stubbed toes and mud pies

[digitS']

I'm watching the Flintstones as I read this.

Do you suppose that the Flintstones was where the ideas for an automated home came from?

I mean, a tortoise to push around and mow the lawn, monkeys handling push button services, mastodons and dinosaurs to do the heavy lifting.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

this morning and this afternoon we got the last of the tomatoes canned that i picked yesterday. since it was going to be hot out this afternoon i decided i didn't want to wait until later to do them so we started early and got them scalded, peeled, chunked and into the pots to be warmed up and then they are ok to sit for a few hours which meant i could go outside and get some things done (except what i really wanted to do which was to pick beans). so picking beans will have to happen tomorrow and through the next several weeks as they come in ready.

i feel a nap creeping up on me...

 

[flowerbug]

I'm watching the Flintstones as I read this.

Do you suppose that the Flintstones was where the ideas for an automated home came from?

I mean, a tortoise to push around and mow the lawn, monkeys handling push button services, mastodons and dinosaurs to do the heavy lifting.

Steve

i'm pretty sure those huge racks of ribs were implanted in my brain by that show, so yes, sure ... or perhaps it was The Jetsons... now, however i have the theme song from The Flintstones going through my head. your fault hombre'...

 

[flowerbug]

with all the bean picking, tomato picking, diseased plants and random other things the gardens look like a war zone out there.

i'm not even sure what we will do with the tomatoes that are left now as they may not be in good enough shape for very long and if the start getting spots on them from all this rain and lack of sunshine then i'll just bury them. we'll have to see what happens there...

mostly picking beans and should get the sweet onions out of ground and start getting those cured in a dry spot.

i did pick a few melons but they were both rather bland. i'm not sure any of the rest will be better as they develop. they need sunshine and leaves and many plants are losing leaves to powdery mildew. the squash are mostly in the same boat other than a few of the bigger plants which seem to resist the powdery mildew - unfortunately the bigger plants do not really resist the squash vine borers but instead they reroot themselves as they grow. a few squash had to be harvested because the stems were completely dead or even rotting so i brought them in.

 

[flowerbug]

picked beans most of the afternoon now that the gardens have dried out enough to pick. always just one mosquito around to keep me on my toes.

 

[flowerbug]

was able to bring a chair from out back to the front to sit and sort through beans in the early evening sun. i got about half of my haul from two days of picking sorted through and will be out again today picking but i'm not sure there is too much left to pick through again. we'll see how it goes. my room is getting full of bags of dry beans for later shelling out so this is a good thing - that also means that i'm able to free up more box flats to put beans in to finish drying.

 

[flowerbug]

picked yet more beans. i wasn't really expecting to do this today but i went out to check and saw enough dry pods to make it worth it. two flats later...

very nice today, a breeze, sunshine and no mosquitoes. not a single one.

 

[flowerbug]

busy day today and tomorrow so i may be scarce on TEG time. gotta get the worms fed this morning, then try to pick some beans this afternoon and then family stuff this evening and tomorrow afternoon. a lot of prep for those needed.

 

[flowerbug]

*whew!* all set and now back to gardening again.

 

[flowerbug]

today was a good day in spite of the heat and humidity and me having to mow. i hate mowing. there's few chores around here i dislike more than that one. when i first moved in here it was with the understanding that Mom would do the mowing. mostly that has continued to be the case but as the years and things have changed i now mow half to three quarters of the grass including the front ditches and stuff to the south which isn't really our property but that's ok as it helps keep the weeds down.

today i was finally able to talk to the neighbors about the south field and what i was doing there to fight back the thistle patch and also to ask about a tree i wanted to kill off. he's a decent guy and we had a good talk - his wife is also nice and i've always enjoyed talking to her too. i learned that they are possibly going to be putting that south field into an evironmental easement which is a contract for 10 years... sounded like they also were going to do some plowing and killing stuff back and then replanting with native grasses, wildflowers, trees, shrubs, etc. so this is a really nice thing and will be good for us too.

i did mention that if they ever felt like selling i'd probably be interested but i doubt that will happen by the response. i also mentioned my website to them with all the notes i have there about the water flows and that i've not been doing any spraying here in the gardens and trying to keep Mom under control but she can spray stuff without telling me but she does know that i do get mad if she does it anywhere near a garden where we grow food... with all the stuff that blows in the air here i'm sure we still get plenty of wind-deposition of the various sprays... still it will be really nice to not have to worry about this any more as it has been an issue often enough.

also i mentioned that i'd love to talk to them more about their plans and to show them what i've done here for erosion control and such. it'd be a great fun project to see happen so i'm glad i reached out to them.

as part of the erosion control issue and talking about the small tree i was able to talk about what that can do to the large drainage ditch because if you shade the grass which is holding the bank of the ditch in place and kill it off too much then the ditch can shift course. i'm not sure he knew about that (as i learned it the really hard way and i'm paying for it all the time now). we also talked property lines and how i've been mowing that south field partially and that's all ok with me but i'd love to not have to do that eventually... we'll see how this goes.

we did not get into deer, groundhogs, rabbits, fences, etc... that's ok...

the other really nice thing would be that i may not do any spraying at all for the thistles. that was a time and expense for me so if they will deal with it next year then i can just keep mowing it short the rest of this year and then see what next year brings... nice to get potential resolution to this for me just to see it not being yet another project for me.

p.s. a few hours later i got a 2nd call from the neighbors and it was good to learn more about what's going on and what plans are in the works. they may stop over this weekend for a garden tour and more talks.