June 23, 2013
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Here’s The Blog You Waited For!
TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM
Yesterday was a busy one for me. Busier than usual mainly because I did a lot of harvesting. I got enough of my green beans for two meals. There will be more ready before I leave for Chicago but I am going to have to trust the Beast to have him and Chewlee harvest them. I wish I could trust him to scald them for me since that kills off the enzyme that makes them mold. Knowing him, he will leave them in too long and they will be half cooked which is not a good thing either. I guess I will have to trust him to at least harvest them and I’ll have to do that once I am home.
Chewlee got here shortly after I started working in the garden and she was tickled that I had a bowl ready for her and the small scissors she uses for cutting off the strawberries. She was disappointed that there weren’t a lot of strawberries that were good. Some had really soft spots from laying on the soil. But she went through all the plants and told me about the ones that are on them that are green. I got a plant-by-plant report.
I cleaned out the area we have been using for the lettuce and radishes. Something rather large had gotten in it. We know that by the two areas that were rather on the mashed side. One had lettuce that was smashed down that went into my cucumber section. I discovered I have three cucumbers started already and one of them is almost ready to be harvested. Yum! Then Chewlee and I gathered up the ripe tomatillos. They are so ripe that they only had to be touched to come off the plant. I ended up having to gather up some of the ones that had fallen down off the surface of the soil underneath the plants. The Beast was bemoaning the fact that his green pepper plants didn’t have a lot of green peppers started but I pointed out that they are still full of blossoms and hadn’t really gotten started yet. Once I dug my way through the tomato plant branches that seem determined to take over, I found the jalapeno plants and they have started producing tiny little peppers. I have no idea how long before those will be ready. I’ll just have to watch them carefully. They have a tendency to get overlarge quickly if you miss picking one. It’s almost like it is saying, *Hey! Here’s one you missed!*
The Beast has actually produced two or maybe three tomato plants that are damn near seven feet tall now! It’s incredible. Two of them have now fallen over quite a bit because the tomatoes on them are HUGE! And still very green. I dusted them with Sevin since I saw a couple tomato worms that I squished and Chewlee went screaming away from me when I did that. I told her that if she saw any to let me know because they are the ones that make the holes in the tomatoes. That interested her for some reason so she came back and helped me inspect what I could before I dusted the plants.
The Sevin powder is actually good for all the insects that create havoc in our garden. I read the instructions and the plants you can use it for and all our plants are on the list. So I lightly dusted all of them just to make sure we get as good a harvest as it looks like we will get. We even have squash underneath the huge leaves but there’s lots of space so you can see all the small ones that have started. It’s always amazing to me to see how they all develop and grow.
Bratfink sent me a link of shroom pictures to see if any of them are the ones I found underneath the leaves of the squash plant. I found two of them but the yellow ones are still not in amongst them. Thanks for the pics, Sis. Chewlee found and picked more blackberries but we don’t really have enough yet to do something with so I washed them and put them into a plastic bag.
We went next door and the raspberries are blooming and have a few tiny little berries on them. That disappointed Chewlee but the blueberries there are full of tiny blueberries. We will watch those closely.
By the time we got back in the house, it was all I could do to immerse the veggies in cold water. I decided to let them set for a bit while I rested my shaking legs. I had done a LOT of walking and my hip hurt due to the fact that I am still not walking correctly. I went a long time with my right leg healing and putting too much pressure on my left leg during that time. Since I almost never use my cane, I STILL put too much pressure on the left side and that causes the pain in my hip. Since the right leg is healed now, there’s really no reason for that but, hey, I’m only human! I’ll get it eventually.
Chewlee, ever the ball of energy, kept running outside to ride her bike and watch for Ian (the little boy next door) to get home from nursery school. When he did, she got to play with him for a while since his mother was outside watering her flowers. She came home when he went in to eat. She got a little depressed when his parents went out to visit with his grandparents for a while but she told me she knew he had to go see them because he was so excited over going for a visit. She said to me, *It’s like me when I come to see YOU, Grandma!* I told her she got to see me almost every day and even spent two nights a week here. Her reply? *So? I still like to come here.* I think it’s because I can spend so much time with her. It’s so different for parents and I think they miss a lot of the fun of their kids but life happens. I don’t have a limited time to get wash, grocery shopping and house cleaning done like parents do. I CAN spend more time interacting directly with Chewlee. It’s how God rewards Grandparents. **Grin**
When it was bedtime for Chewlee (she came and told me that), we both went to bed together. She loved that and gave me instructions on how her mother told her she could cuddle with me (that’s what Chewlee told me). So we cuddled and, after a little bit of playing, we finally fell asleep. I slept all night long. I didn’t even have to get up for the bathroom, which was a huge surprise. Then it was time for Chewlee to dress for church and she did so with a big smile and no problems. She insisted on brushing her own hair and she put it into a pony tail down around the nape of her neck but it was neat. She’s learning to do a good job on her own.
Chewlee did one thing that surprised me yesterday. She took and ate a green pepper (uncooked) after I had washed it. She always says she doesn’t like vegetables but I find she eats them on occasion, often without promjjpting. She watched me cleaning the lettuce and putting it in the bowl. I then cleaned and separated the green beans. She wondered why I blanched them in hot water and I told her but I’m not sure she understood entirely. But she will learn.
Well, love you all. I have a lot of wash to do today and I need to start my packing. Talk to you later if anything new comes up.
