the little wild kingdom

[flowerbug]

an update on the weight goals. keeping steady. i'd like to be losing 1lb a week for the next three months, but, well, i kinda doubt that's going to happen with AC and Mom's goodies being too available at times. however, i've been good in that Mom has a huge bag of very yummy potato chips up in the cupboard and i've not touched a one of them.

the habit of having apple slices on hand most of the time means i'm eating more apples and a lot less junk food. hot sauce is also a diet food item in that all the flavor and hotness can substitute for a lot of sugar/salt/etc.

 

[flowerbug]

my experimental planting of small patches of adzuki beans got mostly munched on by a groundhog. if that is all that i lose to that critter i'll be surprised but it was urged to vacate with a few air gun rounds. not sure if it will be back or not. or another will come along...

however, there's also a chance that that planting decoyed the critter into eating them instead of the other nearby beans.

 

[flowerbug]

wandered through the fenced gardens today to give a quick tour to the mechanic who happens to live down the road a bit. nice guy.

when i told him i was growing 30 different kinds of beans he was surprised there were that many. then i told him i had hundreds and that there were many thousands...

i don't think he'll be a gardener but it was interesting as this isn't the first person who's been surprised like that about how many beans there are.

in sort of related news. there's already some more Purple Dove beans ready to pick. I. WILL. GET. THEM. PICKED. TOMORROW. !!!!!

 

[flowerbug]

the garlic harvest curing.

water flows back to more normal... yay!

 

[Mini Horses]

Garlic looks good.

 

[flowerbug]

Garlic looks good.

thank you! it turned out well considering the challenges of this season.

 

[flowerbug]

last year's garlic that i had in storage that i forgot about. large cloves leftovers from planting.

Red Lucifer in full bloom. last year the deer ate almost every flower.

Butterfly Weed is such a striking shade of orange which is not a common color of flowers.

 

[flowerbug]

nice rain last night. today is another day of rest. i can be too spoiled by this...

 

[flowerbug]

last night someone ran over our street address marker and took out some bricks and stones and almost made it all the way down to the stop sign. they left the road quite a ways previous to the driveway and where the marker was at so they were off the road for about 160ft.

we both slept through whoever and whenever it was.

i was able to bend the post for the marker so it stands back up but i have to go out later with a pair of pliers to unbend the sign itself since it is curled up a bit. the ditch has water in it so i'll have to pull the rocks and bricks back out with a cultivator.

it is hard to say if it was someone under the influence or someone trying to avoid hitting a deer... both of those things happen a lot around here.

 

[flowerbug]

went out and cleaned up the mess as much as i could and then walked down to the stop sign to see what went on there.

they damaged a part of our fence around the cedar trees in that corner along with crunching one of the honeysuckle trees.

if i'd put much larger rocks at the end of the driveway they'd have made a much bigger mess out of their car much sooner and never made it another 100ft to almost hit the stop sign and crunch our fence and tree...

also if we'd have had a mailbox out there it would have been goners...

and then as a post, post thought, if they'd have gone off the road a bit more before they hit the driveway they'd have likely flipped their car...