Hey all! First, the updates:
My hubby is doing better - his health is holding, and we take it day by day. He has learned how to manage his condition, and we're taking a positive attitude.
My weight - down 30 pounds and counting. I credit all the outside projects this summer and the amount of sweat I have produced working in the sun for 2 months. :) (More on those to follow...)
My girl is five years old now - more picky about what she eats; loves school and can't wait to go back; learning to read already (holy cow!); and makes her own pizza with daddy.
The Veggie Garden, or One Scourge After Another
We had a really good start this year, seeing as how it's the tail end of an El Nino season . In June we had a heat wave in the northeast, which gave a sunny, dry start, as opposed to the month of cool rain we usually get. We tested the soil in our raised beds last fall and again in the spring, and found that they were almost depleted of all nutrients. We fertilized the heck out them and now we have three boxes full of greenery!
That being said, we also have blossom end rot in both our pepper and tomato crops because the weather has been shifting from very hot to very cool, which causes a calcium depletion in the plants. We also have ant hills in with the peppers, and those buggers are persistent!
Our poor tomato crops in the northeast are going through their second season of late blight - yes, the same thing that caused "an Gorta Mór" - the Irish Potato Famine. And so, I have four-foot, bushy, beautiful tomato plants that I now have to fungicide like mad to save. All of my tomatoes are fungus-y too. Argh. That's my project for today - cut them all back, remove all the current tomatoes along with infected parts, and spray, spray, spray.
On a good note, we have cucumbers aplenty - they are just now starting to hit critical mass. And I just found a recipe for jalapeno bread and butter pickles to try. (mmmmmmm....) We have a lot of pumpkin flowers, but no pumpkins yet, which is fine. If they develop late, they'll still be around for Halloween, which was the goal anyway.
The Mulch, or How I Learned to Love Grass
Free mulch, that's what they said. Free wood mulch from the town, a whole truckload. I had big plans; the landscaping in the front of the house (which I actually did, successfully), and the entire area around my daughter's big wooden playset and sandbox. Well, a month and a half later, and the mulching isn't done yet. We made the mistake of doing the bulk of the mulch laying without putting down weedblock. You guessed it, a few weeks later we had a grass field growing through four inch deep mulch. And so, for the last month in between all the thunderstorms and other stuff we have going on, we've been raking up the stuff and putting down the block, and re-laying the mulch. You wouldn't think it would take that long - but working in full sun with a heat index of around 90 degrees is no easy task, and not something I'm willing to do for longer than a few hours a day.
Other Stuff Going On (Yes, There's More!)
I've also finally finished my daughter's afghan. Since she moved up to a big, full-sized bed, none of her blankets fit, so I crocheted her a new one. As far as projects in the offing: painting all of the woodwork outside (the playset, sandbox and garden boxes); painting the last two white rooms in the house (something other than white); replanting the bulbs that I dug out to do the landscaping in the front...oh, there's always stuff. But I enjoy it - talk about a sense of accomplishment!
And so, that's what's been going on around here. I'll have more recipes and good stuff again, on a more regular basis (I hope - my fingers are crossed :) ). See ya!
