Day 212 cruelty to animals

No issues last night.  I had to be cruel to dogs and put them out while we went to an eye appointment...but they seem to have forgiven me.

I can't wait to see what the cat does when he finds out he's not going out tomorrow.

Day 211 wet dog, dry dog

Rain, nearly all day long.  For the garden that's great--for the dogs, well...that means they were inside nearly all day.  Do I dare to face the morning?

Plus she's not eating supper; it's nearly 8:30 and she's got to go out soon.  Dang her!   I'm tempted to give her that big bone in the fridge but no, never in the evening.  It's bad enough dealing with digestive upsets from the normal food.

Saturday morning they all three have an appointment at the doggie resort--Go Fetch kennels &such.  It's a splendid place--much nicer than here, with home made doggie treats, a big fenced exercise area, and a nearly spotless building that they call a "kennel" but I'd call a playground for pampered pets.  As long as I have pets and they're in business, they get my babies!

Meanwhile I'll be chaperoning two teenage girls at A-Kon.

Day 210 - wet dog footprints

I didn't have the heart today to go check on the rest of the squash.  I'm pretty sure another one is dying already.

On a brighter note, I went and sweated six little potatoes out of the ground yesterday and boiled them up for dinner.  (My sweat powered a digging fork and hand cultivator.)  They were great!

An unexpected rain brought down a big tree limb last night.  The dogs weren't outside at the time.

Hey -- get a look at last night's dinner! 
I'm the queen of stir fry!

Day 209 dog misery -> human misery

Again.  (Repeat yesterday's episode.)  Could it be the heat?  She's lived in an air-conditioned dog kennel all her life.  And she didn't stay out all day yesterday, just a few hours in the morning, a few hours in the early afternoon, then a few hours after supper.

Here, you shall see, happy little bugs.  Clustering on a dying squash.  Are they the agent of the downfall or just jackals scavenging the remains?

Day 208 - what did they eat?

Wow!  Disaster struck in the night and my carpet was the innocent victim.  I heard the cat throwing up sometime in the night, but I didn't get up--it was already too late.  But I didn't expect the diarrhea in the dining room.  Probably Izzy.  I'd noticed on our walk yesterday that Werewolf was suffering loose bowels, but I didn't expect it from her.  For months now we've been safe from nighttime visitations--could it have been those dried "lamb lungs" I gave them yesterday?

Beautiful broccoli...

It should have been cut two or three days earlier.  The flowers are starting to open and it's a tiny bit bitter.
The online how-to-grow guide says you should soak the head in one part salt to five parts water for 25 minutes, then rinse it to get rid of little caterpillars and worms.  Sounds like a waste of good protein to me.  But I'll do it.

Later.
It turned out I had more broccoli than I needed for the beef and broccoli stir-fry.  I made sweet and sour pork, too, plus Chinese green beans and fried tofu.  And brown rice but of course no one but me will eat that.
I haven't tasted it yet so I can't tell you how it turned out.  I'm too tired!

Day 207 - dog all over!

Today started off with a quick trip to help a friend move some furniture, so Izzy ate about half of her food and then got put outside.  But before that--while I was getting ready to go--she was all over the place!  She came to see me in the bedroom and then I could almost swear she was playing hide and seek with me in the dining room.  She'd see me looking at her and run away, but two seconds later she was back looking at me.

I harvested a lot of beets today, more than half, but they were way oversized and almost but not quite woody.

It's nine-thirty and I'm still waiting for them to soften in their boiling water, so I can peel them and put them in the freezer.

Day 206 - steak for dinner

I picked a small bowl of beans and a little lettuce.  The peppers are doing great despite the heat, but oddly enough, the tomatoes are looking horrid and losing their lower leaves.  The purple hull peas are taking up the slack--I never saw such a healthy row of peas.

Izzy's eating a steak bone in her cage.  It sounds like she's enjoying it.

