GardenBanter.co.uk - wild winds

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On Sun, 22 Jun 2014 11:20:35 -0400, songbird
wrote:

bluechick wrote:
songbird wrote:
bluechick wrote:
George wrote:
...
George, who picked a peck of peppers yesterday and today.

You and songbird have been busier than the rest of us put together. :D

haha, noway! some days i'm getting less than
two hours of tasks done lately out in the gardens.

Yes, way! :D That's two hours more than we can do some days. We went
out to water the veggies and orchard this morning at 7 and to check
the new drip hose in the tomato bed. We decided to pick a few
blackberries from the bushes close to the garden as well. One hour
later we were both drenched in sweat and debilitated by the heat. By
8am it was unbearable. Summer is here on Saturday? Dagnabbit, I've
had enough of the heat already and am ready for fall again! :)

it was hot and a bit humid yesterday. the last
of the gardens planted (finally!). when i was
done, i was done for the day. supposedly today
will be a hair warmer. i'll be weeding, picking
some strawberries, thinning and transplanting
onions.

This was the first "cool" day we've had in over a month. We got all
of 7/10ths of an inch of rain, too. Wooo! Well, it's better than
nothing and it did cool things off a bit. Our heat+humidity has been
oppressive. We managed to pick MORE blackberries (heh) and I got the
herb bed weeded. Found about a dozen lime or lemon basil plants,
self-seeded from last year's plants, hiding behind the rosemary. I
may have to move them since their forebears weren't that close to the
rosemary last year and the rosemary won't be happy that they're there.
first though i have to wait for the fumes from
the neighbor spraying his corn field to blow
over.

What fun. :/ You don't want to breathe in that stuff.

might have to replant in some spots if the
critters don't let up on their harvesting rights.

Arg, I feel your pain. I'm battling some caterpillars in the tomato
bed now and something stealthy is munching on one of my peppers.

our critter challenges are more furred and four-
footed these days, the tomato worms come later in
late July and August. looks like if i want to keep
any crocuses at all i'll have to put them in cages
when i plant them.

My husband was on one side of the tomato bed and I was on the other
yesterday morning when he flushed out something. I wasn't expecting
to go to the garden so was wearing sandals, not proper footwear for
gardening (we've seen snakes on the way to the garden so I usually
don't take chances). I felt the unknown object, soft and furry, hit
the top of my foot. I may have made something that sounded like a
girly scream but I admit nothing. Turns out, said unknown soft, furry
object was a baby bunny! So, now we have four footed critters in
addition to the multi-legged buggy kind. Joy. My husband won't stop
teasing me about the fiendish attack bunny.

do you have pans of water out for the animals?
sometimes they are chewing not for the nutrition
but for the water.

Well, just down the hill from the garden is our lake but since it's
been dry I have put out water there. The anoles that are patrolling
the tomatoes won't touch it, preferring to lick moisture off the
leaves, but I guess the wascally wabbit will appreciate it. I guess
he's afraid to try to make it to the lake. Too many hawks around
waiting for something like that.

songbird wrote:

....
the followup continues to be interesting from the
tornado as we've learned more and heard more stories.

the two houses that lost their garages were shifted
on their foundations and had to be moved back, but it
looks like now they are fairly recovered. one already
has the new garage put up, the other seems to be just
starting work again.

the house out back, which from here looked like it
only lost part of the roof, from the other side had
extensive damage to the windows and interior. the
family there had been just sitting down to dinner and
had a 30 second warning. they'd just made it down to
the basement and the Dad had just grabbed the dog and
was trying to pull the basement door shut when the
tornado went by and tried to pull the door open again.
a very close call for them. they are temporarily
living with friends until the windows and interior
walls are replaced. they had a large amount of
damage to the wallboards/plastering. at least the
roof is now repaired.

the house across the road with the most damage had
2x4inch boards go through the kitchen in two places
and they also had pieces of wood go through their
garage (hence the blown out garage door). they are
getting new siding. by the looks of things they are
reusing the bricks for something so i didn't ask if
we could reuse the bricks.

the house that had the tree put upon the top is just
now starting to be reroofed, they've already fixed
the smashed part and the chimney's have been replaced.
we were able to scavenge bricks from them (with thanks
from the owner as he would have had to pay extra for
the overweight tonnage in the roll-on-container).

we had a visit with one of our relatives last week
and while we were driving in it looked like a warzone
there. after a bit we both said that it looked like
a tornado had gone through there, just like our neighbor-
hood with all the roll-on-containers, tarped roofs and
various trees down or already having been cut up. sure
enough one had, but it appeared to be slightly larger
as there was much more damage. at the end of his street
and around his place, but he had no damage to his house.
there wasn't any news of such a storm a few weeks ago
in our local news so we never even knew to check on him
sooner. as this happened near the city where i was born
which always had a lot of tornado activity anyways it
made me think again of one of those early memories of
staying in the basement while the storms were going by.

songbird