Finally Heading-Out

No, I'm not heading out anywhere. But the oats and barley mix that we seeded in the pumpkin patch this year as green manure is. Heads are finally forming so . . .

. . . it's time to cut it down and plow it under. That's on the list for today . . . IF things out there dry up enough to do so.

Our days of sunshine and dry weather continue to be few and far between. Seems like each day we wake up to:

* Dense fog advisories.

* Rain.

* Humid, wet, damp air. Inside and out.

* No-see-ums that inflict painful bites, then pick you up, toss you around and will kill ya if ya stand still.

* Torrential rains.

* Weather that generally makes you want to crawl back into bed and snooze for maybe four or five more hours.

* Garden plants that are turning yellow for lack of sunshine.

* Slugs that are enjoying a population explosion.

* Misty, drippy rain.

* Peas that should be reveling in this weather but are refusing to grow because of lack of sunshine.

* Construction/remodeling that is going slower than we wish because of wet weather.

But I'll try to curtail my whining and complaining as I know other parts of our country are experiencing REAL weather-related problems that make ours seem like nothing at all.

You don't hear any talk around here of the danger of forest fires these days either. That in itself is worth A LOT!

Hope to chronicle action in the pumpkin patch later today.

A Day Off

It is now almost 4:00 on Monday afternoon and I haven't done anything all day.

First off this morning I got our breakfast out of the way which can be a chore as most mornings my tummy is not eager to accept food as a first line of activity. Don't get me wrong; I have a cast iron stomach/digestive system and do LOVE to eat, but doing so within an hour of arising is not what I usually want to do. I must admit to my slovenly ways. Since hubby has been "retired" from a job away from home, I've gotten a lit-tle sloppy about sticking to a strict breakfast time in the morning. (Does that make me bad?)

Next I stationed myself at the computer, checked and answered e-mails, read blogs and such. I also did a little research on watermelon.

I'm thinking of going on a watermelon diet. I've got access to some very flavorful ones right now. (No, not from my garden, silly. It would be a rare summer when we could get watermelons to mature up here near the frozen tundra.) I do love watermelon. The info I found says one cup of diced watermelon is 50 calories. Heck, I can put away four cups of the luscious stuff easily at one sitting (seriously) so if I ate four cups for breakfast, four cups for lunch and four cups for dinner, that would be only a total of 600 calories a day. Who couldn't lose weight on that?!

Then I made the effort to look presentable by putting on some make-up and an outfit that did NOT include shoes held together with duct tape or dirt-stained garden jeans.

At 10 I met a good friend for coffee and conversation in town and also spent time visiting with four other friends we encountered.

Home to fix a quick lunch for myself and hard-working hubby who had been busy doing maintenance as Monday is (after all) Maintenance Day. We're trying an experiment this summer to see that if we actually do some maintaining of things BEFORE they fall apart, life will eventually be less disrupted, frantic, and hair-tearing. Hmm, unique theory. Wonder if it will work?

Then hubby (using a great deal of psychology) subtly suggested that since I was still in my go-to-meetin' clothes and looked so nice (see where the psychology comes in?), I go back into town to deliver some information he had gathered for a reporter on the local paper who is writing an article on beekeeping in our area. Sure, I'll go. And buy some more watermelon (this diet could really turn into something good) and maybe stop in to see our daughter at her new place of employment for a couple of minutes.

While visiting with Chicken Mama I ran into a friend that I haven't seen in a month or two so chatted with her for about a half hour. I sensed she needed a shoulder to lean on and I was glad to help in a small way. Funny how you think you have problems until you realize what other people are dealing with. Sometimes we're mightily blessed and I think need to be reminded of it.

In between all this socializing and fluffing off, I have managed to get a couple/few loads of laundry washed and dried (no hanging the laundry out today -- I'm too busy doing nothing) but the laundry doesn't count as "work" 'cause it is Monday and Monday is laundry day come heck or high water, right?

But ya know what? Today has felt pretty good. Yesterday I pushed myself working in the garden more than a sane person would have and at the end of the day was wobbling a bit as I tottered in bug-bitten, exhausted and very grubby. (I was tempted to wear gloves to my coffee date this morning because my nails are so dirt stained.)

