Oh my Amy that's a lot going on. Let us know when that baby gets here! !!

And now here I've turned into an eco-wacko gardening freak, HJ! Just sorta happened, what can I say.

Amy! My my my, what a day for you! Maybe that's why I don't usually leave my house!

Andddddd, what's with the rain! I guess we won't be working the yard again tomorrow. Looks like it pretty much came down across the whole state--well except for the very south and west. . . . surprise, eh, Dawn! Hazel, surely it didn't miss YOU this time! Honestly, I wish there were a way for all of us to send and get water from those who don't have enough or have too much!

I got every cupboard cleaned out and reorganized today!! Yay. Such a load I have out there for goodwill or Golden Rule. When I moved down here 2 1/2 years ago (unfathomable to me it was only 2 years and 6 months ago--it feels like I've always lived here, that it has always been my home, and it feels like I've always been married to Garry and he was always my husband--a good good feeling. Our third anniversary will be in November. We got married 3 months before I was able to move down here, because of work obligations in Mpls), and I moved stuff into Garry's former wife's kitchen. I had brought all my favorite dishes and cookware and equipment. Although GDW said to do whatever I wanted, that it was my kitchen, I didn't really; and also because I didn't want it to appear to his former wife's 2 kids that I had just come in and trashed all of their Mom's stuff. So I moved a bit out, but largely just made the cupboards crowded by adding the new stuff in with the old. Well today was the day. There were a few things she had that I use, but I got rid of so much stuff--I had 5 13x9 glass cake pans, for Pete's sake! And lots of other duplicates, too. And two enormous stockpots, for example. Now the only thing left that I don't really use are her dishes. Great dishes--and servings for 12; but they're huge; and they are heavy. Plus I like my own, which were my mother's. So her dishes take up a whole single cabinet above the counter. And I've tried to get her daughter or son to take them. Although both expressed an interest, they said they didn't have room for them. SO. Guess I'll box those up and put them out in the shop with some of the other stuff various family members have "stored" there! LOL. No prob, it's a big shop, and nearly a third of one side of the shelving has various kids' stuff. Sheesh. LOL

The other funny thing about the kitchen was what was in the pantry and canned goods, and in one of the under the counter cabinets--Five large unopened boxes of ice tea. GDW doesn't drink it; I don't drink it. A 10 lb unopened bag of dry buttermilk--I use buttermilk constantly in my cooking so its one of my regular staples. So I'd have no need to buy dried buttermilk--now powdered milk, yes, because I don't buy a lot of milk. Canned evaporated milk, yes. But not dried buttermilk. Fact is, I love buttermilk, and love to pour a glass of it occasionally, though never do that with milk. Lots of commercially prepared stuff. And I've ALWAYS cooked almost entirely from scratch. Was pretty financially strapped the first 45 years of my life, so just never bought pre-prepared stuff. And now wouldn't because it doesn't taste as good, first; has too many weird things in it; and why would one spend more for an inferior product. So that has left little by little; mostly to the church.

I got rid of so much stuff that I now have a cabinet for my canning supples! :) . Yay! Amy, I loved YOUR spice rack! I really did. Because ours have opening latches on them and because they're a little higher than regular ones, I can't picture one on the only cabinet I'd want them on, that is, next to the stove. I'd only be able to comfortably reach the bottom two. Pantry, no, too far away. I like them at my fingertips. So I thought. And thought. My next try is going to be those four-tiered ones that go inside a cabinet (expandable)--any of you tried those? Comments? I'll have to buy little labels too, I suppose, to put at on the side of the lids, so I can see them. Well, that was my eventful day--and bless GDW's heart, he thoroughly vacuumed the entire house! I would be embarrassed to tell you how many times he emptied out the cartridge and cleaned it--and we laughed so hard. And this is from one not really long-haired dog and a shaved long-haired cat.

Sigh. . . . still raining raining. I LOVE Oklahoma and my forever home now.

Nancy, I'm sorry about the disease issues but not at all surprised as that is one of the ways we pay (and pay dearly) for summertime rain and high humidity, and this summer we are having both. I am sorry about the plants. I think the only issue I've really noticed is powdery mildew on some zinnias, and I could help with that issue by thinning out the zinnia corner, where the flowers happily reseed every year and have for at least 15-17 years now if only I weren't so afraid snakes might be in that dense zinnia patch. So, I think the zinnias and I will live with the PM issue until snake season winds down in a few months.

For spices, we have a shallow drawer within a deeper drawer and it holds spice jar inserts so that the spices lie there on their sides within the shallow drawer. It only takes up maybe 3 inches, so the actual main drawer itself just loses a tiny bit of upper space and is still useful for holding all sorts of other stuff. If you have a drawer available, you can buy spice drawer inserts from many places including Ikea, Rev-A-Shelf, The Container Store and many other places (probably Bed, Bath and Beyond, though I don't remember looking there specifically for them). When we remodeled the kitchen last fall, we designed it so the entire lower cabinetry is drawers (no more getting down on our hands and knees to pull stuff out of the back of a cabinet) and every upper drawer has a hidden shallow drawer within it to hold cutlery, utensils and spices. Those shallow hidden drawers are the most useful part of the whole kitchen. Here's examples of the types of drawer inserts you can find from many different places:

Spice Drawer Inserts

There's also companies that make magnetic boards that hold spices and can be squeezed into tiny areas but you also have to buy the magnetic spice jars. IKEA's are the most reasonable in price of the ones we looked at and we have these too so we can have the most commonly used, everyday spices stuck on a magnetic spice board right by the stove.Some people put the magnetic spice tins on their refrigerators when they don't have much wall space or even inside an upper cabinet or on the side of an upper cabinet. Here's examples of this sort of spice storage:

IKEA Magnetic Spice Board and Tins

There's also spice racks designed to fit inside upper cabinets and pull down or pull out for easy viewing and easy access. Rev-A-Shelf and other cabinet outfitters make these. There's spice racks made to be attached to the insides of upper cabinet doors. There's spice pullouts/puldowns designed to be attached to the exterior bottom of your upper cabinet that are barely noticeable when closed up but all you have to do is reach up and pull down/out to access your spices. I've also seen some people put a short piece of curtain rod on the inside of a cabinet door, put their spices in tiny zip-lock bags, and hang the spices from curtain hooks attached to the rod. Let me see if I can find and post an example of that:

See Photo 5 on this HGTV article on spice storage:

Spice Storage Ideas

Because we have so many spices and seasonings for canning, cooking and grilling, my spice insert drawer is completely full and a few spices have overflowed into the pull-out pantry's smallest drawer, but I still feel like we have the most organized and easy-to-use spice storage now that we've ever had.

Amy, If y'all are the Clampetts, then so are we, but I don't care. We're happy and that's what counts.

We had another 1.4" of rainfall this morning, starting around 3 a.m. so I am expecting we will have miserable heat index numbers today.

Nancy, I have 3 rain gauges---one up near the house, and two in the garden about 20' apart. Even they cannot agree (hardly ever) with one another, which I think is a good lesson in how much rainfall can vary over a small area. This morning's totals in the three (and I made sure all three were empty last night, and none of them sit where water can pool on a plant and drip into them either): 1.3" up by the house, 1.7" in the garden on its southern edge, and 1.4" in the center of the garden. So, I threw out the high number and low number and went with the middle number. During various rainfall events, our totals can vary wildly from the totals at our Mesonet station and yet, somehow, by the end of the year, our total is almost exactly the same as the Mesonet's most years. It is uncanny. I guess it all averages out over time.

Okay, I haven't made it very far commenting on what everyone else is saying, but I have a dog who needs to go out (he hates wet feet and has been stalling going out until now). I'll be back later.

Dawn

Nancy, we did get rain, but only half an inch. It's been enough lately to not water. A little rain here and there.

Our internet is out. :( Possibly from storms?

Everyone have a great day.

Nancy, Dawn covered a lot of spice options. I was thinking of the ones that sit on the counter and rotate like a lazy susan. That picture shows 2 two shelf wire racks attached to the side of a Rubbermaid cabinet. There are 2 more on the other side. They're wide enough to hold odd ball stuff, even a mason jar. Got at Target. See the flashlight? I was washing dishes when plunged into darkness last night and made my way to the flash light.

I have a jar of dried buttermilk and a jar of powdered milk (which isn't cheap anymore) in the hall pantry. DH wanted back ups. BTW, a horoscope I read before we got married said he was likely to have a case of paprika hidden under the bed. I have remembered that for 41 years because he really does kind of hoard food.

I'm really envious of your cabinet drawers, Dawn. My former boss did that in his kitchen...and then moved. DH put 2 pull out drawers in my "pot and pan" cabinet. Since the other two lower cabinets are L shaped, he couldn't decide how to make those pull out. Maybe when he retires.

H/J, hope your internet is back soon. I was so lost last night without power. My cell phone was dead. My land line phones don't work without power, except the one in the bedroom that doesn't have numbers stored in it. (Old style plug into the wall type). I managed to remember my daughters phone number, but I realize I need a list for such situations.

We've been having rotten eggs. I have a broody hen who's been sitting on them and they were sitting on top of the microwave next to the canner. Have they just gotten too hot? I should make another frittata and use them up.

Jennifer, I love that Monet quote. Like Amy, he is my favorite artist.

I haven't seen the video you mentioned. I don't watch and don't want to watch YouTube videos. No time to spare for stuff like that, and I think a lot of them would drive me crazy. I know there is a lot of ridiculous nonsense on YouTube videos based on stuff people have said about them and I just ignore it all. About the only time I'll watch a video is if someone posts it on FB and it is short and cute---like kitten and puppy videos.

NEWS BREAK FROM the Thackerville area---a woman is trapped in her car by a wild hog that is attacking the vehicle and it won't let her get out of her car. Law enforcement officers are on their way. I am thinking it may not be wild---the Thackerville VFD Chief lives down there and has a pet pig for his grandchildren. I wonder if his pig has escaped.

Jacob, That's a gorgeous melon. It has been a great melon year here in 2017---and they were much earlier to ripen than usual so we didn't have to wait all summer for them to finally get with the program.

