- Sunday, 7/5: Bill changed the spare tire out for his fixed tire on his car and got things together to go back to his place in St. Louis. Bill and I went fishing at the Swim Pond in the late morning. Mary stayed back and built framing with willow sticks to put white sheer curtains over the pepper plants that were suffering in the intense sun. Bill started with a small translucent, light green plug that was once his grandfather's and caught a bass with every cast. We kept 7 fish, but threw back loads of small bass. I caught a big one on a Hula Popper...man, that was really fun! Bill and I filleted the fish and Mary cooked it up. Freshly caught bass is really good tasting. Bill took a 45-minute nap, then left around 4 pm. We dozed while trying to read news online, then did chores and watered the garden. As we watered, we could hear the call of a great horned owl to the east as it slowly got closer.
- Monday, 7/6: It's extremely humid and hot. I could only stand about 15-20 minutes at a time outside, today. Thank goodness for air conditioning. Mary washed 3 loads of clothes, figured our monthly savings monies, and watered the near garden. The sweet potato and pepper plants are thriving under the sheer curtains in the garden. I made 4-foot posts and small stakes to hold chicken wire to the ground out of remaining persimmon trees I cut a few days ago. Chiggers and ticks are in full bloom right now. We keep bug dope companies in good business. Literally thousands of lightning bugs were dancing across the grass during the dogs' evening walk. They like the high humidity and nighttime heat.
- Tuesday, 7/7: Mary mowed the lane. I laid out posts around the far garden where I want to pound them into the ground. Then, I cut down some more persimmon trees and made additional posts. A total of 26 posts are needed for the far garden, the same number as the near garden.
- Wednesday, 7/8: Mary made turkey pot pie. I made chicken wire base anchors out of persimmon tree branch Y's. Then, Mary and I picked a quart of blackberries from throughout our property (see photo below). There are several almost red berries out there that need to turn a black, ripe color before we pick them. Upon returning home, we picked several ticks off us. Packing tape works great for pulling tiny seed ticks off clothing. We gained a few tick and chigger bites, which is the unpleasant cost of picking berries.
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| A quart of our first blackberries of 2020. |
- Thursday, 7/9: I pounded all of the posts into the ground for the far garden chicken wire fence. After the first 4, which took some serious pounding to get in the ground, I got smart and first poured water on the ground where I was placing each post in order to soften up the hard, dry clay I was driving posts into. With the water trick, I could put in 5 posts in the same time it took me to pound in 1 post without first softening up the hard ground with water. I then attached 70' of chicken wire fence. Mary first hoed weedy areas in the far garden, then mowed, and finished mulching rows in that garden.
- Friday, 7/10: I finished attaching the final 100' of chicken wire fence in the far garden, then made a gate for the chicken wire far garden fence. Mary planted corn, and acorn squash. It's very late on planting, but with the longer Missouri growing season, we might see produce prior to the first frost. Katie texted me that she was offered an Alaskan carpentry job that she's accepted. Pay is $60-$70 an hour. She said it will be a major ordeal for her to go to Alaska, because she must take her temperature twice daily for 2 weeks and take COVID-19 tests prior to flying north. The job is at Nuiqsut, which is west of Prudhoe Bay. The construction job lasts until February.
- Saturday, 7/11: Since Mary planted pumpkins in the far garden, the plants grew upward, filling the 4-foot high by 2-foot wide tomato cages that we put on each of the 2 hills to protect the plants from bunnies eating them, since the cages are surrounded by chicken wire. We carefully released pumpkins from these tomato cages this morning. It was tricky, and had to be done slowly as to not damage pumpkin leaves. I put stakes in between far garden posts to hold down the bottom edges of the chicken wire. Often, 3 stakes were required for every 8 feet of chicken wire fence. With about 175 feet of fencing, many stakes were needed. Mary planted potatoes, and transplanted tomatoes, tomatillo and 2 squash plants into the far garden. We're finally done with garden planting...probably the latest we've ever finished this task. So far, 2-foot high chicken wire is successfully blocking out ravaging bunnies. We finished outside chores at 9 pm...happy, but very tired.
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