A Day Away From Dirt

Today was a mental and physical health day off for me. This morning I went to a handwork group and sat and stitched for a couple of hours accompanied by good conversation and much laughter.

When I came home I did the weekly laundry and ironing.

Got everything dried and put away except for the last load of sheets. After dinner I took them down and threw them in the dryer for 10 minutes to finish them off because we may have thunderstorms tonight. (Maybe I should have left them out on the line because we could really use the rain . . . )

I did no work at all in the garden (and the earth didn't stop turning) but I'll get back out there tomorrow. Cooler temps are forecast which will make much nicer gardening conditions. Yesterday our thermometer in the shade hit the high 70s so I know it had to be a least ten degrees warmer out in the garden in the full sun. There was a whole lotta sweatin' goin' on. I wore a t-shirt rather than tank top because I'd been getting a titch too much sun on skin that's been covered up for several months. Still my arms below the short sleeves of the t-shirt got a leetle too red and I think it was wise to keep them completely out of the sun today.

You know how you can be too physically tired to sleep well? That's what happened to me last night. Several days of pushing in the garden and my body sent me a few subtle signals that I needed a day off. Only problem is that by relaxing a bit today, my body now feels akin to a wet noodle and I can hardly keep my eyes open. It's only 8:05 p.m. Okay with all of you if I sign off and get into bed?

Gardening, Sleeping, Eating, Gardening . . .

That's about all this past week has consisted of . . . gardening, sleeping, eating, gardening . . . and more gardening. Due to our uncooperative weather during May, putting in my garden definitely got off to a slow start and although it's still not too late for just about anything I want to get in, I am behind my usual planting schedule. By more than a little bit!

This past week has given us glorious, if a bit on the warm side (whew, I'll say!), weather with NO BUGS so I have been really pushing myself to spend as much time in the garden as possible. (Oy, please don't ask to see the inside of my house. It is grubby.)

I could show you lots of pictures of bare dirt that has seeds buried 1/4" to 1" underneath it but, of course, that's not too interesting.

I have never been able to grow Brussels sprouts or broccoli without those ishy little green worms ending up in my harvested crop. A short while back, I happened to read something Sue said on her blog, Sue's Garden Journal, on how she covers her beds with Agribon which keeps the little white moths/butterflies (which lay the eggs which turn into the worms) off of her brassicas. Well, I jumped on this bit of information p.d.q. and pestered Sue with a million questions so I could build my own little protective tunnels to enable us to successfully grow broccoli and Brussels sprouts, our two favorite vegetables, and actually EAT them sans worms! Sue couldn't have been more generous or kind or sharing of her knowledge which enabled us to cover two of our raised beds yesterday in much the same way she does. One contains Brussels sprouts and one has the broccoli in it. I am super-excited to see how this turns out.

The blueberries, raspberries and strawberries all look like they will give us a fantastic yield this year. The blueberry bushes are loaded with blossoms. (Bad picture, I know, but I was too pooped to fool around with the lighting focus on the camera to get a better shot.)

One thing I did not get to on my gardening list this past week was weeding the blueberry patch. The picture doesn't show it, but there are weeds sticking their ugly little heads up right within the bushes and waving while sticking out their tongues and taunting me. First of the week, I'll get to this area . . . and show those weeds what for!

Okay, here's a sad situation. I planted our potatoes right before the two-week monsoon we experienced in May. It sure looks as though many of the potato eyes rotted, something they will easily do if they get too much moisture before sprouting. The ones that did manage to sprout look very healthy but we won't get half the crop I was expecting. Crikey. Guess we'll just have to eat more rice this winter.

I got all the cabbage transplanted. Here's a row of red cabbage happy to finally be in the soil instead of in their cramped little pots.

The strawberry patch (until this morning) looked more like a quack grass farm but I attacked it with a vengeance and ripped out every single piece (well, I might have missed one or two or six) of quack grass. The strawberry plants this year are tall and lush and loaded with blossoms. Some have already formed little green berries, and I think the harvest will start two to three weeks early this year.

Well, that's a short summary of some of the gardening that's been keeping me done in, dirty and sweaty this week. I think I've probably got one more week of work before I can say all the outside stuff is under control. Then it will just be keeping the upper hand on the weeds before all the seeds sprout and the plants start shooting up. One more week? Sure hope my tired tuchus can keep going that long!

All Is Well, But Busy

The only thing wrong on this here little homestead right now is that the days aren't long enough!

I haven't posted in a few days because I've been spending every minute I can getting the garden in. Finally. I've never been so behind or so late in the work that needs to be done out there. I'm blaming the weather. It was so wonky for so long that things had to be put off . . . and then put off some more.

But now summer seems to have finally arrived, the days are sweat-producing and uncomfortably hot (wanna see my red shoulders?), and we're right back to needing some rain again. I had to water with the hose tonight for the first time to insure the survival of recently planted seeds and the transplanted seedlings that finally went into the ground today.

I haven't been able to keep up with all of your blogs (if only I could convince my body to get by on 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night!), and I miss doing that. But it shouldn't be long now before I feel I have control of the garden and I'll have time to take some pictures and blog more specifically about what's been happening around here. It's probably the busiest time of year, but also very satisfying in being able to very clearly see the results of the labor.