Those of you with tomatoes, beans and other plants trying to come back from the roots. This happens after good rainfall, and I just consider it a gift from God when it does happen. It is especially common with tomatoes---as long as their roots haven't died, they can come back well and produce. Remember that if we were in a frost-free climate, they'd be perennial like they are in their native land.

Rebecca, I agree that the heat is oppressive. It is slowing me down on getting the summer garden removed and replaced with a fall garden. I hate it. Of course, the other option is very hot/very dry/too dry to plant a fall garden. It seems like we cannot win in August in Oklahoma. Of course, peppers and cucumbers are keeping me so busy with canning and freezing that I don't have time to garden anyway, to there's that.

Michelle, When we moved here from Fort Worth, I thought a big rainfall day was a day with 3-5" of rain, and I knew they were rare. We moved here in a drought year that was a third consecutive year of drought, and it wasn't uncommon to get 1/4 or 1/2" of rain in the whole month because it just wasn't raining here. The drought continued for a couple more years, so I got used to low rainfall. Then, when the first wet year hit in 2004, it was a culture shock. I sort of got used to that by the end of the summer---largely because the rain dried up in midsummer and we were back to drought in no time---followed by drought in most of 2005, 2006 and the earliest part of 2007, before 2007 turned into a raging flood year, followed by drought in 2008 and half of 2009. Really 2009 was dry overall, but that almost 13" of rain in one day made us look wetter on paper for months thereafter than we really were, because most of it ran off. We've just had to get used to swingly wildly from drought to flood back to drought again, but an old southern saying I heard all my youth now makes sense to me: "It takes a flood to end a drought." I have found that certainly is true. Generally we are either in drought or flooding with little middle ground in between.

Cochise, Your odd-looking melon looks like something from the winter melon group---like a Santa Claus/Christmas melon or a Crenshaw melon or a Canary melon or something related to them. This is what a Canary melon looks like when it is ripe:

Canary Melon

Rebecca, Wow, that's a lot of seed trouble all at once. My seed issues with them were more slow to develop---one here, one there. Now that I hear what widespread issues you're having with them, I've glad I've largely stopped buying from them.

I do love Johnny's. Their seeds are pricey but absolutely top-notch and with the highest germination rates I've ever seen. I also never have trouble with seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange or Victory Seeds. Over the years, I have narrowed down greatly the list of vendors I like. Oh, six more that sell true-to-type seed: Botanical Interests, Renee's Garden Seeds, Kitazawa Seed, Bountiful Gardens, Sample Seed Shop and Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.

Amy, Best wishes for her for a speedy labor and a kind and gentle delivery with a healthy mom and child. Keep us posted! You know that's how babies are---they come when they are ready, whether we are ready or not.

Kim, I think Johnny's main target customer is small farmers and market growers. They put productivity first, so I am not surprised that folks at your market use them. They also are one of the few USA seed companies still doing their own breeding, although they also sell seeds from other wholesalers and not just their own.

Amy, Glad you got to the mailbox first, and Renee's is one of the few that's so quick like that in the summer.

Jennifer, When it rains here we always lose the internet and DirecTV. Sometimes if it is a quiet rain, the first clue it is raining is that the TV goes out....we look out the window and say "hey, it's raining!"

Have a great day, y'all, and stay hydrated. I expect that the afternoon heat index values will approach dangerous levels.
Our yard is a lake. Augustus is happy. I think he is half turkey, half flamingo because he loves to stand in water.

Dawn

Dawn, if Augustus starts standing around on one leg, you'll know that's true! Also, the LL cukes are very tasty just on their own. Looking forward to getting more than 3 from them.

I have a lot of BC seeds to use up. Not sure what I'm going to do about that. Maybe just keep using the ones I feel like are growing true.

I don't have much to report today. New progressive bifocals to get used to. I was wearing the old fashioned style. Learning that the lower part of the lens is much smaller than I'm used to. Will see how they do at work this afternoon. Caught one of my squirrel thieves perched in a tree eating a pecan yesterday. We had another staredown while he did that. I've had a couple of the very small not-Homestead tomatoes ripen. I guess they are focusing more on the pecans now, but still miss the occasional tomato. The crazy old Creole tree is blooming again. Only one other than the cherries.

I spent about 4-5 hours yesterday looking on the internet for spice storage options. Dawn, one thing I picked up on--that Rev-A-Shelf has GREAT options for storage. And how very very smart of you two to have drawers instead of cabinets! My overflow spices in the one drawer are great--I laid them down so I can easily see them--and because half of them are in giant containers, a shallow insert wouldn't have worked. But unlike you, we have few drawers and a glut of cabinets (at least we DO have those!). Further, we have little counter space, not counting the bar (grrrr which is too high for me to work at comfortably--I DO work at it, but am always grumpy about it. Someone with a big man (and partying bachelor) complex obviously designed our house. He DID, at least, put in the pantry and decent closets throughout the house. :)

I loved my spice carousel for the ones I use most frequently, but am retiring it as I need every inch of counter space I can get. I have a nice shallow box in the canning supply cupboard for canning spices and I expect it will be filled up soon. . . so those spices are right there. I can't use inside the cabinet. All your suggestions are wonderful, and I appreciate the discussion. I liked the ones that attach to the bottom of the cabinets and pull down and out, but only have two cabinets those would work on, and one of them is narrow. The other one, I may end up doing that if I can't easily see spices on the 4 stair-step inside-the-cabinet one I ended up ordering. I'm only tackling this now because for all my life I have fussed over a solution for that issue! Yeah, so, I ended up with the expandable stair step insert for the cabinet, and then just a single narrow "box" on the counter (as opposed to my good 'ole carousel) for frequently used ones. The other insane thing is, that despite the fact that our living room/dining/kitchen area is quite large, there is exactly ONE phone jack in it. And it is on that same counter in the kitchen! AAGGH. I tried moving the phone, but that didn't work. Unfortunately, we HAVE to have a landline since cell phones don't work here. And in spite of the few things that don't suit me about the house, wouldn't live anywhere else if I could. So. Hoping the stair-step thing works--if it doesn't, maybe I'll buy a big ole obnoxious free-standing one and put it on the bar! LOL. Finally, if those are the biggest issues I can find to fuss over, I have a pretty danged blessed life, don't I!!!

And, Dawn, I'm happy you all got some good rain, too!

HJ, hope your internet is back today! We often lose our TV during storms (which is fine), but seldom the internet.

I'd be ashamed for y'all to see my spice collection. I have a small galley kitchen, and I have a ton of spices. I keep the most used spices in a rubbermaid-type clear plastic container, but I also have 2 more shelves shoved full. So, spices get a whole cabinet to themselves. Now...for the extra spices, rarely used spices, etc., I have 3 bags (kitchen trash size) in my deep freezer. It's ridiculous. I wish I had the room to organize them better. I've thought about converting the coat closet to a pantry, and maybe someday I will.

Did anyone use a bloom booster during the cool spells? I did, and boy oh boy are my container tomato plants loaded up. I've also been going around buzzing them with a battery powered toothbrush....and voila..I have more tomato babies:)

I picked what is probably the last little bunch of cream peas, and am now waiting on the zipper peas. They are going crazy. Okra is blooming, but no okra yet. Cucumber beetles have almost completely destroyed my cucumbers, but I picked one cuke and one Armenian cuke this morning. Zucchini is history now. I had left a dead tomato plant in the garden because I couldn't get the cage up. This plant was dead dead dead. Now, it has new green growth at the top. I'm sure disease will devour it in no time.

Rebecca, Augustus is a funny bird. He is eight years old and has outlived 2 wives and all his children. Standing in water makes him feel cool, but he and I both are relieved that nowadays Mother Nature is making his puddles so I don't have to drag out the water hose and do it. He never, ever, ever has put himself up in the coop at night. He stands by the front or back door to the house and waits for us to come out and tell him it is time to go to bed. So, all the chickens can be up, but he won't be. He will walk straight to the coop with us and will go right in, but he needs his human escort. Well, until this week. All of a sudden he is putting himself into the coop along with the chickens. The first day he did it, I was surprised and thought he'd gone missing. Nope, he was already in the coop. He's done it every night this week. Now I wonder why he changed his long-established routine.

I'm glad you are liking the Littleleaf cucumbers. Hopefully they'll start making more for you soon. Mine usually do seem slower to start than County Fair, but then they kick into full production and make up for it.

Amy, Had I not done thorough research by reading a gazillion back threads on the Kitchens forum, I probably wouldn't have thought to go with all drawers. They are the best things ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. I'll never have anything else, and when we redo the bathrooms, I intend for the vanity and linen storage cabinets in each bathroom to have drawers, not cabinets with doors. It is positively life-changing. When I first suggested them to Tim, I don't think he liked the idea (he hardly cooks in the kitchen, so whatever....) but I convinced him they would be most useful, and they are. Of course, we couldn't really put drawers in the below-sink cabinet that easily because of the plumbing, but that one has after-market pullouts, which are almost as good. When we were choosing a pantry, he also didn't see the purpose in the pull-out drawers. Our tall pantry cabinet is all drawers from about the chest down, and shelves in the higher areas. Now that we have used that pantry for almost a year, he adores the drawers. I'm just glad he listened to me.

Tim hoards peanut butter. You know, why buy one jar if you can buy 2 or 4? Why wait until you're almost out---buy more whenever you think of it, right? Who cares if there's 4 or 8 very big jars (CostCo or Sam's Club sized) taking up space in the pantry? I try to keep him off the peanut butter aisle at Sam's and CostCo so he won't see peanut butter and decide we need some (we do not!). What do I hoard? Hmmm. Pickling spices. Canning salt. Vinegar. Mrs. Wage's mixes. Liquid Pectin and Dry Pectin. Pickle Crisp. Ascorbic acid. Those sorts of things. There's nothing I hate more than getting out all the canning stuff and finding I am one ingredient short, so I try to ensure that never happens.

I'm not sure about the eggs. They probably did get too hot for too long. That's my best guess, and if they seem 'off', then I wouldn't use them.

