Dog Days and Mercury Retrograde

Next year, I vow to do absolutely nothing outside in August. We're in the Dog Days of Summer with triple digit temperatures.

This year's efforts were kind of all over the place since I was unable to work during the most productive time of the year. (Next time, I'll put off all surgeries until August.)

We lost both gardens to weeds. I was able to recover one garden, but it's simply too hot to tackle the other one. This is where all my berry plants live. I'm hoping they're still there under all those weeds.

Remarkably, I found several pepper plants, (producing peppers) under the weeds of the first garden. Nature is unstoppable.

The biggest reason I'm griping about August is because the greenhouse I had coveted for many years dropped down in price dramatically. It was a sign. I had to get it.

That wasn't the hard part. The reviewers all said that two people could put it together in a few days. The hard part is that we need to build a deck so that it can anchored properly.

A wood deck is not only expensive, but requires many man and woman hours out in the heat of the day. We'll try to work a couple of hours every morning before the heat becomes too oppressive. 

But wait! Mercury is in retrograde! Absolutely nothing has worked in our favor for the past two weeks. Greg's back went out to the point that he could barely move, my email stopped working, the tractor battery died, two young saplings died, and one set of sprinklers went nuts and wouldn't turn off. There were many more calamities, but that's just the highlights.

It's been a logistical nightmare. I never believed in Mercury retrograde, but I do now. What a drama.

The first order of business is building a new compost bin in a different part of the property. We've talk about this before but now it's necessary. We think where the compost is now is the best place to site the greenhouse.

My goal is to get it done by September so I can start moving plants in for the fall.

Fingers crossed, the big reveal will be in another month.

In other news, I tried a new-to-me recipe, Hatch Pepper Stew. Very spicy, but so much flavor. Greg absolutely loved it and asked me to make it again.

Hatch peppers are a funny pepper. It can be spicy, but the heat doesn't linger in the mouth. They also only appear for a short season. Once they're gone, they're gone.

I tried growing them this year. My plants are beautiful but they've only just started sprouting peppers. I'll overwinter them (in my new greenhouse) and see if they'll produce next year when they're more mature.

In personal news, I was afraid I would have to make a flash trip to see my mother. She hadn't been feeling well. It turns out she had dislocated her shoulder and was in a lot of pain. Mercury hasn't been kind to her either.

Old age is not for sissies.

How are things at your end? 

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