Back To The Grindstone

I had Spam salad for supper tonight.  

If you want to know how my day went, there you go.  I had Spam salad for supper, and it was Great Value Spam at that. 

What is Spam salad, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  It's just like chicken salad, except I used Spam instead of chicken.  I cut it up, added some mayonnaise and mustard, sweet relish, and a couple of fresh picked peppers from my garden.  It was pretty good if I do say so myself. 

So, what's been going on since I last blogged?  Not much to be honest.  I finished another sailor hat yesterday afternoon while watching...I don't even remember what I watched.  Don't envy me my exciting life. 

I'd stayed up Saturday night to watch the fireworks in Nashville -- which is what Disney was showing, and the Macy's Firework Extravaganza on NBC.  I wanted to watch the ones in DC, but by the time they came on after the weather delay, I was already in bed.  I found a video on YouTube, which I'll watch eventually. 

Sunday morning, I got up early and spread some fire ant treatment in my yard, and this time, I watered them in.  At least the front and side yards I did.  By the time I got to the back, I was tired and decided to pray for rain instead.  But the extension office says to spread the stuff three times per year, and use the holidays to remember that -- Easter, Independence Day, and Labor Day.  It's a never ending battle, I'm telling you. 

While I was out there, I took apart the little pedestal I had made for my birdbath.  Last year when I put it out, I had discovered that it was leaning, so I got a bit of old landscape edging and filled it with some red clay.   After some months, I realized I just didn't like the way that looked, so yesterday I pulled up the edging and dug out most of the clay.  I smoothed out the little bit that was left, and put the birdbath back. 

It's still not level, but I think it's the bath itself and not the ground.  Anyway, I think it looks nicer without the edging and it'll be easier to weedeat around. 

The last thing I did before settling down in front of the TV for the rest of the day was to get my compost pile started up again. 

I used that thatching rake I bought last year, and it's wonderful.  It pulls up the perfect mix of greens and browns, just right for composting.   Green from the weeds, and brown from last year's fallen leaves.  One day, I want to build a proper compost bin with three bays in it.  I don't know when I can get that done, but I want one. 

And that brings us to today.  My little baby tomatoes are growing like gangbusters, 

so I splurged and bought a new set of tomato cages.  These ones were kind of pricy, but I had some cash back dollars saved up from my Prime Visa, which covered the cost completely.  So far, I'm liking them much better than the cheaper ones I'd bought before.  The connectors are much sturdier, and you can add height as the tomatoes grow. 

It looks like I'll be able to fit five tomato plant in this bed, along with a couple of marigolds and basil plants. 

I might even plant them this weekend.  I'm sure they're big enough.  And of course, I'll bore you with all the details.  

I think I'll also pickle some peppers, too.  

Provided I can find that recipe I used last time...

That's it for now.  I need to go water the zinnias, and it's already past my bedtime.  I'll try to post something more interesting tomorrow.  Provided something interesting happens, that is. 

Goodnight. 

America 250

Happy 250th America!  

I didn't do much of anything special for the holiday, other than my usual stuff.  One of my coworkers had asked if I was going to fire up the grill, but I said no.  It's a lot of work firing up a grill for just me.  Even when I used to grill, I'd grill a bunch of meat all at once -- like and entire 12 pack of chicken thighs-- then freeze it.  I thought about it, but decided I just didn't want to.  Instead, I got some of my pulled pork out of the freezer and ate that. 

Pretty much all I did was to watch A Capitol Fourth on YouTube, because I missed it last night.  I had thought it would be on today, so I watched Project Hail Mary on Prime instead.  Last night, that is.  If you haven't seen that one, I highly recommend it.  It was so good, and seeing Ryan Reynolds as a geek was priceless. 

Today I watched the musical 1776 and The Patriot, as is my custom.  I had tried to find some sort of celebration on TV, but nothing jumped out at me.  I watched the ABC coverage for a bit, then turned it over to C-Span, but gave up on those and put my movie in.   Other than that, it's been a quiet day so far.  

My town has never done anything for Independence Day -- at least not since I've lived here.  They do the big fireworks show in June for Thunder On Water, so they don't have any on the 4th.  I'm sure once it gets dark, there will be some on TV.  Of course, you know me.  What I really want to watch is a nice historical documentary.  I'm sure I can find one somewhere. 

In the meantime, I went out early this morning and got that garden bed finished.   First step was to get the last of the red clay out.  I did my best, but there are still traces of it left in the bed. 

After a break to cool off -- it wasn't that hot, only 77°, but the humidity was 92% so I was drenched in sweat anyway-- I moved the two piles of compost into the bottom of the bed. 

