Watering watering watering. Trying to keep things alive

I am cleaning up and clearing out as well, Larry. I hope to be moving in the next month to an apartment. I am not going to be renting a storage unit to store anything so if it is not absolutely crucial to my life, it has got to go. I accumulated it once and I can do it again. If I need to. The Garden at home is so neglected barely watered. At work I can’t keep enough water on the Orchard and the garden and in the greenhouse. It’s an endless supply at the well, but if I water the Orchard, there’s not enough pressure to run a sprinkler. They sent someone over to help me one day so all he did for two days was water the Orchard move the hose from tree to tree. I pulled out over 12 tomato plants this week that we’re not producing and they were half dead and looking pitiful in my effort to keep things looking pretty, they were not fitting the need. Also, most of them had not produced fruit in a month or ever. I’m gonna look back and see when I planted those because it was definitely too late in the season. I think it was some that I had brought home from the spring fling. Which at home it’s fine to baby along the plant, but I can’t do that at work. I have more Black Eyed Peas coming up so hopefully they will start producing soon and I can rip out all the old stuff. I’m going to clean up that area. Some things got planted way too close. I’ve never been a good judge of planting because it always seems like you could fit more in there and then when they all of a sudden they grow up and they’re 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall tomato plants you’re out of room. I talked to the boss about getting landscape fabric so I will be working on that for the foreseeable future. The greenhouse is hitting 130° during the day so there’s not much I can do in there except going in the morning and keep everything really well watered. The peppers are starting to put on finally if I can keep enough water on them they should do pretty good. The strawberries in the greenhouse made a bunch of babies and I think I got close to 25 out of 30 runners to take. I’m going to be resetting those beds or at least one of them. But now is not the time to move plants around. I hope to start some brassicas soon and hope that I can do it outside in the shade because like I said the greenhouse is way too hot and I don’t have any other place to start seeds. I’m also gonna call the local nursery and see if they have plant starts like broccoli and cabbage. That’s all I know for now. I hope that y’all are staying cool and keep those gardens going.

Kim I don’t know how you do it. I just can’t deal with the heat anymore. That said, we always worked outside no matter what the weather because we had to. I don’t have to anymore.

The heat finished 98% of my garden. I had a couple of new cucumbers, 2 yellow squash, some peas, about a dozen okra plants, a few peppers, and sweet potatoes. The deer got inside for the first time and now the sweet potatoes are 3-4” stems, the okra are sticks with no leaves, and they ate the stems off the cucumber, the peas are about 3” tall. The one squash is still alive and still producing. Now is a good time to drag out the glyphosate and weedeat. No need to worry about a drift.

Larry I’m sorry. I know we all will face it sooner or later and it’s just HARD. No other way to put it. Nobody feels the same way about your stuff or your land. They have their own ideas and notions of what’s valuable and what’s not.

I have an old grain drill that belonged to my Daddy and is a treasure to me and thankfully will be to my daughter along with a few other sentimental things. I tend to be a pack rat and should clean out a lot of stuff before they have to.

I’ve cleaned up after my parents, my in- laws, and uncle, a sister-in-law, and a couple of neighbors. Although in some instances I had no help I still got a lot of advice and criticism. I also swore I wouldn’t leave a mess for my kids to clean up.

Jennifer thanks for keeping the threads going. I love reading but don’t have time to post. As you can tell I start a note and add to it until it’s almost a novel then copy and paste it. My chickens aren’t laying as many and the older ones have already started to molt. This seems awfully early. Hopefully when it cools off they will pick back up for awhile. I have extra eggs put back and froze several. The frozen ones are just as good to bake with. I’ve been buying cherries at the store and freezing them. I love them mixed with yogurt. I had enough peppers to make a couple of bottles of pepper sauce.

Not sure yet if planting anything for fall or not. Weather is going to have to change a lot before I even consider it. We got our hay cut and baled. Only about 1/3 what should be. Grateful for what we got. I took some tomato suckers to root, never had any luck at that before. Not sure if any plants for sale anywhere. TLC has their August bucks now so I’ll check to see what they have left if anything. I always use the extra credit to get a big bag of potting soil to put in greenhouse.

