And so it goes: Good dog, and pruning tomatoes

As I said in yesterday’s blog, I did not take anything to the garden to put strawberries in, because I told Cliff to tie me into a chair if I mentioned strawberries.  The berries are few, and mostly small.  And we’ve had plenty of them.  However, as I was hoeing weeds around my sweet potato vines this morning, I happened to look toward the berries, and there was a bright red strawberry calling me.  I immediately took off the stem and stuck it into my mouth, dirt and all.  I’m sure I ended up eating over a cupful, but this time there was no sugar on them, so it was a healthy treat.  Windows were open and I could hear Cliff talking in the house.  I knew it would be with his sister, Charlene, because most Thursdays she calls and talks to him all the way to work.  I found a handful of delicious berries and took them to him.  I was nice enough to give his berries a bath, before putting them in front of him, though.  

Cliff reminded me I haven’t planted any okra yet, so I may get that done today.  I really want to plant a couple short rows of corn soon.  The two hills of corn will suffice for maybe six to eight meals, but I like having some in the freezer.

I’ve talked about how the garden hasn’t really done so well in a lot of places.  A week ago most of the cantaloupe plants looked rather puny, and I wasn’t expecting anything would come of them.  Three days ago I glanced over there and they are vining out in fine style, so maybe I’m in luck.

Gabe is seven years old I think… maybe eight in August.  I don’t want to get up and look at his papers, but it’s somewhere in there.  And he is finally turned into a “good boy”.  I can go the garden now, and if he disappears, he will come running when he hears me.  He seems to try to stay closer to me than he used to.  Also, he seems to have gotten over his gland problem that made him smell bad so often.  Knock on wood!  I haven’t had to give him a bath in almost a month.

I have never pruned indeterminate tomatoes back when I had those varieties, but I thought it would be fun to get two indeterminate plants, Big Boy and Better Boy, and try pruning them.  There’s no wire around them; we tie the plants to a metal post as they grow.  Actually, Cliff does the tying because I make a mess of it.  Here’s the Big Boy; it will be tied again today, a foot higher.  I am managing the pruning part of it.  My husband’s only part in it is the tying.

The Better Boy is right beside it, partly in the picture.  I haven’t tried to raise Big Boy tomatoes for at least thirty years because it started having blight so early that the plant was dead before I could eat a tomato from it.  In the sixties through the seventies  I had never heard of or seen blight on tomatoes.  Then came 1980, and I’ve had it ever since.  So far, so good, this year.

I’m anxious to see how this works out.  

  

Happenings

I picked my first strawberries this year on May 9. Since then, not a day has gone by without picking strawberries. I had occasion to share a lot of the strawberries I picked with friends and relatives, but I think I'm done. Most of the strawberries are tiny, although this morning I picked at least two quarts. I told Cliff that if I say I'm going to pick more tomorrow, he is to tie me up to a chair and not let me out of the house. I think this is the longest strawberry season I've ever had. As of today, we've had strawberries on our cereal every morning for over three weeks.

 Cora, the girl we used to babysit for her first five years, will visit us one day every other week while school is out. She was here yesterday and wanted to pick berries, so we went out and did that, then took them to her grandma in town, because we didn't need them. She also helped me shell peas.

We’ve seen several good movies on Netflix lately:  The Judge, with Robert Duvall and Robert Downy.  Worth (What is life worth) is a mostly true story starring Michael Keaton.  It’s about the problems people had with the victims’ compensation fund after 9/11.  And last evening we watched the first  episode of “The Bomb and the Cold War”.  It was scary and sad.  We’ll probably watch the next episode tonight.

Cliff and I have been watching Bill Maher on Max, too.  He’s a comic who has a foul mouth, but he is my favorite person to listen to when it comes to political things.  It’s easy for me to put up with someone who talks about the failings of both parties.  But here’s a thing that surprised me the other day.  I was playing around on Facebook and looked to find him (he is there, of course), and found two old Facebook memories, things I had said about Maher in 2012.  I barely recall knowing who he was back then.  Anyhow, at that time I was griping about him being a know-it-all, a smug person… wish I had saved what I found in that memory, because I can’t find it again.  But I do understand why I’ve changed my mind about him: Neither the Republicans OR the Democrats are what they used to be, and it seems the biggest changes have come since 2012.  He's talked about how everyone is so easily offended these days, and it's true: I can't say anything without wondering if someone is going to correct me for it.  Can't you just have your opinion, and let me have mine?     

                   

I have Bill Maher's new book on hold at the library. He has the same trouble understanding the same things that the rest of us dummies have difficulty with in this upside-down world, so I will listen to him... a comedian.  That's what it has come to at our house.  The world is now a circus.

That's why I spend so much time outside and in the garden. where everything makes sense, good or bad.