All of the gardening channels say that's how to deal with clay soil, by adding compost.  The benefit of this is that my piles were already chock full of earthworms, most of which I managed to move into the bed with said compost. 

Another break to cool off, and I filled the rest of the bed with garden soil.  It took four bags, but I think it's full enough to start planting.  

I know it will settle some with the next rain and all, so I'll top it up after the growing season is over.  And of course, I'll re-start my compost pile...probably tomorrow.  The last thing I did before settling down in front of the TV was to finally record that garden vlog I've been promising you for so long.  

I won't embed it here, because a certain social media site doesn't seem to like it when I post my own videos.  You can watch it by clicking on the link below.   Fair warning, it's raw video, not edited in any way.  And yes, I know I have an accent.  One day at work this week, I managed to make "hat" into a two syllable word.  Even I heard that...

Garden Vlog 2026

And finally, before you go, let's take a moment of silence to remember those who were lost in the devastating floods in Texas last year. 

And join me in praying that they find the one little girl who is still missing so her family can finally lay their baby to rest.  

Drama

I know it's been a minute, but there really hasn't been anything happening that was worth blogging about.  Well, maybe there was, but it's been so hot and sticky out at the plant that I haven't really felt like doing anything, much less blogging.  I just come home and sit in the air conditioning.  So, what's been going on since I last posted? 

Let's see, Monday night there was a power outage, and I had brief flashbacks to the ice storm.  I caught myself listening to see if I could hear tree limbs breaking, but then I remembered it will be hot and not cold.  I went to the Entergy app and saw that the outage had already been reported, so I checked the outage map.  There was only one circuit that was affected, so I thought it must have been a wreck that hit a power pole or something.  The power was back on in about 3 hours, and my first thought was,  "That was fast, especially if they had to re-set a pole."  Better still, the A/C was back on.  

Don't envy me my exciting life. 

Tuesday I had to go get my boobies smashed, and the radiologist must have seen how baggy my jeans had gotten because she asked me if I'd lost weight.  "Pre-diabetes,"  I said.  "I've had to start watching what I eat."  She said she is diabetic, and we were talking about blood-sugar friendly snacks.  I told her about mixing my sugar free pudding with whipping cream, and she suggested I cut back half of the cream and once it's mixed, fold in some cool whip.  I bought some cool whip to try it, but also I bought some ice cream because it's a holiday weekend and all.  Just a pint, though.  Don't want to overdo it on the sugar.  

Somewhere in the course of the conversation, I mentioned that I don't like salt.  She said to try pickle juice.  I don't like pickles either, but I had heard that pickle juice is good for re-hydrating yourself, so I bought some.  It's not actually that bad.  It's not great, but it's drinkable.  I needed some today, too.  But I'll get to that in a minute. 

Wednesday night, we had some pretty strong thunderstorms blow through and I woke up to the news that the old building on the town square that had exploded a couple of years ago had collapsed onto the building next to it, completely destroying it.   As you can imagine, the owner of that building was rightfully upset, because something should have already been done about it.  The building that collapsed had been damaged in Hurricane Katrina, and had gotten more dilapidated and run down, but the owner wouldn't fix it up or tear it down.  It had really become an eyesore in our little town. 

We were talking about it at work yesterday, how it used to be a Stubb's Department Store, then they moved and it became a clothing store called Looking Good.  The upper floor was an apartment with little Juliet balconies on the windows, so you could open them and look out on the Square.   I don't exactly remember when it was completely abandoned, but it's been unoccupied for several years.   You would think there would be some building code violations or something that the city could have enacted to make them do something about it. 

I thought about running up there after work to rubberneck a bit, but I didn't.  I went straight to Walmart to get that over with before my three day weekend started.    

That brings us to today, the first day of said weekend.  My first project this morning was to make some sense of the mess that my zinnias had become.  

Seriously, I had no idea that they would get this tall.  I even dug out the seed packet to see if I had made a mistake, and it says 24" not 6'.   I was expecting them to stay small!  Well, much smaller than they are, I mean.  

The first thing I did was to remove all of the supports I had already put into the bed.  Naturally, all the plants fell over right away. 

As I've said before, I'm sure this is because the bed has the liner underneath it, and there isn't much room for them to develop a deep root structure.  By next year, I'll have that all taken up and the red clay dug out from under that bed, so that won't be a problem.  Also next year, I won't plant quite so many in this bed.  Right now, I have 15, but again, I never expected them to get so big.  The seed packet said 24", after all.

I'd bought some 6' plant stakes at Walmart yesterday, which I had intended to use to stake my tomatoes, but I figured I needed them more for this.  Between those and some stakes I already had, using some garden twine, I managed to get them all fairly well supported.  I even put the trellis thing back in the front. 

