June 26-July 2, 2022

Weather | 6/26, 67°, 78° | 6/27, 55°, 81° | 6/28, 54°, 82° | 6/29, 61°, 89° | 6/30, 64°, 88° | 7/1, 0.01" rain, 70°, 85° | 7/2, 3 drops of rain, 58°, 79° |

• Sunday, 6/26: Bass Fishing & Bill Leaves For His Home
  
  • After breakfast, we went fishing. We decided to rename Swim Pond to Bass Pond. We don't swim in it anymore. When people started dropping dead from a brain-eating ameba, we stopped. Fishing was great. My first cast brought in a fish. Bill caught the largest bass. It gulped down the lure and Bill had a tough time removing the hooks. With both Mary and Bill, they had a larger fish chasing the smaller fish caught on a lure and getting reeled in to shore. Bill and Mary fished the south shore. I walked to the north shore and fished. Black-eyed Susan flowers are growing along the pond. On the north shore, pink mimosa flowers are blooming from plants that are climbing small cedar trees.
  • After walking back home, I checked for ticks, and with Mary and Bill's help, we used packing tape and pulled 10 seed ticks off my pants. The moral to that story is always check for ticks if you've been bushwacking through tall plants. I sharpened 2 fillet knives while Bill set up sawhorses and a chunk of plywood for filleting fish. I got busy filleting 8 bass.
  • Bill vacuumed out his car. He turns in the 2010 car to a dealer on Tuesday. He has the 2019 car that he bought and will start driving it to work, tomorrow.
    
  • Mary fixed up fried bass, corn-on-the-cob, and baked potatoes covered in fresh chives. It was a great meal.
  • Bill left for his apartment in St. Charles at 3:45 p.m.
  • Mary watered the garden while I picked black raspberries. We now have 10 quarts in the freezer.
    
    
• Monday, 6/27: Gardening Stuff
  
  • I worked up a batch of EM-1 microbial inoculant in a half-gallon glass jug to spray on trees and garden plants. I set it outside to heat in the sun, allowing it to brew for a few days. It's pH is 4.0. When the pH is 3.8, it's ready to use.
    
  • The crop dusting airplane, or as Mary calls it, "the annual sprayer plane of death," flew directly over our house a million times as it made an approach to the runway at the dairy that's a mile west of us. It happens every year at this time as they throw Roundup on everything.
    
  • Mary weeded 20 hills of muskmelon and watermelon plants in the far garden.
    
  • I mowed grass and weeds in the near garden, using a bag on the mower to catch grass clippings. A few wheelbarrow loads of grass mulch went around the hills of plants where Mary was weeding.
  • While moving buckets and tubs containing strawberries, I cleaned weeds and strawberry runners out of them, transplanted 2 new strawberry plants started from runners, and started 3 more runners to replace old strawberry plants.
  • We're experiencing voles eating off roots of new garden plants. Between the underground varmints and the damn deer munchers, it's a heck of a year to try to raise any fruits or veggies.
    
  • I picked more black raspberries and started our 11th quart bag in the freezer.
    
    
• Tuesday, 6/28: More Gardening Slavery
  • Deer snort at us every day. This morning, a deer gave a warning snort while we walked the dogs in the north yard.
    
  • I killed several Japanese beetles by tossing them in soapy water. They're mostly on the Sargent crabapple tree and on weeping willow branches.
    
  • Mary weeded the entire squash row of the far garden. It was tough going, since most of the weeds are encased in clay soil. They break off at ground level. She shredded a Band-Aid that was protecting a hand wound, caused by initially jamming a thorn in her hand while weeding the melon patch.
    
  • Mary also planted bean seeds in the far garden.
    
  • I finished mowing around the near garden and mowed about 2/3rds of the way around the far garden. I collected in a mower bag. I mulched all of the 20 muskmelon and watermelon hills, 4 pumpkin hills, and started mulching squash plants.
  • I picked more black raspberries. Their numbers are dwindling. I saw red blackberries, so picking will soon start for them.
  • We're hearing chimney swift babies chirping through the walls of the chimney when we're on the second floor of our house.
    
    
• Wednesday, 6/29: Gardening, Of Course!
  
  • Mary planted 29 hills of sweet corn. With that, all garden plantings are finished for the year.
  • Mary also pulled weeds around some of the tomato plants.
    
  • I finished mowing outside of the far garden, between the electric and chicken wire fences of that garden, and inside the north end and the middle of that garden. I used lawn clippings to mulch all squash plants and a couple tomato plants.
  • Mary picked more black raspberries to finish 11th quarts in the freezer.
    
    
• Thursday, 6/30: Last Day of June Gardening
  
  • I labeled the '21/'22 autumn olive wine and stored the 13 bottles on their sides in a couple coolers. Between last year and this year, we have 34 bottles of autumn olive wine.
  • I nailed several Japanese beetles in a bucket of soapy water. If you carefully edge the bucket up under a tree branch, then slap the branch downward, the bug goes sailing down into the soapy water. It works nicely.
  • Mary mowed the south and east yards. Later, she racked all of the grass up.
  • I snipped emerging persimmon trees and tall grass in parts of the chicken wire fencing surrounding gardens.
  • I finished mowing inside the south end of the near garden while Mary finished weeding around tomato plants. Mulch from all of today's mowing went on a couple rows of tomatoes. The garden looks less like an overgrown hay field (see photos, below).
  • The brewing micro-nutrient concoction has a pH of 3.8, down from 4.0, so it's officially ready to be sprayed on plants. The ultimate goal is a pH of 3.6.
  • Mary removed the old lace curtains off the sweet potato plants.
  • After a few days with hardly any strawberries, due to a stretch of above 90 heat, we finally got a nice, big strawberry this evening.
  • After dark, we noticed that the firefly numbers are dwindling.

Tomato plants and bean seed row in far garden.

Tomato plants are spaced far apart, this year.

• Friday, 7/1: Canada Day, Eh!
  
  • After several days of garden work, we took the day off (for the most part).
    
  • Mary made flour tortillas, and watered the gardens twice.
  • I read information in a couple books on fruit tree insects and diseases.
  • Katie called. She's in Anchorage for a brief respite from work. Katie has experienced job-related issues that don't belong written here. Suffice it to say that she has full support from her supervisors. She was delayed on getting back to Anchorage a week due extreme fog. On the positive side, she gets to enjoy July 4th at home in Anchorage. She flies back to Point Hope on Tuesday.
  • My micro-nutrient juice has a pH of 3.5, so I moved it into the house to cool its toes.
  • We watched 2 movies. The first was the 1996 movie, In Love and War, and the second was the 1987 movie, 84 Charing Cross Road.
    
    
• Saturday, 7/2: Another Day Off
  • We went to bed late, or early in the morning, so when I woke up and looked at the clock, it was 10:40...talk about sleeping in! We sort of took another day off from outside stuff.
    
  • There are a few black raspberries out there, but we just don't care. It's time to look forward to picking other berries.
  • I balanced the checkbook while Mary made venison General Tso for our main meal.
  • I dumped several Japanese beetles into a bucket of soap water. Wild grape vines are full of stripped leaves. Growing grapes would be tough with these damn beetles around.
    
  • Mary started watering gardens. I joined to help her after finishing my Japanese beetle killing episode.
  • Corn and bean seeds are sprouting. I don't think the corn will be knee-high by July 4th, for us this year. That's okay. We'll still get what we need.
  • Persimmon trees grow very fast. Persimmon saplings that I cut to the ground about 2 months ago around the prairie fire crabapple tree are already head-high (see photo, below).

  

  Persimmon saplings around the prairie fire crabapple tree.