Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Updates and Stuff

It's too hot and I haven't had much energy to do a good post lately. The yard and garden are looking a little beat. It has been in the 90s for weeks with almost no rain and we can't keep up with the watering. The entire yard is about to go dormant with lots of other plants looking like death.

Ok, moving on to more fun things. Sam qualified for the USA Triathlon age group national championships and will be traveling to Vermont next month to complete, pretty cool. We did a triathlon last weekend. Sam looked great and I about died. I am thinking racing for me means long slow events.

The birds have all hatched their second set of chicks for the year. We have baby cardinals, blue jays, and lots of awkward robins all screaming for some food. Here is a dad watching one look for food on the patio.

The worms got a major upgrade. They have been pooping machines lately but with the hot weather the can o' worms was just too hot. I was picking more than a few jumpers from the bottom catch tray as they tried to go deeper to stay cool. I built them a fully exposed rolling worm condo. It might just be me but I think they are really working harder in the new setup. It is amazing how much scrap food a bag full of worms can eat.
Even with the sickly garden the cucumbers outgrew their trellis. I built some boxes to help get them on the roof. Hopefully I will be picking cucumbers from the roof.

Speaking of cucumbers, one of my co-workers planted some Parisian pickling cucumbers and has felt sorry for my garden, so I have gotten a few. Again the crock came out and I tried another fermented pickle recipe. It was a bit salty but good. Also in the back, I made carrot and beet seed mats for the garden out of paper towels. I have never used seed mats before so we will see.

The pickles got washed to get rid of some of the saltiness and packed into jars. I haven't found a recipe for canning that doesn't require cooking all of the crunch out so these went in the frig. I will still tweek the recipe a little but unlike last year's attempt these I can eat.


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