May 28-29, '10

No pictures this trip! Hot for late May -- mid 80s again.

Garden
We had a half inch in the rain gauge, but the garden was dry. Sally did the watering and picking. Got our first green beans, only a handful but they sure were good. Got the last of the broccoli and pulled up the collards. Both were being attacked by some little green worms. Sally soaked the broccoli in salt water to get the beggers off. Lots of volunteer tomatoes, and some of the onions are developing nicely (others not so). Of course we harvested lots more spinach.

Mow/Weedeat
So boring, but it has to be done. The clover is so thick around the barn and down by the creeks it is hard to get through it even on the highest setting. I think I will have to weed eat the upper road again next weekend.

Weeding
I did some more weeding around the berries and spread more newspaper. I got one red raspberry that was so luscious. It looks like there will be a large crop of blackberries, domestic and wild.

Peaches
They were about the size of golf balls and had already broken a branch from the weight. I decided to thin them out by removing every second or third one. Picking them was tough and sometimes pulled bark from the limb, so I used some garden snips. I culled 250 from the Alberta! I'll be happy if I end up with 20 after the critters take what they can get. Still need to look into an electric fence.

Sprayed
I forgot to spray the apples, so hope the fungus want set in.

Sally asked what the purple flowers were below the spring. A viney form of thistle. I started spraying it and found tons and tons of through that area west of the road, and noticed more below the road and back to the east below the barn. Of course Sally got on to me for spraying chemicals. I even found a large patch of sumac in there, and bunches of knapweed (which is about to bloom). I wonder if I will ever be able to get the upper hand out there.

Cookout
We cooked curried turkey burgers out and noticed several flies -- something we rarely see out there. Sally said others have talked about how the flies are bad this year. Great.