I am tired and depressed. The heat has taken all the joy of getting outside, all the wildlife think everything I have planted is for them. I seem to have too much disease and the demand for watering is growing every day. I got out late yesterday to water the south garden and the sweet potato plants had overgrown the garden hose. I was too hot and I was not in the mood to take the time to clear the hose properly, so I just pulled through the vines, ripping them in to or pulling them from the ground. Both of my gardens look like jungles. I get very few tomatoes that are not damaged in some way, and I dont like the idea of spraying anything. I ran over a peace of barbed wire and I now have a flat to repair on the small tractor. I was using the John Deere and the starter switch or the solenoid hung, and I cant hear well enough to hear the started motor running and did not know until I tried to kill the engine and the started wanted to keep it turning. I have no idea how much damage was done, and it is too hot to fix flats or work on tractors. I would buy a mule, but it would probably jump the fence and get out on the highway. It is also too hot to chase a mule. I did however put a new battery on the lawn mower, so for now, I have a ride, and I can use it to grind up the extra produce and rotten tomatoes from the garden.

If I could go anywhere I could take produce and give it away. I tried to paint a sign "FREE PRODUCE", but it is so hot and I am so slow that the paint would dry on the paint brush before I could get it to my sign. Will someone PLEASE tell me about the joy of gardening?

Larry , you need a hand. Wish i was close enough.

HU

I hear you, Larry. I've been thinking I'm out of my mind to try and garden. And yes, MY yard looks iike a jungle. But gosh. Jungles aren't all bad, right? The butterflies like it, at least. I have been a little down at times, too.

Jennifer, I meant to tell you. Remember when I was badmouthing the violets? Well, I read that they are a host plant for the beautiful Diana fritillaries. And I have both a male and female here this summer. Guess I won't be tearing out any violets. lol

The mowing's almost done. Obviously I have not been too worried about it. We seem to have a few more hummingbirds now. Tomorrow I have to make more tomato sauce. I'm having fun with it.

Yep, Dawn, I cannot believe it's already the 4th week in July. Time does fly by.

Marleigh, thinking of. you in this heat, and you, Rebecca. And all of us, for that matter.

I got a couple more watermelon plants at Lowe's yesterday. All those plants, and I just couldn't get enthused. I need to plant stuff in the next few days, here and at Lincoln. I have little to say, so will wish you all well, and get to making dinner.

HU, I wish you were closer also. I really do pretty well, I like to" shoot the bull", and do a pretty good job at is some times. I really do have a good time. I think if you were close we would both have a good time.

I have a neighbor that tries to help me some now. About 5 years ago he started a produce farm, and I started a wildlife garden. I started rebuilding the soil, he was using chemicals on his land. I was having dozer work done and planting cover crops. When my neighbor tilled my soil about a week ago, he said, " boy this is good soil". It is the same sorry soil that he has, except I have been adding organic matter to my soil, while he has been using chemical fertilizer. I still have a long way to go, but I have a good start. My neighbor did not plant his produce crop this year, but he wants to start planting produce in my wildlife garden. That soil he was tilling was an old road bed many years ago. I use to walk down that old road bed when I was a kid because it was the only place open enough to walk on. That old red shale that he was tilling up use to be on some of the old mine tipples in the area. I busted up that old road bed with the pasture cultivator and my 43 year old John Deere tractor.

I will have that wildlife garden turned into a pretty building site for my daughter of granddaughter someday. You can just barely see where some of the bar ditches use to be.

Yes, I have a good time. I enjoy working on this old home place, I started working on it back in the 1950's by planting 700 pine seedlings, but did not invest a lot of time or money till it was in my name about 6 years ago.

Larry

I feel your pain. Sometimes quitting sounds tempting.

it is tiring to feel like all we get is bad luck.

right now I am fighting grasshoppers. I spent 25.00 on nolo bait and it has not slowed them down at home.

I am going to plant fall crops under hoops I got from Bruce. I hope that keeps them out.

have not been well lately so my gardening has been minimal.

the birds help a lot at my daughters.

lady bugs moved on and huge aphid colony moved onto my collards. They were so good Too. I have been harvesting for months and they have never slowed down.

iordered seeds for next year. I can not believe how many are out of stock. Worse than the grocery store shelves.

Kim, I am playing around with some forage collards. A few years ago I got some collards in a deer food plot mix, I liked them, so I bought about 3# of seed last fall and was not able to get ground ready for them. They are not doing great now,( I planted some in May) they are in the wildlife garden where I cant till or water. I have another spot tilled, ready to plant for fall. I plan on planting a lot of turnips, collards and daikon radishes, also a smaller amount of mustard and mustard tender greens. I am still playing with the greens also, trying to find the ones I like the best, and try to keep a good supply of the things I like the best, and are dependable.

I seem to be loosing too many pumpkin plants to deer and other wildlife. I am sure that when I plant other fall crops I will be fighting the deer again. The only thing I know to do now is to try to plant more than they can eat, that wont be easy. I can plant more than Madge and I need here in the home garden, but I am trying to grow extra for friends and family, and I really dont have the room in my lawn.

My granddaughter came over today and we picked a lot of peppers and green beans, she and her mother are also taking stuff to their friends. I am hoping that they will get hooked on gardening. I had already picked a couple of bags of squash and a few cucumbers before my granddaughter got here, she took them home also.

Larry, Mid-summer always gets to me too, especially in drought years when it seems like no matter how much you water, it is not enough. It is not a drought year at our house, but the heat is so intense that the watering I am doing, which seems to me to be quite a lot, still probably is not enough to keep all the plants happy. Some years, when the heat and drought are too bad, I just stop watering, close the garden gate and walk away...and I have learned to do it guilt-free, because gardening IS supposed to be joyful and rewarding, and some years in July and August it doesn't feel like it is. Often a 4-6 week break from gardening chores, other than harvesting whatever still produces, is enough to invigorate me and make me feel excited about gardening again. Maybe you just need a break from working out in the heat.

I hate the damaged tomatoes too, and this is one reason we push so hard to start getting our harvest in late April/early May. We stay ahead of the pests that way for a long time, and by the time the pests are really doing a lot of damage in July, we are getting tired of eating too many tomatoes day in and day out. When that happens, I start yanking out plants as soon as the last of the fruit that set in Spring has been harvested. I am not going to fight pests and heat on a large number of tomato plants just to keep them going until fall. So far, this year I've probably yanked out 8 plants and I'm okay with that. More will follow soon. I'll keep the best 4-6 plants for fall tomatoes and let the rest go. It was different back when I was canning hundreds of jars of tomato products a year and needed tons of tomato plants to keep going and producing, but I'm not going back to doing that much canning ever again. I look back now at the years where I canned enough salsa for us to share with everyone who worked with/for Tim and we were able to give away 200-300 jars of salsa a year, and think that I should have had my head examined because that was just crazy, crazy, crazy. Even as crazy as it was, I loved it at the time until it just gradually became too much to do and to keep up with.

Much of my attitude for fall gardening depends on September weather. We used to get a definite break in the heat in late August and then September cooled down nicely, but in recent years often have stayed in the 100s and upper 90s even through the end of September. When that happens, my garden enthusiasm is pretty much on the low end of the scale, and I just focus on other projects indoors. It almost doesn't matter what specific projects I'm working on as long as I can do them indoors where it is cool.

Nancy, Our garden is at full jungle status. I now have Grandpa Ott's morning glories threading their way through everything and taking over, and I just don't care. The only beds I'm yanking them out of are the two nursery beds where landscaping plants for the landscape renovation are growing and waiting for their chance to grow up and be moved to their official beds near the house. Hmmm. At the rate that we are not able to find pressure-treated lumber to build the new deck and new raised beds, that landscape renovation seems further off than ever. Tim spent all day yesterday trying to find pressure-treated lumber online so he could order it, and both Lowe's and HD let him fill up the carts as if they had the products in stock, but when he pressed the 'order' button, everything came back out of stock. So he tried local and regional lumber companies and it was the same---a day on the computer pretty much totally wasted. We could pivot and build raised beds out of stacked stone or something, but I really wanted to build the deck first and add the beds around the deck. It doesn't make sense to build raised beds now that we'd have to climb through, work around and trample when we eventually get to build the deck. Of all the things I tried to prepare for when it was clear Covid-19 was coming to the USA from China, a shortage of outdoor building materials was not even on the list. Who could have known back then that lockdowns would keep huge numbers of people at home, and many of them would spend their time at home adding decks, fencing, patios, arbors, pergolas, above-ground pools, kids' swingsets, etc. and we'd end up with a shortage of all the materials used for all those items? Life in 2020 has been quite interesting so far.

Kim, In order for Nolo Bait to work at its maximum effectiveness, it needs to be used in April and May when the grasshoppers are in their young instars, roughly at the time they are 1/4-1/2" long and the weather is cool. Once they are big and mature and the weather is hotter, it takes it weeks and weeks to kill them and they'll destroy your plantings before it manages to do that. I don't buy it and use it in the heat---if I cannot use it at the right time when it really works well, I just don't bother because it seems to be a poor investment. Summertime control of grasshoppers is so hard because even if you manage to kill every single one you see, nature abhors a vacuum and more grasshoppers just will migrate in.

