the house," and I went to watch from the living room window as The Husband slipped out the front door.  

The groundhog heard him coming and ran toward the woods, but he stopped before he got there.  When I  did not hear a shot, I went out to the porch.  The Husband was sneaking around the side yard, looking in the wrong direction.  As I was waving, trying to get Elmer Fudd's attention, the groundhog slipped into the brush at the edge of the gulley and disappeared.  We did not see him again.

I said, "We ought to bait the trap."  The Husband sliced an apple and set the trap, and went back to his ukulele.  

Sunday morning, when I went out to the porch with my coffee and my book, I peered through the screen and saw that there was something in the trap.  

A 'possum.  Dang.  We should've sprung the trap before dark.

When The Husband got up, he opened the cage.  The 'possum hissed, but wouldn't come out.  The Husband had to DUMP the possum out of the cage, but it just froze and wouldn't run off until The Husband poked it with a stick.

I have baited the trap again.  If I don't catch anything today, remind me to spring it before night, because The Husband won't want to deal with a possum first thing tomorrow morning.  :)