I have 2 huge piles of leaves and manure composting but it’s not breaking down because it’s been too dry and too far from water source to keep it wet. I plan to spread it thick on garden for the winter.

I’m rambling and just hope I can copy and paste this without losing most of it. Till next time -

I never dreamed I’d be working outside in the heat lol. I dreamed of this job just not the heat. The greenhouses run 122 to 130 during the day. I avoid them as much as possible. I do take more than my share of breaks probably. I also have a rag that I dip in water regularly and put on top of my head or around my neck. Whatever the Landscaping crew does is what I do. Stay covered as much as possible and lots of water, electrolytes and salt. I wear overalls and long sleeve shirts and everybody thinks that’s crazy. But it is actually cooler than when I wear shorts and T-shirt. I have a real good farmers tan going on and my hair is more blonde than it has been in decades. I have had heat exhaustion several times this year and I’ve also worked through pneumonia. I think the breathing is the hardest part for me when it gets really hot it is difficult for me to breathe. I am looking forward to the fall and getting a break from this heat.

Glenda, it's always good to hear from you when you're able to post. I'm not doing a large fall garden. Lettuce and broccoli maybe. Maybe another round of green beans.

My second job is with an estate sale company. It's very interesting to see what family does not want when their loved one has passed. There's times we throw away entire photo albums...because no one in the family wants them and no one will buy them. Before a contract is signed, the family goes through the home and takes what they do not wish to sell. Once the contract is signed, it belongs to the estate sale. However, we will make a spot to put personal items for the family to look at just in case they missed those items when they looked through the house.

I'm literally cleaning out junk drawers, bathroom cabinets, garages which are full of all the things people typically store in a garage. There's expensive collections too. And some people have extremely expensive vintage clothing items, furs, jewelry, art....

But, no matter how rich/fancy a person is/was, they all have junk drawers. lol

I suspect there's about 20 items my kids will want not including photos and jewelry. They'll get rid of the rest.

Kim, I know you're being careful out there in the heat, but I worry for you. Do the greenhouses not have shade cloth or fans?

The last two houses I worked in have had AC issues. Last week I was in a hot garage cleaning it out. This woman had an abundance of ALL the holiday decor items. Literally tubs of them. Her family wants none of it. It is all being stored and staged in the garage because inside her house has the nicer, more expensive items. I've been doing the Celtic salt a few times a day and that has helped with hydration and keeping the headaches away. I also cover up in the sun. My skin isn't made for a lot of sun exposure. Supposedly people with the red hair gene make vitamin D and use it more efficiently. Probably due to ancestry and the climate those ancestors lived in. My D levels are always good.

I've already fed everyone and want to work on a couple of wreaths. After that, I'll head out to water.

Tomatoes aren't setting fruit in this heat. I still have the Katrina cukes making fruit tho. I've draped shade cloth over the butternut squash. It gets nearly 0 shade and there's not many fruit that is developing. I don't need a lot, but would like to have a good dozen or so.

Rebecca, how's your hydroponic set up going? I'm trying to figure that out for lettuce. It would be nice to grow lettuce indoors during the summer and winter because I love a good salad. The explosive diarrhea stuff going around has me super cautious with what I buy and what I eat in restaurants.

My issue is I use lettuce a lot normally. How do you keep a constant supply going with your system? Some of the counter top ones that I've seen....well, I would eat the harvest from those within a week and have to wait another month or so for the next harvest to grow.

I put zucchini seed into a raised bed in the hoop house. Maybe the SVB and squash bugs won't find them there for awhile.

That's about it for me. Life is busy and this heat is no fun.

Take care.

Jennifer, I had a guy offer to buy me out, lock, stock, and barrel, junk and all, we may talk about it.

I still have some brush hogging to do, I wont live long enough to get the place cleaned up, but that is a never ending job.

Larry, my property is much smaller and I feel the same way--we'll never get it cleaned up how I want it. It looks tidy enough, but not how I would like it to be.

The AC in the Nichols Hills house is still out for a couple of days. The house sold and a new AC unit is coming but I probably won't work this week at that job. No one wants to work in that situation.

So now...I'm lost. What do I do with 2 full days off?!