Back when Worm's Way was still in business and you could get EcoBran there, I ordered it and used it a couple of summers even though it was pretty pricey. It was great. At first I was "offended" when Worm's Way started carrying it because it contains a low percentage of Sevin and they were all-organic except for that. I couldn't understand how and why they were betraying their all-organic principles. However, I came around to agreeing with their rationale that a small amount of Sevin in a bait product that only harmed whatever insects ate the bait was essential sometimes as opposed to losing all your plants to grasshoppers---and they did strictly market it as the solution for heavy grasshopper infestations in hot weather. At that point they were the only source in the USA for EcoBran, which I think was made in Canada. There now are some online farm and ranch stores in the USA through whom you can order it, but I haven't had a bad enough grasshopper infestation in recent years to order any. I'd never use liquid Sevin or Sevin dust in my garden because of the harm it will do to my huge herd of beneficial insects, but I could use EcoBran as a bait with a clear conscience if I had a big grasshopper outbreak. Sometimes being a gardener in a hot area prone to summer swarms of grasshoppers forces us to make some tough decisions.

Larry, I just do not understand the deer this year. They are acting like it is a drought year and are devouring every desirable plant in sight and have been all year long, but we have had plentiful rainfall for months and months and have only gotten really dry the last couple of weeks. You'd think there would be oodles of native plants for them to browse on. They're even coming up right beside our house and eating the native sunflowers that have reseeded themselves for years and years and which they've never bothered eating before. I don't know what it is with them the deer this year because this is not their usual summer behavior.

I gave away tons of produce to friends for years and years (in some cases, decades) hoping to get them hooked on gardening. Nope. Mostly I got them hooked on having free produce from us that they didn't have to work to grow themselves. I grow much less and give away much less nowadays. A couple of them did take up gardening and enjoy it, but not many of them did.

It is so hot already, but not bitterly hot and humid like last week. I got outside early and watered, fed the wildlife, let the chickens out to free-range, etc. and will spend the rest of the day indoors staying cool and comfortable. I think this week's weather will be better, but even if it is better, that doesn't mean it will be good.

Dawn

Hi Everyone. I'm at work in my AC'd office. I almost need a sweater. I do have a space heater just in case, which I turned on once this morning.

If I we were located in a different spot, I would try to put a "farm stand" at the entrance to our property. I like how the guy at Lost Creek does his farm stand, but his 5 acre farm is just on the edge of the city...and neighborhoods are being built around it. He sells stuff--eggs and garden produce everyday...and sells out. He has a cash box and it's the "honor system" I think it's a cool way to earn a little money to put back into the garden and his chickens. He does have a high tunnel and had tomatoes as early as February. They were pricey, but people grabbed them up.

We are canning everything, though, so that is useful too. It will be nice to not have to buy canned beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and other things for awhile. We use a lot of those mentioned items.

Last night, HU and I canned 27 pints of corn. That was work. Flies really seem to prefer corn, huh? I didn't have time to put them in the pantry this morning, but the new pantry is nearly full. I still want more beans--not green beans-- and pickled peppers as well as tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.

I am making notes of the most productive plants for canning purposes. Juliet isn't as bad as I thought. I have a system now for removing it's skin and it's easy. I just cut the fruit in two because they're small. Also, the 4th of July plant makes a small/medium fruit. I do want to try the Heidi next year.

For us, the most productive tomatoes are what we need the most of...because we will can most of our tomatoes. Tom and Ethan do not really eat fresh tomatoes. And HU and I can only eat so many. So...next year--many of the high producers and a few of the yummiest slicers.

I've had a lot of fun with the cherry tomatoes. We have so many varieties thanks to Jen. Some cherry types have bigger fruits. Are those still called cherry tomatoes? The Isis Candy is SO stinkin good. It's very sweet. A keeper. Of course, Sungold is a keeper. I like just plain "black cherry", but the Austin's Black Cherry split easily after the rain we had over a week ago. Oh, and the Snow White Cherry is fun to add to the darker colors. Those will probably be my keepers. I just need an outstanding red cherry type. Any suggestions?

The Sweet 100 is good enough...not excellent, but good.

Other tomato things...the dwarf varieties. If I grow those next year, Baxter's Bush is a keeper. Wow. That thing puts out a lot of fruit. I have three of those plants.

I'll ditch Hardin's Mini. It's okay...makes a pretty plant, but not a favorite for me. Tiny Tim is just fun because it is so small. My Mom has enjoyed her Tiny Tim. It's in a pot on her patio.

I should have staked some of the larger dwarf varieties, though. The Golden Gypsies are loaded right now. I was surprised that it's fruit gets so large. Yellow tomatoes are a first for me and I'm never sure when they are truly ripe. These plants should have been staked or trellised or caged. They are dwarf, but they're not small like Hardin's Mini or Tiny Tim.

I've enjoyed the tomatoes this year for sure. And making many mental notes that I need to put on paper soon.

We haven't busted out the new Weston tomato press yet. We're just throwing the future sauce tomatoes into the freezer for later and focusing on the diced ones now.

The Contender bush beans are still hanging on. The black beans are drying up. HU says to leave them until the entire plant is dry. We will can those one they're all dried. It will be easier for future cooking to have them already canned. Apparently they have to dry to have the black color.

Southern peas are still going. We will just let these dry because we've canned so many already.

Okra. Yes. lots of okra.

A friend wanted to tour the garden this week. I said no for a couple of reason. One. Time. My schedule is changing weekly. Two. It's not pretty right now. The plants sure aren't at their most beautiful, although productive. It's hot. There's pest damage. We're just trying to keep the plants going and producing. I have some damage from the storm last week that I haven't cleaned up--broken asparagus ferns for one. It's just a mess and I don't feel like giving a tour of it right now.

Hope you all have a good week. Rebecca, hope you're feeling better.

I'm gonna get back to work now.

Hi all! Not much to report, as I have been indoors and avoiding the garden like most of you. (Thanks for thinking of me, Nancy!)

It was a pleasant 68° when I woke up this morning instead of the high seventies, so I went out and weeded my north- and east-facing beds that had been allowed to malinger. Could have been more thorough, but I’m still calling it a win. I found my first two hornworms of the year, which the chickens very much enjoyed, and have one more who is playing cat and mouse with me. Been picking and eating tomatoes like crazy, and my late Tromboncino squash are finally showing me what they can do. What a plant! Totally undeterred by squash bugs, chickens pecking at them, rain, heat, sun…pumping out flowers and fruits like nothing I’ve ever seen. My Seminole plants look lazy by comparison.

Cucumbers are still lackluster, melons are slooooooow, but watermelons have bounded ahead finally.

The zinnias have metastasized and taken over their beds, especially the Oklahoma series, but I can’t complain. My Grandpa Ott’s are going hog-wild, too, Dawn. Hard to be too upset about anything that isn’t just crumpling up and dying in this heat. So far my big tomato winners this year have been the Yellow Pear and Large Red Cherry (no surprises there), along with Solar Flare, Garden Peach, Purple Russian, Thorburn’s Terracotta, and Pearly Pink. I have been enjoying the Brad’s Atomic Grape, but they take longer than any other plant to ripen. They were the first to fruit and last to set a ripe one! Anna has made some beautiful round red tomatoes, but it is not early as billed. I just got my first ripe fruit this week, nearly a month after Thorburn. Berkeley Pink Tie Die is finally catching up, but like Green Zebra it has struggled this year. The bleeping stink bugs REALLY like Green Zebra. Definitely my most assaulted variety.

I have some new seeds from a trade, so I’ll have some fun new varieties to try next year. Plus the late summer seed sale emails have started arriving. Uh oh. I don’t think my husband will be thrilled with what happens when I’m awake with the baby at 3am and shopping for seeds.

Stay cool, everyone!

—Marleigh

The gremlins ate my post.

I'm not overwhelmed by tomatoes, but I'm ok with that. Won't get much from canners because they were planted late and crowded by cow peas. I have a volunteer long bean in with the pole beans. I've been thinking about the spigarello lisca broccoli. It is grown for greens. I don't care for it raw, but I'm going to have to cook some. All other greens are ragged and holey, this has been barely bothered by pests. It might turn out to be a reliable green. I need Collards and don't know where I'll put them or the fall stuff. I stuck okra in all my "holes".

Had the grandkids Saturday and went out to a restaurant for the first time since March to meet daughter's future mother in law.

Ron went back to work. He got used to being home and he's not thrilled with it. They're offering an early retirement package before layoffs. I'm hoping he won't have to wait till Oct to take it.

Marliegh, I got the best laugh all day at you buying seeds at 3 am while up with the baby. I am also fond of large red cherry for it's productivity and that it's bigger than other cherries. Like dawn, I get tired of picking little cherries.

Larry, I'm tired of the heat and gardening chores, too.

Have a good week.

Oh my friends.

i have been out of town or sick for a little over a week. Came to my daughters last night excited to see the kids and the garden and the garden is in horrible condition.

apparently they didn’t water.

At all.

i talked to her several times this past week and she said she did except one day when baby was sick.

the main garden and squash/popcorn area were dry over a foot down. They are on drippers and usually run this every other day with this heat.

The tomatoes in the giant tubs were bone dry. They are supposed to be watered every day.

I was so sick I just cried for a very long time. I was supposed to go to market this Saturday and now I have nothing to take.

Most of the garden is going to get ripped out this morning at daylight.

why can’t I catch a break. With gardening.

I told them I didn’t want to garden here and they said it is fine we will help. I knew it does not work to try to garden and depend on other people to know what to do.

it’s not the worst thing that could happen I know but right now it was going to be my income.

