Veggie Update

The vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, zucchini) are looking great. In the two-ish weeks since I planted them I think they've doubled in size. Especially doing well seem to be the Brandywine Heirloom Tomato and the German Johnson Heirloom Tomato. The zucchini is also growing like nuts. Also, the banana pepper plant has a couple of blooms on it. I may have to get some tomato cages much faster than I thought.

The herbs are also doing great. One of the sage plants is blooming and most have grown significantly. I plucked some of the cilantro for a fish dish I made for the family tonight and I plucked a piece of rosemary for Kiah to rub in her hands (she loves the smell).

On a more somber note, the cucumbers plants don't look so good. Two of them look like they aren't gonna make it but all of them just look sad. The leaves have lost color and kinda felt crispy to the touch. Maybe I'm simply not watering enough or maybe it got a little chilly for them one night (got down to 40-ish for one night). I'll keep an eye on them.

April Fool's!

It's that time of year again when my wife and kids pull pranks on the rest of us. Kiah got Austin by claiming a cockroach was climbing up his back. Charlene got Asa to wake up more quickly by telling her that it was snowing outside. Charlene also put me off guard by saying she wasn't feeling well and then zinged me with a story. And then, finally, Charlene put mint chocolate cookie pieces into Kiah's sandwich for lunch. Mean, mean, mean, and mean!!!

But the worst April Fool's joke of all was the poison ivy striking back at me. I discovered poison ivy vines in a flower bed I was attempting to reclaim. The source of the vines all came to a point at the base of a huge pine tree that had the vine climbing into the clouds. The root of the vine was as big around as my wrist and I got a ton of it out of the ground, out of the bed, and off the tree. I carefully tried not to touch any part of it and used leather gloves the entire time. I have also scrubbed with poison ivy soap in the shower every night as a preventative matter. Perhaps that helped because while I have mild to medium blisters on both legs and arms it might have been much worse after reading what digging up roots can do to a person. It might have also helped if I had the Tecnu soap I think does the best. Instead, I picked up some CVS poison ivy soap which may not be as good. Again, perhaps the soap prevented a 4 alarm reaction or maybe Tecnu is just better.