Pictures

I just realized that I’ve been neglecting photos this summer.  Other than the garden I’ve not been posting (or to be  honest, taking) much of anything.

So this is going to be a picture heavy post.  I’ll put them below the fold, so the folks on slower connections can decide if they want to bother or not.

Read morePictures


Garden update

Now that I’ve had my whine for the day…..

The garden is winding down.

Tomatoes are done, a few green ones left to ripen, but essentially done.  Which is to bad because about half the plants are trying to stage a comeback.  But the chances of the weather holding long enough for the new growth to produce is essentially nil.

The peppers took the hint give them by the cold snap and a fair number of green peppers are starting to show color.  Cross your fingers!

This is a Corbaci pepper.  If I could stretch it out flat it would measure a solid foot long.  They’re a sweet pepper, with only the barest tingle of heat right in the center.  And I say that as someone who doesn’t tolerate hot peppers, I grow them for Husband, not me!  These plants aren’t very big, but they’re all loaded down hard with peppers like this.  Husband and I both liked this one, I expect I’ll grow it next year.  I’ll have to remember to give them some support though.  One of the little locally owned hardware stores had some 2′ tall, fairly narrow, tomato cages for sale when I was in there a couple weeks ago, I might swing through and see if they still have them.  All of the other sweet peppers I planted this year are among the “very late to ripen” group.  So we’ll see if any of them turn out.

The giant cucumbers turned out to make stellar pickles.  That very firm texture translates to a very nice crisp pickle.  Husband is delighted.  So I ransacked the plant for the remaining cucumbers and did up another batch of pickles this afternoon.  Now I’ll have to decide if I actually want to grow them again.  If I do I’ll need to remember that they need a proper trellis.  They produce HUGE vines!


I get a few days in a row off….

I get a few days in a row off work, and figure I can catch up on everything, and life tries to throw me a curve ball again.

But hey, I didn’t break anything this time!

Sunday morning I bumped my left big toe on something, and it hurt way more than it should have.  I mean sure, stubbing your toe hurts like hell, but I hadn’t stubbed it, I’d just bumped the outside edge of it.  Kick off the crocs I wear for slopping around the house and look at my toe, and there’s a big mess of puss and ooze over half of my toenail.  EEWWWWW.

Go clean off my toe, can’t find where it came from, trim back my toenail a bit, and a push on the outside of the toe (right where I bumped it) produces more ooze.  Yuck.  Soak both feet in a hot water and epsom salt bath for ~10 minutes, dry them off, and pack the spot with neosporin.

And try to figure out how the hell I managed this one.  Only other time I’ve seen an infection like this was when I was 16 and I got a badly infected ingrown toenail on the big toe of my other foot.  They ended up having to remove part of that toenail to deal with it.  But this time I don’t have an ingrown toenail.  And it didn’t hurt at all till I bumped it.  And it stopped hurting as long as I wasn’t poking at it.

Went to work as usual Monday, but by the time I got home the toe was sore, a visual check showed that it wasn’t getting any better.  Yay.  Get an appointment to see the doctor Tuesday.  Not my regular doc, but at least it wasn’t urgent care.  I don’t have to work again till Saturday, which sucks paycheck wise, but means that I can mostly keep off my feet.  Doc looks at it, says “hey, ingrown toenail!”  And I say “well that’s what it looks like but its not ingrown!”.  He prescribed me an antibiotic and gives me a referral to a podiatrist.  Yay.

Wasn’t till I was at the pharmacy picking it up that the name of the antibiotic rang a bell.  It’s the same one that made me puke back in January.  But hey, that reaction was probably the result of the surgery…..right?

Yah.  Not so much.  Wednesday morning I was calling the doctor’s office back to inform them that Keflex and I don’t get along and if they want me to continue taking it they’re going to have to give me an anti-nausea med.  Which they did.  Spent Wednesday half nauseous half grumpy about the taste the anti-nausea meds leave in my mouth, and hurting from a sore neck from somehow sleeping wrong.  Grump.

Spent today making bread and still feeling grumpy.  The anti-nausea meds make it possible to keep things down, but my stomach still isn’t thrilled with life.  And the anti-nausea meds still leave a nasty taste in my mouth.  And the podiatrist doesn’t have an opening till the end of Oct.  Depending on what happens after my week on antibiotics I might see if they can find me another podiatrist who can get me in sooner.  Yay.

Dear Life, I guess you didn’t hear me when I told you I was done with this whole doctor thing.  Seriously, I’m DONE with the whole DOCTOR THING!


Garden update, and notes to self

Thats one day’s harvest, over this past week.  Admittedly I’d not managed to get out to the garden in a couple days, but still.

Notes to self

Tomatoes.

I keep trying other varieties of tomatoes.  I need to just stop that and stick to my Black Plums and maybe the Black Icicles.    Nothing wrong with any of the other varieties I’ve tried but we keep going back to the Black Plums.

But if anyone’s looking for a good container tomato, you might try the Black Japanese Trifele Tomatoes.  1: potato leaf, very cool looking 2: they stayed much more compact than any of the other varieties so far 3: they also appear to be less affected by whatever blight or fungus or whatever it is that’s affecting the rest of the tomatoes this year.

The Bill Beans are a nice slicing tomato, but they’re so big, and take so long to ripen, that they tend to end up buggy.

Peppers.

Several of the new varieties I grew this year apparently need support.  Corbaci are falling over hard, as are the Shepherds Ramshorns.  Both paprikas are also falling hard.  The only thing keeping the cayenne’s reasonably upright is that they’re planted in one of the stock tanks.  All just from the weight of the peppers on the plants.  Meanwhile the Sugar Rush are having no issues despite the large number of peppers there.  If I grow any of these varieties next year I’ll need to remember to find a way to help support the plants.

Also, the Shepherds Ramshorns are barely producing, and the plants aren’t very big, that MIGHT be the fact that they’re behind the giant cucumber though.

Bishops Crown isn’t producing at all, though the plants look good otherwise.

Fish Peppers look ok.

Super Nova’s are iffy, plants don’t look bad, but they don’t look great, and there’s only a couple peppers there.

Datils and Peter Peppers both had a harder start, but look awesome now and have a ton of peppers on the plants.

Corbaci plants aren’t huge, but they’re covered in peppers.

The Hungarian Hot Wax peppers came back practically from dead, and now look awesome, now to see if the weather will hold on long enough for them to ripen.

Carrots suck this year, they’re all tiny.