Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 I love going out into the garden and seeing the first flush of goldy-orange on the pumpkins.  The vines/leaves look pretty good here, but I'm pretty sure the vine borers are getting to the pumpkin vines.  I just don't have the wherewithal to fight them.  They say you can use a syringe to inject BT into the base of the vines to kill off the grubs, but after spending hours chasing squash bugs I just don't have time to go around injecting all the vines.  I let the vines root into the ground as they grow, which helps the vines survive longer, but as the bugs continue to propagate they just keep going after the vines more and more.  Ugh.  I am hoping I get a few pumpkins at least though.   One thing I have learned is that the squash bugs and the vine borers prefer the pumpkin vines over the cucumbers or cantaloupe vines.  It is the strangest thing.  The other day I found over 30 squash bugs on the pumpkins vines,  but very few in either of the other.  And last night it was the

Vacation Bible School This summer, for the first time ever, Ellen is helping with VBS instead of attending as a student.  She is 17, and could still be in a class, but the crafts teacher needed help so Ellen signed up. The craft class is held in the kitchen where I was helping, so I snapped a few pictures of Ellen at a distance.  I caught some epic expressions.  She doesn't read this blog and the kids are all looking away from the camera, so here you go.  Hahaha...  (She is the one on the left in the dark brown shirt.)     This one wasn't zoomed in, so I got the leavings of the mac and cheese, as well as a few of the adults.  This class had about 24 in it!  In all there were over 90 kids in attendance.  Quite a few kids for a little country church.  Usually we average about 50 or so in all.

 The tall girls grow much of the summer  Swaying and waving in gossipy green rows. They start small, then stretch, strengthen And soon begin to nod at one another Perhaps agreeing that the gardener  Ought not be so dilatory about weeding  Between their feet, buried in the soil. The tall girls twist and turn Scribing solar paths above the garden. Then one morning a yellow ray appears, A petal flung out to greet the dawn Now becomes full throated  A yellow yawn, a ruffled shout. The tall girls salute the sun And are serenaded by honey bees. Soon the tall girls bow to the Weight of their own fertility.  The tall girls become stiff and brown In late summer and fall and Then their feathered friends feast And gossip among the limp leaves.

 Really, the rest of our mini vacation was fairly uneventful as far as unusual or unwanted occurrences.  We weren't at the cabin long enough to get that laid back vacation feeling, we kept on the move.  We went to 5 different shows there in Branson; one of which I enjoyed very much.  The rest of them appealed mostly to the others.  Ellen liked Reza the Illusionist, Gail liked the John Denver tribute guy, and Gary and I preferred the Clay Cooper show; he focused mostly on older country music.   The only other notable thing that really happened was there at the KOA.  I don't normally take just random photos of the KOA campgrounds simply for the fact that rows of cabins, RVs and/or tents aren't exactly exciting.  I didn't take photos of the campground this time, but I will set it up for you to tell this story.  We were about 2/3 of the way toward the back of the campground in a small row of cabins along the edge.  Across the road from us was a line of maybe 8-10 RV spots. 

 Last week I didn't do any blogging because we were on our mini vacation down in Branson.  Gary, Ellen, Gail and I camped at the Branson KOA for 3 nights and took in shows and shopping, so there was no time to sit for long, much less to think and write.  Here is our little home away from home.  The four of us camping in this little 12'x12'  cabin made for an interesting time, but we were so rarely there that it worked out.  Three of us would park on the porch while the 4th changed clothes in the cabin.  Or, in Ellen's and my cases, we'd hike to the bathroom to shower and/or change. Gail and Gary took the top bunk beds, which made for funny times with them ascending and descending. In the few days we were there; from Tues through Thursday, we took in 5 Branson shows, a shopping trip to Eureka Springs, AR and a shopping trip to The Landing there in Branson.   I have put most of the story of this outing on Facebook, but I think my faithful blog readers deserve a couple

 Our beef ladies, the cows that is, have been simmering along this summer, fat as ticks, as Gary would say.  The consistent rain has kept them in plenty of green forage.  Then about 2 weeks ago two of them had heifer calves within 2 days of each other. This is Bella, a week ago, watching the calves, which you can barely pick out amongst the grass and weeds.  About 3 or 4 days after I took this pic yet another cow dropped another little heifer calf.  Gary is pleased that we've started off with so many heifer calves at once. Last year we had mostly bull calves.  

