Heat index has come down to 96° at 5:30. I’ve been out all afternoon working on siting the metal raised beds & finally couldn’t take it any more, came in at 4:30 to put dinner together. I’ll probably go back out after dinner. The ‘shipwreck casserole’ should be ready around 7:30. Meanwhile, I’m about half way through my 2nd quart of LMNT electrolytes.
Before I got too grubby this morning, I had to buy some weed barrier/landscape fabric. Previously, I got a roll at Walmart, but they were out. Since Tractor Supply is on the same side of the highway, I checked there. They had a 4x100 & a 4x200 foot roll - both were $49.95. The 100 ft. roll was ‘professional’ grade, 30 years while the 200 ft. roll was 25 years. It didn’t much matter because I had no intention of spending $50 on landscape fabric!
I crossed the road to the Farm Bureau. They had a 4x100 ft. roll, standard, 15 years, on sale for $24.95 (reduced from $34.95). My lucky day!
I have 1 bundle of shingles left & that should be enough for this project. If I can get the landscape fabric & shingles down tonight, I can finish up the landscape timbers tomorrow. Then it’s DIRT time - woo hoo!
Tree update. The 3 rotted and decayed trees (pignut hickory, tulip poplar, and a hackberry) have come down!! We have been working with our tree guy since April when we had a tornado blow through our area. These trees were 100 ft or taller, all very mature.
The hickory was the worst. When it rained, we could see water run through it, from the raccoon nest hole, to 15 feet above ground. When each piece came down, we checked for how rotted each piece was. Over 30 feet of it was totally rotten, and you could see through it from one end to the other. Empty, like a tunnel, but inside the tree. No wonder I worried about it falling on our neighbor’s house.
Both of the other trees were rotted, but not as bad as the hickory.
Three humongous big rigs became broken during this project. We had several of hours of work done in May with a crane that extended 127’ into the sky. The tulip poplar was on a slope about 15’ below the ground level. On that truck, one of the cables broke. So it went into the repair shop for 3 months.
The next breakdown happened on Thursday last week, with our tree guy partnering with his daughter’s friend. I thought that broke a hydraulic line, but I was wrong. It broke the extended crane part too. That rig will be out until October.
Then yesterday morning, the crew arrived with a bucket truck to tackle the last parts of the 3 trees. After pulling up to start the work, the controller part was jammed. So they had to go back to the shop and change that out. Amazingly, they got it fixed in 4 hours. Work resumed at 1. It was very hot and sunny. I offered to make fresh fruit smoothies for the crew around 4, and they were so grateful. Then around 5, a sudden rainstorm blew in. It make everything a mucky muddy mess. Around 6, it slowed down enough to resume the work. The men knew they were nearing the end of the job, so they stuck with it. Around 7 or so, we saw the men cleaning up. Hurray!
Thank goodness we got these three trees down, and no one but the rigs were injured in the process. I feel like a huge relief has been lifted.
The grass will need to be reseeded. We plan to do that in the fall. Now that the trees are down, the sun exposure to so many plants below them will change. I need to put my light meters back out to get a sense of how much sun those spots will get.
Now that the trees are removed, I’m going to have to come up with new ideas about how to redo the spaces in those areas. One was a meditation garden, and it was very shady and pleasant. I’ll have to figure that space out first, I think. It’s the most visible spot from the street.
Rutger's tomatoes - not impressed. Decent flavor but skin is tough. Meaty enough for processing and I didn't realize that was it's main use in the mid 20th century - Created for the New Jersey canning industry, especially for use by major brands like Campbell’s, Hunt’s, and Heinz
Got a dozen shishito off my one plant this morning. Got the same a couple of weeks ago. I'm thinking 4 plants is about right for a steady supply. Store only had one and I noticed too late that I had seeds.
Pulled a celery plant a week ago that was crowding the shishito, cut the stalks off and tossed the root ball. Just noticed it's re-sprouting so I guess it's going back in the garden. I need some blue cheese dressing.
Squash is flowering like crazy. Finally got some very tiny habanero peppers forming.
Back out to the heat for a bit.