Nancy, I'm amazed how many great spice solutions there are nowadays. For most of our lives, there's been the standard wall-mounted spice racks (don't they seem so 1970s or 1980s now?) or the revolving counter ones (so 1990s, lol) or those little metal stair-step shelves that let you get three or four rows of spices on one cabinet shelf (let's say they are from the early 2000s). Rev-A-Shelf has tons of great after-market products, but going to IKEA and shopping for little kitchen things is my favorite way to kill an hour or two on a Saturday mornging. The closest one to us is in Frisco TX but Grand Prairie TX has one opening this fall and Fort Worth TX has one opening next fall. The Fort Worth one will be handy for us to stop by on our way to visit family down there....and IKEA has tons and tons of cool kitchen organizer things. I can roam around in their housewares and kitchen stuff forever. It drives Tim batty.

Our kitchen has decent counter space now (it didn't in the beginning), but it is a narrow galley kitchen so it isn't as big as I'd like for it to be. On the other hand, one of my friends has a really big kitchen and says she wishes hers was small like ours because then cleaning it wouldn't take forever and forever. Maybe we always want what we don't have.

It is too bad you cannot ditch the landline. We had one phone jack on the kitchen wall and one in each bedroom, but around 2010 or so, we finally got reliable enough cell phone service here (in the beginning there was none) that we dropped the landline and don't miss it. We no longer get junk phone calls. Well we might get them on our cell phones, but we don't answer any phone call from a number we do not recognize, so that eliminates junk phone calls on the cells. They can call us all day and we are not answering. It is amazing what a huge timesaver it is to not have to deal with telemarketers.

You're right. Our issues with where to put spice jars is sort of first world problems, isn't it? Some people in the real world have real problems and here we are discussing where we can store our spices. We are blessed.

The rain was nice, but the humidity/dewpoint are awful. I've declared tomorrow will be October 1st at my house, and y'all cannot stop me. Just let me enjoy autumn because I'm sick of summer.

FYI y'all----earlier this week, a woman in Tishomingo was bitten by the dreaded timber rattler. It was near her shop doorway and bit her as she was walking into their shop. Her daughter drove her to Mercy Hospital in Ardmore (the only hospital in our immediate region that keeps antivenin on hand) and they had to administer 18 vials of antivenin. Wow. She seemed like she was doing really well, though, and they let her go home the next day. I don't know how people without medical insurance ever get the snakebite bill paid because that antivenin is expensive.

Mary, Hey, whatever works. I do think you might be a spice collector. I am pretty good about keeping mine organized, and I try to go through at least once a year and toss all the ones that are expired. I'd convert that coat closet in a heartbeat. (In fact, years ago we did convert it to a canning pantry to hold shelves of home-canned goods.) Who needs a coat closet? Well, we did, but now that we have the mudroom with hooks, that suffices. It isn't like anyone wears coats much any more since winter weather here seems to think it should act like spring weather.

I didn't use a bloom booster. At the time it would have mattered, we were hot and dry and the rain and cooldown kept missing us. Now, it is hot and we've had too much rain and I don't even care. I think I am getting burned out on the garden this summer because of the heat. Or, just because there's so many other projects going on that demand my time instead. There's only so many hours in one day, and I don't think there's enough of them. I need 48 hours a day (and then, in order to catch up on being perpetually short of sleep, I'd love to sleep for 24 of them) at this time of the year. I was so excited to see all our firefighting friends at the funeral the other day. It was great to talk to them before and after the funeral----usually when we are all together at a fire, we are too busy to talk, except about the fire. If we aren't at a fire, I'm at home with my nose to the grindstone and don't ever see anyone. I need more balance in my life. I think I work too hard. I wanted to mow today, but there's too many standing puddles. Maybe tomorrow. At least most of the cracks in the ground are gone, but our grass is so high that it now is hard to see snakes, and that scares me. I keep telling myself that when Tim retires, I'll have him home more to help with lawn, garden and animal chores, but I think retirement is a few years away now. He loves his new position so much, I don't know if he'll ever retire. Certainly I don't think he'll do it for another 3-5 years. He's having too much fun. (Everyone should have a career they love as much as he loves his.)

The kids here went back to school today. Parents rejoiced and shared photos of their kids dressed up for the first day of school and such. It is such a cute thing to see, but I am glad those days are behind us.

We've had butterflies all summer, and their numbers always seem to peak in August, but we really, really have tons of them now. It is so nice to see them everywhere. I've been seeing quite a few monarchs lately and that's good as they were not so common earlier in the summer. We still have a ton of sulphurs and swallowtails, but those two probably are the largest groups every summer. Tons of hummingbirds too. I love seeing them, whether they are out in the garden with me or if I am just looking out the windows and seeing them at the feeders.

I have a clump of pineapple sage that is about 5' wide x 5' wide. It isn't blooming and it ought to be. I guess the rain has pushed it into vegetative growth. Maybe I'll hit it with a bloom booster early tomorrow to see if I can get it to bloom for the hummers and butterflies.

Dawn

Dawn, I know you are exhausted from processing so much. I don't know how you do all that you do! I'm behind everyone this year, so my excitement is coming late to the party :)

Oh, I lied! I have okra!! I didn't see the pods. I grew both cowhorn and burgandy, but I only picked cowhorn. It is enough of a mess for me, but there are lots of blooms getting ready to pop open, so I guess that means it's officially "on". It's funny to look at, but the zipper peas are going over their little trellis and climbing the okra. That's alright, I suppose.

Found another cucumber plant dead tonight, but I have a couple of armenians that are about a foot long that I will pick in the morning. I give the plants another week, and they'll probably all be dead. I didn't have cucumber beetles last year, but they sure are tearing it up this year.

My laptop went on the blink again. This time I called at once and got an appt for 6 pm Saturday--lol--guess we'll have to check out restaurants. AND, now I'm looking at laptops on my IPad. Any of you have Dells?

Mom's doing well! (I am betting she really didn't have pneumonia.) They're releasing her tomorrow. My son and I laughed pretty hard--then my SIL and I laughed pretty hard. Sheesh. Well, next time she's sick, not even going to say anything to anyone!

Mary, you gave me a good laugh, too. I believe you are in my brother's league in terms of collecting spices!!

The weather this evening is absolutely perfect. 77, maybe, not humid and a nice gentle breeze.

Oh, Amy--I also got a good laugh out of your fabric comment. So YOU know what a difficult challenge that was for me, I bet. I COULD probably cut my stash in half and still not ever get them used up. . . But baby steps, right?

And now I just had to go back and yes, I see the flashlight! Great place for it! LOL

And again, Amy, thank you--and Eileen, Amy is correct--I wouldn't want a 6-pack! However, now that we're going to Apple Store Saturday night, I can stop along the way and get a bottle or two. HJ--I forget--what flavor did you say you liked? Blueberry?

Dawn, sounds like we have identical twin pantries parts. Our main cabinet there has the 4 lower pull-out drawers and one cabinet with two shelves on top. I hadn't realized that Augustus sleeps in the coop. How cute is that!

Well, now I'm going to go back and look at Rev a Shelf some more.

Our grass also needs mowed!! We're going to have a bumper crop of grass clippings! Aiming for tomorrow afternoon. . . . Crossing fingers.

How's your DIL, Amy? When is she due?

Best get on with some work. . . .

I wonder if Alexis has had the baby yet? Haven't seen her around.

I love Augustus. Sounds like a cranky old man. Should be the board mascot.

Rebecca, I don't think so, but in a few weeks. Funny you mentioned her, because in my previous post, I had typed, "Yoo-hoo, Alexis, what's happening?" And then erased it, realizing I could just ask her in a private message! LOL. I wonder how long turkeys live-that'll be my next google question.

So I confess I am a beginner, for all intents and purposes, in canning. Though I always helped Mom through grade school and high school, I had no real clue. So two years ago was my first real experience. I remembered Dawn's saying she just whipped up some Mrs. Wages for small batches, which I did, too, today. But I didn't want to use a whole bath of Mrs. Wages, not knowing how many cukes I'd have in the next few days--so poured the package into a measuring cup to see how much it was, and used a half a batch. Fixed two pints today. . .in my new small stock pot (which is sublime, by the way, it arrived today.). But the liquid was a little cloudy. . . I read online that it sometimes comes about because of hard water. The cucumbers themselves were 2 new ones today and 4 yesterday. One pint was spears, the other slices.

Whew, I am finally caught up on the life of Oklahoma gardeners. I love reading about everyone's "journey's". I was tired before I started but now I am ready to hit the pillow and just snooze!!! My garden is practically done for the year. The tomatoes are just getting too much water lately. We have gotten over 7" in the last week. Crazy for August!! I worked in the yard while my youngest daughter swam. It was so hot and humid, my goodness. Next week things will really begin to get crazy around my house. I started taking classes again so I can finish my degree, my son and oldest daughter start college too, and I am still looking for curriculum for my youngest daughter for homeschool. THANK GOODNESS DH graduated with his Bachelor's in May. My word.

I have some cherry and grape tomatoes that aren't getting eaten. I'm not sure why the family isn't into eating the garden fresh tomatoes this year. So, I suppose I'll dry them. The youngest daughter and I are going to can some strawberry jam which was her idea.

I need to clean out my spice cabinet too. I am "ALWAYS" looking for ways to improve my organization. It's annoying sometimes though.

Does anyone grow mushrooms? I know someone said something about them but can't remember. I think I want to try to grow portabellos. Not for me though, oh no, those things are nasty and remind me of slugs. But, I will cook them for DH and son as they love them.

Thinking about each and everyone of you! Sending hugs and blessings all around. I know sometimes I just feel like I need a good old bear hug from my dad one last time.

Mary, I'm glad you have okra. I need to pick cucumbers and southern peas this morning, which will really interfere with me pretending it is October 1st because I know that when the sun comes up and I go outdoors, it won't feel like October 1st.

I think I process too many veggies and it is too much work any more and I want to cut back. I have cut back this year on how much salsa I make. I've also cut back sharply on jelly and jam except for pepper jellies to give as gifts because we have cut back on sugar in our diet and that means we eat less jam and jelly. Now, I need to figure out how to plant and grow less edible stuff so the workload is more manageable. I had luck this year with converting the southern and western edges of the garden to non-edible plantings of flowers and herbs, and I'm going to do the same next year with the eastern and northern edges.

