Poor Ilene! I will say that I do tend to agree with your mom though. I figure Murphy's Law is the one thing you really can count on, no matter what.

Ilene,

Well, I know you are not complaining, but you certainly would be justified if you wanted to complain. SOMETIMES venting, whining and complaining are a healthy stress relief and we all need that at one point or another! I hope your DH and DGS each make a speedy recovery and don't drive you nuts in the meantime.

My DH had MERSA last year. It appeared as a little black spot on his calf following a fire, so he thought a black widow spider had been inside his boot and stung him when he put on his fire gear. He went to the Dr. who diagnosed it as MRSA, put him on the appropriate meds., and he recovered quickly.
Your peach tree saga is similar to mine a couple of years ago and I DID thin the peaches....removed over 1,000 from one tree when they were about nickle-sized. The remaining ones got big and juicy and STILL broke the tree limbs, but we did a lot of pruning and the tree survived and produced just fine this year, at least until the wind blew the baby fruit off the trees.

Are peach trees worth it? I think so, but I only expect a good crop once every three years. Proper pruning is a pain and so is thinning the fruit, and I tend to not be as consistent as I ought to be. I don't understand why peaches have to produce either zero fruit or 2,000. Why can't they just aim for a couple of hundred or so? My neighbor has pretty good luck thinning with chemicals, but I don't use chemicals.

My dad always built wooden braces to hold up his peach tree limbs in "good" years, and he STILL had branches break, although not as often as I do.

If the tree is extremely frustrating, I'd let it grow as an ornamental and just plan on buying peaches at the Farmer's Market every year and make my jam, jelly and preserves from those peaches. I love gardening, but if a particular fruit or vegetable frustrates me to the point that I am not enjoying it, then I drop it and focus on something else that gives me better rewards and less frustration.

There's nothing wrong with being too optimistic! I prefer that to being too pessimistic. I am more of a realist than I used to be though.

It does seem as if Murphy's Law has been hanging over y'all like a dark cloud this week! At this point, though, things can only get better...and you did get that peach marmalade finished in spite of everything!

Some days, though, it does seem like it just doesn't pay to get out of bed! Hope the rest of the week is less frustrating.

Dawn

Thanks gals, I needed that.

This morning DH got me out of bed at 4:30 am because the cat, Pearl, had gotten up in the bed with him, wanting out, and when he couldn't get up and let her out, she pee'd and pooped in his bed with him in it!!

So before I'd even had my morning cup of tea, I had to help him get moved, strip his bed and load the washer, climb up in the attic and get the upholstery steam/vac and work over his mattress.

Pearl knew she was in trouble and she went out willingly with him onto the back porch. But when I came out to sit down she managed to dash in, wanting to be fed, and I was in NO MOOD. I had to chase her through the house, she ran behind the couch, I moved it away from the wall and grabbed her by the tail, picked her up and kinda sorta threw her out the back door. Needless to say, she has been content to stay out in the yard since and she may not get in at all today. She can eat on the porch.

In her defense, she didn't go out at all yesterday because it was raining, something I failed to notice, and she didn't understand that DH couldn't just hop up out of bed and let her out when she needed to go. But IN HIS BED????? I'm just apalled.

I think, thanks to the upholstery cleaner, that the mattress will recover without a stain or odor. It's good that the quilt and the mattress pad soaked up a lot of it and that it was cleaned up quickly. What a way to start the day, though.

DH is addicted to the TV. It's on constantly. I am more of a radio person, but I hardly ever get to listen to it because he always has the TV on. It's not so bad when he's in his room because my little office is way on the other end of the house and I don't hear it. But now that he's well enough to sit in the living room, that's in the center of the house and there's no place in the house I can go and not hear the TV. It's already on my nerves today. I can tell this is going to be a rough day, but it's time to take his juice to him so he can take his pills, get his breakfast, help him shower and then take DGS to the doctor to check his wound. I need one of those T-shirts that says something about having a nervous breakdown as soon as there's time.

I had peaches this year too!! The first time in 3 years. My tree is "special". I don't know the variety because the top graft of the peach we bought 10 or so years ago died and this sprout came from the root below the graft. We meant to remove it and plant another named variety, but it grew so vigorously the first year we didn't have the heart. Within a few years it began bearing big beautiful juicy golden blush peaches that tasted wonderful. We don't spray and we're too lazy to thin, but half of the fruit fell off in early June (and did so this June too in spite of all the rain)
The only downside to these peaches is that they are very fragile. I can pick them rock hard in the morning, drive them to Tulsa and by the evening they are going brown and squishy. But the tree limbs are strong and limber. We've never had a broken one although they bend almost to the ground. And a few peaches always have worms but we expect that.
The problem we have now is the dangdurnblasted Japanese Beetles. They not only have eaten many of the young tender leaves but they cluster by the dozens on the fruit and eat it up just as it gets ripe. We hate to spray, but what else is there? Now that the harvest is over, DH plans to buy some malathion or diazinon or something equally toxic and see how many of the things he can kill. They are on all the fruit trees--the almond and plum tree particularly hard hit--the roses, the cannas. I HATE them. And there is my peach tree saga. And Ilene, if there is anything left of your tree at all, I hope you can save it.

