|
My Photographs You like photos? I love taking them. Click here, if you wanna see some of my work
Is a photo missing on an older entry? Click here to find it at Photogra!  The Other Links Favorites and Rings are now here!
The life you save might be mine!
|
Tuesday, Jul. 02, 2002 - 7:32 p.m. Remember last week, when I was complaining about the return of the Japanese beetles? I now have another reason to hate these gluttonous insects. They seem to really enjoy eating black raspberries. Not the leaves, mind you. Just the ripe fruit. That I drove 15 miles to pick. From the last wild patch that I know of around here. The raspberries have been slowly loosing the territory they previously held domain over to the vineweed that seems to be taking over our county (does Kudzu grow this far north?). Now, they have fallen prey to the �Beetles from Hell�. How much damaged have they done to my little wild patch of berries? Last summer, when we had also gone through a dry spell just before picking time, I managed to bring home about 7 cups of these sweet treats. The berries ripened a few weeks earlier that year, which might have spared them from the attack. But this year they ripened late, and the beetles had already hatched. I came home with a total of 2 puny cups of partially damaged fruit. Almost every cluster of berries had at least one bug chowing down on them. I could have fought the heat and mosquitoes for hours and not managed 7 cups of fruit this year. Since it was 96� again, and I was running about a half-pint low on blood from the �skeeters, I gave up. The next question was what to do with this small amount of fruit? What would give me the best bang for the buck? Homemade ice cream. I had picked up a carton of half&half at the store recently, hoping to find some ripe strawberries or peaches to make some low-cal frozen desert. I didn�t expect the black raspberries to fill the bill, but the amount I picked was just the right measurement for my 2-quart machine. Now, the hard part: I have to wait for it to set up in the freezer. It was fully processed in the ice cream machine in about 45 minutes. You can eat it then, but it is much better if you give it at least a few hours in the deep freeze. I might not make it that long��. The next harvest that these invaders might damage is for the wild blackberries. The plants are covered with large fruit this summer, due to all the rain we had earlier this spring. They shouldn�t become ripe for at least another 14-21 days. Maybe the beetles will be done with their annual �eat-and-screw� party by then�. I had to drag the hose out again at work today. The ground has dried back up again, even though I watered the garden there thoroughly last Friday. It doesn�t take long for the ground to start cracking when the high temperatures are in the mid-90�s every day. Last summer, we had a total of 8 days with highs over 90�. We have had that many in the last 10 days. And it�s only the first week of July. The 7-day forecast is for more of the same, with only a minor chance for rain on the 4th. The last measurable rain we had was 3/10th of an inch of rain last Wednesday. The last real (1/2� or more) rain was almost 3 weeks ago. After all the rain we had this spring, you wouldn�t think that things could be so dry this quickly. Looks like I might be running the sprinkler a lot more if I want to have anything from the garden this year�. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: I picked about 10 ripe cherry tomatoes from the three plants I put inside the Wall�o�waters last April. They came a little earlier last spring. We had such cool, wet weather early this year I knew they would be behind this year. Bu a handful of real tomatoes before the 4th of July still makes me happy���..
 powered by SignMyGuestbook.com
Have You Read These?
A hot day for a wedding...9:26 p.m. - Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 So bad - but so funny, too.10:33 p.m. - Saturday, Jun. 13, 2009 Evil Black Walnut Tree from Hell!- times up!6:41 a.m. - Thursday, Apr. 23, 2009 My next door neighbor was on the Today Show?8:57 p.m. - Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 This qualifies as a "oh crap!" moment:9:55 p.m. - Monday, Mar. 30, 2009 Back to top
|
