July 29-August 4, 2024

Weather | 7/29, p. cloudy, 0.07" rain, 65°, 89° | 7/30, p. cloudy, 0.06" rain, 69°, 85°| 7/31, 0.27" rain, T-storm to sunny, 69°, 87° | 8/1, 1.18" rain overnight, sunny, 69°, 85° | 8/2, p. cloudy, 64°, 87° | 8/3, sunny, 67°, 89° | 8/4, sunny, 65°, 90° |

• Monday, 7/29: More Gardening
  
  • We experienced a 5 a.m. thunder shower, but it was really brief. Mary saw lightning, then turned on her cell phone to check the weather radar. She saw an L-shaped storm on the radar and we were right at the point of the L. Mary went back to bed and then heard rain pelting the roof. She said it quit right after it started, "like someone turned the faucet on and off." An aftereffect of the storm was clearer air. Bill said his early morning walk was really enjoyable, due to the good air.
    
  • Bill left for his St. Charles apartment around 2 p.m.
  • I pounded more stakes into the ground along the chicken wire fence in the near garden. The ground is exceedingly hard, with a lack of moisture. The west side is done and I'm partway down the north side.
    
  • Mary watered the near garden, then planted 10 tomato plants in the west row of the far garden. They are tall and gangly, so she buried several stems. Tomatoes are great at developing roots in buried parts of the plant, thereby increasing their viability. She has 20 more tomato and tomatillo plants to transplant.
  • On the last dog walk, the air was supremely humid. The outside temperature was 80° at bedtime, so the bedroom AC stayed on through the night.
    

• Tuesday, 7/30: Transplanting is Done
  
  • Our weather prediction of a 93° high didn't occur because thunderstorm clouds blocked the morning sun. We got a little bit of rain during a noontime thunderstorm.
  • Mary transplanted 20 tomato and tomatillo plants in two rows of the near far garden. Plants she transplanted yesterday look good. All transplanting is now finished. All that's left is to plant a row of beans. We're very late, but hopefully fall frost will hold off and we'll get some garden items.
    
  • I sawed up two little walnut trees and cut most of the trunks and branches into stakes. One of the trees sprouted up next to the south porch and the other was close to the Granny Smith apple tree. I drove stakes into the base of chicken wire fencing, finishing the south end and going partway up the east side of the far garden. I now have seven four-foot sections left on the east side and six sections left on the south side to finish staking. The clay soil is hard, so after cussing while smashing the tops of several stakes, I watered the ground where stakes were going in, waited a bit, then easily drove the stakes into place.
  • We saw five chimney swifts flying about in the evening. They might be departing soon.
    

• Wednesday, 7/31: Done Planting
  
  • A lightning flash woke me at 6 a.m., so I unplugged appliances. We stayed in bed, because it was raining and thundering outside. Consequently, we were late at getting up this morning.
    
  • I cut up coppiced walnut saplings growing from the stump of a tree I cut down last year located just west of house. After cutting these pieces into stakes, I finished driving stakes under the chicken wire fence in the near far garden. That job is all done.
    
  • Mary planted a double row of beans in the second row of the far garden and carefully mulched either side of each seed row with grass she mowed from between the garden rows. The grass mulch will hopefully preserve moisture for the seeds. We are finally done with planting in the garden.
    
  • Our local crop duster has flown his plane well after sunset for the past two days. He flies just above treetops all of the time and often buzzes over us just above our rooftop. When he crashes, which he will with all of the chances he takes, we hope it's not near us.
  • We chased away red-bellied woodpeckers all day as they landed in the Empire apple tree. Mary makes a racket by rubbing watering cans together. I usually resort to firecrackers. My fruit spraying regimen is almost non-existent this year and the woodpeckers are going after bugs in the apples.
    
  • I picked five apples off the ground from under the Empire tree that dropped, due to wind, today.
  • A nighttime look at the radar indicated an approaching storm, so we let the dogs out in the front lawn before the rain hit. Lightning was flashing in the west. When we went to bed, lightning lit up the windows and thunder roared overhead. The resulting rain amounted to over an inch. It's the most rain we've received in a day since 7/3, when we got over two inches. This rain is great for our recent transplants and new seeds in the garden.
    

• Thursday, 8/1: Day Off
  
  • After spending several days sweating to the oldies in gardens, Mary and I decided to take the day off and stayed inside soaking up air conditioned coolness.
    
  • Mary did a bunch of cross stitching.
  • After turning my brain into vegetable mush with online drivel, I went outside looking for strawberry shoots, then got Mary's help to show me where she saw one in the past. We found four new shoots. I put potting soil in Styrofoam cups and rooted these four strawberry shoots. When the shoots are established, I'll transplant them into the four buckets of soil where plants died.
    
