Vegetable Garden Doing Great!

Our garden is doing fantastic this year, which make me happy!

I've planted tomatoes, potatoes, corn, cucumbers and peppers and all are loving this hot and humid weather.  Of course, they're also happy because I hand water everyone every evening, so they're getting plenty to drink all the while enjoying the heat.

So, I planted two rows of Yukon Gold potatoes, approx. 15 taters in each row.  Knowing I needed to hill the potatoes as they grew, I started by planting the seedlings in trenches about a foot deep.  This first pic was taken on Thursday May 27 - 

The following pics were take a month later on Saturday June 26.  I've added dirt to the potato rows about 4 times now, lugging 5-gallon buckets of compost too.  The plants are now about mid-chest high and thriving!  I staked them this past weekend to keep the plants from falling or blowing over and hilled more dirt.  Hoping they're growing just as well under ground as they are above. If so, we'll have more taters than know what to do with...

Here are my three plantings of Silver Queen corn.  I planted these three clumps, two weeks about each.  I also planted these in ditched and have been mounding compost around the base as they grow.  Hoping these feeds them good and helps to support them on their own so they don't topple over.  I'm not rushing the summer but cannot wait to pick and eat some fresh home grown corn on the cob - 

Grubby Grub Grubs...

Hilling my potatoes the other afternoon I came across oodles and oodles of grubs!  This is just a small sampling, as there were well over 20.  These darn things do a number on the lawn, killing areas in short order, so whenever I get the opportunity I get rid of them.  Often time squeezing this heads and tossing them back into the garden, however, our chickens absolutely love love them!  I can't get them out of the cup I have them in before they're gobbled up.

Keep Your Distance!

And please when this pandemic is over and behind us I would appreciate that most of you people leave me alone and keep your distances.  Let's say for starters you triple the pandemic social distance requirements, at a minimum, so 18 feet!

Shame On Franklin DPW

It's a play on my "Find the Critter", instead it's "Find the Fire Hydrant"!  You can see the rusted, red metal marker, the hydrant is beneath it.

Sorry but I find this appalling and 100% unacceptable and shame on the town of Franklin and the Franklin Highway department.

I see Franklin DPW trucks driving up and down my street all the time. Often times there are two people in the vehicle.  There are certain things that I would think these knuckleheads are told or aware of, they're the highway department after all!  For example keep the roads clean and clear, so if there's a branch or some item in the roadway, stop and remove it.  Another would be fire hydrants, keeping them free and clear of all items and visible should be a priority! I understand we're not talking snow and ice, however, these tall weeds blocking the hydrant could certainly cause the fire department delays if an emergency.

Sadly, as I've stated in other postings, I see this as a sign of the times today.  No one takes pride in their jobs or takes responsibilities, everyone is selfish, looking out for themselves and simply too lazy to care.  Let's be honest here too, Franklin is small time government, so should I really be bothered and surprised by this, NAW!!

Stepping UP!

For those of you who follow my Instagram account, this posting might look familiar!

I was up and out early the other morning and came across this beautiful Tree Frog.  The fella was patiently sitting on the second stair from to our deck, some ~10' above the ground.  How he ended up there, so high and away from a gazillion bugs on the ground.  Perfectly, blends into the composite decking too.  He was there ALL day long, literally.  I last checked on him just before dark and sure enough he was still there.  In the morning, however, all that was there was a tree frog turd, the nerve!

A Double Rainbow!

Captured this double rainbow following a thunderstorm back on June 15!

Very impressive for sure!

Man (egg) Over Board!

Sticking with the pool themed posts here's another.

When it comes to song birds, we all know about the "fecal sack" or "poop pouch" right?! This is a feeding parents reward for bring the young food.  The adult will fly off with this tough mucous membrane encasement of poop to be discarded away from the nest.  It's their way of nest cleaning and keeping the nest free of waste and odor that might attract unwanted predators.

I've also seen Robin's carrying off blue egg shells too.  Apparently, performing the same nest keeping duties, which all makes sense.  However, I found the following in the pool the other day; a fertilized Robin egg!  It would seem that an adult Robin was carrying this egg off, which it deemed unhatchable maybe, to deposit away from it's nest but it landed on the pool instead, YUCK!

