This week went by in a hazy, sweaty blur. Days were spent watering everything, plants, animals, people; the cool water from the well the only relief from the brutally high temperatures. They call it a heat dome, it felt a lot like being trapped in an oven, a very moist oven.
The first day of the heat was spent further securing the bird yard after I ran into a raccoon in the bird yard, while all the birds were out. I scared it away, and quickly counted all the birds, all still present, but it felt important to close up any holes we could find. The raccoon returned twice that same night, so it's gotten entirely too comfortable.
The video my neighbor sent showing the entire, admittedly cute, raccoon family has only added urgency.
I spent several hours of the first day of the extreme heat climbing up and down a ladder, attaching overhead netting to trees and the bird shed itself. Securing any opening, including the one with claw marks from previous raccoon visits.
Spoiler alert: the muddy footprints on the chicken coop last night prove I was once again unsuccessful. All still unharmed.
My order of beneficial bugs arrived at the height of the heat, because of course it did. As soon as the heat broke, and I mean it was still raining, the driveway steaming like thick fog, I released the ladybugs, split the worms between my in-ground composters and two of the raised beds, and hung the parasitic wasp eggs near my squash trellis.
And speaking of wasps, I was rudely attacked by a baby wasp in the garden this morning for no reason other than my foolish decision to do some weeding. The wasp continued to target me, at one point landing inside my glasses. I abandoned my hat and all my supplies, literally running out of the garden.
It's a testament to both my love of gardening and my insanity that I went back to do more weeding later, though I did avoid that exact area after seeing the wasp, and possibly its parents, again.
I have almost finished sowing seeds for the season, just in time for all the garden guides to start talking about fall preparation.
I harvested the first tromboncino squash of the season, my first ever actually, which Brian roasted with a simple spice mix. We enjoyed it at least as much as regular zucchini and are eagerly looking forward to cooking more as summer squash before letting some mature to long storage winter squash.
Not much else coming from the garden just yet. A few meals worth of potatoes, a handful of cherry tomatoes, a little basil, and some flowers. Everything is on the edge of either bursting or collapsing.
I'm hopeful for a decent harvest this year, though I put little thought into a full garden plan. I knew my focus would be establishing the perennials, especially the things that will take years to produce. Next year will be much more focused on food production, along with the start of both nursery production and cut flowers.
I'm doing the literal groundwork for it this year, with two more worm bins installed yesterday before the wasp attack. I watched a video yesterday about vertical mulching, essentially pulling out plugs of bad, compacted soil and refilling with good, nutrient-dense soil, and then letting the worms do the work. Essentially, bulk worm bins, lots of them, in a grid pattern will improve the soil and the plants around them. Pretty cool stuff!
We're back to more normal summer weather, hot and humid with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon or evening. And now that I have chickens in the yard too, I'm discovering the latest homestead lie is that they put themselves to bed. Chasing chickens in 100-degree heat while racing to beat the storm is not my favorite.
Two nights ago I finished about two minutes before several huge branches fell directly on top of the gate I had just been repeatedly using. No animals or farmers were hurt, fortunately.
I still can't believe a year ago I hadn't even seen this house, I didn't know this life was on the way. I certainly didn't feel capable of doing even half of what I am now. I'm so excited to see how much more I'll get into in the future.
But for now, I fell asleep writing this, so I'm finishing with my morning tea waiting for the pain meds to kick in so I can get moving. The birds will wait, but not too long. I need to get in the garden and grab the few calendula blooms I've managed to grow before I make my next batch of lip balm.
Let's see what happens this week 🌼
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