|
|
By Annette, on June 28th, 2012% Another day without a workout. One good thing: a visit with the ENT today, who gave an all clear: everything looks good, feels good (no lumps or anything in my tongue, mouth, or neck that he could feel). I have two CT scans on the 2nd, and I’m hopeful those will come back clear as well. We’re still on a 6-month rotation for visits to the various doctors and for scans, and maybe next year we can get back to yearly.
Today, though, more pain from the dental work and a couple of teeth that will be the next two to be pulled. The jarring from the jumping is a killer. So, new plan: restart on Sunday to give it a couple more days to calm down.
In the meantime, we’re still watching the floodwaters recede, slowly but surely, from the two feet or so that dropped in when Debby did Jacksonville. The bees survived high and dry, thanks to good placement of the hive. The chickens…well, chickens are not that bright, so they looked like drowned rats for a few days since they were not always smart enough to get in the coop and out of the rain.
The garden: the garlic has had it. After the fast, high heat, then a lot of rain at the beginning of the month, and now this rain, a lot of it is rotted. There may be some that can be salvaged, but for the most part, I’m counting it as a loss. Next season, I won’t be planting nearly as much, and only ordered a total of 20 pounds from Big John’s. This will give us a lot more room for tomatoes, once the frames are reworked. The remaining tomatoes out front are likely dead now, and the cukes were pulled two weeks ago after the first rounds of rain killed them off.
Looking forward to a reboot of the garden!
By Annette, on September 28th, 2011% Weather: again just over 90 degrees, no rain, few clouds beyond the massive, towering clouds that I saw on the way back from the NOC. They were just teasing. Still humid. The weekend forecast shows a drop of 10 degrees for the high, so we may actually be moving toward fall – but not too much, please, since I have tomatoes and peppers out there still.
Plants: more peas coming up. Dug up a couple of sweet potatoes for roasted red pepper soup yesterday, and they don’t look too bad. Also picked some jalapenos for that soup as well.
Done: built two more doubled frames, pulled the black eyed peas from the middle area, refertilized with chicken poop, moved the empty trellises to the back, pulled some random weeds. At the NOC, racked up another new server, reinstalled two others, one for production, one as a current testbed.
By Annette, on September 27th, 2011% Weather: 90-ish and brilliant blue skies after the fog burned away. No rain today.
Plants: Found the first shelling peas breaking through this morning. Many more expected.
Done: Nothing outside. All morning spent at the dentist have two crowns seated and an extra bonus of another tooth rebuilt. Very, very painful day, and no outside work necessary to jar things around or make me clench my teeth. On the plus side, that finishes this round of teeth needing to be fixed, and we’re back to cleanings every three months until we find the next thing.
By Annette, on September 26th, 2011% Weather: Rain last night left things wet this morning. No breeze, quite a bit of fog, hot, and steamy. It didn’t dry out enough for mowing until just before 11 AM, and two hours later when I finished the mowing, the weather station out front said 92. Rain this evening – real rain, finally, almost half an inch.
Plants: the trees in the orchard are doing well, all things considered. The orange and tangerine both have ants around the base, so we’ll use some DE out there to get them to go away. Some of the green beans sown a few days ago are poking through the earth, and finally, the sweet basil has tiny seedling appearing in the herb garden. The Jerusalem artichokes look very healthy, and a couple of those that had escaped their frame were summarily pulled. The tabascos have some fruits turning red.
Done: weeding, laid out more coffee bags around the tomatoes, mowed the entire property.
By Annette, on September 25th, 2011% Weather: another hot, humid day. High at the ranch was 93 officially by the front garden, but it felt like that by 10 AM already. By the time we reached the actual temp high, the heat index was around 110 degrees. Rain in the very late afternoon for about 20 minutes or so.
Plants: the pepper plants in the front garden area where the garlic had been are looking very good. Chocolate bells, jalapenos, and paprikas are all forming nicely. No sign of pea germination, but cooler weather is coming next weekend, and they should like that. Beets have sprouted, along with the mustard, leeks, and cabbage.
Done: transplanted out another 48 bell peppers, sowed another frame of green beans. Weeded, weeded, weeded. Watered almost all the trees throughout the day. Sowed four types of squash to replace the ones killed off by vine borers. This time, a special method that will hopefully keep the critters away (pictures later). Started laying the used coffee bags around the tomato transplant, to be followed by a layer of hay.