*** WARNING *** A bit graphic for some of today's snowflakes...

One of the odder things I've found in our pool over the years.

New Blue Brushes

After 20 years I finally purchased replacement brushes (the blue ones) for our pool vacuum!

All in all the original ones (the white ones) held up quite well.

The new ones seem to do a better job, or perhaps I'm imagining it to justify the cost?!?!

Looks Like A Clown Exploded

We had a couple of cool looking pool floats, similar to the one pictured below.  Both were clear with confetti inside and both sparkled when floating in the water.  Perfect accessories for any backyard pool, however, buyer beware!

What "they" don't tell you and what I clearly did see going into this is what happens when these floats pop (explode)?!

Say for example, Emilie is having some friends over to enjoy the pool.  Umbrella is up, sun screen has been applied, radio is cranking and the snackies are on the table, all is good.  One of the friends has this grand idea that it would be cool to land on this confetti float after launching herself off the diving board - BAM!

- POP!

Confetti EVERYWHERE and I mean EVERYWHERE!!

Here's an Asiatic Lily outside the fenced pool area, adorned with confetti hearts - 

Or the pool deck covered with confetti hearts and stars and dots - 

I've spent hours vacuuming the pool to get the confetti off the bottom, as well as shop vacuuming the pool deck to suck up as much as I could, yet it's still everywhere, UGH!

Word to the wise these pool accessories should be used for aesthetics only!

A Question To Ponder

As I sit here eating my lunch, Trixie-dog is sitting at full attention patiently waiting for a bite, see below.  As long as I don't make eye contact everything is cool, however, once broken she bebop's up and down and side to side, very animated and vocal. Oops, I made eye contact...

I return to ignoring her, go back to my Internet article and continue eating, savoring each bite.  This got me thinking, HMMM?!  Trixie-dog has no idea what I'm eating, outside of the smell, and cannot see what's on my plate and therefore has no idea how much food I have.  Nor does she understand portion size.

So my question to you is, how much should I give her?  Again, she can't see my plate, so is one bite enough?  Two bites?  More?  At what point have I met my obligation of being a good friend and companion?  Is it selfish of me to give her only a couple tiny bites, as I wolf down an entire sandwich? 

What is she thinking while all this is taking place?!  Is she like, "c'mon man!", "what gives, I'm sitting right here!" or "is that it?!", "an entire sandwich and all you give me is a bite of bread crust"!?

I'm perplexed...

Very Similar, Wouldn't You Agree?!

The resemblance is uncanny!!

The pic on the left is a Red Cedar-Apple Rust fungus that's affecting one of our Cedar trees. The pic on the right is Davy Jones from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean.

Whether Davy Jones was created after a fungus we may never know, however, I suppose inspiration comes from all sorts of places...

Get's My Motor Running, ERRR!

Topped off the windshield washer fluid in our cars this past weekend.  All three vehicles were running low due to the crazy amount of pollen that's coating everything, UGH!

Anyway, popped the hood of my car and this immediately caught my eye!  I knew instantly what this was and who's to blame - mice!

I was shocked to say the least.  Admittedly, I've not been driving much at all since the start of covid, however, it's not like my car has been in storage either.  Also, as I typically do and have done for years, is I set mice traps in the pool once the pool has been closed for the season.  I check them regularly to either dispose of or rebait the traps.  This past winter wasn't too bad in terms of the numbers of rodents killed, low compared to years past, but clearly not all rodents made their way to our pool house.

Guess I need to drive more often to avoid this.  In the mean time, I placed a dryer sheet in the area, which I've heard is also a deterrent. 

 

MUCH To My Surprise - UPDATE

Here is an update to my posting titled "MUCH To My Surprise" back on Sunday, April 11 - 

I was pleasantly surprised, shocked actually, to see that the town not only took my concerns to heart but that they actually took care of the issue and patched the problem area, see below.

Seems like they did a very nice stopping the erosion and patching the sidewalk, so no one gets hurt.

However, the work was done WELL within the wetland setback area, yet there are\were NO DEP signage hanging in the area, like there typically is when a project has gone through DEP approval.  Seems more of the "Do As I Say, Not As I Do" mentality...

Welcome To The Working Class!

Rock on!