 The third hibiscus finally bloomed a couple of days ago.  It is so pretty. Up top is the second bloom.  Below, bug eaten petals and all, is the first. This hibiscus is much showier than the other two. Most of the marigolds are doing well.  One plant has died back, strangely enough.  I've never had a marigold die.  Who knows.  The rest are lovely.  I'm going to save the seeds for these.   Some have much more red on them than this one.   Here are the zinnias again, putting on their show: And the tiny vinca at the bottom.  I always forget how big the zinnias gets. This is the first sunflower to really bloom out.  I love the sunflowers, too. This lemony yellow one is so pretty.

 The above are my pumpkin vines in the foreground; barely visible behind them are the cantaloupe vines. They grow more and more every day, so my search for squash bugs is becoming a challenge.  I manually pick them off the vines and toss them into a jar of soapy water.  They die within minutes.  Nasty outfits.  Then I have to check every leaf for the eggs.  I have eliminated most of them, but they keep coming in from somewhere.     The vines are finally getting teeny pumpkins on them, but the weather is worrying me.  Today, Tues, July 9, 2024, we are getting the fallout of Hurricane Beryl.  It looks like it will rain pretty much all day.  Pollinators are not very active on super rainy days.   ******** The peppers are really coming along.   These all came off of just a few of the pepper plants I have out there.  I hope the other plants start producing soon.  I need to fertilize them I guess.  The banana pepper plants are coming on like gangbusters.  I foresee myself donating most of the

 The little town where we live has a very active Lions Club.  Every Fourth of July they have a barbecue dinner and put on a fireworks show in conjunction with the Volunteer Fire Department.  They have done this time out of mind; except for the memories of Gary and his sister Gail, who say they believe the Lions Club started having their fireworks show back in the early 1980s.   It has become an annual local staple; the Lions Club barbecue dinner and then the fireworks (according to locals, the quality of the dinner has declined from previous years; however I can't speak to that, having never partaken of it.).  People come from surrounding towns for the fireworks especially.  It's free and fun. This year there was a race to get the fireworks completed before we were overtaken by a storm from the southeast.  There were dark clouds gradually overtaking us as we were sitting and waiting for the show to begin.  It was supposed to start at about 9:15 pm, but they started it ten minut

  This is the hibiscus Gary got me for Mother's Day.  I love the deep pink color, which doesn't show up properly in the picture, of course.  I hope I can keep these new hibiscus going over winter.  I am going to cover with straw or hay or something to try and insulate the roots. My Betty Hibiscus has yet to bloom!  It is about 4 feet tall by now.  I have to keep metal stakes by it to keep it propped up, otherwise it would fall over and break, or be sprawled all over the walkway, like it was last year. ********   Most of all spring and summer, up until about 3 days ago, I have been fighting squash bugs on all of my vining plants; the cukes, squash and gourds.  I take a glass of soapy water and just hand pick the bugs and dunk in the water.  They die within a minute.  I'd get at least a dozen of the little horrors a day sometimes.  But the past 3 days or so I haven't seen a one.  I can only pray their season is over with and they won't be back.  I spent quite a bit of

 The past week has been a little crazy.  Ellen came down with COVID last Monday...today is Tuesday.  I came down with it 3 days later, last Thursday.  So far Gary has managed to avoid it, but only because I have taken rigorous measures...like sanitizing every surface he could possibly come into contact with, and wearing a mask in the common areas of the house.  Oh, and not even going into "his" bathroom.  I'll have to go in and clean it here in a day or two.  Haha...  I don't know if I am still communicable or not.  I haven't had a fever for 2 days now, but am still really congested in my sinuses, with a "head fog" type of thing going on.  Draggy.   Last Tues the AC went out, I will only mention that Ellen noticed it was blowing mist into the front room, I noted this fact to Gary who asked for an implement to try and clear the drainage hole.  I handed him an ice pick.  A few moments later there was a hiss, a comment something to the effect of, "I di