Low-Tech

Hello everyone! We've been on a tech-vacation and haven't even looked at a computer for a week. Have you ever done that? I like to pretend I'm from another era sometimes where nothing is plugged in. The only thing about that is that we missed GBBD, but we didn't have much to show anyway. At any rate, we're back now.

Nothing really happened in the past week except we got all the rows of the garden tilled finally (the last one on the first day of summer). I've got to say, I'm kind of disappointed in how long it's taken to get things planted. I thought we'd be this far along way back at the frost-free date in May but all the rain we've had every other day put a big hamper on the operation. I still need to till an area for our sunflower forest, if it's not too late.

Oh, remember that hot pepper from last post? It was the hottest darn thing that's ever, I mean ever, touched my lips. I thought it was gonna be a banana pepper, but --oh no! Fire!! It was creeper hot too. At first it started out tingly, then it grew to very alarming, and then I rushed to the mirror to look for chemical burns. Lastly, I ended up planting my lips on anything in the freezer they could reach. It was one of those hot peppers that is fun at first, then it gets scary and you think it's never going to reach the hottest point until it does and you panic over it. heehee

There's another kind of little pepper growing and it looks like a jalepeno. I'll be more careful with that one.

We also have three different kinds of tomatoes showing themselves. I can not wait for a juicy red succulent tomato....

And everything else is growing just fine. Seriously, that's how boring it's been here. Just watching things grow.

High: 79 Low: 60, cloudy to thunderstorms; Lunar Phase: Waning Gibbous, 86% of full.

Tomato Volunteers

I was out weeding the pepper beds (long overdue) yesterday and suddenly came face to face with a rogue tomato plant. I couldn't believe it at first, but there it was. Then I looked around some more, and found that there were actually 5-two looking pretty large.How awesome is that?! They could be either Roma or Cherry because that's what we grew last year in our little test garden patch. Being lazy paid off after all...

I also pruned all our 'cultivated' tomato plants last night. I hope they do well. I was nervous about cutting on them. We should have little tomato buds soon.Check out this fatty hot pepper. It's about 3 inches long and thicker than a thumb.

AAAAH!! Extreme Closeup!!

My -yes, my--mine, mine, mine -ornamental corn is coming up too. I got impatient with all this wet weather and put some patty pan squash, zucchini, bush beans, and even pole beans in the area along the back fence.

I also found out that something that I assumed was a weed around the place was really a wonderful flower. Of course you know that I don't know the name of it. Don't care. I'm calling it popcorn. Now I know not to pull those again. lol

Ok, that's it for now. Gotta save some for GBBD.

High: 87 Low: 69, sunny; Lunar Phase: Waxing Gibbous, 61% of full.

Flood

Our town got over 6 and a half inches of rain before noon today, and that's not counting the big storm that passed through before midnight last night. No worries here though. The hill kept us nice and dry. Our pool was overflowing, the garden got pretty swamped for a while, and our front street became a raging river, but everything is fine now. Remember how I said the ground was wet on Wednesday? Well, it's not had time to really dry out, so saturation happened very quickly in the area and surrounding counties.

Our hometown was not as lucky as us. They got about 10 inches this morning and large portions of various sections are under water. Our parents are fine, but many people are displaced tonight, Matt's sister included. Although her house was not yet under any water, she was evacuated by rescue workers via boat-and had to leave her dogs behind. (A pet owner's nightmare, of course.) If it weren't for the fact that Matt's brother lives near the high school where they sent the evacuees, she would have had to spend the night there. Her husband is stuck in another town to the south and at last word, they had closed all northbound entrances into where she is. We are still waiting for more info on her situation. Most of the town is without electricity for safety reasons.

A small town to the southwest is 90% under water. There was a section of the highway closer to here that was closed due to a giant mudslide that washed a bunch of old growth trees all over the road like twigs, leaving a few houses precariously close to the edge. Mudslides in Indiana! Needless to say, we are under a state of emergency here.

Our hearts and prayers go out to those who lost their homes today, but we are also truly grateful that not one life was taken by the rising waters either. Hopefully as the flood crests, that lucky streak will continue. I'm sure tomorrow there will be more information as to how to help the victims.

High: 88 Low: 71, strong thunderstorms and then sunny and hot; Lunar Phase: Waxing Crescent, 24% of full.

Mrs. Nurse

Well, we still didn't get any more tilled. Boo. Matt hurt his foot messing around in the garage and he hasn't been able to do much of anything for a week now. I've been playing Mrs. Nurse. I've also tried to post at least twice this week, but got swept up in other things. Life just won't stop for our garden.

Except for the day that we got our little pool set up.

They're so easy and fast. We didn't put that sand there, but we'll use it.

We also have 3 green beans growing. I staked the tomatoes today in between thunderstorms. The ground is w-e-t.

Everything else is in growing mode except for the carrots that never came up. What's up with that, doc?

Anyway, I'll try to get back on a real schedule for posting again.

High: 82 Low: 72, thunderstorms all day; Lunar Phase: Waxing Crescent, 2% of full.