Kim, I am so sorry. I can see both sides of this coin, but that still does not make it better. When I was young my stepdad would tell us to come on down and pick the peas, or corn, he had more than he needed, and, what was left was not in good shape. From his point of view there was food out there and I was too lazy to come and get it. From my point of view. I always had a job that came before my garden, and his garden. I had a wife and kids that required some of my time. I already had all the garden produce I needed. My wife did not help with anything outside, or, processing the produce. My son had ball games that he wanted me at. I seldom had time to drive 25 miles one way to pick produce I did not need, I had lawn to mow, flower beds to care for, and it seemed a never ending repair list at my house, or his house.

I really am on your side, I am at the same place you are. I have to tell myself often that my daughter and granddaughters have a life. Their life had different interest. I still want them to learn to grow and preserve food because at some point it may be very, very important. The most hurtful thing I can see is, anyone should do what they say, even if they have to ask for help doing it. A little bit of neglect can have permanent effects.

I hope that there is no hard feelings in your family, and if they are I hope they heal quickly. There are so many things in life more important than a garden, love, understanding and forgiveness are three of them. There is so much hurt in my family, that I dont think will ever heal.

I will remember to pray for your family, as well as mine.

Jennifer, Tim and Chris often complain about their buildings at work being freezing cold in summer and burning hot in the winter. I guess it is hard for the HVAC systems in large buildings (lol, anything larger than a house, perhaps) to be well-regulated so that folks aren't miserably cold in winter and hot in summer. I think some of the ladies in Tim's office had heaters beneath their desk to keep them from freezing to death in summer.

I've always preferred Sweet Million to Sweet 100 but there are many great red cherries---it is a matter of finding one that your taste buds prefer because everybody's taste buds are different and perceive flavor differently, so one person may love one variety and another person may not like it at all. Some of the red cherry varieties that most people like include Large Red Cherry, Matt's Wild Cherry, Bloody Butcher, Peacevin, Camp Joy and Chadwick Cherry.

Marleigh, I always find it interesting that the pests always pick some of the best-flavored tomatoes to attack. Apparently they must have taste buds or something?

I hope you're doing well in this heat and glad you had a cool morning to work outside.

I agree that at least Grandpa Ott's is thriving and flowering, and we should be so lucky as to have all of our flowers that tolerant of extreme heat and extreme humidity. One thing about heirlooms like Grandpa Ott's is that they have survived for so long because they are so hardy.

If your husband says anything about seed shopping at 3 am while awake with the baby, you can just ask him if he's volunteering to get up at 3 am so you can sleep. (grin)

Amy, So, the early retirement package isn't available until October? Well, maybe October will get here pretty quickly. I bet it does feel strange to Ron to be back at work again. Tim has had some folks out on pandemic leave for so long that I wonder if anyone will recognize them when they return. lol. It looks like one of them just cannot get a negative test no matter what and I am not sure how they are going to work around that for a seemingly-recovered (long-recovered) employee who feels fine but cannot get the darn test to give a negative result. They now are in the second generation of this disease down there as people are having children test positive, so they have to stay home and take care of sick kids and then run the risk of catching it and testing positive themselves, etc. Some families seem to be just passing it around from one to another, which is surely frustrating for all of them. It isn't like you can move out of your house because someone else who lives there has the virus.

Rebecca, I always felt our son's test was a false negative too and so did he, because he had all the symptoms, but he was on the road to recovery by the time his results finally came back so he didn't ask for a retest. By then he had been sick about 10 days. They also did a chest x-ray on the same day they did the test and it was clear, but he still was very, very sick. I hope your retest gives you correct results. I am wondering about the quality of the testing myself. My DH had an employee get back strange results in Texas yesterday, and I haven't heard of this before: the test results came back "non-conclusive" so he asked them what they meant and the medical personnel told him (at least in Texas, I guess) that nonconclusive results are counted as a positive test, so he is considered positive and has to test negative before they can release him to go back to work. If nonconclusive results count as positive, why don't they just tell the person they are positive in the first place instead of confusing them by saying the test results are nonconclusive? I am glad you don't have to go back to work yet and hope you start feeling better. I'd be shocked if your antibody test doesn't find antibodies because it certainly sounds like you have it.

Kim, I am so sorry that your family let your down, and sorry that you've been ill. I hope it isn't Covid-19 that you have had because even though it seems milder now for most people than it was in the early months in the USA, many have persistent health issues related to Covid-19 that linger for months. Maybe your daughter did water but just failed to water enough. People who aren't used to gardening in the heat and who aren't used to drip systems tend to not run them nearly long enough to wet anything except the soil surface, which just isn't enough.

Putting your watering system on a timer could have prevented that issue at your family's place to some extent, but it is too late now. Is it too late to save the plants with some good consistent watering? In this heat, it is hard to get good production of most things anyway. I think maybe your timing is off this year---it was a crazy weather year all spring and in early summer, and many gardens are out of sync compared to where they normally are in July. Depending on any crop for a cash income is iffy at best, and is one reason I steadfastly refused to go sell at Farmer's Markets when I had oodles of plants and too much produce--I never wanted to trap myself into a position of needing the garden to make money since sometimes it would pay off financially and others it wouldn't. I just preserved all the excess produced or gave it away. So, you quit the job you had there in Denton? I guess I missed that.

When it gets hot in July, I slack off on watering and let everything just sort of slide. It is too hot and too snakey in my location to be out there doing much of anything. I harvest when I get a chance, and I water the new plants by hand, especially those still in containers. I learned long ago that it was incredibly hard (and, if you're watering, very expensive) to keep the full garden going full-tilt through July and August in our heat. The older I get, the less interested I am in fighting the intense July and August heat. I look back at my 40-year-old self, or even my 50-year-old self and marvel that I worked in the garden (or in the kitchen canning) all day every day in the summer heat for years and years. I am smarter now, perhaps because I'm also older and a bit wiser. I've noticed many newer gardeners (say, those your daughter's age) lose their enthusiasm for gardening when the weather gets insanely hot, and I totally get it. Y'all still should be able to get great fall production, assuming the fall weather cools off reasonably early and yet does not freeze early like it did last year.

Hang in there. I am sure you are feeling very discouraged right now, but things always get better.

Larry, You offered such wisdom and wonderful, wonderful advice. As much as we love our gardens, in the end it is people and love that matter more. Family is everything, even when there are times we do not see eye to eye and let one another down. In the end, I feel like love and family are what really matter and everything else is just stuff.

Today was our coolest, most pleasant morning in weeks. We did not wake up to temperatures and heat index numbers in the 80s! Oh, they are there now, but we had a pleasant couple of hours, right around sunrise. Everyone was out early this morning too---the deer, the wild birds, the feral cats, etc. and everyone was loving the cool morning air. I hope we have another day or two of cool morning air before the usual heat comes back.

Dawn

Hi Friends.

First, Kim, I am SO sorry. I wish you were closer. You could come harvest stuff from our garden to sell. We don't have a lot of "market favs", but we have stuff although probably not enough to cover the gasoline to get here.

Do you think something is wrong with your dripline? (Just remembered I have a soaker hose on the peppers that I need to turn off.)

I hope you're feeling better from your sickness--I know you're not feeling better about your garden. :(

Larry, I agree with what you said. And it's good that your daughter and granddaughters are a little interested in the garden. They're listening and learning...even if you and they don't realize all that they're absorbing. At some point, this could be helpful because at least some of them will probably develop a desire to garden. OR if there comes a time that people really do need to grow their own food to survive, they'll have that information stored in their brain. Does that make sense? I do the same with my kids. I talk about the garden and show them things. They don't have a love of gardening, but they'll be able to pull information out if and when they need/want to garden.

Marleigh, I'm laughing at the image of you up with baby and ordering seeds at 3 am!

Amy, do long beans do better in the heat? Something I read/saw somewhere indicated that they do.

The weather is on and it said we have a decent chance of rain/storms this afternoon. I hope we get rain, but please no crazy storms! HU, should I take down the shade cloths just in case?

Marleigh, I'm interested in the tromboncino squash. Have you grown it before this year? If so, what does it taste like? Is it similar to butternut or seminole? I'm looking forward to trying the Pennsylvania Dutch. It's starting to creep into the other areas of the garden. It too is outgrowing squash bug damage. Although the damage is there. The plants do not look as pretty as they once did.

Dawn, I have Matt's Wild Cherry this year. It's okay...sorta like Sweet 100. Maybe the red cherries just are the least tasty to me in general...thank you for listing a few of your favs. I'll get some seeds for a couple of them for next year.

Yes, cherry tomatoes can be tiresome to harvest. Especially with the tomato cages that I have. HU's mom had a saying for cherry tomatoes that get left on the plant.

Non - conclusive--that's a weird test result...and frustrating.

I also wonder if all the positive tests done on the same person (as they're trying to get a negative result so they can get back to work) play into the number of positive cases that are listed daily. Like, the same person gets a positive result 3 times before getting a negative. Do all 3 positive results get reported and included.

Do y'all wonder what the flu will be like this year? With all the precautions it should be a lighter flu year, I think.

I worked outside for awhile and it was nice even in the sun.

I have neglected getting woodchips in the pathways on half of the kitchen garden. So, worked on that for an hour or so. It's not completed, but another big chunk is done. I might continue to work on it tonight after Pilates. We're still doing Pilates on Zoom. I'm tired of that. It's not the same and we don't have access to all of the equipment.

If it doesn't rain, we'll mow tonight--or Tom will. And tomorrow night we'll fix the chicken nursery roof. It is all back together except the roof. I need to move Blossom to it soon. Get her some chicks so we can move on with life. The other chick nursery has the older babies in it--Jonquil, Saffron, and Cozette. They're just pretty little pullets. A Buff Minorca, a New Hampshire Red, and a Barred Plymouth Rock. One white layer and two brown layers. I need some green or blue layers. Hoping I can find some for Blossom, but I'll take what I can find, I guess.