My house hasn't been deep cleaned since January. I'm considering tackling the living room. But deep cleaning means I need to wash Josi and her two beds. She sheds horribly and has that smell.

Early this morning while I was out watering, I pulled herbs to bring in to dry. Lemon balm, stevia, peppermint, common mint and a few butterfly pea flowers. The neighbor and her freeze dryer isn't quite working out because we can't sync up our times. I really want the herbs to be fresh when she puts them in, but she isn't always available when I have time to pull the herbs. If they're going to sit for 24 hours +, I might as well just air dry them. Air drying is just fine. I do think that dried stevia tastes sweeter in drinks rather than fresh.

It's nearly time to up-pot the broccoli.

Even with this heat, I'm bringing in plenty of produce. We had Thai last night and I was able to use my garlic, onions, carrots, noodle beans, and peppers. Need to work on growing ginger.

Still have tomatoes and cucumbers too, although the cucumbers are slowing down. And the non-cherry tomatoes are setting fruit right now.

Basically, I'm just rambling and need to get something done around here while I have a chance/time.

Have a good day. Be careful in the heat.

Goodness, Jennifer two days in a row off! I hope you get everything done that you want to get done. I am staring at my garden at work getting ready to rip out bunch of tomatoes. There’s random basil popping up all over the garden and I need to get that pulled and weed whacked. None of the pumpkins are planted at work are coming to fruition one volunteer watermelon is doing great. It’s got baby on it. I pulled the ground cherries, even though they were producing they were taking over too much space and they are too messy for this pristine garden. The pollinators are out in full force doing their thing across the garden. I don’t know what to do about zucchini or yellow squash. I have gotten maybe four or five. Before the plant dies sometimes I get nothing in the plant dies so very unimpressed with that crop. I saw the lady that lives on Jess’s farm in Arkansas said that she never grows any crops that are subject to squash bugs. She said once you get them, you never get rid of them so maybe that’s the problem because the last Gardener he grew a lot of zucchini and they have a permanent residence here I think well breaks sober and I need to get a lot of tomato plants pulled out.

I am so depressed, it hard for me to have the drive to do anything. We have been giving things away right and left. I hate living in an apartment, and I hate living in town. To make matters worse, I have lived within 25 miles of where I am now. I was born about 3 miles from here ( as the crow flies). Moving to Fayetteville is like moving to foreign country, where the cost of living is much higher.

The kids raided the garden when they were here Sunday, they all took things from the house that we are trying give away. The garden is pretty well shot, but I just cant get into the mood to care for something that I am just going to walk away from.

I say that I am just walking away and not doing anything to the place, but I feel that I need to do more brush hogging, and spray some honey locust trees and bushes. I hate honey locust with a passion, I cant think of anything that tree is good for. I also need to spray the fence rows to kill the young brush. I will also try to brush hog up close to all the fences that I can get the tractor near. I know that the kids will not care for the place like I do, but if it looks good maybe someone that will care for it will buy it.

I think that the fact that the kids do not care for the place as I do is part of my depression, but you cant live someone else's life for them.

Madge ran across this vinyl picture of our that her grand daughter had made of our fur baby. This is a picture Hercules, our yorkie, he was the sweetest little boy. The grand daughter gave Herc to us to keep while he was getting old enough to get his shots so he could move to Hawaii. Herc became attached to us, and grand daughter could not stand to take him away from us. The little boy lived with us for 14.5 years. Herc is buried in our south lawn near the south garden. Herc loved the gardens, and would eat many things right off of the plants. Herc really loved pumpkins, sweet potatoes, peas, beans and broccoli. I pulled Herc's grave marker that we had made at the funeral home. We will take the marker with us. I have no reason why, except that he was the sweetest little boy, and he loved us so, we really loved Herc also.

I had better shut up or this post may become tear stained.

Madge just told me, " why don't we wait at least 6 more months," We had told our selves that we needed to move within a year. Madge'skids want us in Fayetteville NOW!

Now, I am rambling, time to shut up.

