Random thoughts from the moose cave.

very cool.

I gotta get them damn beetles done in before I don't have any tomatoes. they are devastating the crop.

but prolly not tomorrow.

gotta go to town and pay some bills. and get flea crap for the kids before I go craaaaazy.

I'll see if I still have your e-mail, and send you some recent shots. the house gardens are more impressive than the veggies right now. my living awning for the patio is running up the fence verra fast all of a sudden.

shade soon...

My email is on my profile page under the avatar image.

FYI on the blister beetles:

Diet & Damage
Blister beetles eat the leaves and flowers of most plants… peas, beans, potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, many other veggies and flowers. They can defoliate plants in no time. The larva have been known to eat grasshopper eggs so they are somewhat beneficial. In some cases where these beetles are severe on alfafa, farmers must take caution when cutting as their livestock can die from ingesting dead blister beetles. The condition that affects livestock after eating grains infested with these beetles is called Cantharidiasis

Control
1) Hand Pick
Be sure to wear gloves or use tweezers as they can release a substance that causes blisters on the skin. Drop them in hot soapy water. Be sure not to touch them even when they are dead as they can still cause painful blisters on your skin.
2) Keep Weeds Low
Weed around edges of your garden attract blister beetles because of grasshopper eggs. Eliminating the weed problem will help control infestation.
* A word of warning, killing them is not a good option unless you dispose of the bodies. Their poison stays in their bodies long after they are dead.

went to cut some fresh parsely for my tuna surprise. was gonna do curly leaf, just cuz.

nope.

just like the plant lady said, it is covered with monarch caterpillars. (pix tomorrow if I can make it work)

nebbors just brought me an antique kitchen table and 5 chairs. (needs re-topped) for mowing the yard while nobody lived there. now I gotta move the cats stuff around to make room.

Stinky is already giving it the sniff test with a hairy eyeball...

Yup, that sounds just like what a cat would do to anything new coming into the home.

it gets worser.

tonight was flea night.

and now i am all alone. (they will hate me for a bit)

but we are flealess for the first time all summer.

and I can mebbe sleep soundly all night...

mebbe even with company soon, although i doubt either of them gets that far up the affection metre before bedtime...

'bout time for my farina i think.

The thing to do next time is not feed them until after the fleas have fleed (flown?) the nest so that it causes them to lose the outraged attitude if they want to be fed.

they emerged from kitty prison (the bathroom) and had a whole plate of wet food waiting (they normally split a half)

got all the aquariums back on. (hadda shut 'em all off during the fogging)

bubba is all up on me now trying to type, and feeling much better already...

Goddamn shellbacks got my broccoli.
I'm like WTF it the middle of winter its too cold for snails.

kinda too cold for broccoli too, ain't it?

got my last load of wash in (hadda do it all when I fogged for the fleas)

went and picked off blister beetles, and dropped a little water on the delicate stuff. it's gonna get hot again tomorrow...

hadda verra good day. got a motor all ready to install, and dint have any flares or spells. that almost never happens.

gonna go for two tomorrow...

Here's hoping for two!

we'll see.

first ima relate the adventures of my friend's big iguana. (he has 2) this one is about 3 feet long, with the tail.

it broke out of iguana jail the other day. mr vw was freaked. he has had him a while, and he is purely pet, NOT FOR SALE.

he went to feed him, and he wasn't there. nor in the cockatiel enclosure next door. but...

there was an opening chewed in the corner of the roof.

major freak out.

then sadness.

he was moping around later in the day, all bummed out, and went out to just sit and watch the trees. (he lives in a forest)

he actually saw something move in the big mimosa after about a half hour of where's waldo (his new name, btw)

whodathunkit (said the guy that needs new glasses...)

he hadda get a ladder, get up on the roof of the house, and sneak up down the slope to grab him from behind...

the was a struggle. blood, (his, not the lizard's) but no fallage from rooftop levels.

he climbed back down with the still struggling critter, and put him outside in the old aviary.

now everyone is happy, and Waldo has started doing the cool color matching pattern thing with his skin.

Ima bring him some broccoli today that my beetles have made unfit for me...

the heat is back. so's my headaches...

cutting a heater box off of a micro-bus. fun.

gonna rebuild it when it falls out. kinda hard to get new ones these days.

got the 'puter working over here so's I can keep a neye on life outside the microcosm of joy here.

working steady feels good...

That's cool

hey you

no.
Spinch and broc are cool season vegetables here. they withsatand the frost well. We plant seedlings early winter/late autumn and harvest late winter early spring for the broccoli and pick baby spinach leaves all through winter. growth is pretty slow for the spinnach so we plant a few more seedlings to make sure we have enough.

I've given up on spinach. Damn bunnies eat it all.

Prior to the snails wiping out the broccoli.
spinach in foreground

Pretty birdy!!!!!

I see.

in the winter, we raise snow. and ice.

all crops end about mid October here.

tomorrow I'm gonna get some hay and mulch the garden.

and hunt for grasshopper bait. there's hundreds of the little hungry bastards now...

WAIT

BRING BACK THE BIRDIE!!!!!


go ahead.... make me look like a moron. See if I care

Ask for straw not hay. Straw had less nitrogen and takes longer to breakdown.
are the grasshoppers locusts?