aaron and i have been a bit delinquent in the journal this week. so our work in the garden consisted finally of a massive harvest. we gathered a lot of peas and beans for seed as well, which was good. we also gathered some wildflower seed, including coreopsis, blanketflower, and some others
we also made salsa.
it included onion, 4 cloves garlic, tomatoes, 3 jalpenos, banana peppers, cilantro, and lime juice, salt. the lime juice, garlic, and onion came from krogers. the rest came from our garden. we pureed the garlic, jalapeno, lime juice, 1/3 of an onion, and a bunch of tomatoes. we chopped a bunch of tomatoes, 2/3 of an onion, and added salt, and mixed it together. viola, no cooking. it made five 18 ounce containers. the next time we make the salsa, i want to try roasting the garlic and the jalapenos in the oven before pureeing. also, a few less pureed tomatoes, a few more chopped.

I updated the links page a bit, now with links being under broad categories. We can flesh it out as we go, but the bones are there.

Yeah, I wondered what happened to Jim on Saturday! This weekend would probably be the best to shoot for the mower thing. It'll still be a little cooler than it's been, and it'll be one less thing to think about the weekend after, when we have the student picnic and will be too concerned about cleaning up and making everything look nice.

Wildlife. The latest sighting for me: late last week I came in early and noticed through the kitchen window a deer grazing in the herb patch. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a family--a doe and two fawns--absolutely beautiful. I grabbed my camera and snuck around the side of the house to get a picture. Even at 60 feet away and with a cheapo camera that doesn't make a very satisfying "click" sound, the deer heard me and they bolted into the woods. Maybe we should make a list here of all the wildlife we've seen (actually in one of the gardens, not in the woods or elsewhere). We can always update the list later:

deer -- (numerous, most recently a family of 3)
rabbits -- (numerous)
black king snakes -- (2)
woodchucks -- (1)
ducks/geese -- (in flocks, but infrequent)
cats -- (1, black and white with white mittens, to good home if you can catch the little bugger)
box turtles -- (1, though we found a baby one next to the garden last year and put him in the lake)
field mice -- (numerous)
toads -- (a couple each year, usu. under piles of straw or in the hostas)
raccoons -- (unknown, but evidence of them abounds, and I've seen one)

Any others, Jim?

We should definitely get together as much as possible this week; the temps are supposed to drop into the low 80s for much of the week, which means we need to work while we can!

so i just got back from turning off the water. add one more wildlife sighting: a box turtle, munching hapily on a roma tomato. i just left it there, knowing that turtles eat a serving of food about the size of their head per day (why do i know this? an ex-girlfriend kept turtles). I wonder when aaron is going to mention the wildlife he saw?

it is so hot out there! 98 today, heat advisory, blah blah blah. it starts to depress me.
so i thought i was going to do a harvest with aaron on saturday morning, and it didn't happen because i didn't get up until 1pm and then decided to go for an afternoon drive instead. whoops!
i got to the garden this evening, and started watering at 7pm. I'll shut it off at 8:45, giving almost a2 hours worth of irrigation. its the coolest part of the day. in an ideal garden, it would be drip irrigated with an auotmatic timer, and we'd be doing it at night. but we have quite limited funds, and i don't mind the inconvenience that much of having to go up once a week to turn it on and off for a couple of hours. yes, sprinklers aren't terribly efficient, but the alternative at this point is having the plants succumb to drought.
the need for a harvest is overwhelming. at this point, i looks like were going to be collecting a lot of peas and beans for seed. which is quite ok, it means we wont have to buy any next planting season. my plan is to bring on down alot of envelopes (which i have), and thus label and save. our harvest must include the seed heads of the plants we plan on keeping in the butterfly garden.
i emptied out the compost bin onto the tarp and started a new batch. the bin has plenty of room (about 2/3) still before we must "close" it.
i measured the tallest sunflower. 8 foot, six inches. definitely our biggest ever.
the weeds are overwhelming to, especially in the open patch next to the butterfly garden, and in the andy miller class side . wendy has given us permission to use her lawn mower when we need it. at this point the best time to use it will be on the 10th or 11th or 17th or 18th, at least, that's the only times i can grab it.
we ought to prioritize the work that needs to be done in the garden, keeping focus on our goals-- i think the veg gardens should be getting the most attention (which is probably why i only bother watering the other patches every other week).