Tomorrow, after I help a friend move, I'll get to stop by Local Yokel and get some pork for Sunday.  If they have chicken breast, I might buy some of that, too--for next weekend's meal.  This Sunday I'm going to adapt a sweet-and-sour pork recipe to use the zucchini that the egg lady gave me...maybe I shouldn't.  Maybe I should do a teriyaki beef instead...we will see.

Day 205 - preoccupation with death, excuse me

Pulled up a squash plant that was dying today.  It didn't look like squash vine borer but it was definitely dying.  Pictures soon.

Day 204 - bean blues and campy alliteration

She finally ate supper last night but this morning, apparently not.  When I came home from work her breakfast bowl was on the counter--full.  She just ate it now.

Something awful is happening to my beans.  It's hot and very dry--getting up into the lower nineties--but that's not the whole story.  They look diseased.  Whether it's just a normal bean virus getting a foothold because the plants are stressed by heat or whether it was a bad variety of bean, I am determined not to order it again.

However, the purple hull peas look great and I'm even seeing a few tiny, potential pea pods.

Yesterday I watered the south plot for a full 1-1/2 hours and today I'm doing the same with the north plot.  The south plot looks good--the soil is still nicely dark.  If it looks the same tomorrow I might skip a day and try to get them on a 3-day schedule.

Finally!  Here's that weird bug I was trying to ID a few years ago.  I'm sure it's a predator of some sort.  My good friend.

Day 203 - and she's not eating again.

Work is so far behind it's laughable.  The lower leaves on the tomato plants are turning yellow--I think it's the heat.  It's been sunny and dry with highs approaching 90 this last week.  I'm giving them an extra-long watering tonight--trying to get to an every other day watering schedule.

The spaghetti squash still look good but I haven't a clue when to harvest it or what to do with it when I do.  The University of Illinois gardening page will let me know.

Day 202 - sitting pretty

I didn't have time for dog training today but I got mad (at myself) and did it anyway.

So I found something to use for a treat--a couple of deep fried tater tots leftover from the family's supper--and took her to the front porch for a lesson in Sit.

After a good spell of ear rubbing and a short wait, she sat.  But when I presented her the treat, she didn't really care for it.  The same for the second sit (in the entry way of the house.)  Tater tots just aren't her thing.

Good sit but no reinforcement.  I'm beginning to think clicker training is the way to go with her--if only I could train myself!

Day 201 - not nearly enough time for dogs

Ha!  Both Izzy and Zack got their claws clipped today.  Not as short as I'd like, but I was operating under extreme conditions--Izzy lay on the top step and curled up her feet underneath her.  Zack simply refused--I had to get Callie to compression-hold him.  He got his puppy cut, though, and looks much better for it.

I don't know if they'll get much other attention today, between The Water Situation and The Cinnamon Roll Adventure.

Both of these are my fault.  The Water Situation came about as a result of my nagging about the leak in the kids' shower.  Ed's trying to fix it but he has to deal with substandard pipe and antiquated plumbing fixtures.  The water to the house has been cut off since yesterday, but luckily the faucet out front still works.  So we have water--hauled into the house in 5-gallon buckets.

(5 gallons of water weighs 40 pounds.  Just a nice little workout.)

I don't know how The Cinnamon Roll Adventure got started.  I was trying to find something different to fix with our sausage-and-egg supper, and somehow I ran across this recipe for Cinnamon Rolls III on allrecipes.com.  The dough is made in the bread machine and my notes from back during the night of the Pizza Crust Disaster said that my bread machine takes "about" an hour-and-a-half to make dough.
I got it in right on time, at 4:10.  But according to the timer, it won't be ready until 5:42.  An hour-and-a-half would be...oh!  5:40. So what about that two minutes?  The schedule is totally whacked!

Later.  They turned out pretty good but I am pooped.  I shouldn't have tried to make beets AND sausage AND sautéed Swiss chard AND hash browns AND mushroom cream omelets AND cinnamon rolls.  And have them all come out at the same time.