Now it's so late in the day it would be silly to start doing anything resembling work, don'tcha think? Maybe I'll manage to get some more watermelon cut up for dinner . . . which will NOT go over well with my industrious husband who has been actually getting things accomplished today. Hmm, don't suppose he's be happy gnawing on a pound of frozen ground beef either, huh?

In Celebration of the Summer Solstice, My Tomatoes Are Coming Out of the Closet (I Mean Cold Frame)

My cherry tomato plants (the only tomatoes I planted this year) are doing fantastically so far this year despite our on and off spates of cool, wet weather.

Well, I guess they should be considering how much I've coddled them. I meant to take a picture of them cocooned in their incubator/isolette which creates heat on a cool day and protects them from less than comfy night time temperatures. But I caught hubby at a good spot today when I was working out in the garden (I needed his help to remove the cold frame from the tomato bed) and we had it off before I remembered to take a picture of it covering the tomatoes. The shot above is of the cold frame only set against the fence line for temporary storage.

But all that babying of the tomato plants is now changing, and they are going to have to learn to adapt to and function in the real world.

They've grown so tall that their tops were being smooshed down when I closed up the cold frame at night and if they do produce tomatoes (IF? Did I say IF? I meant WHEN!!!), it's very difficult to reach into the over-sized cold frame structure to pick the little red orbs.

So the time has come. Shiver though they may, we had a chat and I assured them they will adapt and survive perfectly well out of the sheltered environment they've thus far lived in.

Just look at those healthy little blossoms so ready and eager to turn into ruby red fruits. Soon we'll have more cherry tomatoes than we know what to do with. Soon? Well. By August anyway.

Just Call Me Fickle

I think I've mentioned before that I love radishes. I keep succession planting them each year until they refuse to grow in the summer heat.

My favorite has always been the French Breakfast Radish (D'Avignon), but this year I tried a variety that was new to me, and my head has been turned. (Along with my taste buds.)

These are Crunchy Royale and have been super producers for me this year. They stay mild and keep their tender texture and crispness even when I've left them for what I think is "too long" in the ground.

The package of Crunchy Royale seeds describes the radish as "a small, round radish." Kowabunga, if they ever got BIG I'd need a wheelbarrow to bring one into the house.

Maybe it's just a particularly good year for this variety, but I'm very pleased with it and will stock up on more seed.

I'll probably always put in some French Breakfast Radishes too though, because they mature faster than any others and are still a mighty good radish.

Construction Report: We got about two-thirds of the styrofoam insulating panels (a total of 5" thickness) up in the pantry ceiling today. And it's a wonder we got that far because we battled the rain all day.

Started measuring and cutting outside on the flatbed trailer but soon had to move that operation into the garage because we were getting so wet.

Even though we had to constantly run through the rain back and forth from garage to pantry (we're still entering the pantry from the outside through an unsheathed portion of studs --- see above photo --- because we haven't cut the door opening from inside the house to the pantry yet), it went okay as most of the time the rain wasn't too heavy. But to say we were damp all day and resembled drowned rats is an understatement.

About 5 minutes to 5 p.m., it started to pour in earnest so we decided that was a good time to call a halt to the day.

No construction scheduled for tomorrow. Sunday is our end-of-the-week rest day. (Insert hysterical laughter here.) What that actually means is we use the day to try to finish up everything that didn't get done during the week. Don't know what my better half has on the agenda, but I'm hoping for sunshine so I can get some garden work done.

Mystery Quiz

Here we have a picture of the blossoms of an herb.

Do any of you know what the herb is that produces these lovely, little purple clusters of flowers that honey bees love?

Come on now . . . who's gonna be the first with the correct answer??

The Construction Crew of Two

After the heavy rain last night and super-saturated wet air, we had dense fog first thing this morning. But it soon burned off and we had another sunny day (yay!), very pleasant as it wasn't quite as warm as yesterday. A good day for getting out and doing what needed to be done.

Hubby worked on soffits on the outside of the pantry addition which took much more time than estimated (so what's new?) because of having to do some jury-rigging.

I finished the insulating inside and got the Reflectix up over that.

A late afternoon run to the lumber yard to pick up foam insulation for the pantry ceiling (while I stayed home to do a HUGE batch of dishes) will insure we don't run out of work for tomorrow. (Ha-ha-ha.)

It was a day with lots of short interruptions which always kinda slows down the flow of the work. But still a great day to be doing outside work. And most importantly, a little more progress.