For so many years I have focused on growing more, so it seems ironic to be switching gears and growing less. I think that part of it is that over the last 10-15 years, I've gotten much better at pest and disease control so rarely lose plants. However, I still plant as if diseases and pests are going to get a share of the plants and then, when they don't, I have too many. So, I'm going to focus less on growing huge quantities and I bet we'll still have plenty.

Cucumber beetles have been the worst this year that I've ever seen them, and they were out early here. I remember seeing them out in April in fairly large numbers. I hate them.

Nancy, We had Dell laptops and had a lot of trouble with them. We'll never buy one again.

I'm glad your mom is better.

Augustus and the other turkeys had their own housing, but then once we reached the point where Augustus was the last turkey still alive, I moved him to the chicken coop so he wouldn't be lonely. The first night or two, he acted irritated, kinda like he was asking me "what are you doing putting me in here with these peasants?" but then he got over it. He knows he is the biggest and he is the king of the coop while he's in it. However, he likes to be the last one to go inside and the first one to come out---see there, just like a king. He's a funny turkey. He loves human companionship and follows me around. If I am in the garden weeding in Spring he follows me up and down each row all day long---not really doing anything---just hanging out. In hotter weather he retreats more into the shade or stands in his puddles. He tries to follow me into the house, but that's never going to happen. Generally he comes when we call him, or if we drive up in the car, he comes to greet us when we park and is patiently waiting for us to get out of the car and pay attention to him. He is a Pygmy White Turkey and he thinks our car, which is white, is a living creature, so he has to put out all his feathers and dance around and show off just in case the Mazda is a gigantic female turkey.

Rebecca, I've seen her on FB this week, so I don't think the baby is here yet because there's no baby news on her FB. I believe she is due in Sept. so it is getting close, and we all know babies come early sometimes.

Melissa, That is too much rain for one week and it is a shame you got so much all at once after being short of rain all summer until now.

You're going to be really busy with going back to school and all. Are your kids going to live at home and attend local colleges or are they going away to college?

I don't grow mushrooms and don't want to grow them. Down here we are too hot and too dry for much of the summer, so all I need is one more thing that needs careful attention to moisture. I did a lot of research about growing them, but decided it wasn't for me.

I wish your dad were here to give you one more hug. I miss my dad too, and he's been gone for over 13 years. Long, long ago, Tim's dad told us that he still thought about his dad every single day, and at the time he said it, his dad had been gone for over 50 years. I didn't really 'get it' when he said that back then, but---know what? I still think about my dad every single day too, so I get it now.

Have a good day today everyone. It is supposed to be hot and steamy here, but that's nothing new. It is pretty decent outdoors right now---69 degrees. As soon as the sun comes up, it probably won't feel so decent.

Dawn

Ok, now I want to go visit my dad. DIL had some contractions again last night, but they subsided. Braxton Hicks? She is scheduled for a C-section Tues the 22nd if the baby doesn't decide to come sooner.

I am SOO burned out on gardening. I keep looking at the tomato plants I want to pull out. I just have no energy.

I have so many posts to respond to! Trapped in a car by a pig!!! Reminds me of when the highway patrol stopped at my uncles and his shepherd did her protecting her territory thing. The patrolman told him he wouldn't have rolled his window down to shoot her. Once her people introduced you she was fine. As kids we could sit on her and play with her no problem. But she felt it was her job to protect the place from strangers.

And Augustus. I kind of want a turkey, but probably not. Does he let you pet him? DD could pet the goose if things were calm. She's kind of an animal whisperer anyway. We were told 40 years ago that turkeys killed snakes. Had a friend who lived in the country who kept one for that reason, and he was their watchdog, too. Made a racket when someone drove up. I will never forget how he stuck his head through an open window and "gobbled". That will startle a city girl.

Rebecca, how are the progressives? My first pair they screwed up the prescription. I was told they're harder to make, so if you can't get used to them, go back and have them checked.

Currently my land line is included in my cox bundle. I have trained my kids to use it so I don't use trackphone minutes. Although, I have built up so many minutes there it wouldn't matter now. I may decide cox is too expensive. My bill has gone up 50% since we started and I'm annoyed. Thank goodness all the junk calls go to the land line. Numbers without ID are blocked as well as some that just kept calling. What WOULD keep all those people busy if I disconnected my number? When you get to medicare age, the insurance companies stalk you. That's what has been worst this year.

Well, $300 in parts for dishwasher and it still doesn't work. Sigh.

Mary, my zipper peas are producing now. They've got whippoorwill on a trellis next to them and they're all trying to grow together.

Did I mention we had 6 jars of peanut butter in the pantry and no refried beans. There are now 6 cans of refried beans.

My friend took a trailer down to Ikea from Bartlesville so she could bring home what she wanted....

I think if your kitchen is too big you end up walking too far. It's not efficient. I like the size of mine, though it needs a face lift.

My best tip for spices is to write the date you bought them on the jar. 5 year old paprika is just red powder.

Nancy, I like the Synergy brand of Kombucha. They sell it at Reasors, Sprouts and Whole Foods. I get a red one, LOL. Probably cranberry. Where is the Apple store? Surely not the one on 41st street where the tornado was?

Melissa, congrats to your DH!

I want to grow mushrooms. I don't want logs of stuff. (Nancy, you could do that, I think your place in the shade is cooler.) I just want one of the box kits that grows them indoors. But I've found some unusual ones at the Asian market that are reasonably priced. The expense of the kits seems like too much. Of course, it is probably like everything else, fresh is best.

Guess I'll go wash dishes. :(

Alright. Lots done today. My zucchini is beginning to form blooms, so I gave it some 13-13-13 fertilizer I had sitting around and then it's finally a little drier so I gave my banana tree a good dosage of fish emulsion. We all spent a lot of time weeding the flower beds and dead-heading all the flowers as well as pruning. Yesterday I planted carrots and beetroot, as well as 6 broccoli transplants. Carrots have a hard time germinating through our heavy soil (though they can form roots just fine once they do.) so I dug a trench and laid some really fine, welling draining potting soil in the bottom for a nice bed to sprout into at first. I then covered them with about 1/4-1/2" of that same potting mix and wet it well. I think they'll sprout just fine. Give it another month or so as all these beds will be back to green and full of plants as in early summer. Though frost is only a month and a half or so away at this point so it won't last long!!

We we have a great big 30 foot long garden area that is curved, lined with rock. It has nice, rich soil and full sun. It was planned for flowers, as it's in our English garden area out front, but we decided that with probably double that space already dedicated to flowers and herbs, we'd rather use towards vegetables and other edible plants. I think it'll be a nice spot for a few rows of sweet corn (I space about 8" in all directions for my rows.), since it's in ground. Sweet corn is an absolute pain in raised beds with wind storms so I'm putting them in ground no matter what next year. I'll probably grow some asparagus as well, and maybe some comfrey for the use of making my own fertilizer. Then of course maybe some more flowers and herbs on the borders, nothing huge. Exciting to get more space.

I wasn't able to get outside for the last couple days because of the rain. If I go in the backyard without my "escort", they go nuts. Poor puppies! So I ran out to check it and found okra pods as long as my arm, a bowl full of cracked tomatoes, and the cucumber and gourd vines are invading everything. Here's a pic of my random vine thing, hopefully it'll grow something. And one of my boys found a new friend (he's the black blur behind it). I always thought they were tiny. This one was as long as my finger!

Amy, Probably Braxton-Hicks. A friend of ours had them literally throughout her whole last trimester of her second pregnancy. I don't even know how many false alarms sent them to the hospital during that time.

I have no energy as well, especially as it relates to gardening. After the first hour of the day, I feel like I have used up whatever energy I woke up with. I'm trying to go with the flow and let the no-energy thing drive my days at a slower pace. I feel like we expend too much energy over the long growing season and our bodies tell us when enough is enough.

The end of the pig story is that just about when I was going to call the Dispatcher and advise here that someone who lived there in that housing addition had pet Vietnamese potbelly pigs, he or one of his neighbors had contacted her and told her the same thing and she started relaying that info to officers on the scene. No pig was shot. Apparently the pig was reunited with its family because it wasn't a feral hog after all----it apparently was a friendly pig wanted attention from someone who didn't 'know' the pig so assumed the worst.

Augustus lets you pet him when he wants. He sort of sidles up to you and stares at you until you reach out your hand and pet him....and then, being the closest thing we have to a poultry diva, he pretends he didn't want to be petted at all and stomps off as if angry. He leaves you thinking maybe he didn't want to be petted, right? Then, the next day he quietly sidles up beside you and does the same thing. So, he wants to be petted, but he wants to pretend he doesn't want it. He cracks me up. He has a lot of personality for a turkey. He's old and slow and I worry a coyote will get him when we aren't around, but he'd rather die than be locked up in a chicken run, so we let him free-range with the chickens. (If you've ever seen two tom turkeys fight, then you know they are a lot more aggressive and tough than they look.)

I'm sorry about your dishwasher. They just don't make them like they used to.

I see fascinating things at Ikea. I see junk there. If you ignore the junk, you can find some great things. To me, a trip there is like going to an amusement park. I love their little planters and watering cans and stuff. So, perhaps I'm not into their big stuff (I think they are designing sofas and chairs more for the US market now, with a broader range of fabrics, including leather and larger sofas that seem more sturdy than their old stuff did) but there's some things they do really well---kitchens, everything you need to outfit a kitchen, small housewares, bathroom stuff including sinks and vanities, etc. I can see where a young couple could furnish a house fairly reasonably there, especially if they like modern stuff. Not much of their furniture really appeals to me because I like more farmhouse/country stuff, but for folks who like modern stuff, they certainly can find it there, and there's a few pieces that could work in a farmhouse/country type room, I think. They have a fascinating and constantly changing array of room-sized and smaller rugs, and I think their curtains have improved a lot in the last 4 or 5 years. They've gotten heavier in weight and seem better made. Their storage stuff is great and a lot of their cubby type furniture (I think it is called Kallax now, but prior to that it had a different name for the whole line) could be used in closets, laundry rooms, mudrooms, etc. for extra storage. I love their $5 baby blue laundry baskets and have 4 that I use for harvesting. The only thing is that I cannot fill them to the top with heavy stuff like squash, tomatoes, potatoes or melons or they are too heavy to lift and carry all the way to the house. So, I fill them halfway with heavy stuff and then take them up to the house. They have the absolute cutest stuff for babies and children---everything from furniture to room decor to darling toys like little tables and chairs, kitchen sets, stuffed animals, wooden train sets (like Brio but not as pricey), etc. When we build the new garden shed, it will have some of their shelving and storage solutions.

