(Almost) Everything

[bluesgarden]

River's summer itches have kicked in and she's been sickly the last couple of days besides. Last night I discovered that she'd chewed a raw spot on her tail, so I doped her up on Benadryl. (We were just celebrating that she still has fur on her butt, too. *sigh*) She does seem to be feeling a bit better today, though, on both counts, so I haven't given her any more yet.

Meanwhile, there's a load of laundry drying on the line. I carted it out there at about 10am, only to stop short when confronted with half a dozen swallows, two of which were staring at me while the rest ignored me completely. I blinked. A couple preened their feathers. Finally, I said, "Okay, kids, I really do need to hang up the laundry." For a minute, I thought I was going to have to fight them for it. That or they were going to swoop in and start hanging it for me while singing "Cinderelly! Cinderelly!"

Earlier this morning, while the pups were yipping excitedly over a bunny trail, I discovered a female pumpkin flower having unsupervised relations with some bugs. Gasp! Normally, the night before, I tape closed any female flowers set to open the next morning. Early the next day, I carefully open them up, hand pollinate them with a couple of male flowers, then tape them closed again. Pumpkins crossbreed readily over long distances, so this ensures that the Baby Pam pumpkins are actually Baby Pam and that I can save the seeds for next year with no worries. I usually check over the plants in the evening for any female flowers, but, obviously, this one slipped by my notice. I think I caught it early enough, but once it starts to grow, I'll mark it and not save the seeds, just in case.

The empty space in the rest of the garden continues to mock me, but what's out there is mostly healthy. The tomatoes are chipperly setting a lot of fruit, the pepper plants are small but determined, the melons are due for their first attachment to the trellis, and the potatoes are looking good. I started some more melons and watermelons in the greenhouse and they're really enjoying the heat. Today I need to tie up and trim the tomatoes, particularly the cherry varieties that are making their usual bid for world domination. Also to be done in the garden: planting the last of the dry beans, planting more carrots and lettuce, and to start planning the fall planting.

Inside, I have a couple pounds of stew beef to use. I'm thinking beef for beef-and-noodles in the crock pot and then some beef stew for the freezer. Yesterday, I had some cooking apples that I needed to do something with, so 2 of the 3 went into whole wheat apple spice bread. The recipe calls for half whole wheat and half all-purpose flour, but I went for all whole wheat. This was the home ground stuff, though. I don't know that I'd try it with the store flour quite so readily. The batter was very thick and I had my doubts, but it turned out just fine. Yum! Now I need to go look up recipes for pesto to put all that basil growing in the garden to use.

Now if I just didn't feel like I was forgetting something...