I pruned them pretty heavily, but they are still plenty thick, and look, you can almost see my fairy garden now. 

Oh well, I consider it a learning experience.  Next year, I'll know better.  

My next project was to get the first of my 4' x 4' beds lined up and into its permanent location.  Once that was done, it was time to start digging the red clay out of it.  I got this far before it got too hot to stay outside, even with taking numerous breaks to cool off.  

There have already been a couple of heat related deaths this year.  One of them was an 82 year old woman who fell while working in her yard and couldn't get back up.  Her husband tried to help her up, but then he fell, too and couldn't get back up.  They lay there in the bald sun for three hours until a neighbor found them.  By that time, the woman had already died.  That's one reason I always make sure I have my phone with me when I work outside.  You know, in case I try to cut my arm off with a mini-chainsaw or something. 

Most of the clay is out, but I'm going to have to wait until late this evening, or even tomorrow morning to finish.  Then I'll start filling it, because I think I might need it for that second batch of tomatoes I planted.   That will be all I do until it cools off some.  After all, the plan was to prep and fill the beds over the fall and winter, then plant next spring.  

And finally, my banana peppers are going to be ready to harvest soon, so I went ahead and bought some pint sized canning jars to pickle them in.  

 I probably ought to check and see how much vinegar and spice I have, too.  Just in case. 

Now I think I'm going to go get a bite of that ice cream.  

Laters...

Oops...

I accidentally picked a pepper yesterday, but not a peck of pickled peppers.  Just the one.  

I was trimming off some of the bottom leaves on my plants -- both peppers and tomatoes -- because some were touching the ground, and others had turned yellow.  That's perfectly normal, by the way, for the bottom sets of leaves to turn yellow.  At least that's what all the gardening channels say. They also say to trim away the leaves touching the ground so to minimize the risk of disease affecting your plants. 

Anyway, so there I was just whacking away, when I got a little over enthusiastic and chopped a branch with a pepper on it.  No big deal.  I just brought it into the house and will chop it up and use it in something.  Most likely chicken salad or egg omelette. 

Speaking of my garden, this afternoon I put together my last two 4' x 4' beds, under the cat's supervision, of course.  

I think they must have re-designed the corner brackets, because these were much easier to put together than the two I bought last year.  I had to beat those on with a rubber hammer, but these slid right on with no problem.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  

I had them put together in no time, then I hauled them out and put them into the garden spot. 

This is pretty much where they'll go, but I'll make sure they're lined up and squared up before I start putting dirt into them.   That will be all the beds I buy until I get the ones I have filled up and planted. Which at this point will most likely be next year.  It's just too hot right now to spend much of any time outside.  

Especially after spending the day in that unairconditioned plant.  Yep, we got up to 91° in my work area today.  One of the brazers' last day was Friday, and the trainer was up there this afternoon just a cussin.  She doesn't want to have to train anyone so she can stay in the back where the assembly lines are.  They have air conditioning back there.  I wish we did, because it gets downright miserable out there. 

In knitting news, I finally cast on another sailor hat. 

Yarn: Red Heart Supersaver Bitty Stripes

Colorway:  Crayon Box

Pattern:  Basic beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

Apropos of nothing, I finally signed up for another Hillsdale College course, this one on American Paintings.  I've wanted to do it for a while, but each lesson is over an hour long.  That's what put me off, especially since we're working such long hours right now.  Maybe this long weekend, I can get the rest of the course done.  It's only four lessons long, so it ought to be doable.  

And finally, your humor for the day:  

What would we do without Florida?  

Red Wings

Say Their Names. 

LT Michael P. Murphy

ST2 Matthew Axelson

GM2 Danny Dietz

FTC Jacques J. Fontan

RMCS Daniel R. Healy

LCDR Erik S. Kristensen

ET1 Jeffery A. Lucas

LT Michael M. McGreevy, Jr.

QM2 James E. Suh

HM1 Jeffrey S. Taylor

MM2 Shane E. Patton

SSG Shamus O. Goare

CWO3 Corey J. Goodnature

SGT Kip A. Jacoby

SFC Marcus V. Muralles

MSG James W. Ponder III

MAJ Stephen C. Reich

SFC Michael L. Russell

CWO4 Chris J. Scherkenbach

Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to the next generation, and their children to the next generation.  --Joel 1 : 3

So that we may never forget. 

New Beds

No doubt you've seen those videos of all the Europeans here for the World Cup and discovering the US isn't anything like they've been led to believe.   I've been really enjoying watching them discover what we take for granted.  There is this one French man who absolutely cracks me up.  Have you seen him -- the one who said he'd give his left croissant for a Texas brisket?  

