Word of the Day

A PATELLA - Knee-slapping as an accompaniment music.

I planted one of my Earthboxes with the six pepper plants that Burpee's sent me. I also left room to plant two additional pepper plants should Burpee's send them to me. I was debating with myself over what I should plant in my second Earthbox. I was going to plant lettuce but I'm pretty sure that it's too hot on our deck for lettuce. So, I decided to see if zucchini will grow in an Earthbox. I'll keep you posted.

My raspberry plants got here yesterday. The postwoman left the box attached to our mailbox at the road. It got soaked in the rain. I'm going to have to talk to the postmistress next week. What if it had been some books instead of plants? They would have been ruined. As it was, the box was totaled.

I dug twenty four holes and planted twenty four raspberry plants. That may sound simple but the glacier dumped its load on our property. With each hole that I dug, I had to remove at least four big rocks. Dirt? What dirt? It's all rock, gravel, sand and clay. Dynamite wouldn't have worked. Thankfully, the shovel that I use is called a garden spade. It helped to lever the big rocks to the surface. Then I'd bend over, wrestle the rock out of the hole and haul it away. Repeat at least three more times per hole. By the time I'd dug all the holes and then lovingly planted all the raspberry plants, I had sweat dripping into my eyes and causing my shirt and jeans to stick to my skin.

Why do I always do this sort of thing on the hottest, most humid day of the year? HTP would remind me that it's going to get hotter and a lot more humid come July. However, it was plenty hot and humid enough for me. When I finally cleaned up all my mess outside and stored away my shovel, I had just enough energy to take a cold shower.

So was that it for me? No. I picked rhubarb. Lots of rhubarb. Only the thing is that when you trim off the leaves and the ends, there really isn't all that much left. I chopped and froze 3 quarts of rhubarb. If I want more than that, I'll have to buy it. I don't dare take any more from my plants this year. They're done. My sister was hoping that we'd have enough to make rhubarb wine but that isn't going to happen unless we buy some rhubarb...which isn't impossible.

Did I mention that I went back down to the dock yesterday after the rain stopped? I caught some more fish. We had beer-battered fish last night for supper. And? I baited my three crayfish traps with the remains. I went down just now to check the traps but it wasn't worth bringing a pot of water up to boil for the four little crayfish that were in the traps. I decided to leave them in the traps and check again tomorrow.

Aside from that, I started a batch of cole slaw using my finger guillotine. Works great! Actually, I've never cut myself using it. My Arizona daughter dubbed my mandoline, the finger guillotine when I first got it and so it's retained its name.

So, anyway, I think I've done enough for one day. It's too windy out to go fishing. Besides, with all the boat traffic out there and the heat, I think I'll just relax inside for the rest of the day in air-conditioned comfort.

Murphyism of the Day

First Rule of Negative Anticiptation

You will save yourself a lot of needless worry if you don't burn your bridges until you come to them.