Blog almost as neglected as the garden

Well, I guess I need to finally harvest the basil since it's the end of November. It got a little frosted Friday night. It got a late start, and we had 80 degree weather as recently as Thursday, so I was trying to nurse it along.

The kumquats are making the trees bend over. They look like lots of orange Christmas ornaments. They are a blessing and a curse - what can you do with all those kumquats? They turn brown when made into marmalade, which tastes good if you are brave enough to eat it. All our cabinets are full of kumquats floating in various kinds of alcohol; rum, tequila, brandy, etc.

I'm going to get the electric dehydrator out, see if I can dry the sliced kumquats, then candy them. Seeding and running them through a food processor makes a nice slurry to put in the freezer; mixes well with condensed milk for a decadent orange-flavored frosting, or mixed with whipped cream, or a cheesecake recipe.

Our Louisiana Sweets orange has a nice load of fruit to match the kumquat trees. We have a few satsumas, but no Meyer lemons at all. I hope to get a few lemons from my neighbor across the street.

My roses, as well as those all over town, love the hot/cool weather. The cooler weather makes everything bloom. And my dwarf blueberry plant thinks it's spring - it just put out lots of pink blooms. If we have some more warm weather, maybe I'll have a dozen blueberries for Christmas.

Still have some green tomatoes on the vine, but doubt if it will be warm enough for them to ripen. We planted tomatoes in March this year, but it was too late. It got too hot for them to set fruit. We'll put them in earlier next year.

Arctic Blast

They're saying it hasn't been this cold since 1996. We were in Missouri at the time, missed it.

We harvested all the oranges, Meyer lemons, and calamondins last night. The oranges fill up a pretty big Igloo cooler. The kumquat tree is close to the house, so we left those till Wednesday. The really big freeze will be Thursday night through Sunday.

The pets have been staying indoors at night - Jasper the cat wakes up promptly at 5:15 to be let out. Tippy the dog must be forced out for a potty break.

The Meyer lemon tree already looks like it has some cold damage to the top - guess we will have to prune it back pretty hard when this cold is over.

The scheffleras that are between the patio and the house are OK so far; we'll see how they do later. Gotta find all my plant blankets and sheets out in the shed.

Cooler now

First really cool nights - the citrus harvest is about half over. Two of the satsuma trees have been completely harvested. We have one more satsuma, the Louisiana Sweets orange, the calamondin and the kumquat left to go. The Meyer lemon is loaded this year - I like to wait till the fruits turn orange but I might have to get busy making marmalade soon. Many of the fruits are touching or almost touching the ground and need to be harvested.

Too Hot and Boring to Post

Our first cool front came through yesterday - the highs are in the 80's instead of the 90's. We have started picking fruit from the smallest satsuma tree. The fruit is small; each one is a bite or two. The tree has had some damage; we'll probably cut it down after we eat all the satsumas. That will still leave two satsuma trees, one Meyer lemon, a calamondin, kumquat, blood orange, and Louisiana Sweets orange.

We've had plenty of rain lately, and the doughnut peach trees in the front yard have had growth spurts. We still are probably a couple of years away from any fruit on those trees, though.

The yard is full of those Creole peas that we got from our neighbor. They've even colonized my potted schefflera on the patio.

Pepper Jelly This Weekend

Well, the heat index is too high to mow the grass, so that means it's time to make pepper jelly.

We have Tabasco peppers that are small and hard to seed; they make a nice jelly. But - Ray is still in Canada, not here to seed them for me. He wears gloves when he does it, but the oil can go through the gloves.

We also have some Naga Jolokia peppers, which are supposed to be the hottest in the world. I am a little afraid of them. I need to find my HazMat gear (face mask, eye protection goggles, heavy-duty rubber gloves) before I can work with them. I made pepper jelly out of some a few years ago; the jelly was VERY hot and needed to be cut with some cayenne pepper jelly to cool enough to eat. Ray popped a tiny sliver of a fresh one in his mouth; turned pale and started to sweat. He was unable to talk for a few minutes.

The plants are drooping a little now, so I'll water them then see about making jelly a little later.

More Rain

No more mowing happened since Monday, but we got sprinkles of rain, plus the 2-4 inches that fell today.

The grass is luxuriant. I'm going to raise the wheels of the mower, see if I can't get the rest mowed this weekend.

