The Rain's to Blame

Jeff got more of the 'square foot' rows tilled and planted last week before the rain started. We used up the left-over garden net on the bean tower (also know as the space ship landing gear). He's got melon planted on 2 sides and squash on the other two. There wasn't any catnip ready for transplanting so I put annuals in the top layer of my herb box. A hummingbird made an appearance Friday night...more like a recognissence (?spell?) flight checking out the feeders and what was in bloom. We enjoyed our fire pit eventho we had to play musical chairs to keep out of the smoke's path. The smoky fire did not do anything to discourage mosquitoes nor did the tiki torches with citronella oil. (We got 2 more today at the dollar store in the hope that more will help.)

It was too wet to work in the garden yesterday and since the Town of Herkimer was sponsoring a large trash collection, we cleaned the garage intending to make a trip or two to the town garage with our trash...but there was so much to go thru that we didn't make it over to the town garage in time...7am-3pm wasn't enough time for us. It's amazing how much junk can fit in a 2-stall garage!! We got it bagged and will have to find somewhere to take it...or pay the garbage collector to pick it up. Jeff's brother and nephew called while we were working at it and Jeff gave them directions to find us. When we finished I started a pot of 3-meat chili while Jeff started the fire. Again the smoke and the citronella torches didn't help much with the mosquitoes. In desperation I sprayed around the fire pit with Yardguard and that seemed to tip the balance in the human's favor so when Wally & Dot from next door walked up...Wally dragging a rather large dead pine branch for the fire...and sat with us for awhile the smoke was more of a problem than the bugs. Good thing we had cleaned out the garage and found the rest of the lawn chairs coz when Jeff's brother and friends rolled in on their motorcycles we needed them. Never had about $100,000 worth of motorcycles parked in my driveway before!! Jeff showed everyone around the gardens explaining the gutter garden and square foot principles and we sat around the fire drinking...Pepsi! (Blew my idea of a 'biker' party.)

Again it was too wet to work in the garden today but that was ok coz neither one of us was moving very fast after cleaning the garage yesterday. We were suppose to go to a family cookout at Tim's but didn't make it. Hard work and damp weather caught up with us both. I've started the Great Countdown(27 days to go!)to my retirement at the end of the month and I'm looking forward to being able to spend more time during the week outside so a damp day or a sore back on a weekend won't interfere so much with our plans. I didn't even knit much today cos I kept crawling back into bed to ease my back pain. OTN: a size 9mo, v-neck cardigan, raglan from the neck down, in royal blue acrylic on US8 needles. This is a baseball sweater and will have 5/8" baseball beads as buttons; and the 2nd sock for a friend's wife, from the toe up in violas Serenity sock yarn on 2 US2 double pointed needles. This is my 'in the bag' project that is always in my pocketbook and I work on in the oddest places...like waiting in a drive-thru at the bank or McD's!!