I forgot to serve the beets.  And here's a note about growing beets--start checking them early and often.  Of the five I cooked, four were way bigger than they needed to be.  They weren't woody, thank heavens, but it's almost too late.  Next weekend I pull every one that's bigger than a golf ball.

Day 200 - not the best dog day

I need more bugs.  No, seriously--I need more pictures of bugs.  When I was last working on it, I made note that only thing my gardening story needed was pictures of the chalk outcrop in East Plano and more pictures of garden pests.  So I'll be going out today, weeding and mowing and maybe a little tilling, but mainly I'll be looking for bugs.

Later.  Not much luck with the bugs, but I got a good bit of weeding done and I tied the tomatoes back into their cages.  I even tied up the purple hull peas--they were insisting on sprawling all over the ground when they were supposed to be climbing up their fence wire.  But I spent most of the day driving back and forth to McKinney North High School.

I didn't get much dog stuff done, either.  A rough clipping of Werewolf's claws was all.  I'll try to get 'em shorter tomorrow.

Day 199 - disfunctional dog

I'm beginning to feel like it will never rain again.  I'm watering the garden...endlessly.

But I have to keep the peppers happy.  They're producing bananas and some sort of long, skinny pepper than I'm scared to try. In peppers, long and skinny usually means hot.

See the most beautiful bell pepper ever created:








The squash are squashing, but nothing will be harvested for a good while (it's spaghetti squash.)  The peas are climbing.  The tomatoes are blooming up a storm and growing out of their cages.

And the blasted green beans are driving me crazy!   Froze another quart bag today.


I don't have any dog news.  I gave her a rawhide treat today and while she didn't exactly take it from my hand, she was on top of it almost before I went to the back door.  It was major progress but still so depressing.

But on our walk today she got to go past two cars that were stopped in the road while their drivers were jabbering.  She didn't want to, but she did it.

Day 198 - never caught a rabbit

Today we all had an extra-long walk...with rabbits.  One rabbit.  Werewolf and Zack both saw it but poor Izzy didn't.  I'm not even sure if she smelled it.  In the kennel she grew up in, I doubt if she ever saw or smelled a rabbit.

As mentioned yesterday, I did drag the hose out today but I only got one row of the garden watered.  The sprinkler was broken--it wouldn't oscillate--so I left it stuck and wet down the peppers and Swiss chard pretty well.  First thing tomorrow I'll get out and water the green beans and the herbs, and then I'll hook up the soaker hose in the strawberries while I WD-40 the sprinkler real well.




I caught a squash bug in the act--see? 







The interesting thing is, these unsightly insects are seldom a serious pest and they don't spread disease like the lovely little cucumber beetles.  It's sad--the cucumber beetles look a lot like ladybugs.  I wanted to like them!

Day 197 - claws; not Santa

She hasn't come to see me tonight...why?  Is something different in the routine?

One thing I know that the weekend will hold--a dog claw clipping.  I know that Friday I'm supposed to take Callie and a friend costume shopping.  I know that weeding the garden is not an option.  I know that laundry happens and a lot of eggs will get broken.

But the dog claws come first.  All three of them--which means twelve paws and four to five claws per paw--fifty-four claws.  Ugh.

The garden is getting pretty dry and no chance of rain in the forecast.  I’ll be dragging the hose out tomorrow...or maybe Friday. Meanwhile....












Who ate the broccoli???

Day 196 - dog eat dog

On the walk today, Izzy tended to lag a little behind.  We can't have that!  Zack, on the other hand, nearly went ballistic when a neighbor's little dog ran alongside their fence and barked at us.  He acted like he wanted to either fight it or play with it--I’ve never seen him act like that before.

After dealing with the green bean deluge yesterday, I was happy to find a normal quantity awaiting me today.  I composted the big ones but filled a quart-sized freezer bag with the little ones.