Ilene,

Cats have such a way of expressing themselves, don't they. A lot of times when cats express themselves in the manner Pearl did this morning, they are "upset" and are trying to let you know. Perhaps she is feeling a litle ignored because of all y'all have been through lately. I'm NOT saying that y'all have ignored or neglected her, but just that she may "think" DH and DGS have gotten too much attention lately and she's "acting out" because she doesn't like it. She sure got your attention this morning, though!

Well, when a day starts out this badly, it can only get better. Or, at least it had better get better. And, you are TOO BUSY to even shop for a shirt like the one you described. See the link below & imagine yourself wearing it instead.

Dorothy, Congrats on the successful peach harvest! Do y'all always have a lot of Japanese beetles like this, or it this a really, really bad year? I hardly ever have any here any more. They were bad early on after we built the house, but we applied beneficial nematodes to the soil as well as Milky Spore disease and that seems to have made quite a difference. My favorite non-toxic way to kill them is to put a handful of alfalfa rabbit feed pellets into a 5-gallon bucket and fill it with water. This "alfalfa tea" attracts the beetles and they drown in it. Some mornings I would pour several dozen beetles out of each bucket. (I wasn't trying to trap and kill the beetles--I was making alfalfa tea to use as a foliar fertilizer on some plants.....discovering it attracted the beetles and that they drowned in it was just a bonus.)

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: One Nervous Breakdown T-Shirt

Well, there you go, Dawn, that shirt about says it all.

The doctor is pleased with DGS's progress, though he says because of where it is, he is worried it will try to come back once the medicine is gone, so we're to watch it closely. DGS has had some of the surface infections, and I'm told those are running rampant this summer, but none that were deep into the tissue as this one is, and in a glandular area as well. It's a worry.

Pearl has stayed outside all day, sleeping on her styrofoam lid that is her favorite place on the back porch. Frankly, if she's trying to make a statement, then it's high time she remembers who can open the refrigerator door and who can work a can opener! After I washed all the bedding and turned the fan on in the bedroom to dry out the spot I cleaned, it decided to rain and of course where is the bedding but out on the line. So I had to bring it in, run it through the spin cycle and dry it in the dryer. Most everything is back together now.

DGS had to go to the bank with his WMT paycheck so we went there from the doctor's office, then stopped to get some groceries that were on sale. I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but I can see some trends. The "loss leaders" -- those great bargains they advertise in the paper to bring people in to shop -- seem to be in smaller quantities and of poorer quality. I made the produce man at Homeland go in the back to get decent grapes because I'm not paying $1.50 a pound for half-rotten grapes and that's what they had sitting out. Ordinarily I would've bought more than he brought out but my freezer's full, so it was OK. A few weeks ago, United had chuck roast on sale but they had so few to select from, and they were all less than a pound. I realize they have to pay more for what they sell, but I'm paying for the gas to drive there and I'm buying other things, which is their goal, so if they're going to advertise something, I expect it to be edible, and for them to have sufficient quantities so it will at least make it worth the trip for me. If this continues, I'll just support my local store.

I worried that DH would be up and around in his walker while we were gone but he was good like he said he would be. The therapist will come tomorrow and maybe will give us some idea when he can graduate from the walker to a cane. A couple of times, he has gotten up off the couch and has forgotten to use his walker as support. That's how well he's doing. But they only want 50% weight on the new knee so he needs to be doing what they say.

Dorothy, I'm really glad that your peach tree turned out so well. I wonder what kind of peaches they are. It would probably be impossible to find out. Do try Dawn's alfalfa tea mixture for those beetles, though. That's got to be frustrating. Are you old enough to know who RoseAnn RoseAnnaDanna was? She always used to say, "Wal, it's ALWAYS somethin'!" That's about my day. Thankfully, tomorrow is a new one.

i would have to get another peach tree. now i know why farmers have boards holding up limbs of trees.

I hope your DH and DGs get better soon.

Ilene,

I actually had found a photo of an even better nervous breakdown t-shirt, but the print was so tiny that it was hard to read. It said:

"As Soon As The Rush Is Over,
I'm Going To Have A Nervous Breakdown.
I Worked For It, I Owe It To Myself,
And Nobody Is Going To Deprive Me Of It."

I'm glad DGS's progress is satisfactory. Sometimes MRSA can be very persistent.

Pearl's not stupid and I imagine she knows she is skating on thin ice.