I Shall Survive

After my reaction to the sting Saturday inflicted by the Mad Bee from Hell, I am well on my way to recovery today.

My good bloggy friend, Lisa, over at Shady Grove Journal, commiserated with me and offered a whole boatload of suggestions as to precautions I need to take. She, too, suffers unpleasant allergic reactions to insect stings and bites so she knows of what she speaks. She so well described the feel that takes over my body after being stung. As she said, it's "kind of like a general malaise of sorts" for a couple of days after being stung. Yup, that's it, for sure!

When I got up yesterday morning with my hubby, I felt so crummy that I went back to bed and slept for 2 more hours. Then in the afternoon, I took another nap for a couple of hours. It felt like the thing to do to me, but I think I caused some sorry to Papa Pea because it was such an unusual happenstance that I should nap during the day.

Glad to report the swelling is much less today and rest assured I shall survive. But I also realize I need to stock up on some antihistamines and probably should finally cave and get an Epi-pen to have on hand.

I probably would have been totally safe from another bee attack, but couldn't get up the courage to venture out into the garden today because of the overcast weather . . . just the kind of conditions that make for cranky bees. I'm hoping tomorrow I will be feeling back to normal and the sun will shine down on me and those sweet bees of ours. (See, fuzzy little honey-making friends, I still do like you.)

I sincerely appreciate all the care and concern I received from all of you. Next time I have a losing argument with an angry bee or wasp or hornet, I'm going to keep mum about it. I feel I'm coming across as way too much of a wimp in this department!

A Bee Tale of Woe

In a previous post I mentioned that a couple of days ago, Papa Pea was mowing near the bee hives and got nailed in the forehead by one of our honey bees.

Yesterday he worked in the bee yard splitting an over-crowded hive into two hives. Even though the day was sunny and the bees should have been in a good mood, they were not. Papa Pea was decked out in his full bee suit and he used his smoker which usually calms them down and makes them sluggish, but it didn't. He reported they were wild and crazy and very upset with him when all he was doing was trying to help them out by alleviating their congested living conditions.

This morning I was sitting out on the front lawn giving some loving to Maisy, one of our granddogs who hasn't been feeling very good, when a bee started buzzing my head. It was a mad bee. A very mad bee. What was his problem? I did nothing to him. He apparently drank cranky juice for breakfast because his buzz was that of a bee on a kamikaze mission. Once you hear that particular sound, you always recognize it and know you are in trouble.

Being around the bees has never bothered me, but since my sensitivity to their sting seems to be increasing over the last few years, I gotta admit to feeling a little more panic than a big, strong homesteading gal should when in the situation I found myself this morning.

Trying not to lose my composure completely, I thought if I got up and went in the house, the bee would stay outside. Wrong.

By this time, he had tangled himself in my hair and I knew it was just a matter of time before he found a tender spot in which to plant his ringer-dinger of a stinger.

Running through the house and out the door to our attached garage, I yelled, "I need help. I've got a bee caught in my head!" Well, he wasn't IN my head, but hubby got the message. As I tried to hold still and Papa Pea tried to remove the bee without getting stung himself, Mr. Bee's butt made contact with my scalp at the back of my head and he let me have it.

Now, I'm not a wimp and happen to have a very high level of pain tolerance but, holy macaroni, did that hurt!

After hubby extracted the stinger, we immediately put the cut side of an onion on the site (the onion juice supposedly draws the bee venom out of the skin) and I took the homeopathic remedy, Apis, which counteracts the effect of the venom in one's system. Then Papa Pea made a poultice of baking soda and water which I've worn all day.

Betcha would have a hard time figuring out what this was a picture of if you didn't know, huh? (Kinda looks like I got shot with a caulk gun. Splat!)

When hubby went out to close up the poultry early tonight, he reported he was chased back into the greenhouse by an angry bee who, by all rights, should have been tucked into his hive and settled down for the night at that hour.

I don't know what's gotten into our normally mild-mannered, well-behaved bees but I sure hope they get over their current hissy-fit but quick.

I tell ya, life on the homestead can be dangerous. If it's not Father Goose being overly protective and taking a chunk out of your leg, it's bees who are becoming down right dysfunctional!

In Place

I can totally understand how these "remodeling" posts might be as interesting as a box of rocks to all of you, but each one chronicles a step closer to having the remodeling completed to me. And at this point of the game, every little step toward that goal feels good and I'm thrilled to have this particular piece in place.

While putting the last coat of finish on the TV/stereo/bookcase unit this morning, it felt like it took me ten times as long as the first two coats. Seriously. Wonder why that was? Maybe it was because we were actually getting close to finishing it and I wanted to have it DONE and be able to install it.

So here it is . . . in place. I love the way it ties in with the book boxes above it. Now hubby has the not-so-easy job of rerouting the wires for the TV hook-up the whole length of the house (in the crawl space . . . never a nice place to have to do any work) in preparation for moving said TV out of our bedroom (yay!) and into the living room. Maybe tomorrow?

Right now, I'm pleased as punch to have this unit designed, built, polyed and finished. Cross it off the list! One more step toward completion of our living room remodeling.