Garden dries out (duplicate post)

The funny thing about planting gardens on time is that the weather just might end up hating you for it. I couldn’t have predicted when we beat the light rain shower that day that the next 2 weeks would be a continuation of the rainy misery we’ve suffered through here in the Midwest. And now that it’s sunny and my plants are all flooded out, the coast has cleared enough to go in and inspect the damage.

From 3 rows of sweet corn, 5 plants made it through the deluge. The cantaloupe came up in a fury, but I’m worried that it will wilt fast under the weather now because it hasn’t been able to leaf enough to shelter itself. Our herbs are starting to pop bravely back through the soil in the basket but they are behind schedule severely. Pumpkins are up and growing, but I didn’t even mean to plant those; they’re just volunteers from last year. Our strawberry plant drowned and subsequently fried, suffering a death rivaled only by the Spanish Inquisition, while even our indoor tomatoes have slowed their growth because there wasn’t any sunlight for them to absorb. The only two plants which came up nicely were the beans (eaten by our overpopulation of groundhogs and deer) and the peas. Hopefully the peas will survive the sunlight and give us a few flowers before they die from the sudden season change.

It’s a sad time out in the gardens, but since there’s extra seeds we’ll give it one more chance I guess. Hopefully it’ll get better and hopefully my guesses are wrong, but this isn’t looking to be a very wet summer. If I was a farmer, I’d really struggle convincing myself to put in all the effort on the slim chance that my harvest comes out right this year. Good luck to all that are out planting right now or making hay.

The Toad

I think Betsy would eat anything that didn’t eat her first if given the chance. Heck, that’s how she got herself into those tequila shots on Amanda’s birthday and almost killed for the brand new shoes of Amanda's, but her obsession lies primarily with things that live and move. She wants so badly to catch critters but thank goodness she lacks the skill to catch much since she has no idea what she would do with it afterwards. She reminds me of our little kitten Benny back when we still thought he was a girl and she caught a mouse. After catching the mouse, “Bethany” wouldn’t let it go and ran around and around with it in her mouth, unsure of what to do but sure that she didn’t want to share her glory with anyone.

Well, Betsy has two friends in particular that she wants to become better bonded with. The random worms, spiders and puffball miniature pets roaming our complex but what Betsy really wants and the holy grail that drives her crazy are rabbits and the toad. Rabbits are thankfully far too fast and alert for Betsy on the average day but there have been some mornings where she spins around the corner on her leash and I barely hold on before yelling out to her, reminding her that it’s morning and we’re not off to hunt right now.

The rabbits are so plentiful that I couldn’t ever identify just one but the bunches of them are always out there, around every corner, hiding in every bush and just waiting to surprise Betsy, so she’s always on the alert. Not wanting to waste a single opportunity she continuous pops her head into bushes and sniffs around for any sign of them, and then as if to get that closer, more intimate relationship between hunter and hunted, she tries to eat their droppings. Dogs seem to have a strange obsession with feces, something I’ve been trying to talk out of her since the day we got her.
But what she wants more than anything else in this world is the toad. He hopped into her life one day similarly to how she prances around the house every day during playtime. Jumping right across our path she was awe-stricken and immediately obsessed. So obsessed was she that she barely took the time to squat down and pee before running back, jumping through the herb basket and finding… no toad there. While she was gone I had ushered him into the garden where he would be hidden in the dark. That didn’t stop me from being mad at her for flipping the herb basket and so far we have everything growing in the wrong place because of that.

When it gets late at night, the toad hops out to have a look around for tasty treats. Betsy is always laying by the window, jealously observing his movements and I’m not sure if she wants to be out there playing with him or eating him but common sense has reinforced in me the belief that her intentions will not lead to happy days for the toad. The toad and I go way back to last fall when I accidentally sent him to an early hibernation by nearing squishing him to death under my shoe before helping him hobble into the neighbor’s flowers. I washttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif glad to see him return and am bound and determined not to let Betsy be the end of him now. So she sits and waits, waits and whines, whimpering about how unfair life is that she can’t be out playing with the toad.

Credit to legalectric.org for toad pic.

Record Lows

This has been a weak of temperature shock to say the least. We really rocked the high 80's last week into the weekend, with enough sunshine to finally dry up the ground in a hurry. My fear of a sudden drought onslaught was disappointed by the rain which began a cold front a mere 10 minutes after the garden was in. This preceded what is now a couple of days with record lows for the month of May. Needless to say this has not been great for plant germination.

Of course, not all of the plants are struggling through this weather. Our indoor plants are doing well, and this includes our future upside down tomatoes which show such phototrophic aptitude that they switch sunlight orientation over the course of a meal when we rotate the dish they're sitting on. Our morning glories have shown their typical determination as well, even surviving an upset of the plant basket by Betsy when she thought she was going to catch a toad. Hopefully our warmer weather little guys will hang in there because I don't want to have to start all over.

Speaking of record lows, Amanda informs me Kasich's approval rating is currently at 38%. And who honestly approves of a guy who has been pulled over for not yielding to an emergency vehicle, publicly called a police officer stupid, rejected an agricultural deal with HSUS which people worked a year on, and who never knew our driver's licenses had changed colors? How far removed is this guy from real life? I have friends in other states who even know our licenses are pink.

Pelotonia

I'm not really 100% sure what I'm getting into yet, or what the word "pelotonia" is supposed to mean. However, I will be riding in it, the whole 200 miles to Athens, OH, and back. The Pelotonia has a pretty cool website. Check it out, but don't sponsor directly to the site! Within a week or so I will be registered on there and ready to receive donations on my behalf. And trust me, I need help. I can't get to the money limit all by meself, that's for sure.

As far as riding a bike that far? Well, I'm figuring that I'll start by riding my fixi. If I can get my fixi up to 60 miles, then I'll be in great shape for the race. That gives me more time to find a suitable bike using the good old craigs list to find something both cheap and durable. I think I've found a couple of decent options, but time will tell if I can get one of them.

Also, my dearest Amanda has been highly complemented recently for her great blog posts. You should definitely check out her MLHR blog with OSU's Fisher. She's pretty much amazing.

Thunderstorms came through again today, and the garden remains wet. It's been a rough week for getting stuff in, but Mom found some volunteer tomatoes in the peas and beans so I transferred them over yesterday before they were choked out. Otherwise, I'm trying to stay out of the garden as much as possible. I feel bad for the farmers that I've been talking to and driving past. They have so much invested and the weather has been pretty rough this spring.

Also. Katherine mentioned finding a sheep of ours chained up about a month or two ago, even though we've never chained an animal before. Apparently we have some neighborhood non-neighborly intruders and we're going to have to do a better job of watching the place. For anyone else trying to raise livestock of any species or quantity this year, please keep an eye on them and protect them from the crazies roaming about.

Also. Weight report is at 238.2. Funny, I just don't think I'm losing any... Oh well. I'm off to ride this evening.