Saturday was very cool and overcast, which was a big relief from the heat of last week. I got up very early with every intention of waking the birds and hauling those woodchips, but you know how it goes: First, I really better do the litter boxes, and while I'm doing that of course I need to scrub the bathroom floor. And since I have all the floor stuff out...maybe I'll give the kitchen a good lick too. And oh, yes, I need to shell out more peas and get them into the freezer... And I really should turn out the pantry and give the shelves and floor a good wipe down... *sigh*
I did make myself go out and haul the chips though....two truckloads, from the corner of the property up around the curve to my Pine Gap. Looks so much nicer now. Of course, most of the shrubs in the "second stage" of the Pine Gap are still very small so they don't look like much, but they are all thriving and in a couple years, watch out.
This morning, I decided that I had to just "pick one"....pick one job and do it. that's the problem with a really big garden, there's so much to do everywhere that a lot of times I get started on one thing and then get involved in something else, and something else...it never ends. Lately I've been trying to just "pick one." Commit to doing one thing, doing it well, and moving on. (Ala Charles Emerson Winchester on MASH). Even if there's other things that need doing. So this morning it was the auxiliary garden, which is planted (again) with tomatoes. Plus, there are 2 new berry beds on 2 sides of the aux. garden, one with thornless blackberries and one with red raspberries. I did a lot of work on those berry beds last fall/winter and it paid off. They are doing great...there's even some berries coming along. So, this morning, I got the sickle out and cut a nice path through the tall grass that is lapping up against the new berry bed fences. Then gave the beds a light weeding (I mulched them very heavily with wood chips last fall and that worked well.)
Once that was done, I tackled the tomatoes...weeded then spread newspapers around them, then topped them with grass clippings from my neighbor. The clippings were the hardest thing....I have to haul them by wheelbarrow (4 loads) from his yard to the aux garden, and it's a hike... In "city slicker" terms, I'd say about a block away. But *dusts hands* there! done. The tomatoes are doing pretty well, but now that they aren't competing with weeds and will have consistent soil moisture and temps, they should really take off. I also wanted to tie up the plants to the garden fence, but it just got too hot and I got too tired to do it. That's something I can do anytime.
I really need to do some deadheading today, especially the roses. Might get out the secateurs and do that this evening, if it's cool enough.
The scarlet runner beans in the veg are in bloom and look so pretty. I also need to give them some more strings to climb on...but I'm out of garden twine so that's on the shopping list.
My friend E brought me a small spirea as a gift....I think I'll pop that into the Pine Gap, in the space in front of the second grouping of Knockout roses.
I really need to get things ready to start taking cuttings this week.
I am a big believer in educating everyone about history....in the hopes that knowing it will prevent some of it from happening again. The US Civil War is an important lesson; more than half a million people died in that 4 year conflict and the country was ravaged; some families never recovered economically or otherwise. And the root of it all was GREED. Some people wanted to have more and more and more, no matter what the cost to other people. I'm not talking just Southern slaveowners; the Northern industrialists who made huge profits on cheap cotton were also at fault. These high-class, wealthy, greedy people on both sides of the Mason-Dixon poured a lot of time, money, and talk into stirring up the average people until war seemed the only answer. The terrible and tragic consequences reverberate in our racially divided country today...and the saddest and most unjust thing to me is that the people who bear the worst brunt of all this even today..our black citizens...were the only blameless ones, the true victims in the whole sorry mess.
So, if you have a chance to visit Gettysburg, I suggest you put aside your romantic beliefs about the War, the Lost Cause, and all the other nonsense; go to the Visitors Center and see their film and diorama, really listen to what it has to tell you. Look at the museum exhibits (at the VC and throughout the town). Visit the National Cemetery. You'll be educated and hopefully enlightened...and hopefully we'll all sober up and realize that as Lincoln said "A house divided....cannot stand."
The Visitors Centers is run by the National Parks Service and the presentation there is mind-blowing. The huge circular diorama multimedia presentation is amazing....you stand on a big circular platform and all around you is a painted scene of the day of the battle on July 3 1863. The lighting changes as the day begins and progresses, you hear (and feel!) artillery shells exploding and you can see the flashes of light from the explosions. You hear horses and men and wagons....and what's even more amazing is that as you peer down over the rails you can see "real" scenery that blends seamlessly into the painted walls....it's as if you're standing on a small hilltop in the middle of the battlefield. This is not to be missed!
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Cooler today; we had a front with some rain go through overnight. Got a lot of rain yesterday afternoon; driving home from G.burg (about an hour from my house) was sketchy...there were points in the trip where I wondered if I should pull over but kept slogging along. Today, Carlisle PA and the huge car flea market/swapmeet/car corral... I hope it's not too hot up there...I hate trudging through acres of chrome and sheet metal in the blazing sun, but this is R's hobby and we must we must... *sigh* I keep threatening to take him to a public garden but I never do. It would be like having a whining 4 year old at my heels *LOL*.