Larry, my heart breaks for you and Madge moving is not easy. I’m going through kind of the same thing, but I have not lived there all my life only seven years,. Giving up my Garden is the hardest part and really the only hard part. I never have had to live in an apartment and can’t say that I’m looking forward to it. What I am looking forward to is having a washer and dryer in my house I’m looking forward to having a real toilet. I’m looking forward to having space and rooms to put things. I’m looking forward to being a lot closer to work. Right now I am 75 miles one way and I will be 22 miles if I get the apartment I want. So I’m gonna send you and Madge a big hug and pray that you are comforted and you can ramble and well don’t cry on the keyboard because that might not turn out well, but we’re here to listen.

I remember your cute little pup, Larry. My dog, Josi, is sorta like your Herc. She loves all veggies from the garden.

What you're going through has to be so hard. I don't have any comforting words, but can pray for you and Madge. And you can always vent/cry here.

We're not ready to move yet. But, I can see it happening for us at some point in the not so far future. Thing is, I would like to keep this property too. We've thought about renting it, but I would be very particular. I would like to find someone who wants to "turn their waiting room into a classroom"...they could easily grow a lot of veg/fruit/herb and have chickens...and even a couple of goats. It would be a good opportunity for someone to see if that lifestyle is what they really want before making a commitment. No junkers or hoarders.

But...I'm not sure how easy that would be.

I was able to get the living room deep cleaned. It took 4 hours. If I'm not working tomorrow, I'll deep clean the hall bath and our bedroom. It does feel good to sit in a really clean living room. Josi is bathed and her beds are washed.

The chickens pen is watered down. It seems to make it cooler when the soil is wet. The other coop hens and crippled roo seem to be doing okay.

My neighbor brought over several swallowtail caterpillars. They had eaten all of her dill. I still have some dill and parsley.

I was gifted a quart of honey from a guy who lives about 2 miles from me. What a huge gift!

Tonight is Pilates so I'll quickly prepare our dinner before going and we can eat it whenever we're hungry later tonight.

And I still need to pull the herbs leaves off the stems and set them on the drying rack.

Late tonight will be watering, watering, watering.

I forgot to say. Kim, I thought Jill grows winter squash. Maybe the squash pests don't bother her winter squash. OR maybe it's a new thing she's doing--not growing squash. I skipped zucchini for years because of the squash pests.

A fellow and his two daughters came to look at the place, he said that he would buy everything, hoes, shovels, rakes, tractors, equipment, and furniture. This guy has rented the pasture and baled the hay for a long time, and still wants the place.

That's intriguing, Larry. Does he have a good offer for you or do you even want to sell to him?

Oh goodness. We've had some digging around the shop. It's happened before with skunks. Haven't seen any sign of a skunk. The native garden is behind the shop and has been a disaster this year. I've spent very little time with it and had planned on cleaning it up and resetting it this fall. Every year there's a "favorite" and prettiest part of the property. The back part is NOT it this year. At all. However, I was looking at it last night as I had seen a couple of monarch butterflies back there. And discovered a HUGE pile/mound. It had been partially hidden by a giant poke berry. I had been considering leaving it because it is a native plant and it is pretty. And the birds like it. Anyway...we took a video and sent it to a friend who does pest control. Appears that we have gophers. Great. Honestly, I wondered if we had something underground just because one of the sweet potato vines in the hoop house is limp even with plenty of water. and the hoop house is next to the native garden behind the shop.

The grass has grown up terribly in that garden in places. It's just a mess. So I took my little weedeater and whacked some of it down this morning and cut down the poke berry so it's not in the way of our friend who is going to trap it?

I had this thought of downsizing that garden too. Letting some of it go back to grass. Our shop is 40 ft long and the garden runs the length of it and is probably 20 ft wide. I'm considering just doing a strip along the back. Maybe just 6 ft wide. I'm not going to put gaillardia there, I'm sure it will come up but I'll pull it. I've been able to establish gaillardia in other places on the property. Maybe leave the Blue False Indigo, milkweed, and echinacea and replant a few things that have disappeared (like the bergamot) probably because I let the blue mist and obedient plant get out of control. I just have to get it more manageable because it is next to the shop. The burn pile "garden" can grow wild and the property corners can grow wild until June or so.

But...the gophers.

In good news I did see monarch caterpillars on the milkweed back there.

I'm trying to get the motivation to clean the bathrooms and bedrooms.