By Annette, on September 24th, 2011% Weather: topped out at 92, according to the weather station here on the ranch. High humidity all day long, which made it feel like a sauna just stepping outside, not to mention what it felt like when there was actual work happening. About 3 PM, thunder rumbling in the distance, but no rain here at the ranch, and the skies to the east cleared by 5 PM.
Plants: the front crop of peanuts is starting to fall over, which means it’s nearly harvest and curing time for those. The spinach sowed in a couple of 4×4 frames in the front garden is coming up. All of the melons look terrible and should probably be taken out for compost. Still no new sweet basil seedlings from that direct sowing – the second direct sowing, in fact – which is very strange given that it usually grows like a weed.
Done: Weeded, a job that never seems to end. Transplanted 64 cherokee purple tomato plants from the flats, and 32 bell peppers. Reseeded more dud green beans. Ran drip irrigation in the final row of the back garden to replace the traditional irrigation that had been there. Topped the lemon and lime basils in the herb garden. Watered everything except the trees. Replaced one of the watering timers, which picked today to go crazy. Sliced open half a dozen used burlap coffee bags so they can be used for moisture and weed control around the transplanted tomatoes and peppers from today. Picked and tested some of the second round black eyed peas from the front garden. Relaid the black plastic mulch in the front garden that had blown around a bit. Checked for the spider that hangs around the front walkway on the siding, but couldn’t find her; her three egg sacs are still in place.
By Annette, on September 24th, 2011% Servers conspired to keep me out of the garden and inside or at the NOC, including a marathon session at the NOC on Thursday. While working in the outer vestibule, a storm rolled through, with a quick, bright flash of lightning followed by a tremendous rumble of thunder that shook the front windows. Luckily I was in the one place guaranteed not to lose power while I was working on a balky server.
Weather: highs about 90, little rain. Last night again lightning and thunder in the distance, but bypassing the ranch. This means watering rounds on Saturday.
Plants: Saturday will be the attempt to plant out the flats. The forecast is for more of the same of this sort of weather, so the garlic planting will have to wait a bit, until the temps are consistently not hovering around 90 every day. This will also give me time to clear out two more frames that will eventually hold garlic.
Done: Nothing, alas, as I spent my days up to my eyeballs in servers, either putting in new ones or dealing with old ones. The week ahead will surely be better.
By Annette, on September 21st, 2011% Weather: high around 90, some rain (hooray!).
Nothing done today. Between mom’s birthday and dealing with two brand new servers where the NICs didn’t want to cooperate and talk on the network, there was no time for anything else. Tomorrow is another day, as Scarlett would say.
By Annette, on September 20th, 2011% Weather: high around 85, a bit over 3/10 of an inch of rain. Storms breaking around us here – lots of sound and fury, but not enough rain.
Plants: Peanuts keep popping up in frames where we pulled them, leftovers from that harvest. Left them for now. The first okra plants are nearing 6′ tall, the second round at 4′ now. These are to be pulled, as we’re over okra for the season.
Done: Completed weeding the garlic frames and fertilized in prep for planting. Two frames still taken up by pepper plants that seem to be enjoying the (relatively) moderated temperatures. In the rear garden, the last row of frames is completely weeded. Sowed three types of shelling peas and replaced the dud green bush beans with new seed. Realigned the drip irrigation that was out of place from the pulling of the black eyed peas.
By Annette, on September 19th, 2011% Weather: high around 85, intermittent drizzle, nothing significant. Unfortunately, the nor’easter seems to be blowing itself out by the time it makes its way all the way inland to us.
Plants: The cucumbers replanted where the black eyed peas had been are all up: adam gherkin, homemade pickles, and american slicer. It’s time to sow another round of shelling peas. Big, fat bumblebees spotted on the flowers near the front walk.
Done: A light day, since the bulk of the morning was spent having blood drawn and getting a chest xray and the afternoon on the business. The remainder of the garlic we pulled in August has been processed and stored.
|
2013 Harvest Totals Eggs: 501
Veggies
Asparagus: .75#
Beans, italian flat pod: 7.3#
Beans, snap (green): 39.25#
Cukes, gherkin: 19#
Cukes, homemade pickles: 25.67#
Lettuce, romaine: .25#
Peas, shelling: 7.5#
Squash, yellow: 25.1#
Zucchini: 24.33#
Herbs
Marjoram: .25#
Oregano: .15#
|