Jacob, I cannot believe your first frost is roughly six weeks away. If ours comes on time down here in southern OK, it is almost exactly three months away.

It sounds like your fall garden is doing great. It probably helps a lot that your soil is getting to dry out a bit now.

I hope you enjoy converting the 'new' space to grow more edibles.

Jen, Well, those cats start out tiny and get shockingly big shockingly fast. By the time they form their chrysalis, they can easily be 5" long. To me, when they get huge, they look like a creature from a Sci-Fi movie.

Dawn

Dawn, our average first frost is mid October and first really hard freeze is usually early November. We have gotten frosts in the past in as early as late September but that's so rare. It's almost always mid October though.

Wow, Jacob! I'll be anxious to hear about the carrots. And, in fact, I should go grab some carrot seed, too. I think I can eke out some room for them. What's in your English garden; its it like cottage garden or a formal English one? I was intrigued. It must be comfortable working weather there? Yes, we're excited about getting some more space, too, though not enough for corn. My very favorite and I cannot figure out any way to grow it. Oh well, just glad we can grow some stuff! Wish I liked cucumbers are much as I like corn!

It was oppressively warm and humid here earlier today, but we were thinking it was going to rain this evening and the grass was SO long, so we teamed up and got it all mowed. NOW it has cooled off a bit and feels downright comfortable compared to out there mowing. Found 12 cukes this afternoon, so more pickles coming up tonight. I'm starting to get the hang of it, and that is good as I think we will be getting more and more very soon. And need to get some jalapeños pickled tonight, too, and something done with bells. I've got bunches in the freezer already. . .

Amy, no, not that Apple Store. . . The one in I think it's called Woodland Hills Center, on 71st and Memorial. Thanks for the tip on where to get the kombucha; Reasors, here I come!

I'm a little bummed that we didn't plant squash this year, but my nearby friend has been bringing us some yellow crooked ones, so we haven't missed out on them altogether!

I like the size of my kitchen, too--it's on the small side, too--but I sure am not fond of our island/bar. And it's sad, as it's so big I'd have a ball with food prep on it if it weren't so stupidly tall.

Oh, yes--the pig and the lady in the car! Wondering how that turned out! LOL

Melissa. . . Sounds like we've about the same amount of rain. . . It is just so weird! We were racing to get the lawn mowed before it rains again--and I realized the absurdity of that--in AUGUST. Good luck with your teaching materials--oh--what will your degree be in?

Hot and steamy--yep, that's what it was earlier today here, too. I had to go get a bandana for a sweat headband. I hope the temps climbed slowly down there, Dawn. Did you get your lawn mowed? I sure couldn't have done this whole thing by myself today.

Okay, going to go see about these pickled peppers. . . And cucumbers.

Oh those caterpillars, Jen! I'm not sure I'll be able to handle it, much less a 5" long one, Dawn, when I see my first one. Good grief! So does your son's new friend want to come live with you?

I used to love Ikea back in the day in MN; kinda got Ikea'd out, finally! LOL. Did love their Swedish meatballs, though, so would go along with DIL just to get some of those--and yeah, liked their rugs!

And love to hear the continuing story of Augustus.

Augustus was annoyed at being put up with the chickens, until he realized he was the only guy in with all the ladies. Then he decided it was ok. I'm sure he's figured out that he's got a certain amount of protection going on, staying on the property like that. And it's funny that he's decided to put himself to bed now. Wonder what's up with that.

Came home from work with a virus today. Had hoped to get work done outside tomorrow, but now that won't happen. I do have to take my cat to her vet appointment tomorrow, though. One of us may not survive.

Amy, the progressives are pretty darn good. Only thing I don't like is the very small field of vision for close tasks. I can't see an entire laptop screen without moving my head side to side. I need more peripheral vision. So I'll probably call the eye doc Monday and ask about that.

Talking about non-true BC seeds the other day, and now I have a yellow squash from Fedco that appears to have green stripes on half of it. Wonder what's going on there?

Lol nope, he ate it. Don't worry, when I say "boys", I'm talking about the furry four legged variety that shed and bark.

Nancy, it's more like a little cottage garden. My mom has really been working on it, growing all the flowers herself, and of course we've all helped her out as well with it. It's not quite done yet but it's getting there. Here's a picture of a couple beds that I took of it last week while the sun was coming up, though this is not quite all of it. As for what's in it, there's a yellow and red rose bush- little beat up from beetles, lots of holly hox, hostas, sage, rue, VOLUNTEER mint EVERYWHERE, dahlias, lavender, yarrow, various flowers such as allysums and marigolds through, columbines, and some bushes we planted that I can't remember the name of. Of course I'm probably leaving some out, but there's an idea.

We're not big sweet corn eaters, but it's a nice treat now and again. My favorite vegetable is cabbage, so I grow a ton of that.

Rebecca, sorry to hear about the virus. I can't stand getting sick!!

Yes, Jacob! Cottage gardens are my favorite. Closest thing I can get to that is the 30x 7-8 foot bed by the shop (also bordered with rocks--do you have tons of rocks at a your place? Our property is a little bit of soil over big big rocks everywhere!) and even it doesn't get enough full sun for hollyhocks or any other true sun lovers. The rest of my many flower beds get, at most, 3-4 hours of sun, and some of them, even less. And yet, I am at peace with the shade conditions, as the yard is blessedly more comfortable in the summer than in many places in OK. And when I was casting a critical eye toward which oaks I'd like to come down for more sun, I found few in the back yard that I'd be willing to part with. So guess I'd best be hunting down my favorite dappled shade to full shade flowers and plants. Surprisingly, I've got a dahlia in one of those beds that is going nuts! Also, a lantana! Love lavender, can't think of where I could put it. I might try out in the shop bed. In front of our house, which faces west, unlike most west-facing yards, is nearly total shade, near the house. except in one 10' foot area. It's a shallow front yard, only about 20-30 feet deep, but at the front gets enough sun for a bridal wreath spire as to be flourishing and its little sister, which I got at the spring fling from Jen? Andrea? I'll have to go back and check--it's doing great, too. For the endless summer hydrangeas, they are in heaven, one of my few real successes down here with flowers (my third year in, as a transplant from way up north in MN). Adore hostas, had an enormous collection up north. But WAY too many deer here. Ditto with lots of things, roses, day lilies, sunflowers, sweet potato vines, and on and on.

HJ--what's happening? How's it going with ya?

Jen--LOLOL. Oh, Okay, I get it!

Rebecca--nothing worse than being sick in the hot hot weather of August. Bless your little heart! Please tell us you feel a little better tomorrow. Thinking of you. I've used the progressive lenses for about 20 years now, and never skipped a beat when I got them. I'll be interested to hear what your eye doc has to say. I don't recall ever having that problem.

Amy--REALLY! The @#$% dishwasher doesn't work?!!!! GRRRRRR

Didn't get the cukes done, wrapped em and will try to tackle in the morning. They are so perfect, I really need to do it. Ditto with the peppers; instead watched the ball games with GDW.

Hey, you'd likely be able to grow holly hox. They do best with full sun it seems, but we have a few spots where I don't even know if they get 4 hours of sun, and though they're much slower growing, they seem to still be doing fantastic. I think most flowers (and vegetables) do better in shade if you start them out as transplants. Having that sun while they're young really helps give them a boost for the future growing season. We do love hydrangeas. We have one that we planted this last spring. Boy has it been slow but it's really starting to come out finally. And, Nancy, the rocks are horrible here. Our entire cottage garden was sheet rock underneath, with hardly any soil. If there was soil, it was HORRIBLE heavy clay- dark red and so spongy it won't even break apart. Just changes shape like play dough. We dropped around 2" of a soil mix on top of that (compost, sand, soil. If I could go back, I mighta just done compost.). I don't want to cuss, but it made you say some things whenever you tried to plant anything. We basically had to have a pick axe, a crow bar, and a posthole digger whenever we wanted to plant anything to bust a hole in the sheet rock big enough to pop a transplant plug in. Not much did very well for most of spring and early summer, just kind of hanging in there, but then everything started started exploding with new growth randomly and it started to really fill out. We dug down a little bit, and realized that there were hundreds of worms working the soil deeper. They've probably dug it 6" deep by now. Really cool. We got all our rock to line the beds out in the forest. There's big piles of fairly large rocks just sitting, ready to be used.

Our yard is heavily shaded too. The spot with the most sun is in our front yard, in the flower garden, and it gets 6 hours. Most of the back garden is a dappled shade to deep shade so it's interesting. Only about 300 square feet of it get at least 4 hours of sun. Somehow I have some awful healthy field corn, winter squash, and pumpkins in it.

Ahhh! I sort of suspected you'd have the rocks. But I was luckier, I guess. We have fairly loamy dirt, where there is any. And sounds like overall, we could be next-door neighbors, with the lack of full sun and the glut of shade! You are doing awesome! And if I do nothing else this year, I will come over and visit NW Arkansas. Between here and there is some mighty beautiful country! I remember Amy telling me I had to go see it. And yes, we have a pick axe, a crowbar, and GDW knows how to operate them like a pro. If we grew NOTHING else, we are experts in growing rocks! (He's also THE expert tree-cutter-downer and fixer. He can fix anything, if it can be fixed. How lucky could a girl be?!) One of my best new things is learning about the topography of my new beautiful environment. I look forward to your posts, knowing that we're in the same neighborhood--how long have you lived there? I'll have to share our rocks-everywhere walls with you as soon as I get my computer working again.

I would recommend you check out the Ouachita National Forest down south. We drove the Talimena Scenic Byway, which traverses Oklahoma through western Arkansas. It's awful pretty- a lot different from the Ozarks though. Both are trips of their own.