I made some fresh pesto last night. I think pesto is the perfect flavor. I had bowtie pasta and pesto for both supper last night and lunch today. I don't know why everybody doesn't love it like I do. Oh well, more for me.

Triumph Over Grass!

I got the front yard mowed today. Yay! I think Ray has put the wheels 'way too low - the mower is very hard to push. Now I have to do the side and back yards. They have more obstacles so it's slow to get it done.

I harvested some okra today- going to chop and freeze them. There are not really enough to cook yet but the plants are going to town with flowers and new okras since the rain.

It Keeps Growing, and Growing...

The grass was too wet to mow earlier this morning, then the heat index was too high for me later.

I'm hoping tomorrow morning will be the charm.

The yard was fairly static till the rain we've had this week. After the big one on Tuesday early morning, we've had a couple of light rains.

I'm also planning to make pepper jelly tomorrow. Stephanie will have her driving test, and maybe get her license if there's time.

I have harvested a couple of volunteer canteloupes from the garden. They are very ripe and juicy, but not very sweet. We will eat them anyway.

More Rain!

Everybody in this area woke up about 3:30 am when some huge thunderstorms came through. It was loud until dawn. Our area got between 3.5 and 5 inches, and some parts of Acadia Parish got as much as 10 inches.

Lafayette was almost 6 inches below the normal rainfall for June, so this might serve to catch us up a little.

This is the first day in a long time that we don't have to irrigate the fruit trees and other crops.

Now the grass needs to dry so I can mow it.

Finally! Rain!

Lafayette got some rain today; not as much as we need, but it's better than nothing. First day in a long time that we haven't had to spend the evening watering the crops.

Looks like a few of the figs will be ready on the traditional day, July 4. We had a big fig drop during the dry spell, have lots of green ones on the tree. The tomatoes are blooming but not setting fruit because of the hot nights.

The hot peppers are going to town. I need to find my HazMat suit and make pepper jelly.

Can't Believe How Hot It Is Already

We have a high pressure system that's foiling the usual pattern of afternoon rains. We had a massive drop of figs before we realized how dry the fig tree was getting. It's not even the summer solstice yet and we're having heat indices of 100 and higher.

We planted our tomatoes too late; they are growing just fine but tomatoes won't set fruit if the low temperatures are higher than 75 or so. This usually happens in July or August, not the middle of June.

Tippy will only go outside if he is forced to. Jasper is a true heat-loving cat; he likes the air conditioning but doesn't mind stretching out on the patio.

I might have a record-breaking electric bill this month due to the air conditioning running so much.

Better Late Than Never

We were very busy with schoolwork during normal planting season, so we are just getting some things started.

Here is the basil bed.

Here are the tomatoes and Kentucky Wonder beans. They've been in the ground about a week.

Here is the fig tree- looks like I will get several batches of figs to preserve this year. Had one big batch last year.

Voila, the volunteer heirloom field peas that we don't know the name of. We judge planting season by the sprouting of these peas.

Tippy (the dog) and Jasper (the cat) are not big on yard work except if it cools off during the evening. Jasper is a big fan of grass-pulling. The St. Augustine makes long runners, and he likes pouncing on the pile of them that gets pulled out of the flowerbeds.

Here are Ray's naga golokia peppers. A student gave him a few, and he saved the seeds. I made pepper jelly out of the ripe ones; they are hotter than habanero. Almost had to take Ray to the emergency room after he popped a sliver of a raw one into his mouth. Thought it was going to give him heart failure. He turned really pale.

Planting Time

Actually, pretty late in the season. Finally got a few tomato plants in with some Kentucky Wonder beans. The mirliton vine is taking over on the back 40, and the St. Augustine grass taking over the front 40, especially over the citrus fertilizer plant spikes. Hot weather and lots of rain have given us a primo crop of St. Augustine grass. The citrus has set lots of fruit this year, but needs some mineral supplement. The "patte de poule" peas volunteered to come up and are competing nicely with the grass all over the yard.

Hummingbird Heaven

Last Sunday, we visited some friends who live on the banks of the Atchafalaya River. They have a hummingbird population year-round, plus migratory ones.

The ruby-throated hummingbirds were swarming around the three feeders - there were at least 30 of them around.

The host positioned two of us within about a foot from one feeder, and removed the other feeders. In minutes, the hummingbirds were brushing our ears with their wings on the way to the feeder. We were surrounded by the hum of their wings and their chirps and cheeps as they competed for spots at the feeder.

It was awesome.

