Some days you work really hard all day and then realize that you were actually further ahead before you started…and you spend the next hour undoing what you spent all that time doing.

Argh.

I picked the first two cucumbers–squat, short little beasts, but VERY tasty! BMHusband makes fun of me because it takes about a week for me to “gather” the salad. I pick one or two grape tomatoes every morning. I keep telling him that any day now we’ll be under a pile of them. When I gave him two ripe blueberries, he thought they were great. After eating them he said, “Boy, am I full.” EYE ROLL.

The larger tomatoes aren’t turning yet. But I have plans for them…slices of brie and slices of tomatoes!!! Yum. The Chica III–a new variety this year, is still about two inches high. This is after planting probably twelve plants. Unless something drastic happens, I’m thinking this variety is not going to do well for me…the Mama Mia is doing well. There are several tomatoes on the plant. The bugs seems to like it, and Mama doesn’t love the heat, but there’s hope yet!

As always, the Juliet is the best producer, the Celebrity steady and the Big Boy…I nearly pulled it up, but I finally saw one tomato on it. The plant is a tree, but with only one tomato, I fail to be impressed. Maybe it will taste delicious enough to change my mind, but when I have to be out there weekly spraying neem oil on every plant, those one-tomato-plants are a liability. The neem oil, btw, is working very well this year. Starting early and often seems to have pushed back the worst of the infestations. Very low appearance of aphids at this point and while I still see spider mites, the neem is definitely holding the population down compared to years past.

I need to go to the grocery and buy that brie. I just *know* that sometime this week the celebrity tomatoes are going to turn red!

…or how to take a house that has some hot water and reduce it to cold water only in 24 hours or less…

For years mom has endured kitchen tap water that takes anywhere from three to five minutes to get hot. She got wind of those little electric instant hot water heaters a while back. Last week, she finally decided she couldn’t live without one…uh-oh. Sure, I was the good daughter and found a deal, ordered it off the internet and had it delivered to the doorstep. Let’s hope they forget my part in this disaster sometime soon.

First off, let’s remember my parents live waaay out in the boonies. This meant that to get the connectors and various parts they needed, they had to drive about 35 miles into town–a couple of times because yes, dad sent mom and mom doesn’t really know a faucet part from a garden hose. That was bad enough, but it got worse when dad actually began the installation. See, dad really didn’t pay attention to this gadget that mom wanted, he just wanted it installed and over with. He glanced at the instructions; easy enough: Cold water inlet, hot water outlet…yeah. The only trouble with those instructions is that they meant: take the hot water line THAT DOESN’T GET WARM FAST as the inlet, not the COLD WATER LINE as the inlet.

By the time he was done trying to figure it out, he had both the hot and the cold running through the thing…

Several phone calls and a lot of yelling, we got it hooked up correctly. Only…the thing won’t turn on. Power? Check? Light? NOPE. ARGH. Thing doesn’t seem to work. So I tell mom to let it just sit and maybe it will heat the water, but the light isn’t working. It’s Saturday so there’s no point in calling the company until Monday.

“Just leave it alone for a couple of hours. Don’t run the water. Then in two hours, check the temperature of the water coming out the tap. Maybe it is heating, but the light doesn’t come on.”

Mom said, “I have to run the dishwasher. It’s ready to go.”

“How about you wait a couple of hours–just let the thing sit and then check the faucet in two hours and see if the water is hot.”

Never assume silence is agreement.

I finally call back 3 hours later when I hear no results. Oh. My. God. Have. Mercy.

Mom didn’t listen. She ran the dishwasher. Only…dad had assumed we were going to uninstall the water heater to send it back. So he had some hoses disconnected. Oh, My. Yes. Water all over hell.

Did anyone stick around to watch the dishwasher run??? Of course not. It’s an automatic device…

While the dishwasher was quietly pushing water all over the kitchen floor, older brother who is staying there, decided to wash his clothes. Older brother isn’t one for details. He wanted to wash clothes in hot, so he turned all the settings to hot and let’er rip. Two, maybe three loads worth.

Mom would like to get ready for church. Which used to mean taking a hot shower. Only…all the hot water was used to wash someone’s clothes. Another someone needs a shower also because he was in the kitchen mopping up water and connecting hose lines that he didn’t know anyone planned on using.

Oh. My. If I lived there, I’d be leaving home–in a hurry.

But I’ve been BUSY!