  • I looked at all of the garden plants. Near garden plants all look great. Newly transplanted tomatoes are thin, but they need a few days after transplanting to recover. As Mary said, "At this stage, if they're alive, it's a success."
    
  • I did battle all afternoon with woodpeckers trying to attack the apples in the Empire tree. In the morning, Mary watched a phoebe chase a woodpecker off of that tree.
  • We tasted an apple that fell. It tasted good, but needs a few more days to be fully ripe.
    
  • In the evening, right after lighting off a firecracker to chase away a woodpecker, I saw a luna moth fly away. I think the loud bang startled it.
  • Mary spotted a mulberry tree among the east yard cedar trees with her binoculars that's loaded with nearly ripe red fruit (see photo, below). It's bearing fruit weeks late, which is quite unusual. Mulberries usually ripen at the same time that cherries ripen in June.
    

  

  Nearly ripe mulberries in August, instead of June.

• Friday, 8/2: Cutting Weeds & Grass
  • I cut down emerging mulberry stalks growing off the stump next to the electrical outlet on the south wall of the house where we plug in the electric fencer. Mulberry sprouts new branches from a stump within just a few days. It's a real weed.
  • While Mary made flour tortillas, I watered the bean seeds. Mary watered them again in the afternoon and reported that all plants, except one tomatillo, are looking great.
    
  • Mary mowed the near garden, adding grass mulch to all near garden plants.
  • I cut down weeds and tall grass in the chicken yard. Smart weed took over a big swath of the north yard, where we'll let out chicks. These weeds were flopped over and hard to get through. I took several cooling down breaks while doing this job. I also notice that four-foot high chicken wire fencing is down on about a third of the west side. It's amazing that hens don't get loose, because they could walk right through that area. I took down about half of the tall weeds in the south chicken yard. I also removed the weeds I cut in that area. I'm trying to get the yards ready for letting out chicks. We usually let them outside when they're three to four weeks old. They will be eight weeks old on Monday, 8/5.
  • We notice that chimney swifts are gone. They were last seen on Wednesday, 7/31, when five of them were zipping around the house. The swifts are now on their way to the Amazon rain forest.
  • The woodpecker battle continues over our apples.
    

• Saturday, 8/3: Chicken Yard Ready For Chicks
  
  • Mary did three loads of laundry. The last load was on the line when suddenly she heard thunder from a cloud that quickly developed. We got that load off the line right away. A few drops of rain fell, but nothing measurable.
  • Mary mowed a little more in the far garden, adding mulch to plants. She watered both gardens. She reports that all plants look good.
  • I collected cut weeds in the north chicken yard and threw them over the north fence. Then, I mowed that same yard. I clipped tree branches so we could access the north chicken yard gate next to the coop and then added three strands of wire where the chicken wire attaches to the post at that gate. I added bricks along the base of the gate. I drove two metal posts into the ground at the northwest area of the north yard and tied up loose chicken wire fencing. Tomorrow, we'll let the chicks out in the north chicken yard. 
  • Today was a day to work 30 minutes, then spend 45 minutes inside cooling down.
    
  • We saw chimney swifts in the late afternoon, but we don't think they are the birds that nest here. Our chimney is now an overnight swift hotel.
  • Today, our son, Bill, is 31. He and his friend, Mike, celebrated both of their birthdays. They went bowling, among other activities. The bowling alley offered an hourly rate, so they bowled five games in one hour, which equaled 200 bowls, or 3.33 bowls per minute.
    
  • Ironweed is blooming (see photo, below). It dresses the place up with bright pink/purple flowers.

Ironweed flowers showing off.

Ironweed flowers just south of the big Bartlett pear tree.

• Sunday, 8/4: Picked All Empire Apples
  
  • First thing this morning, I removed old dog pad filler that I use to insulate the north chicken door in the coop. I also unscrewed the board off the inside of that door, opened it, and let the chicks go outside. As usual, they were timid about the idea. Two hours later, four chicks were outside. In the afternoon, about a dozen were enjoying the outdoors. Eventually, they'll all be pouring out the door in the morning.
    
  • Mary finished mowing the near far garden. The latest transplanted items are all perking up. The garden looks much better without tall grass sitting everywhere. Acorn squash plants in the near garden are more than double in size compared to a week ago. They're also loaded with buds.
    
  • I picked all apples off the Empire tree. This year's number is 281, which is 48 percent of last year's total of 589. This year's apples are bigger than those picked last year. I look forward to seeing the number of pounds this year's apple crop produces.
  • I laughed in the evening when a woodpecker landed in the top of the Empire apple tree and looked around with disgust at not one single apple to attack in the tree...ha, ha, ha!