We've lived here probably 4 or so years now. We were in Missouri before living here.

This is a Saffron yellow straightneck squash from Fedco. Crossed seeds? Or pollenated by something else?

Found the first hornworm of the year today. I'd have seen it yesterday if I'd felt well enough to go outside. Already stripped one new Creole and was working on a Homestead. Made a very satisfying crunch under my shoe.

Potted veggies are already bone dry.

Oh, Rebecca, your poor tomatoes! Sorry you were sick, hope you're better today.

As I shelled zipper peas today, I contemplated how one might preserve cowpeas, if, say a frost was coming and you had all sizes of pods. Could you dehydrate fresh shellies? Would they then cook like dried beans? Or would you cook them and pressure can? I know most of you would freeze them. Would you cook them first?

Yeah Nancy, the dishwasher doesn't work. Could be the part was defective. We can't figure out how you would test it to see. This is not even the first time he's replaced this part, either. It is the circuit board guts of the thing. Poor Ron. DD's tire had to be dealt with Thurs. Friday he fought with the dishwasher and spent all afternoon looking up possible fixes on line. Last night he looked at me and said can I do what I want to do tomorrow? And kids showed up here to visit this morning and DD had yet another errand for him today.

I was going to see where you were eating tonight, but have been invited to grill with kids.

I was traumatized by hornworms as a child. Really, I was like 5 and the neighbor told me to go look at her tomato plants. I had never seen anything that big and ugly. I still shudder when I think about them. Did you not have them up north?

No word from pregnant DIL. I believe I had more Braxton Hicks contractions with my second child, too. (This is her second.)

Dawn, the pig story is just TOO FUNNY! Pet pig seeking attention! And Augustus is a hoot, too.

It's blazing hot here. Truly miserable. I hate it when the chickens pant. Looking ahead, it appears we might cool off again in a few days. Oh, I hope so.

I may have to water tomorrow as we didn't get the massive amount of rain other areas got.

It's been a busy time--school starting and band uniform fittings. (Y'all, that's hard work! Fitting those kids for their uniforms.) Then, two days ago I woke up with a cold. (I had a feeling it was coming for me.) It was all I could do to get the minimal stuff done for the past two days. However, I used my fire cider and Breath Ease essential oil and seem to be on the mend. I feel ever so much better today. Still extra tired, but not sick really.

I really don't have much garden news. I am so impressed with the columnar apple trees. I recommend them to everyone! The apples are quite tasty. I'll only get around 30 fruit this year,, but they are so pretty and taste good too.

The chickens made a mess of the East garden this morning as I worked on getting a weather vane up on their coop...and a shelf painted for their coop too. I don't really care though at this point. The only thing I really, really care about in the garden is getting some crane melons to taste. I'm so looking forward to trying them.

The little chickens have finally figured out their roost! Good grief. One night, I lifted them up to it and it clicked for them...they're good to go now. Except they all want to be on the top bar, which could get interesting when I bring the older chickens over in a couple of days. I wrapped the roost boards in that laminated type of fabric for easy cleaning and it seems like it's going to work well.

Just realized I missed the August 15 cucumber seed planting! Where was my reminder, ya'll?! lol

Okay. I'm going to catch up on reading now. I saw a new thread about 2018 Gardening too.

Carry on and stay cool.

Sorry Jennifer! I forgot to remind you about the 15 Aug cucumber planting. I didn't end up growing new cucumber plants. My lemon cucumbers started producing during this bout of rain.

The plant with smaller, rounder leaves in my cucumber raised bed has fruits now! Is it a cucamelon? I wonder if it came from the previous house owner.. is it invasive? Should I get rid of it? When is it ok to harvest just to taste it? I wish it's watermelon instead!

Amy--ha! I was going to ask you if you wanted to meet for dinner. . . Just as well you're grilling. No idea where we'll eat. And I know how much you love driving through Tulsa, so you have fun grilling! I just hope they can "fix" the computer again. I'm pretty grumpy. Yeah, this is a MacBook Air, not quite 4 years old. Any of you have any laptops you're crazy about? (I was crazy about this one til 3 months ago!). LOL

HazelJen, I think you'll have plenty of time for cucumbers if you plant this weekend.

Shallots. Should I plant sets at the same time as we would plant bulbing onions?

The Brat Cat and I survived the vet trip. She screamed most of the time. I softened it by bringing out a new pot of cat grass for her when we got home. Now I'm back in bed, online. Seed shopping, natch.

Rebecca, He's not the only guy. We have a ton of roosters because we are too kind-hearted to kill them when they hatch out from eggs we've let hens set on. He is bigger than the roosters, though, and they know not to mess with him. Of course, he isn't interested in chicken hens anyway as they aren't his type. He is really interested in white compact cars, but they aren't his type either. Poor guy. If you've ever seen turkey toms mate with turkey hens, you'd know that procreation of turkeys is, hmmm, very odd-looking and awkward. I'm pretty sure that when he and the turkey hens were doing it, the chicken hens were laughing at them.

Jacob, Our very first year here, with expectations of our first frost/freeze in November, it happened on either Sept. 29th or 30th. With a day's notice, I bought 6 mm plastic and lumber and quickly built a crude, temporary hoophouse over the garden (which was much smaller then than now) and saved most of the plants. It was such a shock. I don't think we've had a frost or freeze that early since. For us, normal is the third week in November, but in a couple of wonderful years it hasn't happened until almost Christmas. One year, all my family including aunts, cousins, etc. were coming for Thanksgiving and I was so excited because the garden was still in its full glory and looking great. My relatives were looking forward to seeing the garden. It froze on the Wed. morning before Thanksgiving. As one of my aunts (herself a country girl by birth and a gardener) stood and looked at the crispy, brown garden she said "I can tell it was doing really well and looked great....." We didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I couldn't believe that cold weather couldn't have waited a couple more days.

Rebecca, I hope you and the cat both survived, and I hope you get over your virus quickly. To me, it always seems worse to be sick in the summertime. Chris missed a day of work this week with what he described as a migraine headache and sore ears. Turned out he had a sinus infection/ear infection. He's back at work today. I think his all stems from allergies to late summer bloomers like ragweed. However, his girlfriend his two young daughters and you know how little kids seem to bring home every respiratory infection around and share them with the adults in their lives, so that's a possibility too.

Nancy, Our lawn isn't mowed yet because it is staying too wet. I had hopes for mowing late this afternoon, but we had the Guns Vs. Hoses blood drive today and ran out of energy before we got around to mowing. Now we have clouds and thunder, though the rain seems to evaporate before it crosses the Red River. Maybe tomorrow. We have so much dew and such a high dewpoint (77 when I checked a little while ago) that nothing is drying up. We still have massive puddles---clay hold water forever, so Augustus at least has his choice of puddles to stand in when he gets too hot. Our heat index hit 111 today and we weren't even in the area with the Heat Advisory (though we obviously should have been). We're cooling down nicely now because of the rain to our SW. I don't even want the rain. We are too wet---we must be at 300-400% of average August rainfall in our county at this point, and there's a lot of days left in this month. I did achieve a few things today---groceries and supplies all purchased and put away, and a clean kitchen and laundry room. It isn't easy to keep those floors clean as the dogs come in from their muddy dog yard via an exterior door in the laundry room and run through the kitchen, breakfast room and living room on their way to Tim's office/TV room, which is where they like to hang out and sit on the two chairs in the bay window and watch the chickens and wild things outdoors. It's a hard life to sit on a chair in an air-conditioned room and bark at all the creatures outdoors.

Ooooh----breaking weather news----I just had a lightning strike here. That piddly little storm may find its way here yet, though I still don't really expect rain---just clouds and noise and stuff like we've been getting for a while now. It still looks like the moisture dries up as it reaches the Red River and I can see blue sky and sunlight beyond the clouds, but we're only about a quarter-mile from the river at its closest point to our back property line, so I'm not saying a few stray raindrops might not survive and hit us.

Rebecca, That is a virus. The squash are safe to eat as far as I know. The most common virus to hit squash is squash mosaic virus, but there are many, many others. Each fruit can be affected differently---some have green stripes, some have swirls or dots, some get big warty growths, but the cause is viruses---spread by insects. Here's a little general info on squash viruses:

Cucurbit Family Virus Info

Amy, You can dehydrate fresh shellies, and yes, then you would treat them as dried peas when cooking them.

Augustus is a hoot all the time. If I leave the mudroom door open briefly so I can walk out, go to the compost pile and dump a bucket of stuff on it and walk right back in, Augustus will be standing in the mudroom (which isn't heated or cooled but does seem to have a more moderate temperature than the outdoor air) waiting to go into the house with me, even if I didn't even see him when I walked out the door. For a short, fat bird, he is quick. I have to scold him and shoo him out the door, and after he's gone down the steps, he turns and looks up at me like I am the Wicked Witch. He really wants to come inside in the air conditioning, and on a day like this, who can blame him? However, I'm not having an adult turkey in the house and that is that.

H/J, I know that you're about to get super busy. Just enjoy the garden when you can and the chickens too. I bet they love the new coop. I'd go ahead and plant---it is not that late and the seeds will sprout and everything will grow, unless the rain totally stops, and I don't think it will.

Eileen, That's some sort of melon, but not a cucumelon. Cucamelons are oval and tiny---like, maybe, the size of a large group at most.

Yours fruit looks like one of the small, rounded watermelons known as icebox melons because they genearally only get maybe 4-12 lbs. in size so fit easily into a refrigerator. The problem is that your leaves do not look like watermelon leaves which are lobed. Your leaves look like muskmelon or cantaloupe leaves. Maybe it is one of the true European cantaloupes, and I've grown a lot of them, but I don't recall any looking so similar to a watermelon even in their youngest stages. The issue is that cantaloupes/muskmelons can cross within their species and watermelons within theirs, but they do not usually cross-pollinate one another. I suppose it could happen, but it would be extremely rare. There's a chance it is some specialty melon like Queen Anne's Pocket Melon (if so, it will mature yellow with orangeish stripes) or Tigger or something similar. It might be that a watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) crossed with a citron melon (also Citrullus lanatus) and I think that could give you a fruit that looks like yours with leaves that look more like muskmelon or cantaloupe seeds. Tim will tell. You have a little garden mystery occurring there.

