I am harvesting lettuce daily. I pick just what we will use at a given meal. The lettuce grew well in new soil – not so well in last years soil. Here is one container of Buttercrisp that I am currently harvesting.
Except for the 2 plants I lost due to the broken pump, the tomatoes are coming along fine.
I’ve got small heads of broccoli growing.
and cabbage that is trying to form heads.
Spinach
and a blueberry blossom
The squash, cucumbers, cauliflower and snap peas are not doing well this year.
I had plans to accomplish much more than I have these first 2 days at home after our visit to Jacksonville.
Of course, last Friday was the 13th and the disappointing news on that day was that K&T didn’t close on their house purchase. Penny and I came home to do stuff here and at first all appeared fine here. A quick glance at the garden from the house showed it looked OK. The lawn needed mowing but that was expected. We even got back in time on Saturday to go to church. That left Sunday open for whatever needed to be done.
Sunday morning turned out to be a trip into town to do some necessary shopping and also some browsing for stuff for Sophie. Sophie, at age 4, is experiencing peer pressure at school to dress like a “big’ kid. It’s as if she were already 12 or 13 and wants to fit in. I didn’t know kids the age of Sophie could be that insecure about fitting in but evidently they can. It makes me wonder what K&T are going to be challenged with when she is 12. Anyway, Penny is searching for and finding some clothes that Sophie might like (at bargain prices, naturally) and that was part of the Sunday morning mission.
Some of lunch on Sunday came from the garden. I’ll follow up later with a garden report. But when I picked the lettuce for our lunch I noticed that the plants that were not in the reservoir pots were wilting and 2 of my tomato plants had died for lack of water. I checked the pump and found that it would run but not pump water. I couldn’t do any troubleshooting just then because it was lunch time.
After lunch I watered the garden. The pump couldn’t have been broken for more than 2-3 days because the lawn was green and the plants that were in the reservoir pots were all OK. I lost 2 tomato plants some squash and almost all of my snap peas. I spent the rest of the afternoon seeing if I could fix the pump. It needs an expert.
The black cloud stayed over me. After giving up on the pump it was time to mow the lawn. You guessed it – the mower wouldn’t start It was too late in the day to troubleshoot it. I think I knew what the problem was. The last time I used the mower it also had issues. Somehow the gas got contaminated with what looked like algae. The carburetor jets were plugged. I’m guessing there was still crud in there. So my Monday morning job was to get it running again.
The cat feeder fed the cats while I was gone – it still had food in the tray. No cats were around on Saturday evening. Sunday night Buzz showed up and was quite vocal and friendly in welcoming me back. He must have been in a nasty fight because he had scabs on his head and a long healing slash the full length of his ear.
Monday morning I looked at the lawn mower and the jets were plugged and the float was stuck. I freed everything up and went to put the bowl back on the carburetor and I couldn’t find the gasket that formed the seal. I’m usually pretty good about not misplacing important parts in a job like this but I have no idea what I did with this gasket. I fashioned a gasket out of a plastic ring from a gas can wrapped in Teflon tape, installed it and it seems to be working OK. The mower started but only idled. I wiggled the butterfly valve and cranked it again and this time it ran normally. I got the lawn mowed.
I also called the pump man and he came out and took the pump with him to the shop.
Maybe Tuesday the black clouds will go away.
I am back home after 9 days in Jacksonville. K&T expected to close on their house on April 2nd but due to an incompetent realtor working for the VA and other factors it is now Apr 14th and still no closing. Penny and I had planned on spending this past week cleaning up and getting their new house ready for them to move in.
Without them owning the house we were limited in what we could actually do. Penny washed walls and floors. I repaired the sprinkler system and replaced a fence panel that had fallen. We hoped we could get more done but it was not to be. K&T did all they could do but the system beat them this week. Now closing is set for Monday. We will head back over after closing an do the things we hoped to do this week.
We did have some good family time and actually helped out K&T some while we were there.
Penny and I did play tourist one day and visited the Kingsley Plantation. Here are some pictures.
The girls had fun one evening with balloons.
Now we spend a few days at home taking care of our place. I took a quick look at my garden and it looked OK. We’ve got greens to eat this week. The repaired cat feeder worked, too and there was enough food in it that it is still feeding.
I finally got out in my kayak today. We were supposed to go yesterday with Penny’s hair stylist, Barbara, but she had a medical emergency in her family and couldn’t go. So I left my kayak on the CRV and used it this morning.
It turned out to be a great time to go. There was a breeze but the bayou was still. The sun was out but it wasn’t hot. There was no other soul on the water- I had my private mile-long lake.
I carried the kayak to the edge of the water and went back to the car to get my gear. When I walked back and saw the kayak sitting there I had to take this picture. It just looked so inviting and relaxing:
I pushed off and took my time heading up the bayou. There were fish everywhere feeding on the surface. I watched an Osprey soar over me. It spotted a fish and dove only to pull up before hitting the water. It circled and once again over the same spot dove. Once again it pulled up at the last moment. It came around for a 3rd pass. This time it dove in straight and fast from about 50 feet above. No pulling up this time. It went straight in with a big splash and came up carrying a fish that was big enough to cause the bird to have trouble flying. It sort of bounced off the water a couple of time adjusting its grip on the fish. It finally gained control and flew off awkwardly with its prize.
I then spotted a heron on the shore. I tried to get in close for a nice picture. I slowly paddled and drifted closer until I got close enough without spooking the bird. I raised the camera and got ready to snap and the bird decided to leave. I snapped anyway thinking I would get another picture of a bird with its wings in a weird position. But I got lucky with the timing with this result.
I threaded my way up the stream where the blackberries used to grow. I played around trying to get good pictures of some spider webs I saw. Well actually “play” is not a good word. I was fighting a slow current while trying to get the right sun angle to see the web and then try to get the camera up and get the correct focus and shoot before I drifted too far. I took several bad shots but I ended up with 2 that I liked.
I was pleased to find that no strong head wind had kicked up while I was up the creek. Some nice clouds had popped up and made for nice reflections on the bayou.
Now as I sit here typing I have a smile on my face. My thumbs don’t hurt. My shoulders don’t hurt. As I said- a fine day. The only thing that would have made it better was if Penny were there. She didn’t feel well enough to go.
