Saturday, June 26

71° this morning at 3 AM. The high is supposed to be 94°. Very little chance of rain.

Well, I emptied the beetle traps yesterday morning and half filled a 5-gallon bucket. I dumped some inside the chicken house before I let them out; they cleaned them up quickly. I rehung the traps and will be interested in seeing how many are in there this morning.

Our neighbor lady to the east stopped by and says she doesn't have any. Of course, she has no fruit, no Elms, no redbuds, no rose of sharon, no flowers to speak of. I would have to cut down most of everything here to get rid of favored species!
It does seem that they weren't swarming quite as much. I am hoping they will be dead by the end of June.

I spent yesterday morning trying to tame the backyard garden's berry patch. I am almost done. Hoed out the sweet corn. That will be the last time for it. I watered some.

The heat is affecting lots of plantings even though I am watering. The heat just cooks the leaves and things just don't look their best. I need to harvest cabbage and onions soon.

I am seeing lots and lots of black and brown woolly worms too and a long slender insect with a pointy head and rear end.

Watering is taking a lot of time. Yesterday at one point, I had three sprinklers going at once.

Sunday, June 27

Rain still avoiding us and very hot during the day.

I picked another small bucket of plums and cooked up 5.75 cups of jam with them.

There will be several more...so far, the beetles haven't bothered them after I sprayed.

Speaking of beetles, we reset the traps and I didn't have to empty them last night. I probably will this morning whether they are filled or not. The stench is not pleasant..........

I watered the other end of the new plot yesterday morning and tied up all the tomato plants to the cattle panels. Next job will be tilling again to keep the pig weed under control in the bare parts. DH mowed around the area and in the orchard for me.

I think that catches me up to this morning.

We missed another opportunity for rain, it was headed in our direction, got very dark and windy, some thunder..........then passed us by with just a few drops.

We are due for a cooler week which we be very welcome.

Plans for today:

Work up the peaches that I pulled from the tree early to keep the beetles from getting them. Several have gone bad, but I will have plenty to process for us. I left some on the tree which were too green. I am hoping the beetles will be gone before they are at "eating" stage. I am letting them have the rest of the blackberries.

I may try a small batch of sauerkraut soon. I got the 2-gallon crock jar cleaned up yesterday. My sis thinks I am crazy to do it!

There is not much photo worthy because of the heat and drought, but the vitex is in bloom and I am so happy about that that I took a picture anyway.

From June 2010

I have just watered this little area one time so it certainly could look better. I think I will do that today. I had to cut back some of the Snow-on-the-Mountain surrounding it because it was taller than the vitex, Shoal Creek. The sotm hasn't reached variagation stage yet. That is when it is the prettiest.