[Diana in Wisconsin]

[AFB-XYZ]

Now that the corn-borers have left, died out or been eaten by predators after destroying my sweet corn plants, the assorted-color bell peppers seem to have gotten a new lease on life. No more holes eaten in them, and I harvested a tiny, bright-red one last week. Found 2 more (also bright red and tiny) this morning,

Also, my Early Girl tomato plant, which hadn’t done squat throughout the spring and summer, suddenly has many clusters of blossoms on it. The lower leaves are crispy and dead, but new leaves are beginning to come in. Might have a fall crop after all.

This whole year has been flat-out weird.

[left that other site]

Good Morning! 🏍

[daniel1212]

Thx. 4 the ping. Busy summer, thank God (forgive any grumbling) and have no paid much attention to the garden, but thank God for overall healthier plants than in resent years. Timely rain helped, though less sun deterred ripening. Pick about a dozen so far.

And from a neighbors yard, planted by permission:

https://i.postimg.cc/90zF6xHJ/Butternut-08-16-2025-PTL.jpg

Meanwhile, this is what has been the main summer physical activity, A ministry, literally by the grace of God - not a business.However, I am not sure how much longer I will be able to do it (lots of stair steps, etc.)

Glory to the God of mercy and grace (and correction) for what is good, despite my protests over what is sometimes required in service.

[Augie]

This past week in the Middle of Misery was mostly hot and dry. There were a few pop-up showers around the area all weekend but all the rain we got here wasn't enough to even knock the dust down.

I had a productive weekend in spite of the heat. I'm almost completely caught up with the weeding. Picked another half dozen spaghetti squash. Picked tomatoes, set a few slicers aside, chopped up the rest and chucked them in the fridge. I still need to chop up a few jalapenos/onions/cilantro then I'll turn the whole mess into salsa later today after the salt mine obligations have been completed.

Mrs. Augie has, so far, made 23 quarts of fermented dill pickles. I'm not sure how many she thinks we need but we've got to be getting close. lol

Tree guy made it out and gave me the price for the work that needs to be done. I'm not looking forward to cleaning up the mess that will be left behind, but not paying for haul-off knocks about $1500 off the cost of the job. I can stand a little suffering in exchange for $1500.

We had spaghetti squash for supper last night. It was spectacular with my home-made marinara sauce slathered on top. Washed it down with a fresh tomato/cucumber salad.

Mrs. Augie's sunchoke patch. We're not exactly sure where these came from. She can't remember if she bought them at the nursery or if the birds brought them. I'm going to dig a few after the tops die back this fall and see if they made any roots that are big enough to eat. I've never tried them but the google machine says they're tasty so we'll see.