Sweltering

We are in the midst of a(nother) sweltering week. We had a delightful 3 day respite a few days ago where I actually had a chance to wear a long sleeved shirt (woot!) one evening. Now it is predicted to be in the upper nineties for another 5 days or so. Which would be fine, except that there is no rain predicted to go along with the heat, so it means we will be racing around watering things to try to keep them going until someone does something about the weather. Just sayin'. The SB is taking matters into his own hands and is making a watering grid for the garden. At some point, we will have a grid for each of our beds and we will be able to just turn the water on, grab a beer and not have to mess with hoses, etc. That will be very close to heaven.

Have I mentioned that my fall garden was SO. MUCH. BETTER. than my summer one? I did get the first teeny tomato. Hal a freakin luja. Only one cuke so far, and there is NO excuse for that. No zucchini....WTF? Lots of yard long beans. A bunny has been eating the beans in the Three Sisters quadrant of the garden. Cute, but so bad. I pulled the rest of the teeny beets and made borscht. I just yanked the mustard as it wasn't going anywhere good. Dug some more potatoes, but only what we need over the next week or so. Yes, you can pat me on the head for not doing them all. Cuz then where would I put them? That was the problem last year. Don't say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

In exciting farm news.... we had a black snake in the duck house Saturday. Hopefully the removal of the snake from the duck house was scary enough for the snake to deter him from trying that again. It sure didn't do much for the SB. I feel lucky that I noticed him in there cuz if I hadn't, I might have locked everyone in together by accident. It would have been a looooong night.

I thought one of the ducks was getting broody. She was hanging out on a nest and making nesting motions (pulling straw up around her, etc.) But as soon as it got hot she abandoned the task and went swimming. Youth. Maybe next year she will have more of an attention span. It would be nice to have a duck to raise ducklings. Kind of a pain to DIY that project.

Remarkably, it is time to start the fall crops. Hard to think about in this heat, but time none the less. I think I am going to wait for this weekend to put the stuff directly in the ground (carrots, beets, etc) and hopefully this week sometime get the inside stuff started, broccoli, fennel, brussels sprouts, leeks, etc. With luck the dry spell will break and we can get started on this fall thing.

Things I miss about winter.
1. turning on the oven.
2. wearing long sleeves
3. not getting sun stroke
4. no bugs
5. sleeping under blankets
6. you get the idea.

The benefit of summer
1. Tomatoes
2. Peaches
3. cold beer on the porch after hot work
4. The Market
5. A whole host of other things I will remember when it gets cold.