The good news is that the cover poll for the brand new Sedona novel–Executive Retention–will go live on June 3rd, assuming all goes well. Executive Retention is what has been keeping me busy as I make final changes to the manuscript and also work on the cover art. Not to worry, I have the mock-ups of the cover ready for y’all to tear into. I *may* make the manuscript available at Smashwords — exclusively — while the cover poll is happening. It depends. Making an “early” version available went well with Tracking Magic, but it’s only feasible via Smashwords because the updates to the cover are quick. I can’t do quick updates on Amazon–and I have to offer some sort of cover!!!

So…for reviewers…and early fans…maybe. We’ll see.

On other news, I made the mistake of gardening this morning. Boy, was it humid. I was dripping wet in ten minutes of pulling out bean plants (bean season is so over…so sad…) and killing all the grubs that were eating at the roots. I don’t know where all those nasty grubs came from–perhaps stealing bins of raked leaves from the neighbors to use as mulch wasn’t my best idea…or was it the shredded oak branches? Sometimes being “organic” means “More Work Done the Hard Way.”

I also had to finish emptying rain barrel number one. I have half of the other barrel to go. They won’t get great cleanings–it’s too dang hot.

More to do–more to come!

Picked the first red tomato this morning!! Okay, it’s a grape tomato, so we’re going to be having one very small salad…but still. I’m expecting and hoping that now that one has turned the others will be following in huge numbers.

And in other news: Junior had to go to the vet yesterday. Hmm. Junior is bigger and stronger than he was the last time we tried the trick of stuffing him in his carrier. He was a lot madder about it as well–and he is still not letting BMHusband very close to him even though it’s been a whole day. I’ve been forgiven apparently–so long as I am only petting him outside where there is plenty of escape room. Poor Junior. He feels so betrayed. Little does he know that it was for his own good. He has a sore paw and had been limping for a couple of weeks on and off. The antibiotics were helping the sore on his paw, but not really pushing him into the “fixed” category. The vet gave him a shot. Don’t tell the vet that we did not put the collar on Junior as we were told. I know that Junior licking the paw isn’t good for it, but Junior really doesn’t bother the foot much. With a collar on, Junior would have to be inside all the time and the poor little cat is already mad at us. We’ll save the collar for those times when he *really* needs it.

In this warm weather, he spends most of the day outside sleeping in his box. When he is up and about there are many things to chase and see–he doesn’t have time to bother with the foot!!!

I’m not having much luck hand pollinating the cucumbers. Looks to me like there just isn’t much pollen in the buds. I bought some turkey manure compost to dress the soil a bit. It’s better than fertilizer and lasts longer. Should help with just about anything that ails a plant. Tomorrow evening it will be time for more neem oil. We really, really could use some rain.

Junior and Scamp are doing pretty well considering we’re already hitting 90 degrees and up on a regular basis. They play early–from about 5 a.m. to 8 or so. Scamp has finally gotten more friendly–that is to say she doesn’t immediately Scamper off if we move in her direction. She’s gotten very attached to treat time. She waits much more patiently than Junior. Whenever she believes it to be treat time, she parks right next to the kitchen, as seen in the picture. Turns out she parks there rather more frequently than treat is actually handed out.

Junior, on the other hand, follows right next to our feet making it hard not to trip over him during treat preparation. Of course, that is his plan. If we trip, there goes the bowl full of pureed chicken and chicken livers–right into his waiting paws!

The world needs more bees. Last year they were late to join the party in my garden and this year it appears they will be even later. I know there is a big investigation going on over the drop in the bee population. All I can say is there does appear to be a problem. I thought I might wait to hand pollinate the cucumbers because I have seen a bee or three in the garden, but they just don’t stick around. Maybe they don’t like the smell of the neem oil. Maybe it’s too windy.

Either way, I started to try hand pollinating the cucumbers this morning. I’m guessing it’ll be me trying with the watermelons too, although the plants are so puny I am not even sure they will make it this year.

Still waiting on the tomatoes. They are wonderful looking…just green.

Why does the oregano have to be ready when I’m deep in the middle of edits??? I remember my mother complaining about peaches. They never seemed to ripen when she had time for canning, making jelly or pies. I know how she felt (probably still feels that way although they only have two trees these days).

It’s getting in the nineties and I need to be working on some kind of shade cover to keep the worst of the sun off the tomatoes in the afternoon. The bean plants need to be pulled out because they are nothing more than a home for spider mites at this point. I have plenty of tasks to do in the one hour each morning that I spend gardening.

