A Man and His Dog

Jeff and Fanny playing around the gutter garden. Don't know who's having more fun.

Watermelon

This is one of the 6 melons ...actually one of the smallest about golf ball size...growing in a raised bed on a string trellis. The vine is about 4' wide and over 6' high. We had a lot of flowers but not many bees. You can make out the annual flowers behind the watermelon that we planted to encourage the pollinators. We tried marigolds, begonias and catnip in the different boxes and all the raised beds are doing well. Hopefully they will continue to grow and we will eventually get to eat watermelon!!

Not All Work!

We've been busy working on projects around here. I finally got almost the entire lawn mowed in 1 day and then I hit something... a rock, a root, one of Fanny's sticks...and stopped. It looks good...the part that's not mowed is in the shade and has more ground cover than lawn. Jeff kept busy in the garden. At the first sight of blight he's been clipping and pruning the tomato plants trying to stay ahead of it but.... It would be nice...just once...to have all the tomatoes that form ripen. We have been eating our round zucchini and lemon cucumbers, and Jeff has started to pick peppers. The weather seems to have been against us this year...hot early, then a late frost, the drought and now blight. So far my watermelon are growing...there are 6 on the vines from golf ball to softball size. Hope they make it!

I've kept the knitting needles busy, too, and managed to get several baby sets finished and to the shop, including this Train Set, all size 9mos. This one has 18 buttons and a cap with

a visor. The others were another sheep sweater and a pin-stripe sweater. I even found an autumn set in the

'left over from last year bag' with a pumpkin hat so I did a couple more pumpkin hats...and a couple of baseball hats, and took them all to the shop. I haven't called to see if they have sold coz then I'd have to do more and my fingers hurt!

Jeff took a couple of days to get the utility trailer that came in 2 big boxes from Harbor Freight together, wired with all the lights working and the license plate on right side up before we took it

to be inspected. The only thing wrong was he didn't have the chains crossed...never knew there was a right way to hook up the chains! He doesn't care for the size or location of the lights and is talking about changing them. We stopped at Lowe's on the way home and got the lumber and plywood to finish the trail bed...and dozens of bolts (but not enough)! Once that was finished, Jeff loaded it up with the trash from the garage and we went to the Transfer, Station...another name for the dump...in Utica. Cost $18 for 400+ lbs of trash. Not too bad. We're planning to clean the porch and make another trip next week. We stopped at Jeff's friend Frank's, house and loaded up with wood pallets. It was a whole lot easier putting them in the trailer instead of on top of the car!! Jeff spent the next couple of days taking them apart and pulling nails. He's using the lumber to re-enforce the pvc garden supports.

Fanny's continuing to grow and is into everything! She runs around the house with any thing she finds...an odd sock, washcloth...she steals from the washer (a disadvantage of a front loader)...usually a piece of towel (her security blanket??). She is a constant and persistent chewer...she just chew a button off a shirt hanging on the back of the chair I'm sitting on!!

And she is on-again, off-again about house training. Yesterday and today it's 'off' after 4 days of right 'on'! I don't know how to handle it anymore.

But it hasn't been all work. We've gone fishing a few times. Lock 18 is always a good location and last weekend we tried the Frankfort Marina. It may turn out to be a good place too, but last Friday we ran into an amateur rock festival there. I feel old but... "and they call that music?!?"

Jeff got the rows between the plants tilled in half the garden before the last batch of rains started. Everything is lush and tall but there's not much fruit...we had a lot of flowers but they didn't form any fruit! Managed to get another basket of broccoli for dinner but I didn't eat any. My INR numbers have been all over the board...on both sides out of range...for about a month...since the last time I had fresh broccoli! Finally I'm back in range and I don't want to press my luck.

We're going to get the lumber to finish our new utility trailer today. Got the trailer at Harbor Point Tools and it came in 2 large boxes. Jeff spent a couple of days putting it together. There were directions...'fasten A to B' type...but deciding what was A and B was up to you. Nothing was labeled! It's all together, wired, greased, registered and road tested. Once the deck and sides are on, the car will no longer have to have much tied to the roof!