We have the sprinkler going in the garden this morning. All the heat has made the garden grow like it's on steroids this summer, but presently we're in a rain-less period and everything really needs moisture.
The ripening blueberry bushes got a good watering close to sundown last night. We haven't made our first picking yet, but soon.
The strawberries are done except for the Everbearers which should give us another (small?) crop late in the season. I can't tell the flavor of them has improved much over this first harvest period, but Papa Pea picked the last couple of cups of them yesterday and reported (from sampling in the patch) that he thought they tasted more like "real" strawberries now.
Raspberries are coming in, but I think our patch is trying to tell us all the canes are contemplating moving into a retirement home, and we should start some replacements. Very soon. We've had excellent harvests from these plants which have to be at least 15 years old and a new patch has been on the list for a couple of years now. Maybe it will (had better) actually happen next spring.
A week or so ago my old (and I do mean old), but faithful Bee Beyer dehydrator stopped putting out heat. Wouldn't you know it would happen right in the midst of harvest season? ('Course, when else would it happen other than when you were using it? Duh.)
Thankfully (and, yes, I am lucky), my dear husband has the know-how to tear into it . . . and get it up and running again.
Turns out the way the unit is designed, there is an old-fashioned glow-coil (circa 1950s or 60s, he says) with a standard bulb-type electrical base. The glow-coil is screwed into and held in place by a small plastic bulb holder which after years of use and heat fatigue burned out at it's bottom (don't cha hate it when that happens?) creating a short which disconnected the heating element from the power. (Got that?) Papa Pea had a new plastic base in his spare parts inventory. (How does he do that?) He added an insulating ceramic screw-in adaptor between the glow-coil and plastic socket base so we shouldn't have the problem again.
I was back in business so I could get another batch of parsley dehydrated.
I harvested the last of the shell peas yesterday, came in and processed them for the freezer and then went back out and pulled up all the spent pea vines . . . with copious quantities of sweat dripping off me. (That's good for detoxing the whole body, right?) I ended up with five more servings of peas in the freezer than last year which is better than I expected to get since the peas matured in our hot, hot weather.
With the area where the peas grew cleared, the pumpkins will have more room to spread out.
If I can coerce them into traveling that way. Which may be a challenge and involve chains and stakes. And possibly whips.
My beans are about 2" long so perhaps by the end of the week (?), I'll start harvesting them.
A gaggle of geese to say hello this morning.
Then heading to the pond for a swim.
The day has dawned a little overcast so we have the sprinkler going in the garden again. If things go as they usually seem to, a thorough watering of the berry patches, new fruit trees, raised beds and field garden should bring on a natural rainfall . . . which would still be very welcomed.
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