monday's mountain musings

 Just as soon as I thought I had most of the fall gardens planted, something got in the big  garden bed and ate  near all my baby plants. Since there are no tracks any where, I am assuming it was due to bugs as they are still around  quite bad. The plants were also a touch small but I had been spraying them  every few days and the bugs had been leaving them alone. The other night, we had to water and I did not bother spraying them, so now they are dead. Manthing is bringing me home a couple flats of broccoli and cabbage this evening and I will get them in the ground tomorrow since I do not have time to start new seeds.

The seeds that I planted last week in the upcycled bathroom garden are all coming up nicely, as are all the greens I planted a few days before them.  The peas and some green onions are all that have not sprouted as yet.

I pulled up my 2 North Ga Roaster plants today as I was plum sick of looking at them and they were dying back  and looking ugly. All total, I got  50 squash from the two plants, most of which are 5-10 pounds. Once I worked up the bed they were in,  carrots were planted in their place.

The tobacco is about 2/3  of the way harvested with the first crop and the second crop is growing nicely. Bugs and worms are still an issue with  the tobacco as well and is  keeping me quite busy. I try and schedule big harvests for when I know manthing will be home  so that I have help in hauling and  hanging it.

The remainder of the corn is going to be iffy on being able to harvest it. Okra is producing like crazy now  and  I am near done getting our yearly amount stashed away. Once that is done it will all be allowed to grow and be dried for coffee replacement. Coffee prices are fixing to go up so  we will mix  the okra and coffee about half and half in order to cut costs  through the winter.

Besides work, school and the gardens not much else has been going on in our little world. Chickens are producing nicely and we will have plenty of eggs stored away to get us through the winter. The bunny babies are growing nicely. Monkey bunny, my breeding doe, had to be put down last week as she  fell ill with something.  I think it may have just been old age and heat that took its toll on her as she was the one I brought home from the sanctuary, so I had no idea how old she was. Now we are looking for a new doe but they seem  hard to come by in  our area. I put an ad on craig's list in hopes someone  locally has one they are willing to part with.

I can not wait til  life slows down a bit and I get some extra time to fill. I have many projects that I am wanting to work on   and  have fun with , unfortunately I know if I start them now, they will be put aside and forgotten. This summer has been long too warm and too busy.  I am quite ready for fall to come so that I have a bit of free time to do what I choose, instead of what I have to do.

OH! I almost forgot, the day after I posted the saddleback  caterpillar, I got stung twice by one (faceplants).  I was picking tomatoes and it was on a tomato that I grabbed. Both stings were on fairly tough parts of my hands so while  they  were irritated and  a bit sore for a few hours, neither  sting caused much of a reaction. Of course, being allergic to bees and home alone  with no transportation I, on the side of caution took an overdose of  pm pain relief (they are the same thing as benadryl)  and was ready for bed  two hours later. Gotta say, it was the best nights sleep I have  had in a while.