Yeah, a bit later on, he's talking about air conditioning.  He says "It's hotter than satan's butt crack" and I totally lost it, because that's exactly what it feels like outside.  Throw in those little spawns of satan called fire ants, and I'm done for the day. 

But I supposed I'd better back up a bit and tell you where it all started.  

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.  Then he created grass.  And that grass would need to be mowed, so he created people and now you know the rest of the story.  Yesterday evening, I decided I needed to mow, and yes, I mowed the whole yard, even the part behind the fence.  There was only a little bit I didn't get finished, and I took care of that this morning.  

I'd stopped to close the back door that the cat pushed open, then couldn't get the lawnmower to start, so I took it as a sign.  Anyway, even though I waited until 7:00 PM to start, by the time I was done, I was drenched with sweat.  

As if that weren't enough, I got up this morning and started putting my new raised beds into place.  The first step was to take all of this compost out of these two beds and move it out of the way. 

Everything was going swimmingly until I disturbed the fire ants.  I got eat up, so much so I came inside and took a Claritin.  After cooling off a bit, I got back at it and got the beds emptied out.  Then I moved the empty beds over beside the zinnia bed.  

I'm going to dig the red clay out from under them before I start filling them up, but that will have to wait until it cools off a bit.  Like October.  Or November.  

That being done, I came back into the air conditioning to put my new raised beds together.  I thought it was a nice touch that they included gloves so you don't cut your hands all up. 

It was a thoughtful gesture, but alas, they were thin, and tore up before I finished the first bed.  And here it is, the first bed:  

It was pretty easy to put together, if a bit tedious because of all of those bolts.  The hardest part was pulling the protective film off.  Once I got that off, the rest was a piece of cake, but I was a bit disappointed at how easily the finish scratched, so when I put the second bed together, I made the executive decision to leave the protective film on. 

You can't really even tell the difference, other than it is slightly less shiny.  Oh, and I know the beds aren't lined up.  That's because of the other bed, the one with the bachelor's buttons and zinnias in it.  The plan is to empty that bed out after the first frost kills off all of the zinnias and slide it down just a bit so I can get the two metal beds lined up.  

It was kind of the plan anyway, to empty that bed, remove the liner, and dig the red clay out from under it so the roots of whatever I have planted there will have more room to grow, so it's no problem to move it just a few inches. 

The last step was to put all the stuff I'd dug out of the old bed back into one of the new beds -- the one I don't intend to move later, that is.  The other one will stay empty until I can get it into its permanent location. 

 As you can see, all of that compost barely made a dent in the space.  Now I understand why they say filling a raised bed can get expensive.  This one is deep enough that I can start planting annuals in it even with it not being completely full, plus it's sitting on natural soil, so the plant's roots can go down into that if necessary.  

I'm going to give it a few days to settle -- or maybe a few weeks, since we're not supposed to get any rain for several days.  We may get a pop up shower here and there, but nothing major.  Then, I'll move my new pile of compost into it.  

By the time I had finished that, I was drenched in sweat and starting to feel the effects of heat exhaustion, so I came inside and took a shower.  I'm going to spend the rest of the day in the air conditioning drinking copious amounts of water. 

I came thisclose to buying a pint of ice cream yesterday, but didn't.  Now I kind of wish I had.  It sure would have hit the spot on a hot day like this.  Hotter than satan's butt crack, as our French friend would say. 

Now for a bit of sad news.  I noticed that the peppers on one of my banana pepper plants didn't look quite right. 

They weren't nice and straight and big like the ones on my other plants.  Then I noticed that the leaves had a bit of a mottled appearance, which also didn't seem quite right. 

The last issue I saw was black spots on my peppers.  

I did a bit of research and came up with a result I didn't really like.  I had a chat with ChatGPT and she -- funny how I think of ChatGPT as a she -- basically verified what I had already figured out.  My plant has what is called mosaic virus.  There is no cure for it, so to prevent it from spreading to my other plants, I made the difficult decision to pull this one up and discard it.  I can't even put it into the compost, because the virus can spread that way, too.  I'll give it a minute or two to dry out well, then I'll burn it in my fire pit. 

Hopefully, I got it removed in time.  My other plants still seem healthy with large healthy looking fruits on them, so I'm hopeful.  

Finally, while I was out doing all of that piddling in the garden, I saw what appears to be a solid black bumblebee on one of my zinnias. 

It was smaller than a normal bumble bee, so I don't know what it was.  It was pollenating, though, so I left him to it.  

I guess that's it for today.  I'm going to go bring my laundry in, then spend the rest of the evening recovering from heat stress, dehydration, and a butt load of fire ant bites. 

Laters...