Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the Middle of a Wisconsin winter part 2

[jvls1942]

hmmm after i posted, your post came through.
now i have to wait and see if any future posts come automatically .

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hope you can get it straightened out again Jim. Computers can be so frustrating.

Too hot out. I'm dreaming of winter too Barb. Only so long I can sit in the steam bath that is know as Wisconsin. I read it's so humid in the Midwest because of corn sweat. Makes sense to me. Lots of corn around.

 

[jvls1942]

well, it looks like we are back in business.
we took a ride to the Amish store near Athens today. had a detour around a bridge out for replacement. after about a 20 mile detour, we came back to the highway about 200 yards away from where we left it, only on the other side of the bridge. we took a diffeent route to get home.
i dragged the corn plot and planted some old buckwheat seeds I had. if it grows it grows. if not the birds can eat it. i will buy some fresh seeds .
the late planted lettuce and carrots are growing nicely. gooseberries, black and red raspberries are producing nicely. Annie picked an ice cream bucketful of beans today. more blossoms promising many more to come.
the cat has caught something brown that is not a squirrel or a rabbit. too mangled to tell what it was.
we had a really hard rain yesterday. tornado watch just east of wausau and a confirmed tornado near clintonville.
it was too hot to go out for a fish fry tonight. had a hot dog with relish , with relish, at home instead
now i have to see if i can get byc cheeseheads back on auto delivery.

 

[Callender Girl]

Another heat advisory day! And, with it, another day of mowing with the walk-behind, battery-operated mower.

My riding mower starts and runs, then dies the instant I drop the blades. Online, there are about a half dozen possible causes. I can't take it to the repair shop because my trailer's hitch is out of commission.

So, every day, I wait until the grass has dried -- rains almost every night -- and mow during the hottest part of the day until the batteries are worn down. I'm pretty worn down by then, too.

I end up showering twice a day, as much to cool off as to get clean. Signs the heat is getting to me: Halfway through I became aware that I was still wearing my glasses in the shower; and later in the day, I realized that I had put some of my clothes on wrong-side out.

Jim, maybe there is some mysterious new creature brought forth by the ridiculous heat. I also found a mangled something-or-other when I was mowing. All I know for sure is that it was brown.

Sometimes, it seems that the folks who make the detour routes are either inept or just plain mean. Was your 20-mile detour at least scenic or interesting?

Lisa, thanks for giving me one more reason not to like Mr. Sullivan, whose fields surround me. He rotates crops, and apparently this year, his sweating corn is adding to my misery! I've lived in the Midwest my entire life and never heard of corn sweat before your post, so I looked it up. Who knew?

 

[jvls1942]

Barb, sorry I missed you this morning. I slept in until 6AM.
when Annie put the lawn mower into the lean to, she saw something run under the work bench. so she walked over to see. a small woodchuck made a mad dash for the door. so, I guess he didn't leave, just relocated to the back of the garage. time to put on my trapper hat again.
about a dozen apples fell off the tree. almost big enough to make a pie.
Nephew came to visit. he fishes in lake Michigan.
he lives 2 houses away from the shore and the boat landing. he brought us two large slabs of salmon , all in sealed packages. one of them is smoked. He takes it to a processor to be smoked.
it is hot here, too. all i did yesterday was water the beds real good. it takes about an hour to do that. i have a lawn chair to sit on.
Barb. it sounds like your lawn mower carburetor is a bit clogged or dirty. just for sh*ts and giggles, get some sea foam and add it to the gas,.
one other thing might be that the blade bearings need to be greased.
most bearings are sealed. so the spindle has to be disassembled in order to repack the bearings.
disconnect the spark plug and turn the blades by hand a little. with the blades disengage.
yes, the detour was very scenic. no signs, no cross roads just woods and farm land.
i did not see the critter the cat dragged in. Annie described it to me. i can usually tell by looking at the tail. the cat seldom eats the tail.
i haven't checked how the buckwheat is growing,,,or not. will check today.
it was some very old seed.
i have heard of corn sweat. we are surrounded by corn this year. no wonder the dehumidifier runs constantly. lol
66F this morning until about 8AM. i have the bathroom fan running and the kitchen door open. it really helps to cool down the house. i will shut the door and turn off the fan at 8AM and the house will stay cool until after noon.

 

[Callender Girl]

Don't apologize for sleeping in (Wow! 6 a.m. -- I wonder what that feels like?). I'm happy for you!