Alrighty, I'm going to make some refrigerator hot banana pepper pickles now. I love those things.

looks like a 20 % chance of thunderstorms. I wouldn't worry to much about taking down the sheets. What you might do is see if there are any black beans that are dried or near dry enough to pick. Don't want those to get wet much or they'll sprout in the pod.

HU

We got more details about the early out today. At this moment we're looking at the option that would have him retiring Oct 1. There's some nice benefits provided they don't go bankrupt before we get them. Meh, he was going to retire in August when he'll have 35 years, so if we get any of it it's worth 6 more weeks.

The kitchen sink is stopped up. Plumber can't get here till tomorrow. Lots of dirty dishes. I've been washing in cold water on the patio. Going to pour that dishwater on crabgrass and see if it will die ;)

I tried to go seed shopping last night, but I realized I really have to put seeds back and figure out what I'm out of, and that hasn't happened.

Long beans are a form of cow pea, so yes they like heat. I only see one vine but one long bean pod is enough to add to stir fry. I grew tromboncino one year. It wasn't for me. I prefer the taste of the Korean squash. But it might be closer to zucchini. That particular year may have been the worst SVB and squash bug year ever. The SVBs were boring into the leaf nodes of both it and Seminole pumpkin. I had every anti squash bug companion plant I could come up with in that bed. When the squash bugs were through with the squash, they moved to melons and cukes.

I'm so sorry Kim. There are no words.

I saw a headline about someone getting 2 sets of results from the same swab used for testing. Sorry didn't read it, but WTH?

I'm going to finish my post and figure out how to sterilize the dishes. I could boil water on the stove to dip them in. Bet I have a mesh bag some where for dipping like in girl scout days.

I thanked Alexa today. She told me to have a nice Tuesday. It was kind of creepy.

I'm going to claim a win here. I had a LOT of Mexican sunflowers growing well at the school. In fact the second batch, between 2-3 feet tall, were too crowded. I tore mine out here because of fungus, you might remember. Well, I told John I was going to steal some from the school and bring them home. I did. I came home with 5. And realized I might very well lose them all, transplanting in this kind of heat. Still, was worth a shot. I got them in--didn't have shade cloth, so I put frost cover above them for some limited protection. Today the 2 at the ends of the bed are FINE! I am shocked, but delighted.

Oh, life. Good words, Larry. I'm sorry for your troubles, Kim. Dawn--what you said about insufficient watering by inexperienced gardeners. YES. I know most of us are afraid when we have to leave our gardens to our assistants. LOL--but true. I'm sorry--what happened to yours isn't funny, Kim. I hope you're able to salvage some or most of it. Prayers for you.

I had a chat with John a month or more ago. I had planted marigolds, cosmos, and zinnias. A couple times I got to school and the area where I'd sown them was bone dry. So when John arrived I reminded him about watering--for newly sown seeds, and for all the small seedlings. He assured me that he watered every morning, but it was just dry by noon. He was hand watering with a nozzle type sprayer, and I had a hard time convincing him that wasn't going to work. Well, he then began watering at night, and watering longer, and now things are looking good. As the seedlings got larger, we mulched them well, then I took a variable speed watering wand to school so he can water things at the ground level and avoid getting the leaves wet. We have soaker hoses threaded around the big center bed that are working well. And we have some people working up a drip irrigation plan. We'll be anxious to see that.

I guess we all laughed at the visual of Marleigh and babe seed-shopping at 3 am. Thanks for the laugh, Marleigh. Well. Looks like the tromboncino squash will be trialed this fall, and more Korean summer squash, too. Garry and I both LOVE it. I am jealous of your spreading zinnias, which reminds me. I'm going to go try some more--one more time. I cannot believe I didn't have any luck with them year this year. Yet. AND I can steal some of THOSE from the school, too. (You all understand I'm stealing my own plants that I grew from seed! LOL)

Rebecca, please continue to keep us posted. And, BTW, I'm taking the ratty hollyhocks out. I just realized that saving it for you would be for naught, as this is its second year. It is SO ratty-looking. I'll grow some for you next spring.

Loved your non-conclusive comment, Dawn! Ain't THAT the truth. DUH! That was so funny! I haven't looked at the numbers here for about a week. All I know is that we are steering clear of events and close encounters with people. Saw little kids from school yesterday, and they were very respectful--good job! It had been 4 1/2 months since I've seen the three youngest. Love them to pieces--and these kids and their families are certainly among the more vulnerable. I hate this Covid19.

I am so proud of myself. Not only did I get our vehicles set up with the bluetooth devices for the "Drive Safe and Save" with our car insurance, but picked veggies, did a load of wash, got out the Weston sauce maker for a marathon session, got that cleaned up, and cleaned out and organized 2 obnoxious kitchen cabinets. AND helped Garry with the problems he was having with his online bill pay through our bank. AND swept the floor. I quit.

Hoping for the best with Ron's job stuff, Amy and UGGGHHH with stopped up sink! Let us know if the the soapy dishwater kills the crabgrass! LOL

Later, all. Hydrate, be safe, and blessings to you.

Lol. That is kinda creepy, Amy. We had a Google Mini. Ethan didn't like it and threw it in the shop.

So, tromboncino is more like a summer squash? Not sweet like butternut?

You know, Amy, I had a year like that with SVB. It might have been my first year trying to grow them. They were gnawing into even the C.M. ones. It was so disappointing, but I'm glad I didn't give up on them.

Sorry about your sink. Things like that always happen when you have things like a full sink of dirty dishes.

HU, I'll go out and check the black beans before Pilates. It's strange--I found part of a black bean plant, with pods still on it, over by the woodchip pile.

So...I got my hot banana pickles done. Only had enough for a single jar. And made some fresh salsa/pico de gallo for dinner. That's about all I've done this afternoon, other than cleaning up the kitchen. Does the kitchen ever stay clean? It doesn't. Not at our house. It's a well used kitchen for sure.

It got hot. It was nice and now it's not.

That's my afternoon report. Still showing a chance of rain this evening, but I'm not counting on it.

You can grow trombonino to the winter squash stage, I just don't think I got any.

I'm crying. I have blister beetles on pool row. It might have been on nicotiana or they might have been attacking the plant behind it and I forget what that was.

Rain has threatened here and piddled out twice this evening. I can even hear thunder, but it's east of me. I watered pool row and the sweet potatoes and the front pots. OMG the mosquitoes out front!! Can't figure out why. But no beneficials out front. I see lots of dragon flies and damsel flies in the back. Tried to explain them to my grandson Saturday. He is afraid of bugs until you tell him what they're good for, LOL.

The dishes got washed. Some will be rewashed tomorrow in the dishwasher because they seem greasy. I guess I'll find a dishpan in the gardening stuff so I can wipe counters with soapy water.

Nancy you're way busier than me!

Amy, that was today. One day. ONE day I actually did several things. And then, I didn't quit. I decided since I was going to plant more zinnia seeds in that sunny enough raised bed next to the carport, I'd tear out the gigantic kale that took up 3x3 feet (Russian red or white). So I went over to tear it out and thought, I should actually taste this before I just toss it. I tasted it, and it was not bitter! Amy, you're my kale person. Do you grow a giant Russian red or white? Dawn? Anyone else? It was huge and magnificent. But that is precious sunlight for flowers, so I killed it. But stripped all the leaves, first, to bring in and freeze. (Not blanch, dbarron, as it will be used up fairly quickly in smoothies.). Wasn't easy getting that big clump out. I had to leave and get to the deck to wipe the sweat out of my eyes. But got it. And Rebecca, the hollyhocks,, which also took up an area about 3x3, are also axed.

I was supposed to meet Suz and John tonight, but had to bale. I'll take them tomato sauce and cukes with onions and rice wine vinegar/sugar/water solution tomorrow. Meanwhile. . . just FYI, a church friend posted a cake recipe that looked like heaven. Mind. you, I do not do desserts here. Not because I don't love them--but because we both love savory dinners more. By the time we're done with dinner, no room for a dessert. BUT. For a couple desserts, I make an exception: my favorite lemonade cake; and now this one--to get the recipe, google Southern Praline Pecan cake. I pretty much hate all blogs. But here's the recipe. Just scroll to the bottom where it actually gives us the recipe. https://www.thecountrycook.net/southern-pecan-praline-cake-with-butter-sauce/

I think what suckered me in was the sweetened condensed milk. Garry and I aren't really crazy about stuff with nuts. At one point he asked me if I could make a pecan pie without the pecans. InDEED! And yet. I loved pecan pie for about 3 years straight and ate it or made it whenever I could. It's a love/hate sort of thing.

But so I just knew I had to make this cake. I did. I saved out 1/4 of it for us (me) and took the rest of it to John. He told me he HAS to have the receipt. He said he could eat one big piece of it every day until he dies. Ummm. . . yep, me too, alternating with my lemonade cake. Just tine 2x2" pieces.

Let's see, what is on the list for tomorrow. Plant zinnias here. Get to town and weed at the school.

HJ nicely scolded me that I haven't been posting, so I thought I'd jump on. And whatever the issue I had with posting has resolved itself. Yay! Now I can get back to my routine of checking in with everyone here.