See that little green ball over to the right side of the bean pod, right next to two big holes?
 












It's a mean green bean-eating machine.


The purple hull peas are finally starting to climb!  Early in the season I thought they were going to die of some dread disease. Now they look superb.

Day 195 - refusing to pose for the camera

That first tomato I mentioned awhile back. 

It is no more (a tomato, I mean.)  I et it.

I had grand designs for starting on a new trick for Izzy today.  They didn't bear fruit--I had to pick up supper, then deal with laundry and the green beans I shoved in the refrigerator yesterday.  I barely managed time for the usual walk before it got dark.

Tomorrow.  Please?

Day 194 - a hill of beans

I'm thinking of spending an hour or so weeding in the garden today and then doing a little work up front--trying to make people think decent, hard-working people live here and not just white trash.  Late this afternoon, when the green beans have had all day to dry out, I'll pick a bunch for supper.  Gardeners are strictly forbidden from touching bean plants when they're wet--we spread disease.

Later.  So here's what happens when you can't pick the green beans for three days on account of rain.

Some of this--and a very small part of some of this--ended up making a delightful supper.  Baked chicken with herbs, country green beans, Swiss chard, and roasted corn.

And--miracle of miracles--I got done on time!  So Izzy and the dogs got a super long walk.

Day 193 - bat ears

No gardening today--it rained!  But I've a full day planned all the same.  On top of work and housework, there's nothing to stop me from cutting down another clump of trees coming up around the garden.  They're tall enough that they're stealing the sun from the potato plants.

But first, work.

Later.  I didn't get all of the trees, but I did amass a terrific pile of brush.

My Izzie is so smart--remember, what I call smart other people might call bound by routine--that when we finished our walk and I hung up the leashes, she stayed in the corner, waiting?  What was the matter?  Oh!  I'd forgotten to take off her harness.

Today I finally figured out that my camera had a "macro" feature, which apparently means zoom.  So I tried to use it on a lovely little butterfly.

It flew away.


Instead you get to see good ol' Bat Ears.

Welcome to my adorable but highly disfunctional family.  Brought together--for the day--by the wonders of Marvel Comics.  We all went to see The Avengers together, and we all had a good time.  And now they're in the living room, amicably watching the first Iron Man movie.

Day 192 - of rain and dogs

Today I procured a free-range chicken and some extra leg quarters.  If only I don't destroy them!

Rain, blessed rain today.  I got home to two soggy dogs and one nice, dry one.  Guess who has the sense to go into a dog house?

It's too wet to go into the garden, but I do have this picture from a few days ago.

Why is a tomato plant growing right in the middle of my rows of Swiss chard?

Day 191 - Dogs who diet

(Accidental) first tomato today.  I was pulling up the branch to see how ripe it was and it fell off.  Ideally, it would have been picked tomorrow or even Saturday.

Izzy is the ideal dieting companion.  She only eats when the house is quiet and I'm outside, and if anything interrupts her while she's eating she'll stop and seldom start back up.  It's as though any interruption lets the "full" signal get to her brain.  Like now--she's laying outside her cage with her face right beside the food bowl and not even thinking of eating.

Work is horrid.  Behind schedule and no hope of making up the time, and then this afternoon a customer had a production stop emergency and it's still not fixed.  I assume he's gotten the things moved to a different port...if not, I'll likely be called at midnight.


See how beauteous!  Why aren't these things prized as potted plants?

I am definitely giving it a bigger pot this summer.

Day 190 - where did the wet spot on the bedroom carpet come from?

See the sweet little baby beans?

Just like kittens, they turn into big, hairy things that take over your life.  I have one paltry bed, 25 feet long, planted with two rows of dainty little Italian-style beans.  Three days ago I took this picture and now I have beans out the whazoodle.

The worst of it is, you can't ignore 'em.  Other legumes like black-eyed peas will get up to their optimal size and stop growing.  They turn yellow and then gray, and hang there until you pick them.

