Billy wrote:
....
The garden was so-so this year. An early promise of heat fizzled out,
and the garden responded accordingly. I'm still picking tomatoes, and
cucumbers, but the peppers never really got the heat that they needed.

hmm, here it is currently running 8-15 degrees above
average in the forecast up until at least Tuesday night.
a few chances of rain. the earliest being Saturday
night, so i'll be out digging as much as i can the next
three days. just imagine me being covered in mud
(happily so ).

my effort to spread the standing water out so that it
would soak in looks to have just made the mess even
larger. i'll just head further down and scrape it out
another layer and see if i can get it to flow all the
way out. i guess that would be the price i pay for not
running a level string to begin with, but having a level
string in the way when digging isn't much fun.

peppers did ok here this year. a few red peppers
fermented on the plants and reminded me of tobasco
sauce. and i can still say that i consider yellow
peppers not worth the space as they had little flavor.
we had plenty for both stuffed green peppers and
for making salsa.


Work-wise, the grape harvest was the quickest I've ever experienced. We
in the lab stayed on a 5 day schedule with 1 to 2 hours of overtime/day,
but the cellar crew got hammered with no days off for 2 weeks, and
regularly running 12 hour+ days. Even the cellar master said he didn't
want to play anymore, but he immediately recanted, fearful, I'm sure,
that the statement may find its way to judgmental ears.

Ah, the joys of agriculture.

Ma always says "Feast or phantom." when she really means
"Feast or famine." i guess if you are in famine then
phantom may not be far behind.

at least he didn't decant.

and survival isn't overrated... on to another year.
cheers,


songbird