Cliff's license expired back in November but he didn't know until the eye dr mentioned it to him in March, a week or so before all this endo of the world stuff. So he hasn't been in any rush to get it renewed, until now. His cousin is moving from California and asked him if he would mind helping her. She's in her 50s and doesn't have a license, husband recently died and she decided to move with her zoo. Professional movers are hauling the horses and goats (think she has goats, I've lost track), but she also has 2 rottweilers and 15 cats. So she's rented a motorhome for him in Claremore to drive out to California & bring her back. Which means he has to get his license fixed, and since he currently has a CDL & is downgrading to a regular license, it's more complicated to get it renewed. So tomorrow we get to drive to Tulsa to get it taken care of so he can haul some woman he's never even met halfway around the country with 15 cats. When he gets back, I think I'll need a vacation. It's not going to be a pleasant trip lol.

Garden update: veggies suck, flowers are out of control. I had tons of peas early on, but nothing since. Two tomatoes are still about 6" tall & I planted them in March, so they got yanked. Only peppers I have are from the plants HJ gave me. And our roommate's squash/gourd/melon garden is slowly dying. She went from a couple dozen plants to half a dozen & those aren't producing. Time to shrug my shoulders & start planning next years garden.

Jennifer, The non-conclusive being lumped in with positives seems frustrating to me---especially if you are the person affected with it and it is keeping you from getting back to work, etc. I assume all states do the same thing as Texas, and I assume it is to streamline the already complicated testing process.

Yes, each positive test gets counted singly, not related whatsoever to whether the same person is being tested repeatedly. So, let's say I had Covid-19 and I'm getting tested every 4th day to see if it has cleared from my body so I can get back to work. If I get tested positive 5 times, it counts as 5 positive tests, period. It doesn't count as 5 positive tests for one person. Again, I think they do this to streamline the process. Can you imagine if someone had to enter the positive test results and correlate them to somebody's name and SSN for each test? Somehow the programming would have to tally them up as one person and not X number of different individual people. They have a hard enough time now with modified ancient programming they are using just to track numbers geographically by county or zip code---it would drive them stark raving mad to track it by the person. It isn't like any state had a nice, up-to-date pandemic test tracking program set up, tested and ready-to-roll. Each state Dept of Health is working with what they've got, and in some cases, I've heard that what some states have is very antiquated machines programmed in programming languages programming languages not taught in colleges in decades. Oops. States need to invest in updated equipment and programming, but cannot do that in the middle of a pandemic....so here we are with what we've got.

I think the flu season will be worrisome no matter how you look at it. We will have the usual cold and flu viruses going around plus the Covid-19 virus. When somebody coughs, you won't know if they have a standard old run-of-the-mill cold, the flu, Covid-19 or pneumonia. It will be more nerve-wracking than being in a store now precisely because of the unknown origins of the coughing. Tim has an employee whose nearly-adult child has pneumonia right now. What does that mean? Regular pneumonia? Covid-19 pneumonia? Do they even know? Tim was off work today for his annual medical check-up and had a great conversation with our family doctor about Covid-19 and what he is seeing in his practice locally in Texas.

Amy, Sorry about the sink. That is so frustrating! My biggest memory of remodeling the kitchen wasn't anything hard like hanging cabinets or laying the tile floors...it was washing dishes outside in dishpans. It drove me bonkers....but not bonkers enough to carry the dishes, dishpans and dish drying rack upstairs to wash them in the bathroom sink either, which some folks do while remodeling a kitchen.

I didn't see the article you read, but there have been some squirrelly test results. Some areas are seeing 30% false positives and 20% false negatives, so it is sort of hard to have faith in any of the testing results. Some areas are doing group testing (the idea of this makes me crazy) where, let's say, they combine 5 swabs and test them jointly in one batch of regeant, which is in short supply. So they effectively test 5 swabs in the regeant normally used for 1 swab. If all swabs are negative, they have their test results for those 5 people and used a lot less regeant to get it. If any one of the 5 tests positive, they all show positive, so have to be retested individually to figure out which one or ones of the 5 are actually positive. I am not sure if this saves regeant in the long run, but they must think it will or why do it?

Nancy, You were a whirlwind of activity today and just reading all that you did just wore me out. I have the grandkids for the rest of the week so my main job was to sit by the pool and make sure nobody drowned, and to make sure everyone got fed. Tim started teaching the girls old-fashioned string games this evening like making a cat's cradle, and delayed bedtime a good bit by doing that, but they had fun.

I've grown just about every kale there is, some for eating and some for ornamental purposes, and to me, kale is just kale...and Tim doesn't like any of it. I dare not try to sneak kale into anything he is eating, or he won't eat it. My favorite kale I've grown so far really is a cross of a kale and a collard, and it is not only tasty, but also quite beautiful. I think I last grew it in 2017 or 2018 and I got the seeds from Nichols Garden Nursery in the PNW. I'll find it and link it. You have to see a photo of it to see how gorgeous its color is, and it tastes even better than it looks.

Groninger's Blue Collard-Kale

Southern pecan praline cake is a classic and a well-loved one, but I prefer hummingbird cake myself. (Obviously, there are no hummingbirds in it, lol.) I could bake every day and eat those baked goodies every day but then I'd be the size of an elephant, so I largely avoid baking very often. I'll make icebox pies in the summer just because they are so simple, and because they do not require turning on an oven.

My day tomorrow will be simple. I'll run out and water plants in containers while the girls are still asleep since I wake up a couple of hours before they do. Then, once they are awake, it will be all about spending our time together doing things they enjoy doing. I suspect there will be a lot of swimming pool time. Today the temperature of the pool water was 97 degrees when they got into the pool at mid-afternoon shortly after arriving here and they were so delighted. Those spring days when the water was 76 degrees when they jumped into the pool are a distant memory now, as they should be.

I still am not seeing hordes of grasshoppers or blister beetles like many folks in OK are reporting, but all the trees in our neighborhood have the most fall webworm nests I've ever seen---they are everywhere, even on shrubs that the fall webworms usually don't bother.

The NWS tossed a 20% chance of rain into our forecast today. Nothing happened. Well, that is not true. As the clouds popped up, the dewpoint went higher and our heat index got worse, but we didn't get any rain. Now they've given us a 30% chance of rain tomorrow. I bet we don't get any rain tomorrow either. It is so dry the Johnson grass blades are curling inward and looking pathetic---this is one of my favorite parts of the dry season, not that the Johnson grass actually ever dies or anything. Still, I always hope that it will.

Dawn

Nancy, I love those Mexican sunflowers. Mine are nearly 8 feet tall!! Full of blooms. They do so well here.

Im not 100% sure how my garden is doing this week. We’re in Missouri for a little while because my grandpa passed away yesterday morning. Heart attack 4am Monday, followed by 6 seizures (epileptic), followed by a rough 24 hours of no consciousness, then yet another, final heart attack yesterday around noon. I was in town buying lumber when I heard. It hasn’t quite fully set in for me yet. So, so thankful that I came up for that week just one week ago. He was in such a rush to show us his dad’s old place where he grew up, and he made it priority to go see that that trip. What a good time we had. What’s hardest for me is seeing all of the projects around here that he was happily working on Sunday. I can also see that he broke his brush-hog AGAIN Sunday LOL. Man, I just had that thing in tip-top shape for him. Stop hitting tree stumps Grandpa!!!! So sudden.

It rained here A LOT last night, and I’m told it poured buckets at home. It seemed to be getting dry for a bit, but now we’re getting about perfect rainfall. I finally did have tomatoes beginning to turn color before we left. May have to call a neighbor up to help themselves. Tomatoes have done so well for me this year. Never had them do this well. I really do prefer the sprawling behavior versus trellising, although they do take up more space.

My asparagus is beginning to turn yellow. Is that normal for mid summer? I’m thinking it is?

One thing that I have loved about all of the flowers this year- so many pollinators. Bumblebees come in waves, and butterflies are almost always out there. So pretty.

Also, that pink tall phlox in the bottom right of the photo is becoming a favorite of mine. Does well in any condition. It’s bloomed for a few weeks and I think I’ll get a couple more weeks out of it, hopefully. If anybody has other colors of that flower, would you let me know? I’d love to obtain other colors if I could. Seems sort of hard to find around here.

Have a good day everyone. It’s hot and humid.

Jacob I am so sorry for you and your family.

Jacob, I am sorry to hear about your grandpa.

Jacob, our condolences. It's wonderful you were able to visit with him last week.

Tromboncino came up in my FB memories today. 2014.

I bought Groningers blue kale from the Experimental Farm Network this year. I had been looking at it at Nichol's for awhile along with another item. I was finally ready to get them both and they no longer sell the other item. Supposedly the EFN variety is the "original" strain. To be honest I haven't tried it yet and not sure which one pf the plants it is, LOL. I can't say any look like that pic. Nancy, I'm not fond of the texture of the Russians. If you're putting it in smoothies, that would not be an issue.

Ron fired the plumber. They had a 6' ladder. One got on the ladder, USED OUR GUTTER for a hand hold to hop on the roof. The other guy was going to HOLD the machine at the top of the ladder while the other guy on the roof snaked it. They claimed they did it that way so as to NOT damage the gutter. WTH. Roto router has been called. Could have called them yesterday. Mutter, mutter, mutter.

Larry

I wanted to be mad At someone. Truth is it’s just me. On my way to take my grandson back to the panhandle I got up late and ended up driving into the west Texas sun with no ac. My grandson being in the shade with fans was fine I however got really heat sick.

because of that I forgot I had a garden LOL

i should have been texting my daughter reminders every day instead I was in bed sick for days. Finally came home with my ac fixed but stayed away from them in case it was something more serious. The baby already had uti so didn’t want to get near her.

all is well.

