Reverting to the mean


garden in June
The garden and the grapes are doing well.

We’re about to wrap up June and over the month we’ve actually gotten more rain (4.75 inches) than we did last month (4 inches).  Of course, last month was dry as a bone until a few days before Memorial Day, and the rain was more spread out this month.  Regardless, we’ve gotten a lot of rain in the last 40 days and nights and while we are grateful, it does create a new set of problems.  The weeds are on the march and I’ve already mowed the place twice, I hope to go over it a third time in the coming week,  Oh, and there is rain in the forecast about mid-week.  So if anyone tells you old Keet aint got nuthin’ to do, tell them they don’t know what they’re talking about.

Joyce spotted a large squirrel in one of the trees next to the pond the other day, a very large squirrel.  So large, in fact, she decided it couldn’t be a squirrel and marched out to investigate.  Turns out it was a swarm of bees hugging one of the limbs.  She notified Chris who wanted to retrieve them but needed me to hold the ladder.  I put on a long-sleeve shirt, long pants, gloves, my trimming helmet which has a face guard and lent a hand.  The procedure in these circumstances is to shake the tree limb while holding a container such as a trash can under the swarm in the hopes the bees fall off into it, then transfer them to an empty hive.  Chris, clad in his full-body bee suit and bee bonnet shinnied up the ladder and did the shaking while I stood underneath and kept the ladder from kicking out from under him.  The main body of the swarm fell right into the trash can but, as you can imagine, there was a goodly number of bees buzzing around generally.  My helmet would prevent the swarm from dropping right down into my face but it would by no means keep bees from coming up underneath the face shield and exploring my noggin or caressing my exposed neck in their soothing way.  As it turned out, no one got stung and it looks like Chris has added another hive to his collection without having to order a new set of bees.  That would give him four.  Joyce was less than enthusiastic about the third one he added this spring.

Abigail has launched a purslane retrieval business.  She was looking to make a little money and I told her I would pay a dollar a pound for purslane with the roots.  I think she’s pulled 52 pounds so far.  I’m glad to pay the money.  Purslane would literally cover SA if we let it and as I’ve mentioned before weed killer doesn’t bother it.  It can be pulled but that is only effective if the roots are pulled up.  It can be burned with a weed burner, but that is time consuming, and it can be controlled with pre-emergent.  However, pre-emergent is expensive and can only be effective if applied before the seed germinates.  We’ll have to control it as best we can with the first two methods and hope to wipe out the main infestations with pre-emergent next spring.  It has been a multi-year battle already and promises to be so for maybe a few more.