Well, Tim went out to mow, perhaps because the sun has burst through the clouds and there's no thunder or lightning any more. I should go out and see if he needs help. I expect he'll tell me no, that he just wants to mow the small area between the house and detached garage, but I should at least ask.

Dawn

Thanks for the squash info, Dawn. I guess I'm now in the market for a hybrid yellow squash, too. What is it about my garden this year that is making it the ultimate disease/pest target?

Dawn, that Thanksgiving story made me laugh lol. Just curious, when is your average last frost? I think ours is generally in late April, but it's not quite uncommon to get frost into May, so corn and tomatoes can't be put out until about mid May or so. Actually, I remember in 2013, the first year we moved here, we woke up to a few inches of snow on the ground in the middle of May!!

I've never heard of squashes getting viruses like that. Real interesting.

Rebecca/Jen: I'm following your cucumber suggestion, and I'm going to plant some in 15 gallon containers. I think I can put several plants in those sized containers. I started the seed tonight in cups. I have everything, so I might as well give it a shot. As soon as they germinate and have a leaf or two, I'm putting them right in, along with a cage/trellis. These are County Fair, and they are 52 days. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I'm also going to start some sugar snap peas in a 10 or 15 gallon container, along with a cage/trellis.

My garden is a horrible diseased mess. Ugh. I can't deal with it.

Butternut squash has leapt out of it's container and is running across the yard. Would a heavy duty 4 ring tomato cage work as a trellis?

Rebecca, will wait for someone who know to give you the answer/. But reminds me of ours last year, that goes out of the raised bed and trailed out from 10 to 20 feet.

Whew. Made it to Tulsa and back. Lived in a rural/country/small town area, mostly, for first 36 years of life, Wyoming mostly, with a 3-yr foray near Denver. Then to the city, Mpls, for 30 years. Now back in very rural/country. Nothing I want or need in cities (other than a fun restaurant now and then.). Certainly not the traffic, crowds or glitter. Any time away from home is largely time wasted, for me. But six hours out of our life today to get to Tulsa, get to Reasors for my kombucha, HJ and Amy and whoever else you all are. . .the clerk directed me to where they were but said they'd sold quite a few out, so what I got home with was Guava Goddess and Mystic Mango! LOL. And a few other items that my very most unfavorite grocery store in the whole world, Walmart, doesn't carry. Canned tart pie cherries, RealLemon, a nice bakery unsliced loaf of Italian bread, and some mineral water. There were so many restaurants along the way, I told GDW my main criteria would be how many parking spaces were available, as I don't do well with wait times. Third stop was Outback, which, according to my MN experiences, would suffice--and it did. (The other 3 really really good ones were down the way a bit, but I saw 3 empty car spaces at Outback, so we pulled in.). It was 5-star compared to what we have in Wagoner, and so despite my little meltdown at the Apple Store, we ended the evening on a high note. Give me a very tasty cab and a plenty okay dinner, and I'm a cheap date, and get over my grumpiness quickly. The downside was that I had to leave the laptop at Apple and we have to go back Monday or Tuesday.

Hey Amy--wanna meet us for dinner?

I was so ticked off. The Apple guy, unlike our last wonderful one, was telling Garry all the intricacies of what was going on with the computer and what they needed to do, and once in a while he'd make eye contact to me. That makes me insane. I finally said, looking him directly in the eye, "Hey. My husband knows absolutely nothing about computers. He knows mechanics and cutting down trees. This is my computer, I am the customer. And I have the money. You need to talk with me." Well, obviously this was not setting off on the right foot. LOLOLOL. I thought GDW was going to fall off his chair laughing. And so then he was saying he'd get back to us Monday or Tuesday with the computer back, and I said, "WHAAT? You mean we have to drive back up here from 50 miles away??" Yep, no "I'm sorry that this has inconvenienced you, nada." I left with a mighty burr under my saddle.

BUT. I figured out the solution on the way home. We need a back-up computer. Pronto. You all know I've contemplated a new freezer. But I have a small upright (thought not frost-free) one; and a small chest one out in the shop. So I have resisted getting a new freezer. But I can hardly get by without a computer. Dozens of times a day I'm googling my questions, using it for researches. It is my library at a touch, my news, my social outlets, my emails, my writing, my journaling. THIS is my purchase for this quarter. I am going to buy a fabulous desk top for my back-up--at the same price as a good chest freezer. Voila! Problem solved. And it is NOT going to be a Mac! Too rich for my blood and furthermore, isn't even the best buy! LOL

Whew. Sorry for the non-gardening digression. After all our rain of the last week, was watering the veggies today. Yard is looking good with the humidity. Hey, if it's a paradise hot-house garden for the plants, we can deal with it. Brought in another 8 cukes today. Now I know this is small "potatoes" for those of you with big gardens, but for us, 6-12 cucumbers a day is WAY overkill! Still hauling in a few tomatoes every day, adding on to the frozen ones; still many jalapeños and green peppers are rebounding.

Getting excited about revamping all the "flower beds," and strategizing.

That's it for now I think.

H/J, I need to water, too.

Eileen, I cant get melons to grow and you get volunteers.

Nancy, we have a Lenovo desk top, which, knock wood, has given us no problems. I think Lenovo puts out some good laptops, too, but they might be pricier than other options. I would think the hard part for you would be switching from Mac to Windows.

Rebecca, it seems to me I planted shallots when I planted garlic (Fall). But someone gave me the shallots and said to plant them now, so I did, ha. I got a few. I missed one which bloomed in my tomato bed this year.

Dawn, I can only imagine what turkey poop must be like. When we had geese they liked to sit on the step outside the back door. I think turkeys are bigger than geese. I made DH put a fence around the patio so it wasn't always covered with goose poop.

Nancy, Reasors also has a pimento cheese spread up at the deli counter that I think they make on site. It's good. I always go in there for ONE thing and end up with a cartful. They're more expensive some times, but better quality. And they're an employee owned Oklahoma company, so I try to support them.

Dinner depends on DIL. Tuesday is her for sure C-section. I've not heard if she's had any more contractions. I might have custody of my grandson. So just let me know when the mac people are done. You might want to come earlier in the day to avoid week day traffic.

Yeah, I can remember buying a car and having the salesmen ignore me. Ron just says "It's her car, she's the boss".

I'm not getting near as many cukes from my plants. Though I'm getting more than last year.

My kids were not impressed with my zipper peas. Last night we had my tomatoes (oldest was very impressed with dark tomatoes, LOL), my cukes, my squash, and I took a pot of zipper peas. It was a nice evening and Honey got to play with my daughter's dogs again, so she's pretty laid back today.

I haven't seen harlequin bugs on the front bed where I was hand picking them, but I saw some on the collards in the back bed with the zipper peas yesterday. I need to get my hand vac and see If I do better. I don't know if that will get the cabbage worms though. It will get squash bugs if I can stir any of those up.

Can't believe how fast cucumbers grow. Another 10 or so today. Guess I'll be canning a few jars of cucumbers. This really is kind of an everyday thing with cucumbers, isn't it! LOL.

(Amy, Windows no problem since that's what I was always used to in the work place.).

Rebecca, I do not believe it is your yard. I think it is this year. The early heat let a lot of pests, and in particular cucumber beetles, get off to an early start---both cucumber beetles and squash bugs, which have been around in huge populations this year, spread tons and tons of diseases. The only thing I can add is that sometimes container plants are a magnet for pests and it can become a vicious cycle. Here's how it most often happens here with container plantings: Container plants need more frequent feeding, as we often discuss here, because of the way irrigation and rainfall wash away the nutrients. More frequent feeding tends to give plants a burst of nitrogen here and there following a feeding. Excess nitrogen (and I am not saying you are feeding them excess nitrogen on purpose---it is hard to balance it just right in containers) causes plants to make more carbs. More carbs attract more pest insects. Pest insects carry diseases. Diseased plants look bad. You cut off diseased leaves and feed the plant to push new growth and recovery. Right? Right. I'd do exactly the same thing. Plants recover, make new growth, and pests hit again. There's your vicious cycle. It is worse in very dry and very wet years than in a more normal year. So, don't blame yourself. Blame the crazy insane weather that gave us drought, early heat, extreme cold, early pest outbreaks, snakes out in winter, rain, and floods....and that was just in January-March. It isn't like the weather has changed much. It has been nuts all year. It started crazy. It has stayed crazy.

Jacob, The Oklahoma Climatological Survey says Nov. 7th for us, but based on the 19 years we've been here, I'd say our average first freeze tends to be around November 20th. We have been having a long-term trend since at least 2003 of warmer and warmer weather, so our old 30 year averages probably will change a bit when they redo the new averages at the end of this decade.

Our average last freeze of Spring is, officially, March 29th, I think, but some years it has happened as early as the end of February. However, for 7 or 8 years, we kept having a late freeze every year around May 3rd. It was maddening. Rather than push planting later and later, I bought DeWitt Ultimate Frost Blanket Row Cover that gives 10 degrees of cold protection. Now, I plant when I want, usually around March 10-17 for tomatoes, and cover up the plants if cold weather threatens. This issue never has been our soil temperatures---our soil down here doesn't get that cold and it warms up quickly this far south, but our air temperatures are all over the place every year. So, nowadays, and I've done this for about 8 or 10 years now, I plant whenever I feel like the soil temperatures are stable and when the 10-day forecast looks pretty good, and then I can cover up the plants with frost blanket type row covers if cold threatens. Some years I end up covering up the plants about once a week for a couple of months. Other years I only cover up the plants once or twice in that first couple of months. It is incredible how well they grow if I can just protect them from that occasional late cold night. We have to push hard down here to beat the heat, and row covers as needed do that for me. That makes my main tomato harvest run from late May through late July usually, but our earliest tomatoes from in-ground plants usually are ripe in April from an early March planting (from plants that had blooms on them when planted), and this year we had our first ripe tomato in March, from a plant grown indoors in a large pot in a sunny south-facing window. I bought the plant at a Wal-Mart around the second week of January and its sole job was to give us tomatoes as early in the year as possible. Think about---we were harvesting and eating those tomatoes when most folks in our neighborhood didn't have plants purchased yet, and at about the same time I was putting our home-grown plants in the ground. It was awesome. Did it taste like a summer tomato? Nope. Tomatoes grown indoors in winter don't get enough heat or strong enough sunlight to develop full, rich in-season tomato flavor, but it still was much better than a grocery store tomato. In case no one else has mentioned this, I'll say it: I am a tomato maniac.

