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Post by Mumsey on Aug 4, 2024 5:17:14 GMT -5
Yesterday wasn't too bad with heat, light north breeze. Today will be a totally different story. Walked 6 miles yesterday by the time I got the back yard mowed. Time to get serious about packing for the trip. DS thinks I should come to his place Tuesday night, he worries about me being stressed etc. We talked several times yesterday over finalizing itinerary. Got busy in the yard and cut down all the Speedwell. With all the rain things have really outdone themselves! Cut back sage and deadheaded hosta and day lilies. Decided to have 4 bushes removed from the back yard this Fall. They are out of control, 2 Tri-color Willows, 1 Nine-Bark and 1 Lilac. Just keeping one Lilac, Miss Kim, as a windbreak. Then I'm going to have a gate put in the chainlink fence to allow a riding mower to get in. I see the days coming when I won't want to mow. I think DS thinks I'm already there......not yet though! Got the yellow crookneck and cuke seeds in the ground. Watered well and covered with grass. I see the Red Kuri vine is all but dead. 3-4 large squash there, I'm thinking squash bugs got them, I hadn't been paying attention........such a jungle, hard to even get to them. Lots of tomatoes on the counter, they have all gone to the freezer with the exception of those eaten. I cut into one of those Black Beauty, not impressed, made an OK sandwich. It was red inside, but not overly, and tart. Maybe they need to ripen more. I'll let them sit a while longer. Have to pick beans again today, been doing every other day.
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Post by emmsmommy on Aug 5, 2024 8:24:36 GMT -5
We ended up not selling Saturday and made a good decision as we ended up with 7/8" of rain. Went and got kiddo and spent the afternoon with my parents. Yesterday turned out to be our best day though technically the worst year since we started doing the big sale. We sold a few big items which meant they didn't have to come back and be stored. Kiddo had a day with mother-in-law and from the mess she had scattered around, apparently had a good time.
Evidently working with hubby this weekend was good for me as it was slower than we expected and I spent time sitting under the shade tree sewing and my ankle bone is clearly visible for the first time in a few weeks. Still a little swelling, but nothing like it was.
Slept in an hour this morning and noticed that a few things in the kennel greenhouse need watered. The two geraniums I grew from saved seed are either blooming or getting ready to and one is a ho-hum orange/red. Now I'll be stalking the other one daily until it blooms. Rose-scented geranium is blooming but the flowers are pretty insignificant. Now that my schedule has settled a bit I may start taking cuttings.
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Post by Mumsey on Aug 5, 2024 9:55:09 GMT -5
Putzing around today, picked tomatoes. Packed and ready to go. Amazing how much you can get in a carry on bag when you vacuum seal clothing. Taking a bunch of stuff to DS that we need to eat up before we leave. Also some veggies that will keep til we return. Just have to do a last minute load of laundry in the morning and run the dishwasher. Made a list for sis, she tends to not pay attention when I tell her stuff, it's better in writing and she suggested it.
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Post by Latitude33 on Aug 5, 2024 19:06:56 GMT -5
Pulled some weeds in the morning, finished setting up a 2' x 4' raised bed. Tapped into an existing drip irrigation and ran a line to the bed. Planted "Asparagus Beans" that I found in my seed horde, along with some squash seed. Still feels like I am over planting, but with the critters I don't have much choice. When it cools in September I'll be making regular trips to the CM.
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Post by gardendmpls on Aug 5, 2024 23:36:46 GMT -5
Amazing how much you can get in a carry on bag when you vacuum seal clothing. What happens when you need to pack it again for the return trip?
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Post by binnylou on Aug 6, 2024 0:27:56 GMT -5
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Post by Mumsey on Aug 6, 2024 4:43:45 GMT -5
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Post by datgirl on Aug 6, 2024 8:02:20 GMT -5
Took the two granddaughters to my sister's house for a day of swimming. It was 89* and a perfect day to spend in the pool. Last night we had storms and the temps dropped. This morning it'd gray, drizzling and 65*. Today will be an inside day. Grocery shopping first. Ugh, I do not like grocery shopping that much.
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Post by Mumsey on Aug 6, 2024 9:48:56 GMT -5
What a difference from yesterday! 59* with wind chill of 57* this morning when we walked at 0600. Good thing we went then, drizzle started around 0730. Went out and picked beans after walk, dug a hill of yukon gold taters. Surprised at how well they did and they haven't even died back yet. 8 decent size taters from one hill. Caught my friend 2 Canes when she was walking by today. Gave her a bag of tomatoes and beans. Put more tomatoes in freezer bags. Tied a couple more sunflowers to the chain link fence, leaning into tomatoes. The ground is moist under all the mulch so the garden is on it's own while I'm away. It will be fine and sis will pick what needs pickin' this weekend. 10 am and it's still only 61*.
