So, the saturday after I posted my last post we got a frost, and not a mild one either. It hung around till well past 8am in any area not immediately hit by the sun. Finished off the melons, and most of the tomatoes (a couple plants in the middle of the garden are still alive, but that’s it). However most of the peppers held up just fine. We’ve had a couple lighter frosts since, but again, most of the peppers are still holding on. So with Husband’s help I rearranged my shade canopy (over some of the peppers) to a frost protection lean-to. Here’s hoping it’ll hold things long enough actually get those peppers to ripen.
Meanwhile Apollo is delighted by the colder temps, and peeved at us for lighting up the wood burning stove to counter the chill.
Yesterday, while bringing in Arty from the fenced run, I managed to get stung by a yellow jacket. No clue where the damn thing came from, I didn’t brush against any weeds or flowers or the like, but when I bent my arm to grab his leash it got pinched in the inside of the elbow and stung me. Spent the rest of the day yesterday taking a max dose of benadryl, and getting stabbing pains from shoulder to knuckles every time the benadryl started to wear off. Today it hurts less, but itches more. Yay.
My neighbor on my north side has her property up for sale. She’s in her upper 80’s, and her husband died a couple years ago. The “kids” (who’re pushing retirement age themselves) have been helping care for things, but she’s decided she’s done. She’s moved into an apartment in town and put things up for sale. Crossing my fingers for a neighbor I can tolerate.
The co-worker who’s been out on medical leave is HOPEFULLY coming back at the end of Oct. Crossing fingers. The last time I saw him, over a month ago, he looked pretty damn frail, and was clearly not healing very well. But the folks who’ve seen him more recently all agree that he’s doing MUCH better.
One of the libraries in the next county over has a Maker Lab, including 3d printers. I’ve been going over periodically to play a bit and print things. They put one of their older printers up for sale, it runs fine, but apparently the touch screen control pad is failing. Normally a $2000+ machine, they’re selling it for $200. I did a bit of checking, the manufacturer sells a replacement control panel for $80, and it appears to be a pretty straight forward swap. So we’re buying it.
Hey, who couldn’t turn down getting a $2k machine at 10% of the cost and a little work to put it to rights again!
Good luck with holding the expiration date on those pepper plants until after peppers have ripened.
Too bad you don’t get a say on who your new neighbors will be.