And happily so.
A high of 85 degrees, humid, and sun all day. That is not what we got, and I am thrilled about it. Yesterday as well, was supposed to be a day of storms, including torrential rains, hail, and tornadoes. It never materialized and instead we had a day of sun, wind, and fairly cloudless skies.
On Sunday even my mom came up to see the Ness garden, and, true to her self, settled right in, weeding the Jimmy Nardello peppers. Those are my dad’s shins in the background. <grin> all he wanted to do was go out for BBQ beef ribs at Tonka Grill. Honestly, they are rated best in the state of Minnesota, so if you are going to be in the Lake Minnetonka area, look up Tonka Grill and try a side of beef. They are wonderful. (we did go gorge ourselves after he and my mom saw the garden)
No, I am not short. I am on my knees weeding the blue speckled flour corn here, and just thought I would try my hand at the selfie. Seems to have worked passably well.
So, anyway, on Sunday all I did was putz around in my own yard. The weather forecast was for terrible storms, which had me on emotional edge, but they never materialized. The only “weather” we had was on Saturday, when we got about a third of an inch of rain, when it was forecast to have 5-6 inches for the weekend. After the 40+ inches of rain this spring, the bit we had on Saturday was enough for me. The Weather Gods are saying we will have rain tomorrow, but I will believe them when I feel it on my bald head.
Monday, after work, and after dinner, Patti and I headed back out to the Ness Farm garden. It needs a mowing, being that the prolific thunderstorms and rain earlier in the year has the weeds growing at a frantic pace. But the gardens do look good. Patti and I plan on going back tomorrow, but it is nice, in a peaceful way, for me and Patti to just head out together, with the kids left at home to watch Baby Vi, while we do quiet, uninterrupted, weed remediation.
Well, not entirely uninterrupted. I ran across this tree frog hiding in a blue specked flour corn frond and I had to take a bunch of pictures of him. If you know me, or have followed the blog from the beginning, you know I love frogs. It is what it is.
Hope you are not grossed out by our amphibian friends. I like their habit of eating insects that like to predate on me and my family. As I am continually telling my wife and kids: if they eat mosquitoes, they are our friends.
But I digress. Anyway, the blue speckled flour corn variegated stalks have continued to grow, but it is only the white/green stalk that has carried the variegation past the first few leaves. The one with the purple and reds has gone dead green with the upper leaves, while the white/green is continuing the variegated patterning as the plant is growing. I really should still mark both plants, but I have not yet. Maybe tomorrow when we go back for me to mow between the rows. Don’t count on it though.
Patti worked her way through all of the rows of onions while we were there. Some of them are bulbed in excess of 3 inches already, although that is well ahead of the average. They do all look good though. Onions are one of those mostly nutritionally useless crops that just taste wonderful so you keep growing them. Devoid of calories, but suffused with wonderful flavor, and marginally carrying vitamins and other nutrients, this year, the 300 long storage Copra onions I have in the ground will hopefully be enough to carry us through the winter and into next summer. The 100 Alisa Craig and 100 Walla Walla sweet onions should provide us with plenty of fresh eating onions, pickled onions, and dried onion powder to fill any gaps.
So that was the evening, and I leave you with a long shadow photo taken when Patti and I packed it in for the day, leaving to go pick up a few pints of Haagen Das ice cream to reward ourselves for the work we did today.
