Monday Madness

  Rose of Sharon flower. Before the Japanese Beetles got them all.

  That's the madness part of this Monday. The JB are invading...they are all over the edamame plants and the Rose of Sharon bushes so far. Any minute they'll be invading the blackberries and then who knows??  I have noticed that they seem to like pole beans more than bush beans, so the green beans might be safe. But will they attack the butterbeans ??  OH NO !!!!!  Stay tuned.

  Here's the only thing I know to do:  take a plastic bag and a long handled spoon,  go out to the heaviest infestation you can find, and spoon those bastards into the bag and then give them to the chickens.  They love them !!  I just put the bag up to the branch or stem and swipe at 'em til they fall in the bag.  I can't spray anything for them. There is some kind of expensive ground treatment you can buy and apply the year before and it apparently kills all the grubs  before they can do that magic thing they do.  I don't know if that would really help out here...our whole road is full of fields sprayed with all kinds of uber-chemicals I'm sure...and I'm betting that's part of the problem.

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 Been a long-ish busy day and I'm pretty beat. Been trying to go to bed for about an hour, lol.  I got up and tended the critters and then ate some granola and got busy out back watering the garden.  That took about an hour and a half, thoroughly watering things so I can only do it every few days.  Then I picked almost a gallon of green beans and another quart of snow peas. I took those in the house and rested up a bit...bagged them and took some over to my neighbor. Came back home and started mowing the front yard. It took me about 2 and a half hours with breaks, but I finally got it done.  Tomorrow I will tackle the back.

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  Still no rain around here.  Yikes.  Dry as a bone. On a bright note, the okra is going gangbusters...it likes hot dry weather. I have about 10-12 plants...I freeze some of it for soups and stuff, but I pickle a lot of it. I love that stuff and so does all my extended family. Everybody asks for a jar of it.  I found a recipe to pickle snow pea pods today too, and I am going to do a couple of small jars of that.  The peppers are starting to flower and grow sturdy.  The quinoa is about 2 ft high. Everything looks really good. I have tomatoes the size of baseballs. The chard and 2 lettuces are going strong. The kale is finally all finished and I pulled the last of the scraggles to feed to the chickens.  They love it.  In fact, the first year that I planted kale, I planted it just for them.  LOL  Now it's for us too and we love it. I'll be starting canning in a week or two, I'm betting...maybe sooner.  Thinking I'd better get a few projects finished up, because once it starts it eats my days up...

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  I'm teaching a tomato canning workshop in early August out at the La Vista Ecological Learning Center. Working on a handout/recipe book to give out. I should have had it finished long ago, but I am such a procrastinator!  Lucky for me, I work well under deadline pressure.  lol  My life just gets so busy sometimes it gets really hard to fit everything in...

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  Well, thinking I need to head for bed. We're having a bit of a cool down around these parts...only got to 85 today, 10 degrees cooler than yesterday. The tomorrow is supposed to be only 82 and back up on Wednesday until it scorches us with 100+ temps on the weekend.  Oy vey... I'll be staying close to home those days, you can be sure...

 But I should be able to get a lot done tomorrow, and I want to get some paint and maybe touch up my tool shed and chicken coop in the next week or so. I have a visitor coming form Florida...and I am so excited!!

  Until then--stay cool, stay dry, and laugh every chance you get!

Namaste.