Hazy Hot and Humid. We're getting July in June. Yesterday the temps hit 93 with a heat index of 101. R is out there like a nut trimming the big hedge in front of the house. He doesn't get out of bed until about noon, so he's out there working from about 1-3 the hottest time of the day. I worry but nothing I can do. I sure couldn't do it.
Got up early and did my bit for the hedge project...raked up and hauled out all the clippings. I spread them as mulch around a couple of the Pine Gap forsythias. Yikes....the poison ivy is very bad down there in the "newer" section of the Pine Gap, where it faces due west. I'm definitely going to have to buy some of that brush killer and spray that entire stretch.
Big news: the utility company has been working away at the poplar line. They've got 7 of the dead as doornails poplars down and gone and yesterday they started doing something with the 3 remaining live ones but then they quit and left so i'm not sure if all they are going to do is trim them up or if they are going to remove them. I hope they come back and take them down. Those trees have been a menace for the past several years as they slowly come to the end of their life span (about 25 years) and I worry that they might topple onto either my gardens, my neighbors house, or the power lines. (we had several fall over in the past decade....scary...)
Picked a "mess" more peas late yesterday evening, but havent got to them yet. I need to buckle down and get some editing done this morning because I'm having lunch with a friend in Gettysburg this afternoon and I know I'll end up spending a few hours with her just yakking our heads off.
I love my Mr. Pea pea sheller. it's this little metal do-hickey with a crank handle and two little rollers like a minature wringer washing machine (does anybody remember those?). You crank the handle and feed the pea pods into the rollers and it squishes the pods and shoots out the peas. It's faster and easier than shelling by hand (no green fingernails), but not all THAT much faster and easier. Which is perfectly fine by me. This is about as far as I like my "mechanization" to go... (You can, they say, hook it up to an electric hand mixer, but I shudder to think what that would mean...I envision crushed digits and eyes blinded by peas ejected from the rollers like miniature cannonballs. *Ping! *Zing! *ow! *Zfattp! *Ow!*)
I should get out there and pick all the rest of the peas, but I think I'll take a break and do a little editing. I'm getting barked at. Also, it's pretty HHH out there today (hazy, hot and humid).
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I read some very new research (not yet published) saying that Omega-3 (the kind of stuff found in Fish Oil) is proving to be useful in treating depression and anxiety. This research is beginning to point to inflammatory substances in the blood as the real culprit in several disease states besides depression. For example, researchers are beginning to suspect (strongly) that it is not cholesterol levels per se that lead to coronary artery disease but INFLAMMATION of the arterial walls. If you can imagine your arteries as a garden hose, imagine that inflammation is like the rubber of the hose suddenly becoming cracked and scaly on the inside (picture a bad rash on your skin). Now, as water runs thru the hose, any particles in it (like cholesterol in blood) will tend to stick to these "irritated" (inflamed) cracks and scales. Sort of like a scab forming. That's exactly what is happening in arteries. Cholesterol sticks to the spots of inflammation in the artery and forms "plaques" that, if they dislodge, can cause stroke or heart attacks. The key seems to be to reduce inflammation. Unfortunately, the American diet is full of inflammatory chemicals that come from processed sugars, artificial ingredients, some preservatives, and worst of all trans-fats. It's important to eliminate those as much as possible from the diet AND to increase the anti-inflammatory substances like Omega-3. (Aspirin is also anti-inflammatory, which may be why it helps in preventing heart disease and stroke).
I've been taking Fish Oil caps every night for about a week now and I have to say, my mild anxiety attacks are better. I'm hoping this will stave off heart disease and other troubles too!
I really don't know if this will work, but I started some Stonehead cabbage seeds in pots this morning for (hopefully) putting out into the garden later in the summer for a fall harvest. It was a spur of the moment thing *shrug*.
Too hot and humid to do much today outside, but I did get myself out very early and do some tidying and deadheading along the driveway. I probably should have moved some wood chips, but felt too lazy. Tomorrow. Manyana. Whatever. *HA*
I really do have to get out and pick the rest of the peas. I'm considering just going ahead and pulling out the plants, as I go. I doubt that I'm going to get anything more from them, not with this heat.
The pole beans (Blue Lake, Golden Wax, and Scarlet runner) are growing like crazy up the tee-pees that I set up. This is the weather they love; I hope I'll get a lot of beans. After the Weird Beast debacle of last summer and no beans at all, I'm really hungry for fresh picked and steamed beans.
I think I'll just take today "off" from the garden though and get caught up with office work. We are forecast to get thunderstorms later today; we had a little shower last evening and some rumbles, but nothing much.
Thanks to Seedfork for "turning me on" to this site!
Picked my first batch of peas this morning...I had to stop because my container wasn't big enough! I am very impressed with these Little Marvel peas; they have a good yield, grew well, and the peas are set up and out from the plants...one doesn't have to paw thru the to find them. I'm hoping to have enough this year to put a few pints up in jars for later (I haven't had much luck freezing peas; they seem to end up less than fresh tasting).
Hot and humid today, although this morning was nice. Sunny and clear so far, but we're expecting thunderstorms later in the afternoon. It is really starting to irk me that everytime there's a summer thunderstorm, all the news/weather reports refer to it as "dangerous" and always (ALWAYS) predict "the possibility of severe lightning, damaging winds and hail." Now, granted, sometimes this happens...but for the vast vast majority of storms...we get some rain, some thunder and lightning, and a little wind. I want to reach in, grab the bubble-headed bleach blonde and shake her: "NORMAL. This is NORMAL summer weather." Bah. These are the same people who make 2 inches of snow seem like the Apocalypse. Seriously? I guess they're all hedging their bets just in case something severe does come our way "See we told you so!" Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
While I'm griping, I am also tired of every new movie being about the end of the world. Is hopelessness the new normal now? Give me a break. I outgrew the idea that being depressed and sullen was cool at about age 13. This society needs to grow up and stop looking for things to bitch about. (Ironic, that...)
I'd like to get another truckload of the woodchips transferred today, but I don't think I'll manage that. I'm working under deadline, I'm admittedly pretty tired from 2 days of intense woodchip shoveling *HA*, I don't like working in the heat and humidity, and basically I'd rather do something else today. I think I will try to plant some of the Verbena bonariensis (spelling?) into the Fairy Glen and the Storybook Garden.
My Calendula seeds are up and growing in the little crescent bed by the corner of the house. Good thing too, because the rest of the packet got washed in a pair of jeans.... the zinnias are also up and growing, but not thriving. I guess they really should be started ahead of time and set out as plants, but I don't have room in the house for them.
I really really need to get some mulch on the tomatoes...that might be a good project for later this afternoon, once the aux garden is shaded.
So nervous! I guess I'll be posting some of my DG posts here for a while, sort of mirroring the 2 sites. I really like that ATP allows direct comments from readers of the posts....so nice to feel as if you're chatting with fellow gardeners instead of sort of shouting down a hollow tin can....