I am happy and proud to announce that Ms. Emilie landed herself a job!

We're Officially Open For Business

I opened our pool yesterday.  

Actually, removed the cover, unplugged all the lines, installed the stairs and add the liquid shock, so I guess technically it's not opened (swimmable) yet.

Once the shock kicks in and kills all the algae, I'll fire up the pump with crossed fingers and hopefully in no time it will be swimmable!

New Rhubarb Home

Our Rhubarb is doing fantastic!  The seed pod was close to 6' tall!

This plant came from a clipping of my dads rhubarb plant many years ago.  It's always done terrific too, however, this is the first full year in it's new how in the big vegetable garden.  I was forced to transplant when I relocated the chicken coop and had to adhere to the setback requirements.  The move went well and as you can see this dude is thriving!

Peonies and Ants

We have oodles of flower buds on our Peonies!

Although, the flowers go by too fast, I can't wait for them to open.

As always the relationship between the peonies and ants are in full swing, as captured in the pictures below.  The different species are simply benefiting from the activities on one another. The peony provides food for the ants and in turn, the ants protect the blossoms from other floral-feeding insects.  There is NO truth to, it's a myth, that peonies require ants to bloom - simply NOT true.

Summer is upon us and trees, shrubs and flowers are bursting with blooms and color.  Site back, relax and take them all in, for sadly they don't last very long.

Connecting People & Possibilities My Ass!

Here is another perfect example of shoddy workmanship!

Although, not technically workmanship and not town specific this illustrates how lazy we've become as a society.

The picture above shows (circled in red) where the FedEx delivery person chose to put place the package that my neighbors ordered.  The package was NOT placed by the front door, it was NOT placed on the stone wall next to the stairs and it was NOT placed in front of or near the garage doors!  The package, as you can see, was obscurely placed in the grass along side the driveway about halfway down from the street.  

The other carriers, UPS and Amazon, do NO such thing.  They typically place the packages between the two garage doors.

Now a bit of history, from what I've seen - this one particular FedEx driver is younger, I've NEVER seen him wearing anything FedEx related; certainly NO uniform.  In the warmer months he's in shorts, often time a 'wife-beater' type t-shirt and some sort of brightly colored sneakers. He drives one of the larger FedEx trucks, which he drives like a sports car, super fast and always has the radio blaring some godawful crap music.  I've seen him drop packages off curbside, beneath mailboxes, against trees in front yards, in front yards, as shown above, and sometime where they should be placed. 

On two occasions, with packages for our house, he pulled the same crap.  Package #1 was a mini-fridge we ordered for Emilie's dorm room, so a big box that was awkward and heavy.  He double parked at the end of the driveway and proceeded to attempt to carry this box down the driveway.  Halfway down it slipped out of his grasp, fell to the ground and that is where he left it!  Package #2 was a small package but it was raining, so he drove his truck into our driveway, pulled down to the stone retaining wall where he positioned the truck such that all he had to do was lean out the door and dropped in on the wall AND he failed to put the box in a plastic bag to protect it from the rain.

The person is the epitome of laziness.  It's sadly a reflection of what I see as part of the problem with people today, he doesn't care.  He takes no pride in his job, nor does he care about what he's been hired to do.  How he's still employed is a mystery to me.  He has no business being customer facing.

I try to limit my online purchases from business that deliver via FedEx.

Gerber Daisey 2021

Going with Gerber Daisey's this summer!

Their colors are just too awesome and the blooms just keep coming and coming!

Sadly, the three Gerber's plants I attempted to over-winter didn't make it but these beauties are acceptable replacements and they're doing terrific!

Vegetable Gardening 2021

My veggies have been planted!

I'm changing things up this year, so instead of planting 25 tomato plants in our big garden I opted to go with corn, potatoes and tomatoes.  So, from left to right and working down the garden, I planted my first (50) Silver Queen corn seed, then two rows of about (14) each Yukon Gold potatoes and then (4) Celebrity tomato plants.

Initial planting - May 15 - 

Progress - May 27 -

Here's a closer pic of first (50) corn seeds -

Two weeks later -

In another garden, a raised bed, I planted (8) cucumber plants and (4) California Wonder peppers -

All are doing fine and progressing along.  Fingers crossed it continues!