I really didn’t want to interrupt my day to harvest the oregano, clean it and pick every little leaf off to put in the dehydrator…but I did manage to do a batch. One batch is 6 trays; I did five. Five *might* fill one jar if I am lucky. Truthfully, there is enough oregano out there I could do six or seven batches and give the stuff away, but that isn’t going to happen. I’d be harvesting and dehyrating for hours, possibly days. Sigh. Maybe next year. Wait…didn’t I say that last year????

We’ve lived here for nearly 9 years. Or maybe it’s 9 years and counting. Either way, for the entire 9 years, we have walked at least once a day for exercise, rain or shine. We miss very few days circling our neighborhood, an approximate two mile loop. Little did we know that a preserve area had been set aside because of some caves, an area consisting of trails rather than houses and sidewalks. We actually walk around a short section of this, a little park that is on part of our walk. We even knew there were caves there because the tree and wild area has some fenced spots to keep children (and adults who should know better) from falling into the caves. The caves are basically sinks and/or holes in the ground.

During a recent “cave day” here, we obtained maps of an area that we passed by every day. It looks like a very large drainage ditch area because that is what it is right near the sidewalk. We’ve even walked back there a time or two, but at the time, construction of a nearby neighborhood was ongoing so we figured there was nothing back there but more houses. In the opposite direction, around a bend of trees however…the area has been left alone because of the caves and a primitive, endangered cave beetle.

We’ve started exploring the area and it’s great fun. It really isn’t very big, but the trails wind around enough that it’s possible to walk almost a half mile one way and a half mile back through wiggling, turn-back trails. We’ve found all seven of the “caves” in the area. We’re working on plotting them with the GPS. There’s a larger area that recently opened to the public across another drainage area. We have gone over there once so far, but the tree coverage isn’t as good, so walking there is much better on cool days (we’re running short of those right now.)

The picture above is a neat, very old tree near one of the caves in the preserve where we have been walking. Even though huge limbs have fallen on the outside and are dead, there are still live parts to it. The other picture is a shot from one of the caves that is open to explore on cave day. The cave entrance is a hole in a ground. We climbed down a ladder and steep set of concrete stairs. There’s a bridge mesh to stand on. It’s not deep or long, but was worth the trip to check things out.

You’ll be seeing more shots from our wanderings as time progresses. The picture of the red flower a few days ago was taken at the edge of the woods.

I tell you what, spider mites are the bane of my garden. Last year, they got ahead of me. This year, I was determined. I started spraying neem oil, the only organic solutions that I’ve found to work at all, before I even saw the beasts. Still, every three to four days, they are on the bean plants and occasionally on the tomatoes. They will stay mostly on the bean plants until I get rid of them; beans are their favorite, I think. I didn’t realize they infested clover until this year. I had to pull up all the clover–a ground cover that helps the soil.

The neem oil works, but its use requires constant vigilance and spraying about every 3 to 4 days. Thus far the spider mites haven’t gotten completely out of hand, but it’s the first day of May. I read that one spider mite can produce 600 offspring. SIX HUNDRED. How am I supposed to keep up with that? If I miss even one…

So on cool days, I spray neem oil. I’m running out of cool days…

Last year I tried to use soap and water on the cucumbers to kill the aphids. The aphids laughed. Sure, soapy water kills on contact, but they seemed to wait until after I sprayed to come out in ever larger numbers. I don’t like using the neem around the cucs and watermelon because the bees don’t like the smell (or something.) But this year, the cucs are going to be neemed. Actually last year I finally gave up (too late really) and started using the neem oil. It’s a mad dance, this gardening.

We didn’t get a bumper crop of snap and snow peas. Barely enough for us to eat a few times a week. The neighbors had to suffer this year (and believe me, they do ask.) Two pea plants have already died and a third is following. No idea why. The spider mites haven’t gotten out of control, but it could be early damage from the late freezes. Or some other whim of nature laughing up her sleeve.

This won’t be the year of the onion either. The plants looked poor in the store so I ordered online. They looked just as bad. I might get a few, but they will mostly be green onions. Very small bulbs on what should be giant onions. Oh well, that’s the way it goes.

The best for last: I have several tomatoes out there! None ripe yet, but a decent amount on the plants. The Juliet (a grape variety) has two clusters ready to ripen. I check every day. Sometimes twice. Or even three times if I’m feeling particularly hungry.

Onward!!!