There's Always The Weather

[Arab Nights (imported)]

Monsoon is officially here. Cloudy skies have dropped temps 1015 degrees to 89-90 or so. We were talking with friends who kayak the lakes on the Colorado Plateau. They have not gone because the lakes are so low / dry. A monsoon season that really cranks can make Arizona as green as Kentucky and fill those lakes, but it surprised me that it doesn't seem to affect Lake Mead much. Guess we really need that winter precip.

[Paolo]

It's thunderstorm season here, in fact, it's running a bit late. It's been one line of storms after another. Given our local co-op's wonderful service, the power goes out every time a frog farts down at the pond by the woods. Problem is dead trees falling. They won't cut them, even if you report a problem tree, the reply is "Call us when it falls." Well, you can't call them now; all you get is a "high call volume" voice message.

Moi will be pleased to know that I had such a haul of golden raspberries that I left the rest for the birds. Persnickety plants, too. Hard to start from seed, and digging up the young plants usually results in death. I've been doing the permaculture thing on this patch for about 10 years now, and they're still not spreading well.

I might even have a cucumber and a couple of peppers by the 4th of July if this keeps up.

[Valery_V (imported)]

It's thunderstorm season here, in fact, it's running a bit late. It's been one line of storms after another. Given our local co-op's wonderful service, the power goes out every time a frog farts down at the pond by the woods. Problem is dead trees falling. They won't cut them, even if you report a problem tree, the reply is "Call us when it falls." Well, you can't call them now; all you get is a "high call volume" voice message.

Moi will be pleased to know that I had such a haul of golden raspberries that I left the rest for the birds. Persnickety plants, too. Hard to start from seed, and digging up the young plants usually results in death. I've been doing the permaculture thing on this patch for about 10 years now, and they're still not spreading well.

I might even have a cucumber and a couple of peppers by the 4th of July if this keeps up.

We say frogs "croaks", and You said that they "farts". But, of course, they really farts (they already squat on their paws when they make these sounds), this is more accurately said!

Cucumbers and peppers have risen in price today ...

[Valery_V (imported)]

We say frogs "croaks", and You said that they "farts". But, of course, they really farts (they already squat on their paws when they make these sounds), this is more accurately said!

Cucumbers and peppers have risen in price today ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC4NGM8XDg8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

oMFxQsaT274

[moi621 (imported)]

A few degrees warmer but humidity about 80%

That is high for the desert by the sea.

Sunset remains after 8 PM :-\

I like shorter daylight and black - black nights

Last night I got up around 3AM and the western horizon

was gray, not black.

@Paolo

Boysenberries about finished

Raspberries never took although plants thrive

One has made about a dozen very dark ones.

Green, Peter's Honey Figs plentiful but just refuse

to ripen. No pecans. Poor apricot year.

A new n'hood cat, a Russian Blue visits daily.

Has an ID tag and I said hello to its' human.

I feed it about 1/3 its' needs.

Seems smart and knows where escapes are.

Started small and grew long legs.

Coyote habitat cut down so hopefully we will

again have free range cats.

Moi

[Paolo]

My raspberries are the local wild variety. I cull the plants that don't make good berries, but the ones that do, I let them run amok. I also have a patch of golden ones, which look like salmon berries. I've been tending them for about 10 years, trying to get them to spread. Found them wild when I was a kid, but that patch is gone now. They tend to be very persnickety about being moved, or starting from seed, unlike the black ones.

My peach orchard took heavy damage from an end of May light frost, shed about half the crop that had set on, then the 17 year cicadas hit and cut the trees to bits. I lost a lot of young ones, too. 6-8' trees cut over to about 2' now. The feral apple trees didn't set well, as this wasn't their year. They fruit every other year.

My peppers aren't doing too well, except for the ones I bought that I put in 2 gallon orchard pots. The other ones I grew from seed, the marigolds overran them! I am going to have some very tall marigolds!

The beans aren't blooming yet, the cucumbers are a disappointment, and I'm not sure I'll get any good tomatoes. This year, it's been one monsoon and flood after another here. Most of younger plants were beaten down into the mud so many times that they died.

[Arab Nights (imported)]

I have a friend who years ago decided he was going to be self sufficient and raise a lot of stuff. So he cleared off a garden space, seeded and watered and got nothing after year 1. The ag advice was the poor soil needed fertilizer, so he bought a load or two of bullshit and worked it in. Bought more seeds, watered and things looked great and then the Mormon crickets showed up. Year 2 he ended up with a few barren stalks sticking out of the ground. He bought more seed and planted in the spring, had a great looking garden and the Mormon crickets showed up again. So Year 3 he ended up again with a few barren stalks sticking out. I think at that point he got a loyalty card at the local market.

[Paolo]

It used to be a big deal, when I was a kid, to go out and hunt tomato worms each morning. I haven't had that problem in years. Also, the yellow-orange bean beetles. Haven't seen those in years.

It's been a very wet year here, after a cold spring. We had light frost the last day of May. So far, the only things I'm harvesting are a few Japanese cucumbers and some Santa Fe Grande (Havasu) peppers from plants I bought. Everything else is just a stunted failure. I don't really count the taro crop, but I'm sure Jesus A. would be delighted with it. I had a few bulbs, and apparently, they shed some corms into the tub I kept them in over the winter. I dumped the dirt, and now have an unexpected taro patch!

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

It used to be a big deal, when I was a kid, to go out and hunt tomato worms each morning..... I dumped the dirt, and now have an unexpected taro patch!

Some time ago, I read a "damn interesting" article on the "Damn Interesting" website, (they really do have some DAMN Interesting stories there). When you mentioned the taro patch, I was not sure, but maybe you will find this story, "The Curse Of Konzo" to be.... damn interesting. Taro is NOT the same as cassava, and this might not be at all relevant to you, but taro is similar to cassava and I am sure that anyone who reads this will find it..... damn interesting.

https://www.damninteresting.com/the-curse-of-konzo/

I thought is was positively amazing that the cyanide (I think it was a "hydrogen-cyanide" poison) seemed precisely targeted to the victim's legs. Also amazing was that intelligent and educated scientific researchers were stumped at finding the cause of the paralysis problem "konzo", until they heard an old man talking about "not enough rain this season.... wash the poison out...." Seems that sometimes the UN-educated people just know what they know because they are observant and remember things, the scientific researchers were studying what they could observe in the present, the old guy had so many years of seeing this "konzo" problem that he remembered what years it happened more often and the years it did not happen so much.

Good luck with the taro patch, and do please keep it well watered, just in case there are enough similarities to cassava.

[Mac (imported)]

Strange weather this spring & summer. Warm then cold then warm then cold; drought then wet, etc.