Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[Denim Deb]

I've done similar, but normally it involves soaking my hat as well.

Hope your goatie is OK.

I heard something about the firefighters, but don't know any details. I think for the most part, we (general, not personal) don't appreciate those who make the world a safe, comfortable place to live. We idolize sports stars and movie stars, but take fire fighters, police officers, electric line workers, garbage men, etc for granted, or even look down on them as being uneducated and unable to get a "better" job. Yet, how many of these people are putting their lives on the line for often times poor pay and little thanks. My heart goes out to their families

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It was sure head/hat soaking hot again today. We hit a high of 95 with a heat index of 110! Hottest day of the year- for sure! Chickens were panting and hunting shade all day. Silly horses stood out in it and the goats too - except they were smart enough to lay down and chew cud during the worst part of the day.

We got all the yard work done. Thank goodness A came to help - thats the best $40 dollars I've spent lately. He's young and strong and walked behind the push mower for quite some time today. DH rode the riding mower and I (guess what?) weeded and mulched. On top of that, I transplated some tomatoes that I had in pots. They just were't doing so great in the pots so now they have a new home. I've still got a few peppers in pots too that are going to move to the garden tomorrow.

Horrors! I saw stink bugs today. They weren't on the tomatoes----yet. Tomorrow I'll be taking some floating row cover and buiding a barricade around ALL of the tomatoes. I've got about 20+ plants in the big garden and another 16 in raised beds in the yard. I will NOT let the bugs have them - Nope - not gonna happen. I ain't going down without a fight.

I hate stinkbugs, I hate them I do!
Because my tomatoes they like to chew
I will not have this, I can't let it be
Stinkbugs are going down, courtesy of me!

I think I got a little too much sun today, lol!

 

[Denim Deb]

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Got up, let the dog out, let the mama hen and chicks out, picked some green beans and squash from the garden and then had to high-tail it back into the house. Strange, weird wet stuff falling from the sky! I think I remember this thing called rain....

Hope it keeps up cuz we NEEEEED it!

I need to process some squash, green beans and eggs today so it's not such a bad thing if I have to work inside today.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Rain was nice - could have used a little more, but I'm gonna be thankful for what we got! And, a nice side effect of the rain is that the temps stayed totally tolerable alll lday. I think our high was about 85 - at least 10 degrees cooler than yesterday.

Now - one would think that I would have taken advantage of the cool weather and stayed outside most of the day. But, did I? Nope - I had eggs to clean and boil, vegetables to process and put in the freezer or the dehydrator and I had a gal come by who wants to make some extra money cleaning houses. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but she wants $20 an hour.

Don't get me wrong - I believe people have the right to earn as much as the "market" (meaning me in this case) can bear....but...$20 dollars an hour is a bit much for this market. I think she saw the shocked look on my face when she mentioned the price and maybe she felt a little sorry for me, but she lowered her price. I agreed to give it a try.

DH has been keeping a spread sheet on our egg production and it's pretty darn amazing. I think we're averaging about 30 eggs per day. One day we got 33 - whoop! The littlest things excite me, lol.

 

[Denim Deb]

Hey, I'd get eggcited too.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Saw them stinkin' stink bugs on the tomatoes tonight - so they're now all wrapped up in floating row cover - the tomato plants, not the bugs. Let's see them stinkers try to get through that!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I've never been able to outsmart stinkbugs. I don't guess it would be feasible to make a screened in tomatoe garden. I just pick my tomatoes before they ripen and kill bugs with my fingers as I find them. I was hoping guineas would eat them, but I can't send the guinea in the garden, unless I fence in my yard and pen up my stupid dogs. They know not to attack the duck, geese and chickens, but somehow haven't figured that I don't want them to hurt the guineas. Anyway....stinkbugs really stink, for more than one reason.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You busted my bubble! I've got guinea eggs under a broody hen in hopes they would eat stinkbugs....

But, two years ago I built a kind of 'greenhouse' with floating row cover around my tomato plants. It worked great! Last year - I didn't get the row cover over 'em and I don't think I picked more than 6 tomatoes all year long. This year - row cover to the rescue. I can't find anything organic that will kill/deter them - so I just use a physical barrier. I refuse to let all my hard work go to waste and give in to the bugs...sigh...

 

[Denim Deb]

Stink bugs are attracted to light, so you can built a trap for them. It's not that hard.

Get a 2 liter bottle, and cut about 1/3 of the top off. In the bottom section, put about 1/2" to an inch of water. Add a drop of dish soap. Turn the top section over, and place inside the bottom section so it makes a funnel. Make sure the cap is off! The top of the bottle should not touch the water in the bottom. Place this on top of some type of flat, battery operated light-w/the light turned on. The bugs will fly into the bottle, go down the neck and into the bottom. They'll drown in the soapy water.