August 15-21, 2021

Weather | 8/15, 56°, 79° | 8/16, 57°, 78° | 8/17, 57°, 81° | 8/18, 63°, 82° | 8/19, 63°, 85° | 8/20, 65°, 87° | 8/21, 0.45" rain, 68°, 83° |

• Sunday, 8/15: Garden Produce Day
  
  • Mary processed 6 zucchini that looked like green baseball bats. She shredded and froze 4 quarts, for a total of 12 quarts in the freezer for making cake. She chopped and froze 8 bags that will go into minestrone soup.
  • The effective microorganisms (EM-1) brew tree/plant spraying reached a pH of 3.4 to 3.5 after starting out at 4.0, so I put it in the dark and cool pantry to rest.
    
  • Mary popped 5 big batches of popcorn for snacks.
  • I mixed up soil in 2 more totes and planted 10 more strawberry plants, 5 plants to each tote, and moved them out into the far garden. A total of 21 new strawberry plants are now planted.
  • Mary turned the hay in the middle of the far garden.
  • She also harvested some comfrey leaves and set them out in the upstairs south room to dry.
  • Mary picked more tomatoes. She found only 1 army worm, today.
  • I painted Semco liquid membrane sealant around the electrical entrance boot on roof, in the evening, after that area was in the shade. Several more layers are required.
  • After labeling the 2021 dandelion wine, I stored the bottles on their sides in one of the coolers in the upstairs north bedroom.
    
  • The air is clearer and the sky shows a brighter blue. Goldenrod is now blooming. Autumn hints its arrival isn't far away.
    
    
• Monday, 8/16: Happy Not at Petco
  
  • I'm noticing that a couple of the co-workers where I last worked at Petco are mouthing off on Facebook about how masks don't work and COVID vaccinations are unsafe. I'm glad I don't work there, anymore. If I was there, I'd be fired and in jail for slapping them silly.
    
  • I sharpened the lawnmower blade for Mary and then she mowed the east yards.
    
  • I planted 6 more new strawberry plants in a tote. This one is larger and has more room. I moved it in the far garden with the other 3 totes (see photo, below). That makes 21 new plants out there and 3 new plants in buckets in the near garden. I have another 22 new plants that I'll plant after Labor Day in 11 buckets holding the oldest strawberry plants.
    
  • Mary found 1 army worm in the daily worm hunt. She picked more tomatoes. We have the best corn crop since we've lived here (see photo, below).
    
  • I cut 2-inch wide pieces of fabric. Next, I painted a layer of Semco liquid membrane on the edge of the electrical entrance boot, worked the fabric into that, painted another layer of liquid membrane on the fabric, then waited 5-10 minutes. Finally, I painted on an additional layer. I want to add one, maybe two more layers of liquid membrane on it.
    
  • The Bartlett pear top broke from too much weight. I didn't remove enough pears. Damn!
    
  • It's an amazing iron weed year (see photos, below). There is a general purple color from their flowers across most fields. White boneset flowers are starting to bloom, too.

New strawberry plants in totes.

Corn is tall with several ears forming.

Ironweed flowers are turning fields purple.

Mary took this closeup photo of an ironweed blossom.

• Tuesday, 8/17: First Watermelon
  
  • Mary picked our first watermelon of the season. It's a Verona watermelon that weighs 14 pounds (see photo, below). That's the good news. Bad news is she threw 3 muskmelons away, due to rot on the bottom of them, even though they were laying on boards to keep them from rotting. It's too wet this year.
  • Mary raked up grass and stored it in a large plastic garbage can.
    
  • I picked 4 large cucumbers, sliced them, and fed them to the hens. Leo, our rooster,  gives approving clucks when the cucumber slices hit the ground, as if to say, "Look here, girls!"
  • The 22 new strawberry plants still in Styrofoam cups were wilting. They were protected by leaves of bigger plants after I first pinned the runners, but now that they're separated from the parent plants, they're vulnerable to drying out in the sun. I remedied the issue by putting a correctly-sized cardboard box in the bottom of a tote and adding dried grass to the top. Then, I borrowed into the grass, stuffed the foam cup in the grass, and covered the soil at the top of the cup with more dried grass. I got a dozen plants in one tote and 10 plants in a second tote. Hopefully, the grass insulates the soil from drying out so fast.
    
  • Mary and I watered the far garden and picked more tomatoes. She watered the near garden.
  • We have hover flies by the millions. They're harmless, but annoying, as they fly near you and occasionally land to suck water off your skin.
    
  • I painted the fifth coat on the border of the electrical inlet boot to the house. I hope it's the last coat, because I hate working near a high-voltage wire. I must be keenly alert of my surroundings as I do that work.
    
