I’m aiming for another 40′ of cuke seed into one of the frames I converted previously from wood to steel. We’ve been having rain every day for the past four or five days. Not a ton, but anywhere from a quarter to a half inch each day. In and of itself: good. As it relates to already soaked ground that can’t keep up with absorption: not good. As it relates to mosquitoes having lots and lots of babies that grow up into adult bloodsuckers: worse. Luckily, the last visit to Home Depot I picked up more mosquito dunks so I can go toss those into the standing water areas to try to cut down on the wild mosquito sex parties going on out there.

The flats in the barn are still growing strong, and I’m hoping to plant those out in the first week of September. That will hopefully give us just enough time before things start getting dicey to get another harvest out. If I’d thought more about it, I would have put in another flat of jalapenos, to have more of those on hand for new batches of salsa (current inventory: zero). Unfortunately, I didn’t, and by the time I got them germinated and transplanted, it would probably be too late. Still, I could give it a go – what’s the worst that could happen? No harvest. There’s been plenty of that around here even in the regular season, and it is life on the farm, so perhaps tomorrow I’ll line up another flat for that.  It’s also time to check the peanuts out back and see if they’re ready to come out and be cured a bit before going into the freezer for future boiling. I also need to get some carrot, onion, and leek seed in. Overwintered onions and leeks do well here given that we have so few heavy, long-lasting freezes that can cause heaving. We finally found a couple of Haas avocado trees, and they are doing quite well, and we fully intend to baby them in the winter, even though they are supposed to be frost hardy into the 20s – handcart into the garage even though the whiskey barrels we have them in weigh a ton will probably wind up being the plan. In a month or so, we’ll be digging sweet potatoes from the back garden area, including the new growth from those we missed last year, which started popping up again. They’re a bit like peanuts and jerusalem artichokes in that regard, and which we also have found popping up from previous plantings: if you don’t get them all, you’ll find you have them regrowing in a space where you might have planted something else the next season. That can be a little annoying, but it does teach you some lessons about what is really hardy and grows without too much complaint down here.

I’ve also been weeding like a crazy person, beyond my two bag quota per day. I pulled up a bunch yesterday and thought I might skip today since my hands were a bit creaky from the marathon. But, it has to be done, so I got off my ass and pulled five bags worth of weeds today to add to the collection that will cause the yard waste guys to curse us (again) on Friday, with more to come because the weeds never stop.

Only two days to get the stitches out of my face from the tooth extraction. It’s a good thing I can’t move my tongue or I’d be playing with the annoying things all day long like a kid with a loose tooth.