I can't believe it is raining there again. I'd like to have one-fifth of the rain you're having this year. I washed our bedding today and there is a cat who likes to sleep on our bed. She was beside herself because, you know, she simply cannot sleep on a bare mattress. She was restless and unsettled until the freshly laundered bedding was back on the bed and she could curl up in her usual spot at the foot of the bed. She's too rotten to go outside with the other cats.

I am getting to where I just hate to step foot into a grocery store and I agree that the loss leaders that used to be such great bargins aren't much to get excited about lately.

I'm really glad your DH is doing so well. One of our "old farmer" neighbors had one knee replaced in late winter or early spring (I think he turns 85 this year) and it went so well that he had the second one done just weeks later. The second one is giving him a little more trouble, but he has been really good about following the doctor's and physical therapist's orders (and that is HARD for him because he is very independent).

I remember RoseAnn RoseAnnaDanna! I can still hear here saying that.....I was in high school back in those days and we used to watch her on Saturday Night Live! What a memory! And, she's right, it IS always something.

Tomorrow is a new day and, hopefully, a less frustrating one.

Dawn

Today is better, although yesterday was rotten right down to bedtime. DGS slept till about 8pm (he's working nights at WMT) and then I had to practically follow him around to get him to do the things he needed to do so he could be ready to leave for work at 9:30. Then at about 9:30 he threw up.

Of course you know the first thing that pops into my mind is that infection he has, although I know that DGS can throw up at the drop of a hat and has been that way since childhood. Fortunately he hadn't taken his pill yet. I never know quite what to do when someone's on medication and they throw it up. I knew a woman who ended up in the hospital because she had the flu and she was taking medication. Every time she threw up, she'd take her medication again. Apparently her body was absorbing some of each dose before each hurl and built up toxic levels in her blood stream.

But anyway, I called him in sick at work and made him lie down after that episode. He drank some water and seemed to stabilize, and so took his pill, went to bed and we all slept, each with our doors closed because we didn't want any gifts from Pearl. She was allowed in to sleep and slept on the treadmill (I'm glad someone's getting the use of it!). This morning he got up and was fine, and talking about going to the canteen tonight before work.

With the prices of groceries going up, this is an excellent time to diet! DH and I don't eat very much these days. I have a hard time cooking the right amount and we always have left-overs to finish up. Lately I've been just freezing bits and tads of things and it's gotten to the point where I simply MUST do something with it all. So we're on a left-overs marathon. Last night I made sausage gravy. I didn't make biscuits but I had some rolls I had made several days ago so we finished off all but one and DGS used the last one to make a sandwich for work. Since he didn't go, at least he has his lunch packed and waiting in the fridge for tonight. Today at lunch DH and I will eat the last two Runzas and DGS will probably sleep thru lunch as he's gone to take a nap so he can work all night tonight. But there's enough corn and black bean salad and a little bit of roast beef, so when he does get up he can make himself a couple of fajitas out of that.

Yesterday afternoon I made another small batch of green tomato pickle relish and baked banana-coconut-black walnut muffins, using chopped bananas out of the freezer and frozen nuts from summer before last. The black walnuts last year were so small, I gathered them but they just weren't worth the work of cracking. The tree is out in the park. If someone doesn't go out there and gather the nuts, all the neighborhood kids pick them up and throw them at each other, at animals, and at windows.

I had two muffins for breakfast this morning and they were pretty darn good.

When I get the leftovers used up out of the kitchen freezer, I will go down to the big chest freezer. About every 6 months I take everything out, defrost the freezer and then pack stuff back in so I'll know where everything is. Then DH gradually moves things around in there till only he knows where anything is, and then I forget I've got a bag of green beans or a plastic coffee container full of cookie dough, etc. As I was moving things around in there yesterday, I did find a gallon bag of chopped green pepper that I didn't know I had, and a coffee container full of chocolate chip cookie dough. I know there's more stuff down there that needs to be used.

So here's to a better day! And yes, that shirt you found most recently is the one I was thinking about, Dawn.

Jessaka, I've seen those board supports and also someone here in town has built a 2x4 "frame" around their trees. I would think the boards would work better because you could move them where you needed them, and pack them away when the fruit was gone. The boards I've seen have V-shaped notches cut into them to hold the limb securely. The only thing is that they fall over easy when the wind blows. Maybe if they had something fastened to the bottom of the board, at right angles, that would take care of it. I think I'm going to put DH to work at making some of those after his knees are all well, for next year. That is, if we don't get a late frost next year.

Dawn, thanks for the tip about the alfalfa pellets. I keep a couple 5 gal buckets in the water to throw the beetles into but that doesn't get rid of many--especially those 15 ft up a fruit tree. DH went to the garden/orchard today to spray the things and couldn't find hardly any. Don't know where they went. I remember milky spore. Used it years ago to get rid of grubs in the ground. I don't remember RoseAnnaDanna. But have never been a Saturday Night Live fan and for almost 20 years--from 68 till 84--lived without a tv. (Sometimes still hate the thing) Dorothy