The daily Extreme Heat Warning has been issued again. I've been listening to falling rain for the past hour that will add to the steaminess. I guess the "good news" is that I won't be able to mow today. My hip will appreciate the rest.

I think there's a can of Sea Foam in the garage. I might as well give it a try. I think the blade bearings thing sounds a bit intimidating; maybe I can play damsel in distress and find someone to give me a hand with those.

Last night the smaller dog and I made it upstairs to the bedroom where, thanks to my fancy-dancy alarm clock display, I learned it was precisely 87 degrees. We immediately turned around and "camped out" in the living room where I rarely leave the portable AC on. But, I did last night. It's off now and the box fan is back in the window.

About 7 a.m. yesterday, I had a visitor I hadn't seen in a while. Casually munching something under the pear tree was one of my old coyote pals. We went for a spirited run through the tall, wet grass of the un-mowed pasture. It politely stopped to watch while I carefully made my way between the two strands of barbed wire on an abandoned fence (why don't I take that stuff down?). Since Sullivan's sweating corn is much taller than I am, I let Wile E. take off through it without me.

I am really proud of the lunch I made yesterday. I sauteed some yellow squash, onion, Anaheim pepper, red and yellow cherry tomatoes, and young green beans in olive oil. All the produce, including the ruffled purple basil at the end, came from my garden. It was a delicious farm-(okay, acreage)-to-table meal!

 

[jvls1942]

wow, I made it to 7am today.
I will be setting the trap today. maybe a different trap will trick ole chucky. bro Dave is trying to catch a chucky also. it is camped next door under his son's gazebo.
nice of Wiley E Coty to visit. Be careful with those sprints with your hip. maybe a brisk walk would be just as effective/nonevective ..
the fan is not doing much cooling this morning. it is 73 degrees already. at least it is drawing in fresh air
all i accomplished yesterday was to grease the steering on the lawn mower. Oh yeah, I mashed the black raspberries for Annies freezer jam.
Annie's idea of air conditioning is having it cool enough to store meat. too cold for my liking.
don't feel much like eating in this heat. kind of living on ice water, ice cream cones and an occasional cold beer, and a hot dog.
just about all of the food groups there.lol
don't over do it. stay cool.

 

[Callender Girl]

I think you're doing a fine job with all the food groups. I don't have much of an appetite when it's really hot out, and that's all it's been for days.

I think the weather is causing my computer to have fits. I've been trying to type and send this post for more than an hour.

 

[jvls1942]

some days I feel as if I am typing with my fingers crossed. type, correct , type, correct,,,,
something ate both peaches out of the trap last night. first time I used that trap, will have to set the trigger more sensitive.
went to pain management clinic today. took X rays and jerked on my shoulder and twisted my neck. if I wasn't in pain when I got there, i was when I left . have some nice big bell peppers and several jalapeno peppers on the bushes. I was beginning to wonder. the bell peppers are about 30" tall.
had fresh green beans for supper.
freezing red raspberries . got to save 20 pounds for a batch of wine.
Barb, did your dad ever make beet wine ?
Annie mentioned plum wine and apple wine.
I think I am going to be busy this fall.

 

[Callender Girl]

I've never been treated at a pain management clinic. But when my old massage therapist was done "helping" me, I sometimes felt as if I needed pain management. It could feel as if she was going to put her tiny hand all the way through my shoulder and onto the massage table as she kneaded out knots in my muscles.

If Dad had made beet wine, Mom wouldn't have let us try any. She always told Carolyn and me that we were allergic to beets. I'm thinking she may have said that because she didn't like beets and didn't want to fix any. In recent years, I've both eaten -- and served to Carolyn -- a plant-based "meat" that we initially didn't realize contained beets. No problems.

Or, maybe we outgrew the allergy? Carolyn is still highly allergic to bee stings and carries an epi-pen everywhere. A childhood bee sting sent me to the doctor asap; I was stung last year and didn't blow up like a balloon.

Something is eating the tops out of my full-sized tomatoes. I have to decide whether to pick them slightly less ripe than usual or risk losing them to vermin. My prolific red cherry tomatoes, the Supersweet 100's, are more like 1,000's this year.

Looks like rain all day; 1/2 inch in the rain gauge yesterday morning. We were on flood watch overnight. At least it's just rain today and not another storm. It wasn't bad here, but as I drove into Fort Dodge, there were downed branches and trees all over, as well as some power outages.