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Post by emmsmommy on Aug 6, 2024 21:07:10 GMT -5
Other than attempting to mow in the heat, hubby and I have done very little the last two days. I did pot up some ornamental sweet potato cuttings this morning and lamented that I lost three of my rooted boxwood cuttings and three others are iffy. The others are doing fine and I either need to put them in bigger pots or create a nursery bed until I'm ready to use them. Crept into the compost bin to collect bean seed and discovered cut-shorts are growing in there too. Only found one pod of the black speckled ground squirrel beans, giving me about 24 seeds total. Both of the bean mixes are producing pods and I'm in hopes that I can harvest a good bit of seed from them. One of the trial varieties of beans has overrun it's trellis but still hasn't bloomed while the other two varieties are really producing. Blue bean (name escapes me) and beans on the arched trellis really enjoyed the little bit of rain last week as they've grown about a foot. Arched trellis in the old garden is almost completely covered by cut-shorts now and finally providing a shady resting spot. Saw a few paste tomatoes blushing, so hopefully they'll be lots of tomato sauce in my future. Worked a bit on a short story and poetry submission that's due tomorrow for our organization. Story is way over the word limit and trying to figure how to edit it and still keep it cohesive. Poem took a whole twenty minutes. Plans are to head to town early in the morning, grab some groceries and a few school supplies for kiddo and come back home. I'll have to travel a few miles to turn my writing submission tomorrow evening and may end up staying for the meeting if there's no one from our chapter there to represent us besides mom. School starts next Thursday and I'm to help with the open house event the evening before. I've been moving kiddo's bedtime up but waiting a few days to start the 6:00 wake up for her. I enjoyed an early morning outside and realized that it will be ending soon as my mornings won't start until kiddo is on the bus.
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Post by desertwoman on Aug 6, 2024 22:59:28 GMT -5
We got home from our trip and I've been in catch up mode all day. Some gardening related, some household related. Best of all was making my rustic sauce (enough to fill a pint jar) with some of the surprise tomatoes I received today. It was in the 90s today so didn't do a whole lot outside.
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Post by emmsmommy on Aug 7, 2024 20:48:24 GMT -5
Town trip didn't exactly go as planned. Started early but it got hot quick. Our contact at the thrift store put in her notice as they're overrun with everyone's leftover yard sale stuff from the weekend and very short staffed. I grabbed a Swan water hose from the pile destined for the dumpster and when I got home I figured I made a mistake as it had some major crimps in it from hanging for an extended time. Grabbed some quick-connects and attached it to the last hose in the line and no leaks whatsoever. It's still pretty supple but I don't know I don't know if I'd trust it with pressure for an extended time. Will be perfect for connecting to the rain barrels. Oddly I was planning to stop by Harbor Freight and check out their hoses today.
Kiddo needed to go to the bathroom in Walmart and hubby went in too. That coupled with the heat made me not want to shop at all. Hubby tried to rush kiddo when she was putting items on the belt and it didn't go well. Digital coupon at Kroger evidently didn't download to my card and I refused to by chicken breast at full price and didn't want to hold up the line. Have a meeting tomorrow evening so will probably go a little early and have some "me" time.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Aug 7, 2024 21:19:51 GMT -5
I didn't do much in the garden today, since everything was wet pretty much all day. It was cooler, but still humid, but at times, windy, so that made it bearable. I did a few loads of laundry - some things I had been putting off until it was cooler! I was going to make something to pressure can outside, but it was threatening to rain so often (only .12" total, though), so I will wait until tomorrow, and see how it is then. Tonight I cut up just over 6 lbs of tomatoes for that, then just over 3 lbs for another batch of gazpacho. I used up all of the tomatoes with any bad spots, then a bunch of others too, but there are still a lot in there, esp. cherry tomatoes!
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Post by breezygardener on Aug 7, 2024 22:44:28 GMT -5
Picked another motherlode of tomatoes & another two large Japanese eggplants before the incoming "flood watch" via the dregs of Hurricane Debby move in tonight & continue for the next 48 hours.
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Post by binnylou on Aug 7, 2024 23:51:17 GMT -5
No outside/garden duties today. My garden/golf cart diedโฆhubby is looking for the problem. I guess I could have done outside windows and doors, but laundry got my attention today. I dislike using such a pretty day doing inside stuff, when thereโs outside stuff waiting to be done.
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