I ripped out all the for sure dead stuff. Trimmed all the dead stuff that might make a comeback. Harvested all produce so plants can recover without stress

Jacob, that is terrible news. Yes, I am sorry, also. How wonderful that you were there just before he died. I suppose it's too soon to know what your Grandma will do. I'm sure you are a great comfort and help up there. A reminder of how fleeting our time here is. I'm sorry your time with him was so short--but know you will treasure the time all your life, as I have with my own Grandma and Grandpa. God bless you all.

Your phlox is beautiful. I'm wondering why it does so well at your place. I've tried it here, but just not enough sun--and have mildew problems. I'm trying it again, one more time.

I found the perfect way to make desserts! Garry and I can take what we want, and I can deliver the remainders to John and Suzanne, either for themselves or to hand off to little friends. Garry has an aversion to pineapple, coconut, and pecans and walnuts! Brat. So then, I'll try the hummingbird cake and can hand off most of it to John. I do love all those things, except walnuts. And walnuts fixed as an appetizer, spicy-like, are good. The one thing Garry and I agree on--nuts have no place in brownies or most cookies. My son agrees. A lot of folks don't like raisins. I love raisin bars and oatmeal raisin cookies. This is the kind of thing I was thinking about while mowing an ugly section of the yard that we can't even see from the house. What started me off on this was icebox pie. Haven't made one in years. WHY? I'm going to have to remedy that.

Neonicotinoids. Is that why we don't want to buy big box plants? I'm noticing the pollinators aren't paying attention to them.

Groninger's Blue Collard-Kale. I must find it. Gorgeous. It looks like several online seed sites have it. Excellent! I admit, I am still sort of tiptoeing around kale. I had it in the one salad and loved it. I love it in the smoothies, though that doesn't count since it can't be tasted in them.

Ha! Kim and Amy posted while I was sitting here lallygagging around with the thoughts in my head. I'm feeling all smug since I did one thing today. Mowed a bit. AND watered the new tithonia and containers. I need to go vacuum my office (My office sounds much more official than quilt room/art room/cat feeding station/computer table. So from now on it's my office. Minus a computer. Must be a faulty driver that is preventing me from connecting to the internet. And because I can't connect to the internet, can't get a driver. Sigh. ) I'm thankful for the Mac. But love the big Dell. I'll have to call around and find help for it.). Meanwhile, the room DOES need vacuumed. I have a 5x13-foot red carpet l lying on the brown patterned indoor/outdoor carpeting. While no dirt shows up on the brown, when the red no longer looks red, but kind of reddish white, it's time to vacuum up Titan's hair. Ya think? There. Just did it. . .

I'm looking forward to ordering my groceries this week. I see whipping cream, cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, lemons, frozen peaches, strawberries, graham crackers on the list already. Have a good day, all.

I hope Roto Rooter gets there soon, Amy. And glad things are better for you, Kim.

Dawn

yes I did quit my job in May

It’sa crazy long story but the gist is it was way past time. I was being used as a scapegoat which of course they figured out after I quit.

I am babysitting grandkids for money starting last night!!!

Jacob, thoughts and prayers!

I did very little today, I got into trouble yesterday. It was almost 10:00 when I came in last night. I was hauling water for the wildlife garden. Madge thinks I am working too hard. I am not working too hard, I am working too stupid. I have too much to water. I have more ground ready to plant. My neighbor and I are working together trying to keep stuff alive for the deer, he said hat they cleaned out his okra last.

Well, I just came in from watering our garden. The mosquitoes neatly ate me alive.

I told my neighbor that I would share my okra with him. I told him that I had 30 plants and that was too much for me and Madge. Then he told me that the deer only got about 15 plants. When I ask him how many he planted, he said, " about 400", I told him that the deer probably thought that he planted some of those for them anyway. I am not sure he planted that many, but as thick as he plants he could get that many in a 100' row. I dont need to bad-mouth, at least his garden is clean. His rows are far enough apart that he can drive his tractor and tiller between the rows and keep everything neat and pretty. He is about the same age as my oldest son, retired, and works like a slave.

I had started redoing my trellises, placing them 6' or more apart. Then this covid 19 thing hit and I placed a row of peas or beans, or what ever in between the trellises. Now my garden looks like a jungle. I planted a 20' row of squash, I never plant that much squash. The plants are so big that I cant find the fruit. I did the same with my cucumbers, but I had rather have too much food than not enough. I also plan on a fall/winter garden.

Jacob, sorry about your Grandpa. Glad you spent time with him before. As a grandmother of many I know how precious that was to him.

Jacob, I am so sorry to hear about your grandfather and so glad you were able to spend time with him recently. Just cling to those happy, happy memories as you grieve his loss. A grandparent can be such a strong pivotal force in their grandchildren's life and I am sure he was exactly that for you. I know it feels like he has left you, and of course he has left you here on this earth, but I also know that he is a part of you forever because he helped make you the young man you are today and he lives on forever in your heart, soul and memories.

Your asparagus turns yellow as it nears the end of the current season. For as long as it has been green, it has been storing up energy for next year's spears. I don't think mine normally turns yellow in July unless we are insanely dry and I'm not watering. It normally stays green well into fall. You're quite a bit further north and your warm growing season ends earlier than ours, so it might be normal for your asparagus to start to wind down its season and turn yellow now.

Your flowers are gorgeous and, yes, the pollinators go crazy over them. I've always grown lots of flowers with our veggies, but the last couple of years we've had substantially fewer veggies and tons more flowers, and I have to say that I don't really mind that too much. The flowers and pollinators bring their own special joy to the garden.

Amy, Firing the plumber might have been the best idea yet because it sure sounds like they might not have done the quality of work you'd expect based on how much plumbers charge nowadays.

Kim, Driving in the heat with no AC must have been horrible. No wonder you got sick, and I hope it just was heat exhaustion and nothing else. Now, stop blaming yourself for the garden. Life happens, and projects go a bit astray and that is all that happened to you. The blame game won't change what happened. There's lots of growing season left, especially for you as far south as you are. Except for last year's exceptionally early freeze, autumn weather has been extra slow to arrive in recent years, so you probably will be able to keep growing and harvesting down there until almost Christmas.

Nancy, That is a perfect way to make desserts! You can enjoy them without having to eat the whole thing.

I also am in the no nuts category with brownies and cookies, but making snacks for the volunteer firefighters pushes me into using nuts when I make cookies for them. Their favorites are Chocolate Chip-Pecan and White Chocolate-Macadamia Nut, both of which I make using the Doubletree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, just substituting my choice of chocolate chips and nuts. The nuts are important because they get a little more protein into the firefighters and even the lightly salted nut smake them thirsty, which ensures they drink more, which helps keep them well-hydrated. I know they do not realize how sneaky I am about that nut type snacks---we long have used individual-sized packages of Planters Nuts (Sam's Club), Trail Mix from various sources and Sweet and Salty Snack Bars (like granola bars but tons of nuts instead of granola) as grab-and-go snacks because those snacks also get more nuts and salt into them and help ensure they keep drinking water and Gatorade. We have more firefighters with blood sugar issues than we used to have, so the protein in the nuts helps balance the carbs in other food items, and we use a lot of Gatorade Zero now to get them the fluid and electrolytes they need without the extra carbs. I even make cookies sometimes from nut meals used as flour substitutes. The only thing we have to watch out for closely is new firefighters who aren't used to our snacks and might be allergic to nuts, but as far as I know, we've only had one of those in over 15 years, and he told me up front he was allergic to tree nuts, so I made sure we had nut-free alternatives. When I make cookies at home for us, no nuts are used.

Some big box stores are in the midst of phasing out neonics. I am careful to avoid any plants labeled as having been treated with them, and the Home Depot near us is really good about labeling their plants. I don't think pollinators avoid plants with neonics---I think they feed on them and die, so I am ultra-conscious of avoiding plants that might have been treated with them. There's absolutely been times I have walked away from plants at HD because they had caution statements on them warning the plants have been treated with neonics and could kill pollinators. It makes me want to scream and ask them why in the world they sell those at all then! I don't, though, because the front-line person in the garden center isn't the one making those decisions. The neonics would be out of the plants systems by the second year, but who wants to risk poisoning the pollinators with them the first year? I don't buy flowers at Wal-Mart any more because I've never seen anything that says they have phased out neonics and I've never seen caution labels on the few plants raised with them like I see at HD.

Kim, I am sorry they treated you that way there. It is amazing how different life at the Denton store must have been from the one out in West Texas. I'm glad you have a revenue stream now.

The NWS was way off on our forecast yesterday. We were much hotter than they said we would be, the Heat Index was a lot higher and it was miserable out there. I sat in the shade for hours while the girls played in the pool and it was miserably hot in the shade. I couldn't have done it if I had been in the sun. Today is forecast to be cooler (ha ha ha, and how do I trust them after yesterday's forecast was so bungled?) so maybe the outdoor time will be better.

No rain here in three weeks now and it sure is getting dry.

Dawn

Sharon Smith Hankins. . . . thinking of her with love as she is battling cancer. She and her family posted on FB. Please send all your prayers. She is so wise, and she is such a special loving and kind Christian friend. It has been a "people are so precious" week, with Sharon, with Jacob and your Grandpa, with my little vulnerable friends at the Lincoln Garden. We have a young loved one who is 9. In an untenable home situation. So desperate that Garry and I wanted to foster her 2 months ago. I called the Dept of Human Services. Inept at best. They didn't even pretend to care that we wanted to foster. Said they'd call us back and didn't. Meanwhile, they had taken her to her grandmother. Her grandmother already was taking care of 2 of her cousins. And this one is not an easy case. Come to find out the very next day, the grandmother turned her back over to her old druggie father. Well this has been somersaulting and worse and worse and worse for this 9-yr old. She's witnessed things in her 9 years that you and I never did. It's a very long story and Suzanne and John worked and worked to find her a safe place. We think they finally did. It has been so emotional for all of us. And so. A "people are precious" week. Please all of you, know you're all in my heart and prayers.