Smells Good in Our Neighborhood

Well, we have upgraded to 80 degree days now. This means the honeysuckle on the hurricane fence next to the carport perfumes that side of the yard, while the jasmine that's on the opposite side of the house perfumes the back yard. It's right next to my bedroom window which I keep cracked open a few inches to let it perfume the house too.

My tree roses are blooming - the white Iceberg and the pink The Fairy. I pruned them very late so wasn't sure what would happen. I pruned them so strongly that it might take this year for them to regain their shape.

The grass is growing fast - especially in the back yard where we installed fertilizer tree spikes around the fruit trees. There are very tall green tufts where each spike is.

The fig tree is encroaching on one of the satsumas; for several years, it was just a twig but now... it's growing into a giant. I got a full batch of figs for preserving from it last year, we'll see how this year goes.

We have several volunteer squash plants setting fruit like crazy, and Ray spent last weekend working his beds for the okra, beans, and tomatoes.

I spent the whole weekend in front of the computer working on my GIS project.

The citrus that bloomed has set lots of fruit- if we don't have a spring hailstorm we should have a good harvest this year. The calamondin and kumquat have yet to bloom.

The blackberry bramble in the front azalea hedge has set fruit, and some might be getting ripe. Need to send Stephanie out there to see. She might get between 1/2 cup and a cup of ripe blackberries at a time.

Back Home Again

I spent the better part of last week in Baton Rouge at the Remote Sensing and GIS Workshop. It was a lot of fun. Reminded me partly of an anthropology conference, and partly of a computer geek conference. With some natural resources and assorted government people too. I stayed with Greg and Terri in Baton Rouge - they live in a house built in the 1930's of poured concrete. It was right across the lake from the conference - couldn't be more convenient. They went with me to the crawfish boil - Greg knows lots of the people from his work in coastal zone management so it was fun. Greg was Ray's roommate in graduate school at LSU.

Now I have to re-learn how to shop, cook, clean up, go to a job, etc.

Happy Easter!

The Easter bunny came early to our house - Mackenzie, Steph's 8 year old cousin was up at 7 am. There was lots of excitement, Easter presents, candy, sweet rolls, then everybody who was up at 7 am is back down for a morning nap.

Busy Weekends Ahead

We have a busy weekend ahead - get the house ready for Easter company, cook for and attend an annual pig roast/potluck in Livonia, cook for and attend our monthly discussion group meeting.

We are looking forward to seeing the family that always comes to our house for Easter. The husband is planning a big barbeque.

I'm planning to attend a regional GIS conference during most of the week after Easter. The pre-conference workshop looks like it will be a direct help in my class project for this semester.

Looks like the husband's Quebec summer school of three weeks is going to happen in July. Need to make plans to join him for a week if possible.

The daughter's high school bowling team won their local playoffs, will participate in bi-regional tournament next week in Bossier City. We'll see if they go to state. The state tournament will be in Baton Rouge, I think, much more convenient.

First Mowing of 2009

Today I did some mowing. My sinuses were shot anyway so what the heck. We were winning the long grass contest on our street. Most people on this street have lawn services that mow and weed-whack year-round. Not us. My yard man is on his way home from Santa Fe tonight.

I also whacked some of the azaleas so the gas meter is now visible.

I got the troops to clean the live oak leaves and catkins off the driveway, wash down the carport. The troops will come home from the movie with more girls to sleepover, so the enlarged troop can drag my pruned azalea branches to the street for Monday pickup.

I didn't get the whole back yard done; just the part visible from the patio. It's not as long there anyway.

After mowing, I can just sit and smell the perfume from the citrus orchard. Each kind of tree is sweet, and just a little different.

And.. the honeybees are starting to show up after going missing for about two years. Still not as many as I saw in 2005 but it's good to see the ones that are here.

My amaryllis is blooming too. I have three flower shoots with two big flowers each.

Steak Night

I had a perfect spring evening yesterday. The weather cleared, the lemon tree is blooming and filled the yard with perfume. We had some very nice aged ribeye steaks so I sat on the patio with my bottle of Molson and grilled them. The neighborhood was quiet except for the bees in the lemon tree and the birds. The house was quiet because the daughter was napping and the husband wasn't home. The pets kept me company on the patio, supervising the grilling. The steaks were so tender I used a butter knife to cut mine. Mmmm.

Tippy asked for a walk around dark so we took our normal round, smelling the jasmine as we went around the block.