Stuff

I said I wasn't going to sit around on my day off watching TV all day.  I said I was going to get stuff done.  And I did get stuff done.  Some stuff, that is.  The first stuff I got done was to take the Incarnation of Evil in to the vet for her shots and stuff.  

She did not like that, and she let everyone in that vet's office know just how much she didn't like it.  I almost felt sorry for the poor vet when the cat started hissing at her.  I told the vet that it was the cat's previous owner who'd named her Cutie, and I'd taken her in after he had died.  I left her name the same on her vet records, because I figured it'd be easier like that.  The vet said, "I've found that these animals named things like Cutie, Precious, Sweetie and the like are absolute monsters.  It's the ones named Killer and stuff that are the real sweethearts."  

Anyway, the cat is updated for the next year, and the vet escaped any bodily injury.  Me, on the other hand, I got bitten while trying to stuff the aforementioned Incarnation of Evil back into the cat carrier.  By the cat, not the vet.  Just wanted to make that clear.

I thought about going out to the lake and walking after I took the cat home, but by then, it was already starting to get hot, so I just piddled around the house and yard a bit.  I had a bit of a disappointment when I discovered another of my banana pepper plants had died. 

I don't get it.  It was fine yesterday, and this morning it was suddenly dead.  I went ahead and harvested all the peppers from it, and got a good deal of them. 

Then I pulled the whole plant up, just in case there is any disease it might be spreading.  My first thought was root knot nematodes, but I didn't see any sign of that.  The root ball looked perfectly healthy.  The only thing I saw on the entire plant was a bit of what looked like mold right at the base of the stem where it meets the soil.  I'd seen the same thing on that first one which had died, too, but at the time I didn't think anything of it.  After seeing it on this second plant, maybe there is something to it after all. 

My second thought was that there was something on the cardboard I'd used to mulch, but they were all Amazon boxes.  They are printed with soy based ink, and even the tape is all natural and 100% recyclable, so they should be fine to use in the garden in that aspect.  The only other thing I could think was that maybe some of the cardboard had shifted over time --I'd made sure that they weren't touching the stems when I put them down, but maybe they'd moved and were trapping moisture at the base of the stem causing mold to grow and somehow damage the plant.  I don't know, but I went back out and made sure there was plenty of space around the remaining plants in that bed. 

For good measure, I also checked the plants in the newest bed and pulled all the mulch away from those stems, too. 

I hope that helps.  I'd planned on trying to overwinter my pepper plants, but if they keep on dying, I won't be able to.  I do know one thing, though, next year I definitely need to rig up some sort of shade cloth for my garden area.  Also, I had a clever idea for my drip system -- not the soaker hose, but the bottles.  I'd been using 1 liter water bottles, like the one in the photo above.  This morning, I emptied out one of my coffee creamer bottles and thought, "Hmmm, these have a flip top.  That would make them so much easier to fill than having to unscrew that top."  So I washed the first one out, and will save those from here on out.  

Now that the pumpkin spice creamer is out, I ought to have plenty of them.  😊

It looks like I'll need them, because all of these storms that have rolled through have completely missed my part of the county.  State.  Country.  It's so dry, my grass is brown and crunchy and even the weeds are dying.  If we don't get some rain soon, I'm going to run out of the rain water I've collected for my Venus Fly Trap.  Speaking of, I do want to eventually get some gutters installed with a couple of rain barrel collection systems.  That ought to help a bit with my water bill. 

Let's wrap this segment up with a bit of good news, I haven't found any more hornworms in the last two days, so maybe I got them all.  

In other news, you would be proud of me.  Why?  I made another phone call!  Yep, I called the eye doctor and made an appointment.   She said the first available appointment is Friday, October 9, which works out perfectly because I already have that day off.  Better yet, I was able to finally mark something off of my list. 

Alas, I had to add calling the electrician, so I'm still at 8, but I'm counting it as progress. 

Better yet, I might finally be able to see again.  

And finally, a bit of humor to top off this Friday. 

IYKYK