There’s a LOT going on in the skies these days! We have some rain this morning, then clearing; should be a clear night for meteor watching, and this time of year I can see the (other side of) the Milky Way from my front porch.
Hard to believe that I LIVE inside something that awe-inspiring! :)
Peaches are done. I made one fresh pie, then put up 6 quarts to use in pies, rumbles and some jam later this season.
This morning I picked a mess of green beans, so I’m going to get some Dilly Beans put up, too.
Wow, what a fabulous morning – 58 degrees, low humidity …. coffee never tasted so good!! Our BRUTAL heat wave ended Wednesday with some big storms & the cooler, ‘no muggies’ air has been filtering in the last two days. I am hoping tonight is going to be cool enough for a fire at the fire pit – haven’t had one since last year.
The garden has been languishing in the high heat. The two things doing well are the Celebrity & Sungold tomatoes. My folks have plenty for their salads & the fire station, plus the two neighbors we talk to, have each gotten multiple quart bags of Sungolds & 4-8 beautiful Celebrities. The neighbors also got a couple of Diva cukes. I sprayed the garden walkways Tuesday when it was very hot/sunny (wire grass – you can’t pull it up, a sprig of poison ivy, too). The poison ivy looked like I’d given it a shot of fertilizer when I sprayed it (cheeky!), but after 3 days, it bit the dust – the rest of the wire grass/weeds were ‘done’ by the end of spray day, due to the heat/sun. I used a very large piece of cardboard to protect the beds from wind drift as a slight breeze was kicking up now & then.
The first crop of zinnias are over my head tall – just gorgeous. Mom picked some to make small flower arrangements to go with the tomatoes she was giving away. I bought four more fence posts (of a certain type) yesterday to put around my 2nd bed of zinnias which are about knee-high & have started to bloom. The zinnias last year got so tall, they fell over & out of the raised bed. To prevent that, I put a metal post at each corner and ran two or threee strands of twine around the bed to hold them in – working like a charm. The 2nd bed is getting tall enough for a twine fence. My giant sunflowers I planted the end of June are at least head high. There were two volunteer sunflowers in that bed – the 2nd one is blooming. The 1st one has some small flowers – a squirrel climbed to the high branches and broke them down to get at the seed heads so I’m glad to see it blooming again lower down. My volunteer tithonia is doing great – really growing since I discovered it & cleared the weeds away.
New ear protection ‘muffs’ as of yesterday for mowing. The plastic covering the foam on the ear muff part on the old ones had gotten brittle, cracked, then ripped – not comfortable. I usually leave them hanging on the mower, but I’ll bring the new ones inside so they’re not as affected by heat/cold – maybe they’ll last longer. We had another ¾ inch of rain when the storms that broke the heat wave blew through so everything (all the fields/yard – 10 acres) need mowing again and I’ll be working on that this week.
Dog/chicken sitting this week, too. My SIL got a 5-gallon bucket & bought these little “cups” - you drill holes in the bucket & insert the cups, fill the bucket – water runs into the cups for the chickens …. it’s a really cool setup. New to the ‘chicken palace’ weekend before last is an automatic coop door – works on solar or a timer. It’s on timer mode because the palace is in a very shaded area & the door would open late, close early. With the timer, they can have it open/close based on sunrise/sunset times. There was a large fox around the house yard & palace pen night before last – got chased off by the Collie. This is a bold fox that will kill chickens in daylight – hope I don’t lose any this week. There is a great shaded porch next door with a swing, hummer feeders, etc. The Collie likes hanging out on the porch if the weather is cool enough (she has a beautiful coat, but it’s heavy & hot) so I’ll be spending some quality porch time with her this week – glass of wine, swing, hummers, sweet dog & podcasts I enjoy ….. should make for some quality ‘me’ time. :-)
Alas, it seems we are already having late September in early August. Usually dry August is wet and cool. Just to the north in SW Virginia and Eastern Kentucky creek hollers they have been literally washed away
Everything is still growing but only the squash is actually producing much. Pole beans are lush but no beans. Cucumber plants are barely producing and are half as high up the trellis as normal
Even the grass is not growing. A wild flower called New York Iron weed would usually be on the order of 4 feet or so high and showing hints of the purple flowers to come. The plants are barely one foot high with no evidence of a bloom. The Joe Pye weed is blooming but also stunted.
We hear of farmers with failed yields........ that is here and now in my wife’s small garden