Not these beans.  They're like tapeworms--they won't stop growing.  If I don't pick them small, I end up with big, stringy pods that only a native American could relish.




Re the wet spot on the carpet--when I got home late, the dogs were in the house and the humans were gone to church.  So I guess it's my fault--shouldn't have gotten home so late.

Day 189 - curiosity or just plain nosyness?

Yum!  Swedish meatballs made with grass-fed beef!  It's nothing like the junk I used to cook, in taste or nutritional value--it's yum!

I'm told you can taste the difference between free-range chicken and caged chicken, but last time I bought one I didn't notice it.  Probably the sauce was overpowering--I'll try again on Sunday.  I got the menu worked out while I was walking dogs:  baked chicken with herbs; Swiss chard from the garden; green beans from the garden; roasted corn.

If the garden survives--see the adorable little caterpillar.





See the adorable little caterpillar eat.  See the adorable little caterpillar eat the garden.  Bad caterpillar.  Bad.

Poor Izzy.  Her learned response to big, scary humans is to run away, but her curiosity gets the better of her.  Today when I was in the bedroom, putting on the running shoes, she came to see where I was.  When I looked up and spoke to her she whirled and vanished...and returned two seconds later.

The second time she came up and sniffed me and let me rub her behind the ears.

Dau 188 - Why ain't she eating her supper?

What are all those dratted little flitty bugs in the garden?  Are they the result of the unnaturally hot, dry weather we've had?  Are they some sort of blood-sucking leafhoppers feeding off the sickly, stunted lettuce?

Cat and Cilantro

 Maybe I can hire the cat to walk the garden all day, keeping the bugs stirred up.


Is it just my imagination that most of the seeds I ordered this year are not working out?  Is it because I changed seed companies or just a coincidence?  The beets are doing fine, but I think I bought the seeds at Lowes.  The Swiss Chard, lettuce, purple hulll peas and onions--all of which I ordered--are doing poorly.  The potatoes are okay but I remember complaining that there weren't enough eyes to plant the whole row.

So next year I'm switching back to Gurney's.  The same logic that created most Old Farmer's Planting Rules is rampant and alive in my brain.

Chance of rain tonight.

Day 187 - not much of a dog day but she did get a bone

 Prepare to be impressed.  Starting with a garden out of control--

 Three hours of grueling labor later, yahoo!

I admit it's a little hard to see from a picture but take my word, it's light-years different.  The tomatoes are tied back into their cages; the weeds between the rows are pushed back under their paltry pieces of cardboard; the onions (the few that survived) can breath again; the potatoes are mounded.

I ran out of old cardboard--I could have used another 75' of it.  I'll see what I can scrounge next weekend.


Then, after the usual housecleaning, laundry, and excavating the kitchen, I made a masterpiece. Baked scallops, salmon patties with cheese and fancy stuff, and broccoli with cashews.  Thus!

If only I hadn't made such a mess creating it.

Day 186 weeds grow. So do tomatoes but not so fast.

Now I'm finally facing up to the consequences of a spring weekend spent in Arkansas.

Weeds.

Not to mention dirt-dry soil.  The peppers are wilting; the lettuce is stunted; even the Swiss Chard looks stressed.  I haven't looked closely at the tomatoes yet because they're hard to see--the weeds between the rows are so tall they're starting to shade the plants.  But what I can see, is they need to be tied up to the cages before they sprawl all over the ground and get stuck that way.

I'll try to post a before/after picture tomorrow.

On the Dog front, there are many problems.  (And the cat front--he badly needs combing.  When he grooms himself, he swallows so much hair that I worry about the state of his esophagus.)

The main problem is Small Dog.  He badly needs clipping, especially around his eyes.  And that's the most impossible part to clip.  And I think I missed a heartworming and flea dropping last weekend...yes...I'm sure I did.  No wonder he scratches so much!

Better get to it.