May 6-8, '10

We were in Texas the previous week-end, Atlanta and Dangerfield (so we had to get out) and Lindsey was graduating Saturday. So we came out Thursday night, arriving at dusk, and returned Saturday morning.

Garden
There was a half inch in the rain gauge, but it had come the weekend before. The garden looked good but was bone dry, so we did some watering in the dark. The summer spinach was doing really well, and we had some with our eggs and Sally brought enough home for a quiche. She also picked collards, radishes, and 1 broccoli. Another broccoli had gone to flower, but the others hadn't formed heads? Sally showed me how it is best to get the radishes before they get too big, but they were still good. One of the bell peppers had fruit, but not the other. There were some volunteer tomatoes coming up, and Sally brought four heritage ones out that she planted. The onions still have not grown much and may need fertilizing. The wild flowers are certainly doing well, and we may need to take some control measures.

Fruit
The black berries are blooming and there is lots of fruit on the nectarine, the Alberta peach, the big volunteer peach down the track to the barn, and one of the apples. Now to figure out how to convince the coons to save some for us.

Sprayed
There were no yellow spots on the apple leaves (yet), which was great. So I sprayed them again (3rd application) for apple-cedar rust. I also used my back sprayer and attacked more of the knapweed down the road. It really is bad, and is beginning to shoot up the stalks for the blooms.

Mow
The grass was really high. I mowed almost everything with the riding mower. I also got the Poulan weed eater running enough to burn a tank of gas. I believe the head I put on it last year is too heavy and bogs it down. Its some kind of fixed line contraption that you can put 4 double lines on at a time. I only use 2, but it wasn't until they were worn down that it began to run good. Probably needs a carb adjustment as well (wish I knew what I was doing in that area). I also ran through a tank of gas on the brush whacker -- getting most of the hill in the front and the back done. (It's getting tough on me to do too much of this.) The brush whacker has been dying when the gas gets low, another equipment issue I've got to figure out.

Repaired Chair
I got the adirondak that had blown over the bluff put back together. We'll see if it holds, since some of the screw holes had been abused in the fall. I only cut one new piece, the front left leg you see in this picture. That was piece of cedar fence left over from our backyard fencing on Coleridge in 1975. (Of course it had been stored out of the weather.)