I cleaned out a third obnoxious cabinet today. I actually was fearful of it. LOL. I mustered the courage/energy to call the computer repair guy in Wagoner today. My Dell either has a virus (hope it's not Covid 19), or is missing a driver, or I've messed up the settings. Whatever the case, after wrestling with it for 4-5 days, I gave up. UNCLE. Was so liberating to unplug it and drive it to Wagoner.

Garry and I signed up for State Farm's "Drive Safe and Save" insurance savings program. Any of you on it? They sent us 2 little blue tooth devices to stick to our windshields behind our rearview mirrors. And then just an app downloaded to the cell phone. Automatic 5% discount just for signing up, and they SAY up to 30% discount on premiums according to how safely we're driving. We are having the BEST laugh over this. We feel like we're doing a driver's tests for getting our driver's license. It's hilarious. Yes, it is kind of big-brotherish--but it's not like they are with us. If we brake too hard or follow a vehicle too close, or veer or speed m ore than 8 mph, and so forth. . . points off. IF we come to think it's too invasive, we'd back out. But right now it's just hilarious, especially since we both want to perform well! Right now we've got a perfect score. . . but that's only on 3 back and forth trips to Wagoner. Wait til we go to Tulsa.

My transplanted tithonia are hanging in there. . . but by gosh, I certainly have to give them a heavy soaking each morning.

Nancy, Yes, Sharon's news is daunting and I'll pray for her daily. She faces such a tough battle.

Jacob, If you see this, I'm praying for you and your family as y'all go through this tough week together. Family is everything. I do hope that once you get back home, you can get in some gardening time because time spent in the garden tends to be very healing.

I hope the solution y'all have found for your 9 year old friend works out. There are some good people at DHS---I know a couple of them---but the agency overall severely disappoints me. I feel like what y'all saw happen with the grandmother turning over the child to the drug-addicted parent happens far, far too often. I just think the DHS people are incredibly overworked and have unbearable caseloads, and that is not a justification for how poorly some of their decisions work out---just an observation that we expect superhuman performance from mere mortals who are overloaded, overworked, stressed out and seriously underpaid. I wish our system worked better than it does for the sake of all involved. A child to whom we are quite close has a druggie father (thankfully, non-custodial) and the mother and stepfather have to be very proactive to keep that child safe. Honestly, the best thing would be if the father were not allowed any contact with that child, but we all know that's not how it goes in general. Why do the courts and DHS allow kids to be sent to visit and stay with druggie parents? How is that safe or in the child's best interest?

I need to tackle one cabinet in the kitchen (the one above the fridge) and also the spare cabinets in the sunroom. This week the girls have been reorganizing their 9-cube storage cubie, taking out the bins, sorting through and reorganizing, throwing junk away, etc. Except for the colossal mess they make while it all is in process, and I can handle that because it is temporary, it is a terrific experience---they took this on themselves after deciding they had lazily let it get away from them, it was totally disorganized, and the items in the storage bins tended to bear no relation to the label on the bin. Now it all is sorted and organized again, and if a bin says "craft supplies" there's actually craft supplies in there and only craft supplies. They've done a great job and are exceptionally pleased with themselves. As always happens when kids clean up and organize their stuff, they found books and toys they had forgotten were in those bins, so it has been like Christmas this week for them. lol. This is their last day here this week and the house will be so quiet once they're gone, but I do need a little rest. They keep me hopping all day long, and far too much of it is spent out in the heat....but who would deny their grandchildren as much pool time as possible? Not I.

LOLing at the thought your Dell could have the Covid-19 virus. Let us hope it does not. Any computer virus is not a good thing though. I hope the computer repair guy can fix it for you.

I've been slipping outdoors very early each morning, just as soon as it is light enough after sunrise that I can see where I'm putting my feet so I don't step on snakes, and watering the garden while the girls are still sleeping. I pay special attention to all the plants in containers and to the plants I transplanted into the ground in June and early July. So far, so good.

This is my week to just roll my eyes and hate on the NWS. Yesterday they were just as wrong as all the days before. The max heat index of 99 they predicted? A total joke. Ours was 107. I don't even have to check the data to know they are wrong---I can feel it in the air myself and know when we have gotten hotter than they said we would. It is a daily thing. I should just stop looking at our forecast because they keep predicting cooler temperatures and cooler heat index values and neither one of those is happening.

Late yesterday afternoon we had a cooking lesson---I taught the girls how to make a strawberry cobbler the Paula Deen way. They were tickled to pieces to put the batter into the pan first and then drop dollops of fruit all over it, but for them the true revelation was checking it every 15 minutes or so as it baked and watching the dough puff up and rise above most of the fruit. It was a great way to teach them about the difference between all-purpose flour and self-rising flour too. For them, that rising cobbler dough was like a magic show. The really interesting thing was that the 5 year old kept calling it a peach cobbler, and then would correct herself and call it a strawberry cobbler. Well, Paula's recipe is for a peach cobbler, but you can substitute any fruit, so now I'm wondering if she has watched her other grandmother make a Paula Deen peach cobbler and maybe that's why she kept calling our strawberry cobbler a peach cobbler. We had stuffed pork chops (they were wary of these but adored them), two veggies and cobbler for desert so they pronounced the meal that "they" cooked a huge success, even though the cobbler was the only part they were involved in preparing. We have been eating fish, chicken and pork all week long. I think my body needs to eat beef tonight or tomorrow. As a native Texas raised on beef, I am having withdrawal this week.

As is common at this time of the year, there's nothing new in the garden. Mostly just watering and harvesting and hoping for better weather. We still have remarkably few pests of any kind here. I still haven't seen a leaf-footed bug except for the one or two I killed early in the season, but am seeing some stink bug damage on some tomatoes---though not nearly as much as usual. It is a strange pest year. Tiny crickets are everywhere now, clearly having hatched in the last month. They are so late this year, like so many other things.

We are raising a fine crop of white-tailed deer. They were out waiting for me in the driveway this morning---a doe, a young buck with spikes (perhaps her child from last year?) and a young fawn. I went and put deer corn out back behind the barn a couple hundred feet west of where they were waiting in the driveway, and they promptly went back there to eat. Other deer showed up later out there at the deer corn while I still was watering the garden. I put the doves' cracked corn and the wild bird seed and sunflower seeds alongside the driveway where the deer had been, and I know the deer come there at some point every day and try to scarf up the wild birds' seed. I just try to keep the deer busy with the deer corn long enough that the birds get to eat their own seed. We're having a blue bird spell lately with bluebirds, blue jays and indigo buntings visiting daily---many more birds of blue than we generally see except in the worst of drought years. This certainly is not the worst of drought years, but maybe it feels like it to the birds because most of our rain is far behind us in the rear-view mirror and not falling here this month.

The hummingbird activity is growing again, so it is likely the young have left their nests and are feeding, fueling up and preparing for the late summer migration. I have having to refill the feeders every couple of days.

Dawn

Eggplant. If it feels slightly soft to the touch, it’s too far gone, right? I thought I was keeping up with everything ok....

Second test results aren’t back yet, but I go back to work Monday regardless. Gotta get paid. No fever but still have fatigue, SOB, and GI issues.

BER might finally be resolving. Some tomatoes have a scar on the blossom end, but are otherwise ok. Was able to send a small bag of tomatoes and a couple cucumbers over to moms for the family.

Well, Its too hot to do much, The deer and other critters are really giving me a hard time, most of all the insects. I still dont have any irrigation tubes installed in the garden. I have several tubes that are broken, many by the tractor, speaking of tractors, I just bought another one. I went up to my neighbors house late yesterday to take veggies. I was shocked at how much he had gone down hill. He has dementia, and is already down to a wheelchair. His wife told me that she was trying to come up with enough money to put in a handicapped bath room and was $2500 short and was trying to sell his old tractor to finish up the amount she needed. The tractor wont run now, and may never run again, but I told her I would buy it. What brought all this up was her asking me if there was any way I could repair their drive way. I dont have an angle blade, and that is one of the things I need to work on their driveway, so I bought 4 more pieces of junk to repair. I never thought I would wind up being a caregiver for so many of the neighbors. I think God that, at least for now, I am able to do it. The neighbor also seemed very happy to get the vegetables. It appears as they, and their extended family may be in need of assistance.

Madge and I both are doing what we can. We know that someday we will be the ones needing help.

My garden is looking pretty good in spite of all the insect damage. If I dont get some help from the good bugs soon I am going to spray with something because I am loosing too much produce that I could be giving to people.

When I checked the wildlife garden this morning I found 2 squirrels over there and some damaged pumpkin vines. Something is eating the new leaves and the growing tips. The pumpkins have been eaten back so much that I doubt I will get any good produce from them. The electric fence does not do much to keep small critters out of the garden. I am just not man enough to do the things that I thank needs to be done.

"Eggplant. If it feels slightly soft to the touch, it’s too far gone, right?"

Not necessarily . https://harvesttotable.com/harvest-store-eggplants/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huCU4ItM10k

HU

How long do sungold tomatoes take to harvest? If I were to start some now, would I have a decent crop before first frost? Also debating putting them in a feed tub & move it into the garage if we get an early cold snap. I've gotten six cherry tomatoes this season & am starting to get annoyed.