Mary, It is the weather. There's not much we can do about it. I hate all the diseases this year. It is what it is. Surely next year will be better. (And, if you can steam clean things inside your house, why oh why isn't this steamy hot weather killing these plants diseases instead of making them worse?????)

Rebecca, No, but it would be better than nothing. I've had butternuts run 20-30' when they are happy....sometimes I let them climb the 8' fence, cascade down the other side and then take off into the trees. Maybe in the future, you might want to grow some of the ones bred for containers. I've grown several and they still get fairly big but they are much more controlled/less rampant than regular butternuts.

Nancy, I hear you on the big city stuff you don't need. I grew up in Fort Worth when it was considerably smaller than it was now...and so was Dallas....and the whole metroplex. Eventually it got to where it was getting too big and we moved here and found the rural living we desired. Then, Fort Worth-Dallas began undergoing phenomenal growth that is mind-blowing (the DFW metro area now has a population of 7.1 million compared to the roughly 5 million it had when we moved here in 1999). Other than having family there, and occasionally shopping there, I can't handle it any more. Everything is all concrete and endless development and growth and huge highways. There is nowhere down there I want to visit badly enough to get on a 14 lane highway.....who needs 7 lanes each way, even if only briefly, before they drop down to 6 lanes each way? I just need to stay home and wait for them to build a CostCo in Denton or Gainesville. Tim says he does get home more quickly now that the DFW Connector Project (multi-highway, including the 14-lane thing we were on yesterday) is done, but I wonder how long that big highway project lasts before continuing growth makes it obsolete and they build some 18- or 20-lane highway? Hopefully Tim will be retired by then and won't have to deal with that mess.

The computer stuff is frustrating. I think they all can give you trouble from time to time, and getting someone to troubleshoot them and fix them is just as aggravating as can be. Good luck finding a nice back-up that is reliable and dependable.

Amy, Augustus used to poop on the steps and patio, but I scold him and wash it right off when he does and he is (despite the general perception that turkeys are dumb) smart enough to know he shouldn't do it there. Now he seems to go out of his way to poop in the driveway, where you see big giant blobs of it there. I don't know why the driveway and not the yard, but I also don't care why.

I'm glad Honey had a play date. Seems like it left her feeling more content to chill a bit more than usual afterwards. Hmmm. Maybe Honey needs her own puppy to play with. (Go ahead and pelt me with produce for saying that, but please, no rotten tomatoes.)

I saw the first Harlequin bug of the year last week, about 5 months later than usual. I killed it and I just hope there aren't any more. I'm sure there are, but I haven't seen them.

It has been too hot to do anything. I have seedlings to plant but I don't want to go out into the heat and plant them. I'm waiting until Wednesday, when our high is supposed to be in the 80s instead of the upper 90s.

Enough of the side/back yard and dog yard are mowed that we can walk through those areas with no fear of not being able to see a snake. Mowing the front yard is on the agenda, probably for right after dinner this evening, when the sun is far enough west that temperatures are falling but when there also is still daylight. That's dependent on fire calls---we've only had 1 today and I hope our good luck holds.

Dawn

I found squash bug eggs up under a couple of leaves on my one container tomato plant on the back patio (next to the garden). I squished the eggs. Seriously? They like tomato plants, too?

Wow. My method for seeding beetroot and carrots must work. I walked out today and found seedlings sprouting- after one day!!

Hot hot hot. . . I did a bad thing Friday. Finally got what I deserved. Ran over the hose with the lawnmower one too many times and chopped it in half. I didn't like that orange hose anyway. And GDW laughed and said, "I know you didn't like that orange hose!" he was right. So today back to Lowe's for another round of soils and stuff for raised beds, and a green hose. Canned 5 pints of pickles from our collection of yesterday and today. Did 2 pints yesterday, and a jar of pickled peppers and one of banana pepper rings.

SO many bugs around. What are the little, oh, about an inch long dark brown/black beetle things that I found by the hundreds while mowing grass. The move darned fast, too. They cannot be good. And tons of green grasshoppers on the north side of the shop (where we really don't have anything planted. In fact, more grasshoppers than I've seen here before; which surprised me a little given how damp it has been.

Hit the order button on one of the Dell all-in-one desktop computers today. For better or worse. Got good reviews, so it's a done deal now. My first laptop some years ago was a Lenovo, Amy. It was okay, but he keyboard was awfully stiff and not friendly to type on. I like the Mac and hope it'll be fixed.

This little IPad, while sadly deficient, in terms of slowness, has served me well for five-six years. And in a pinch, it more or less works. Especially with the pint-sized keyboard for it.

Titan's last day of medicine tomorrow, then we'll take to the vet for a blood draw. Yay! He is more and more himself. He went out exploring today--first time in what, 5 or so weeks.

Still not seeing beets emerging yet. . . Maybe I'll go plunk in some more. Yeah. Tomatoes are about done, except for 3 plants. The new Cherokee purple and 2 in the center bed. And it's so crowded right there, I may tear at least one of those out, since there are 3 peppers right there that would like the room, and a couple echinacea. The milkweed in the shop bed have battle valiantly to stay alive, with the recurring oleander aphids, and beetles, and now they have fuzzy black small caterpillars. What are those? I'll have to google.

And I'll probably be sorry for saying this, but I haven't seen any vole damage from the colony in the front yard, and am wondering if life may have become less than joyful for them out there and they packed up their tents for now. Strange.

Need to sort seeds tomorrow and put in order; tossing some along the way.

Tried to read back through posts, but find I am suddenly TIRED. I believe I'll call it a night!

Mary, Well, apparently they must. I have found the eggs on tomato plants once or twice, but not often. Maybe they think they can fly under the radar by hatching out on something that is not a squash plant.

Jacob, You must have the perfect weather for them right now. Both are biennials and do tend to sprout well in heat (in fact, I think it is easier to get them both to sprout in August than in late winter/early spring).

Nancy, Tim can relate to you running over the water hose with the lawn mower, but he usually runs over an extension cord. We didn't run a buried electrical power line to our chicken coop (probably should have), so when we have tiny baby chicks hatching out when the weather still is cold, we will run an outdoor type extension cord to the chicken coop so we can keep a heat lamp on over the babies. Tim will mow right over that extension cord with the mower, and will get away with it now and then. Occasionally he cuts it. I think he forgets it is there because usually in spring the heat lamp is only on at night and not during the day (so at least when he cuts it, it isn't plugged in). I 'think' I finally have broken him of mowing over the extension cords by dropping what I am doing when I see him mowing, running to the coop, unplugging the extension cord and rolling it up and setting it on top of the fenced chicken run in plain sight. I think that seeing me do that makes him feel bad so he has finally started making a point of rolling up the extension cord before he mows. Usually. Maybe not always. I also made him finally throw away an outdoor extension cord he had cut multiple times (he always fixes it by wrapping the cuts with black electrical tape so we end up with an orange and black tiger striped extension cord) and we went to the store and bought a new one----and I picked out a very expensive one so he'd see what it was costing us when he ruins a cord. Ha! He hasn't cut that cord yet but, then, of course, it is summer and we aren't using it at the present time.

Without seeing the beetles it is hard to guess what you have as we have many, many different kinds of them here. Perhaps they were some form of blister beetles. I usually have the black ones but occasionally have gray or grayish-brown ones or sometimes some striped ones, and their population often is large at this time of the year.

Grasshoppers hatch out well in wet soil and we've had new ones hatching since early July, regular as clockwork, just about every week. Earlier in the season when we were much hotter and drier in the springtime, I wasn't seeing many grasshoppers for quite a while. Then we had a fairly small main hatch around May and I thought it was going to be a really good grasshopper year. Then, July brought rain and hoppers started hatching everywhere. The one good thing about it is that all the fields are incredibly green and the hoppers have plenty to eat, so that means they will not be flocking to our gardens (I hope) in the hundreds and thousands like they normally do in August when the fields turn brown. Down here, the summer grasshopper population normally peaks in late July and begins falling, but I don't think that is happening this year. I see more of them continuing to hatch, so it seems likely the population will peak in September before it begins to fall.

That's terrific news about Titan. I am so glad he is starting to act more like himself again. He (and y'all) have had a rough summer. I cannot believe how long his illness dragged on. Poor guy. At least he is feeling better and acting more normal again. I hope his blood test results come back in stellar condition.

I haven't seen too many voles yet, so likely they are finding stuff to eat in the woods and fields since they are not plaguing the garden. Our neighbor's cat was in the garden one morning recently. I don't know if he climbed the wooden fence posts to get in or if he went in there while the gate was open and then got shut in, but I'm hoping he searched for and found any voles that might be in the garden overnight while he was in there. I've only seen one vole hole in the garden and I stuck a spiky datura seed ball down the hole when I found it and haven't seen any signs of activity since then.

I heard something moving around in the garage a couple of weeks ago---likely a rodent seeking shelter from heavy rainfall, so Tim put out rat poison in there and I haven't heard or seen anything since. However, it is annoying to have to keep Pumpkin out of the garage. He's a great mouser but I don't want him finding anything that's recently eaten poison, so he cannot follow me into the garage like he usually does. Being a stubborn cat, he sits at the walk-out door and then when I open it from inside, usually with my hands full, he darts past me and runs for the farthest corner of the garage, so I have to put everything down and go get him and bring him out. Sometimes if I can not quick enough to close the door, he'll run right back in again. I think that he thinks this is some sort of fun game.

Sunday was not as bad as Saturday in terms of the heat index, but it still was miserably muggy out there. I hope today is better, but don't really expect it to be much better.

Dawn