Hot, humid, but perhaps not so hot as last week. And in theory, we’re on the edge of a system with T storms and heavy rain.
Yesterday stayed mostly overcast, which helped with the temps. It still got over 100F in the driveway.
After cutting the grass, blowing the debris, and weeding the gardens, I got some small things done. I finished changing out the sprinkler heads that were sticking up too far. I’d gotten 70% of the way done and stopped, so today I finished. I did a couple of other small tasks too.
Then I thoroughly cleaned the new freezer inside and out. I’ve got a bit more to do on the door. The outside is streaky where the clorox bleach cleaner lifted some 28 year old dirt but left the rest. I’d really like to go over that when I refill my spray bottle. The inside was in great shape. It’s been wet in the heat, so anything that WOULD grow in it DID grow in it. And that was very little. I plugged it in to start it getting cold again, and to keep it clean inside.
I’ve figured out how I want to change my garage layout to accommodate the new freezer. I’m taking out an old workbench that did nothing but catch piles of junk. I’ll slide the old fridge and new freezer to the end of the wall, and move the chest freezer over too. I’ll have a chance to put a file cabinet and some shelves where the chest freezer used to live. It will open stuff up a bit. Hopefully it will be a better use of the space, with less opportunity to just pile stuff on horizontal surfaces.
I need a dry, cooler day, to pull everything out of that side of the garage and move stuff around. Hope I get one soon.
The gardens are what they are… something has eaten almost every onion I planted. There are only a couple left. The broccoli is struggling. One plant died off this week. The others might or might not produce another stalk for my dinner. Probably not. The grape vine that lived is going gangbusters and has taken over the whole trellis. I don’t know if that means grapes or no grapes though. I haven’t seen any yet. The vine that died back to within a foot of the ground has put out new leaves and grown a bit. Maybe next year it will be back up the trellis.
Tomato plants are still alive, still setting flowers, and have a couple more tomatoes growing. I took two last week. Tomatoes have never grown well for me. One potato tower is empty of living plants, the other is down to one remaining plant. No idea if they died or were eaten. I can’t keep up with the sweet peppers. I had several rot on the bush. They are really tasty but I’m the only one who eats them. The brusselsprouts are finally thriving but haven’t put up the sprout stalk yet. Cabbages are about tennis ball sized through to slow pitch softball sized and looking good. Corn is about 2 1/2 to 3 feet high and has tassels. It LOOKS like it is growing well. I guess we’ll see later in the year. The melons/squash are still alive, with flowers, so I’m hopeful they’ll continue to grow.
I harvested 6 more blueberries today- go me! I was pleasantly surprised to realize I had more green fruits on the orange and grapefruit trees than I thought. I hope they ripen into good fruit. The container lime has a fruit or two left. The Meyer lemon is heavy with fruit. I had some garlic cloves sprout in the cabinet, so I stuck them in the window box today. No idea if they’ll root and grow, but the box was empty, and I’m not eating the sprouted cloves. I’ve got a couple of small cilantro plants started. I love cilantro and will eat and cook with it if I have it. It will be nice if the heat doesn’t kill them. Now if only I had 10 to 20 times the stuff planted, I might get more than the occasional taste… Growing food has a long learning curve, better get started.
Because the world isn’t getting better. “Protests” and rioting are continuing. Wuflu is continuing, although as the people getting sick are younger this time around, maybe it won’t kill so many of them. I’m nervous about it. My neighbor at my secondary location told me one of his coworkers and his whole family have it. Several of his other coworkers all have strong exposures now, as they drove around in the truck with the sick guy. My neighbor said he was outdoors (construction) and wearing a mask, but he’s still been told to stay home until he’s clear. I spent a few hours chatting with him in the parking lot. I’m hoping like he11 that 6 feet and a steady cross breeze is enough to keep me well. My next door neighbor at the house went to the Doctor in a big hurry this evening. I haven’t had a chance to find out why, but I really hope it wasn’t for a covid test.
Today I’ll be headed out to my client’s house to try to get him buttoned up before the Fourth. I’ve got auction pickups too (for my wife and her projects mainly, now that she’s discovered how handy and economical it is to have me on the lookout for stuff.) Since I was going anyway, I got some web gear, gub accessories, and a couple of things for me as well.
The scanner last night had someone in town running a drug surveillance op. Last I heard, they were watching a group of about 30 people hanging out, having a bonfire in the middle of the street around midnight. “That’s a really big fire!” says one cop. Just another weekend night in the ‘hood, I guess. Not something you’d know about from the news.
I hope everyone is healthy this week. And working on preps for the future. It’s comin’ like a freight train….
Keep stacking,
nick