Between squash bugs, aphids, squash borers, etc, our squash/gourd/melon/cucumber patch has been wiped out. Still getting several yellow cucumbers from the 2 different "white" varieties we planted. And I have one that I'm not sure it's a cucumber or gourd; I had "dragon egg cucumbers" and "dragon egg gourds", & don't remember which one I planted. Might have to pick one & cut it open to figure it out.

After our experience with DHS foster care & my working for the agency, I have zero respect for any of the management. There are some amazing workers, but management is worthless. When DHS took over our program, a co-worker asked our boss (off the record) what she thought of us accepting their job offer. My boss said "I would hire someone who worked for McDonalds before I'd hire anyone who put DHS on their resume". I'm so thankful I got out when I could; much as I hate leaving my life in Tulsa, this job has been a major blessing.

Our office has opened but anyone who wants to stay on work from home is free to do so. They sent out a copy of the return-to-work procedures, which basically states you have to have your temperature checked before entering the building. There's also a series of questions. First one is have you had any covid-19 symptoms, which include coughing, shortness of breath, elevated temperature, or headache. I'm a 43 year old fat woman with asthma and migraines. Those symptoms are a way of life.

Larry, I’d spray away. It’s a fantastic way to help your friends. I’m trying to work towards something like that myself, being able to donate to food banks and such.

Jen, why not try? I mean, this is 2020, we could have a freeze over Labor Day weekend, but what do you have to lose other than a plant, and what’s left of your sanity. I just planted a couple Early Girls and a Husky Cherry in the past week. (And I’m still interested in feed tubs, if it’s ever safe again.)

I know a couple fantastic social workers. They care deeply about what they do, sometimes too much. So much of the time their hands are tied by management as to what they are allowed to do. The burnout rate is terrible. One of my friends works exclusively in the Spanish speaking community, and sees all the racism and harassment they go through. Management offers no sympathy or extra help.

Is anyone else other than Jen and I having a crap cucumber year? Out of 4 varieties (including 2 proven ones), only one is growing. Pointsett is on my forever list now. Not even Little Leaf is growing, is just crawling along without a care in the world. Pointsett is 2 plants in a Home Depot bucket with a bent tomato cage to climb on, and is going nuts. Everything else is just watching.

I think I picked the eggplant too soon. Any chance they will ripen on the counter?

My second COVID test isn’t back yet, but I go back to work Monday anyway. Bills don’t pay themselves. Kinda worried about my stamina with the ongoing headaches, short breath, and fatigue.

Rebecca, If it is barely soft to the touch, the eggplant still might be usable, but yes, in general when it goes soft to the touch it is overripe. If the skin has lost its gloss and looks dull, it definitely is too far gone to use.

At this point, if you get a negative test would you trust that it is not a false negative? They're getting them in about 20% of tests....so, I think you know your own body better than a test that might be giving a false result....and you have had all the symptoms, so.....and I guess the important thing is that you're recovering and you didn't have to be hospitalized so at least there's that. I hope your remaining symptoms abate soon. With some people they hang on for months and you don't need that.

I am glad to hear your BER issues finally might be resolving themselves. What a strange gardening season it has been!

Larry, You are such a good, caring person and an awesome neighbor. Thank you so much for being the kind of person that you are. I feel bad for your neighbor and his wife--that is a rough road to travel. My dad died of Alzheimer's disease, but the disease took him away from us bit by bit over many years in the most cruel and insidious sort of creeping way---bit by bit you lose you who were.

Oddly, our 8' tall deer fence keeps the squirrels out of the garden. I didn't think it would. I assumed they'd climb right over it, but they don't. It is just an unexpected bonus. Of course, the fence also keeps bobcats out of the garden and, without them, we have voles, so no fencing situation is perfect.

Jen, Starting SunGolds from seed now? Probably would be too late for much of a harvest unless you get a really late first freeze. Technically, it is not too late if you look at it on paper. They are 57 DTM tomatoes, but that DTM counts from transplant date not from the date seeds are sown. So, you have roughly 12 weeks before central OK gets it first freeze? Expect to spend at least six weeks of that just getting seed-grown plants to typical transplant size, and perhaps a little bit less if they grow quickly in the August heat. Conversely, the heat could cause them to struggle and grow more slowly. So, if we assume transplant size in six weeks, then that gives you six weeks before the first freeze to get fruit production if they start blooming at a transplant age of six weeks. That six weeks left once they start blooming is 42 days....they produce ripe fruit in about 57 days. See how the math is not encouraging? You might get ripe fruit before the freeze if it is late, or if you can protect them in the garage for a few more weeks, and you might not. If I were going to start fall tomatoes from seed now and put them in a container that could be dragged into the garage for freeze protection, I'd choose something compact and manageable: Red Robin, Orange Pixie, Yellow Canary, Red Tumbler or Red Tumbling Tom, Yellow Tumbler or Yellow Tumbling Tom, or even Cherry Falls. Their sizes would make dragging a tub around more doable. Now, if you have cuttings or can find the plants in a store already transplant size now, the SunGolds would have a chance. You can grow Red Robin, Orange Pixie and Yellow Canary in 4" pots (some people do, inside on a window sill, all winter long), although I'd give them 1 to 2 gallon pots for better production.

The issue is that every single day from this point onward the daylength continues to shorten, so the plants' growth slows more and more as time goes on. It is a very subtle change right now since we are not yet that far beyond the summer solstice, but it accelerates over time as the day length gets shorter. Many people see this in the way fall tomatoes get loaded up with green tomatoes that "just won't ripen" in the cooler autumn weather. Well, of course they will ripen, but with less hours of sunlight daily and less heat, they ripen more slowly than summer tomatoes so the risk is always there that you'll lose the fall crop to cold weather, and that is from existing summer plants or from fall plants that were put in the ground a month ago. Starting from seed now just puts you further behind.....

I totally get what you are saying about DHS management. My older brother was very idealistic and was going to be a social worker and save the world. He graduated from college with his degree, and quickly learned the system, as it existed in Texas at that point in time (the late 1970s or earliest 1980s) wasn't going to let him save all the children the way he had thought he would/could. He also quickly figured out that in his field, there were case workers (with Bachelor's degrees) and their bosses (with Master's degrees) and not much room for advancement or salary increases in between, so it looked like a pretty dead-end career if you were just starting out and all your bosses were only 10 years older than you. He quickly pivoted and got out of that field after only a couple of years, and got hired by a computer company to work in customer service and software development. He was lucky they took a chance on him because his new job had nothing to do with his college degree. He's done work he loves for decades and has been able to support his family, and he poured his desire to help kids into service as a school board member, so he still found a way to help kids. I doubt things in the DHS system in TX are any better than they are here in OK now either.

It is great you have the option to work from home. I wish Tim had that option, but he is essential personnel, so that's just a pipe dream. He continues to deal with employees' Covid issues weekly, if not daily, and it makes maintaining adequate staffing a huge issue when so many must be out on pandemic leave. Even essential personnel in all sorts of fields cannot be at work if they are positive or quarantined or just staying at home awaiting test results. I cannot imagine what fall and winter will be like, but am trying to prepare for them.

It is so hot here and the heat won't break. They keep forecasting cooler days and then we keep on not getting them. lol. Our weather ignores forecasts. It is just the typical midsummer crap, and it will drag on until we start having typical late summer crap. Last night we had a series of grass fires along I-35 near our house because the grasses are so dry that anything, like rubber thrown off a disintegrating tire or a dragging chain or whatever will spark fires. I'm just watching the calendar and trying to hang on until autumn.

Dawn

Jen, do you want some cherry tomatoes? I can bring you some--we have too many. Or you're welcome to come out to get some.

I'm not sure about how long the sungolds take to produce. You could try it and see--what have you got to lose? Especially if you can move them to the garage if we have an early frost/freeze. (please, NO. But, I would like a cold snowy, not icy, winter but not until December, of course. Mother Nature, please take note of my specific request.)

And, Jen, SVB bored into my Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck. Found the damage on Thursday. It's a C. Moschata. Very disappointing.

Larry, you are a good person.

HJ sure! My husband is heading out of town on Wed, so maybe one night after work or on the weekend?

Okay, let’s see

what the weather does and pick a day. Or pick a day and see what the weather does.

Sounds good. I'll dm later in the week.

1 3/10” rain and 73 degrees - unheard of last part of July. Hoping a few cooler days and this blessed moisture will allow my tomatoes to set a few blooms. While the rest of you are tired of tomatoes I’ve only had 3 so far, not counting a handful of cherries. I pulled out the green beans this morning, not sure what to plant back there. Getting a small mess of PEPH peas every other day and still enough squash and okra.

I need to make refrigerator pickles this week. I wish I liked plain cucumbers, but not happening 😁

Larry, I feel your pain - the rabbits ate all my sweet potatoes back to about 1-2” last night. Not sure which I despise more -squirrels or rabbits! We have deer around but the dog keeps them out mostly. He’s getting older and sleeps in the garage at night and he lies in the hall during the heat of the day. He’s a farm dog, never liked being in the house until this year and he’s decided the cool tile feels pretty good. Last week I shot a skunk I figure was rabid, it was walking with head almost on the ground and wobbling around - then smelled one near the chicken house this morning. I only have 3 guineas left. Trying to decide if I want to buy more chicks or guineas or just turn the chicken house into a small greenhouse and buy eggs. Between the coyotes and hawks and owls it seems a losing battle. Like the rest of you I’m hoping for a fall garden. Hope the rest of you get some rain and cooler temperatures even for a short time.