Leathernecks

I watered my garden today, and saw a bunch of lettuce and arugula starting to pop up. I'm so proud of the little guys lol. Pulled up a bean seed and it was starting to grow too. Hopefully pops up in a couple days.

Hopefully the pelican that ate it didn't mind. I didn't trust that fish haha.

Here's my garden progress. Plants aren't as big as I usually like them, but I don't think it will make much difference in the long run. Everything in there was started from seed except a few peppers, one tomato, one tomatillo, and the onions.

I took a trip to the Mississippi coast a couple years ago and caught this thing. I thought it was going to fly away.

I also had oregano come up from last year's plant that went to seed. It was a huge bunch of oregano, so I cut it off and I'm going to try drying it.

We finally got dry enough that I could get my garden planted. Still kind of clumpy when I tilled it today, but we had a chance of rain so I had to get them in. My tomatoes are looking rough from the inside and outside of hardening them off for about a month, but they're starting to come out of it. I was too tired to think about taking a picture, but I will take one tomorrow. I got a ton of things planted. If you picked a random vegetable from a list, there's a good chance I planted it haha.

I'm not a coffee drinker, but I looking into getting something to be able to make coffee if I ever need to. I came across the Aeropress. Seemed like an interesting concept.

I grew up surrounded by woods, so I have always loved to camp. Same with fishing, but I never got into hunting. I've taken close to 10 trips to the Quetico with my dad to go camping and fishing. Such a gorgeous place with some amazing fishing.

I do an experiment in my chemistry classes where I have them bring in their favorite drink besides water and we go over how much sugar is in each drink. I have a few bags of sugar, and make the kids weigh out how much sugar is in their drink. In a 12 oz can of Pepsi, there are 39 grams. If you've never seen how much sugar it takes to get 39 grams, try it sometime. A 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew has over 1/2 pound of sugar in it. It's fascinating/scary how much sugar is actually in drinks. I also gave up pop about 6 years ago. I didn't really lose any weight, but I feel so much healthier since I did it. It would be interesting if there is any connection between sugar and severity of Covid-19. Some people consume insane amounts of sugar.

Oh no! Hopefully most of them are still standing and can pull through. I haven't heard how much we got, but it rained all day, and there is water everywhere around here. I would guess we were in the 3 inch range too. Fields already had standing water before yesterday, so it is really soggy around here.

I'm mostly worried about heavy rain, strong winds, or hail. My soil drains pretty well. They could probably take the moisture, but I don't want them to get all beat up. I thought about planting some things from seed like lettuce, but I just didn't get to it yesterday.

Anybody get anything in the ground yet? I'm right in the middle of storms coming this way. Expecting 2-2.5 inches of rain the next few days with a chance of severe storms, so I'll probably be another week before it is dry enough to plant. I'm really itching to get everything planted.

I've been lucky and haven't had any noticeable issues with insects/animals getting to my plants. The only issue I had was last year with the really wet spring, my tomatoes got end rot. I've already got a bag of eggshells ready to put under them when I plant them this year to keep that from happening. Mixed up a vinegar/eggshell solution last year that took care of it.

Glad I kept a body in my basement for a rainy day!

I hope my dog doesn't tear up my garden?

That's either 1 hour or 3 hours away depending on which part of Chicagoland and the traffic! Rates for most things involving dogs is high. People will pay more to train their dogs than they will to train their kids.

Can I hire her to come to Illinois and train my dog all summer? Fair warning, I don't pay well lol.

Haha. Yeah, it will definitely be an experience. I have wanted a husky for about 10 years, so I know all about their crazy energy. The timing just hasn't been right until now. We'll see if I'm actually ready for it though! I'm planning on trying crate training. One of my parent's dogs hated it. She would never stop crying, but she's a weirdo lol. Won't do more than a couple stairs, likes to pee when excited and she pees in puddles and their lake. Maybe she's not a good example of crate training! The nice thing is that I'm home until at least August, so I'll have a lot of time to work on things.

I'm trying to puppy proof the main floor today. That way the inevitable accidents will be on vinyl flooring that are easy to clean, and there isn't much that can be torn up. I was thinking of trying to dry some of the cayenne and grind it to make my own cayenne powder. I'll have to look into the hot sauce idea! Sounds fun.

I was thinking of planting today, but we've got an 80% chance of thunderstorms 3 of the next 4 days. Don't want to take a chance with heavy rain and winds.

Do you preserve the peppers in any way? Im going to have a big garden, so I'm sure I won't be able to eat all of them when they're ready. I'm getting a husky, so I'm trying to get emotionally ready for crazy! I worry about punishing too. How can I say no to this lol

Do you just eat them straight off the plant? I think I have jalapenos, red/green bell peppers, banana peppers, pepperoncini, and cayenne peppers. Should be an interesting summer if I can ever get things planted. I'm also getting a puppy Sunday, so my spring will have been much more relaxed than my summer!

I was at a garden center a week ago, and you inspired me to get a couple plants. I think I'm up to 4 or 5 different kinds of peppers now.

My little town of 1400 is up to 9 confirmed cases. A pork processing plant about 30 minutes from here had a big outbreak, and I think a lot of our cases were people who worked there.

I watch Forensic Files lol