Hazy Hot and Humid. We're getting July in June. Yesterday the temps hit 93 with a heat index of 101. R is out there like a nut trimming the big hedge in front of the house. He doesn't get out of bed until about noon, so he's out there working from about 1-3 the hottest time of the day. I worry but nothing I can do. I sure couldn't do it.
Got up early and did my bit for the hedge project...raked up and hauled out all the clippings. I spread them as mulch around a couple of the Pine Gap forsythias. Yikes....the poison ivy is very bad down there in the "newer" section of the Pine Gap, where it faces due west. I'm definitely going to have to buy some of that brush killer and spray that entire stretch.
Big news: the utility company has been working away at the poplar line. They've got 7 of the dead as doornails poplars down and gone and yesterday they started doing something with the 3 remaining live ones but then they quit and left so i'm not sure if all they are going to do is trim them up or if they are going to remove them. I hope they come back and take them down. Those trees have been a menace for the past several years as they slowly come to the end of their life span (about 25 years) and I worry that they might topple onto either my gardens, my neighbors house, or the power lines. (we had several fall over in the past decade....scary...)
Picked a "mess" more peas late yesterday evening, but havent got to them yet. I need to buckle down and get some editing done this morning because I'm having lunch with a friend in Gettysburg this afternoon and I know I'll end up spending a few hours with her just yakking our heads off.
I love my Mr. Pea pea sheller. it's this little metal do-hickey with a crank handle and two little rollers like a minature wringer washing machine (does anybody remember those?). You crank the handle and feed the pea pods into the rollers and it squishes the pods and shoots out the peas. It's faster and easier than shelling by hand (no green fingernails), but not all THAT much faster and easier. Which is perfectly fine by me. This is about as far as I like my "mechanization" to go... (You can, they say, hook it up to an electric hand mixer, but I shudder to think what that would mean...I envision crushed digits and eyes blinded by peas ejected from the rollers like miniature cannonballs. *Ping! *Zing! *ow! *Zfattp! *Ow!*)
I should get out there and pick all the rest of the peas, but I think I'll take a break and do a little editing. I'm getting barked at. Also, it's pretty HHH out there today (hazy, hot and humid).
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I read some very new research (not yet published) saying that Omega-3 (the kind of stuff found in Fish Oil) is proving to be useful in treating depression and anxiety. This research is beginning to point to inflammatory substances in the blood as the real culprit in several disease states besides depression. For example, researchers are beginning to suspect (strongly) that it is not cholesterol levels per se that lead to coronary artery disease but INFLAMMATION of the arterial walls. If you can imagine your arteries as a garden hose, imagine that inflammation is like the rubber of the hose suddenly becoming cracked and scaly on the inside (picture a bad rash on your skin). Now, as water runs thru the hose, any particles in it (like cholesterol in blood) will tend to stick to these "irritated" (inflamed) cracks and scales. Sort of like a scab forming. That's exactly what is happening in arteries. Cholesterol sticks to the spots of inflammation in the artery and forms "plaques" that, if they dislodge, can cause stroke or heart attacks. The key seems to be to reduce inflammation. Unfortunately, the American diet is full of inflammatory chemicals that come from processed sugars, artificial ingredients, some preservatives, and worst of all trans-fats. It's important to eliminate those as much as possible from the diet AND to increase the anti-inflammatory substances like Omega-3. (Aspirin is also anti-inflammatory, which may be why it helps in preventing heart disease and stroke).
I've been taking Fish Oil caps every night for about a week now and I have to say, my mild anxiety attacks are better. I'm hoping this will stave off heart disease and other troubles too!
I really don't know if this will work, but I started some Stonehead cabbage seeds in pots this morning for (hopefully) putting out into the garden later in the summer for a fall harvest. It was a spur of the moment thing *shrug*.
Too hot and humid to do much today outside, but I did get myself out very early and do some tidying and deadheading along the driveway. I probably should have moved some wood chips, but felt too lazy. Tomorrow. Manyana. Whatever. *HA*
I really do have to get out and pick the rest of the peas. I'm considering just going ahead and pulling out the plants, as I go. I doubt that I'm going to get anything more from them, not with this heat.
The pole beans (Blue Lake, Golden Wax, and Scarlet runner) are growing like crazy up the tee-pees that I set up. This is the weather they love; I hope I'll get a lot of beans. After the Weird Beast debacle of last summer and no beans at all, I'm really hungry for fresh picked and steamed beans.
I think I'll just take today "off" from the garden though and get caught up with office work. We are forecast to get thunderstorms later today; we had a little shower last evening and some rumbles, but nothing much.
Thanks to Seedfork for "turning me on" to this site!
