Can’t wait to share pictures with you guys of all the stuff Mom and I got accomplished this week.
The woman is a MACHINE at age 86! :)
Well, it’s for sure, now: The Roma tomato plants I bought this year were mislabeled and are “something else”. I guess we’ll see how the fruits fill out and mature, but so far the fruit shape looks like Celebrity tomatoes. That’s ok if they are (Celebs), as the Heatwave II’s are going to town*, and HW II’s have a similar bland / low acid taste like Romas; good for those uses. The Better Boys are doing “ok” (varies) and the two Best boys are doing well too: The “Best” Best Boy is over 7’ tall now, with several fruits half-way grown. I thought the seed pack said “determinate’ — at 7+’ tall and still growing fast??? I’m going to have to rig extra support for it!
*Even the HW II that was dying and I chopped off the lower stem and roots and part of the top, then just rooted the remaining stem & foliage, is doing well: It’s about 3’ tall and flowering a bit.
I have a big(!) ol’ volunteer pumpkin plant going too: It’s been flowering for a while but I don’t see any fruits started. Will a single pumpkin plant pollinate itself? If yes, maybe I need to find out how to ID male vs. female pumpkin flowers and help it out? If this thing can’t pollinate itself even with a little help, I should just dig it out, as it has to be sucking up a ton of water and nutrients... Even if fruits start now, how big will they get? Zone 7A.
I turn into a sloth when it’s over 86. Almost made it to the door last weekend in mid 90s but then it was time to come in so I turned around.
With a 105-110 heat index going on, Monday I ‘spot’ mowed grass (weeds) at the new place from 8:30 - 10 when the ‘excessive heat warning’ went into effect ... got enough done that the place looks pretty good.
I had planned to come home Tuesday anyway ... got a call at 5 in the morning that my 90 yo mom was going to the ER via ambulance. I threw stuff in the truck, slapped a lock on the trailer so I could leave it, & headed for the ER - made it in about 2 hours. It turns out she had an ‘intussusception’ ... part of her small intestine had telescoped into an adjacent part. Very rare ...1% & serious because blood flow can get cut off to part of the intestine. She was admitted & another CT scan scheduled the next morning - the hospitalist said “most” resolve themselves, otherwise there would be surgery. Well, it resolved itself - 2nd CT scan was clear ... whew. I brought her home Wednesday late afternoon.
Tomorrow (Saturday) is supposed to be rainy here - we had a very nice shower yesterday. I hope we get a nice steady rain all day, but I suspect it will be hit and miss. The new house is not getting rain - there are news stories about how trees in the area are becoming so stressed, they are dying ... we lost one large pine already & 4 or 5 out of about 12 Leyland Cypress trees, planted as a screen, are dying. I will likely have to cut them down this fall.
It’s just been too hot to work on the heavy duty outdoor projects (rocks, digging post holes). I hope the heat wave breaks for longer than a couple of days by the end of the month (which is rapidly approaching).
Since I don’t have WiFi hooked up at the new house, I download podcasts on my phone & then I have something to listen to without burning up ‘data’ on my phone. A podcast with 3 episodes I really enjoyed was RFK Jr’s podcast ... the episodes were on regenerative farming, using less chemicals, etc. RFK Jr is really good on this subject (not so much on others) - Biden & Trump don’t ever mention it. You can go to Apple, Spotify, or wherever the podcast plays ... I will give the link to Spotify & name the episodes so you can look for them ... I highly recommend them ... my favorite was the Amish farmer, Joel Salatin was next & the 3rd farmer, Rick Clark, was good as well:
https://open.spotify.com/show/30DqNXrHLKzz4xzmoty6xf
Small Farms Healthy Food with Joel Salatin
Hope From Farmers with John Kempf (Amish)
From Chemicals to Regeneration with Rick Clark