  • I mixed up 2 batches of essential micro-nutrient spray and sprayed most all garden plants. I didn't spray the cucumbers or the zucchini plants, since we have all that we need. I also sprayed the smaller trees. I had to quit due to darkness. I finished at close to 9 p.m.
    
  • Mary took a nice closeup photo of a partridge pea blossom (see below).

First watermelon picked from our garden.

A partridge pea blossom photo by Mary.

• Wednesday, 8/18: Moving Hay
  
  • I cleaned up chick feed spilled out of the hanging feeder over the past weeks and dumped what was about 4 shovel loads onto the chicken run ground. For some reason, chickens, who won't touch feed on the floor in the coop, dive into feed on the ground and gobble it up. In the evening, not much feed was eaten from the feeder inside the coop, but most all of the wasted feed that I dumped on the ground outside was gone. 
  • Mary moved most of the last year's hay out of the second grain bin onto the floor of both the chick and hen sides of the coop, then gathered hay she cut 4 days prior and moved it into the second bin.
    
  • While checking the garden, we found squash bugs in the pumpkin leaves, which I sprayed with a Dawn soap and water solution for about 15 minutes. It instantly kills the little buggers. I picked tomatoes. I picked 2 large cucumbers, sliced them up, and fed them to the hens.
  • I checked my work on the roof. It looks good. The next rain will tell whether it works.
  • I watered the strawberries in foam cups. They're doing much better in their dead grass covered homes in the tops of old totes (see photo, below).
    
  • Mary harvested 6 New England long pie pumpkins and 5 bells peppers (see photo, below). The pie pumpkins now sit inside and turn completely orange when they're fully ripe.
  • I ordered a new hat, and while doing so, discovered that Tilley, the Canadian hat company we've used in the past, was sold, and now has their hats made in China, which everyone hates. So, I ordered a "Tilley-copycat" Redhead hat from Bass Pro for $21, versus $90 that a Tilley hat costs. Even if the new hat lasts a just few years, I'm still ahead of the game, money-wise.

Totes temporarily holding strawberry plants in cups.

Harvested green peppers and New England long pie pumpkins.

• Thursday, 8/19: Gardening Stuff
  
  • Mary froze the first tomatoes from the garden, along with 8 quart bags on green peppers.
    
  • She also made a chocolate zucchini cake.
  • Mary vacuumed spiders hidden in cracks and crannies throughout the house.
    
  • We checked for garden produce and picked the first 2 muskmelons. They're small, but put a nice aroma into the pantry. We also got another long pie pumpkin. I picked 4 large cucumbers, sliced them, and fed them to the hens.
  • I sharpened Mary's pruning shears and cleaned all of the AC filters.
  • We watered all garden plants.
    
    
• Friday, 8/20: Garden Produce Freezing
  
  • Mary picked 1 more muskmelon. We each took a tiny bite from the melons. They're really delicious, but small in size. Mary put up 2 quarts of muskmelon pieces. She cut open the watermelon. I tasted great, too. Mary froze 6 quarts of watermelon. We plan on freezing as many melons as possible, for wintertime fruit. We fed watermelon and muskmelon rinds to the chickens, which they love.
    
  • Mary also picked 2 zucchinis and several tomatoes.
  • I drove the pickup to Quincy, and reviewed W valley flashing at Lowe's, Menards and Home Depot. The best is at Menards. I bought animal food...dog and cat food, hen and chick food, and a bag of oil sunflower seeds for hen treats. I grabbed a couple items at Aldi.
    
  • We watched the 1999 movie, Notting Hill.
  • Thunderstorms were approaching from the west when we went to bed. Right after crawling in, we heard rain pounding the roof in intervals. No moisture below the electrical inlet boot, so my liquid membrane fix worked for its first rain test. The ultimate test will be a future day-long rain soaker.
    
    
• Saturday, 8/21: Northern Air
  
  • A north breeze brings good, clean air with a deep blue sky, today.
  • Mary picked another batch of tomatoes, 2 muskmelons, and the first handful of green beans.
  • Mary found a 4-inch hornworm in the sweet pepper plants. It's squished, now.
    
  • She made a meal of venison and gravy on biscuits.
    
  • I mowed the lane. It took all day. A quarter-mile lane gets to be a slog in the heat. I took several long breaks.
    
  • We aren't too far away from picking our first corn. There are several orange Diablo pumpkins that are coming on. We see a large number of acorn squash developing. Some of the sweet potato vines are 8 feet long.
  • Images of the U.S. military airlifting people out of Kabul, Afghanistan, reminds me of my former boss, Gerry Anderson, mentioning to me when the U.S. first went into that country that it was too similar to going into Vietnam.