Ok, ok, ok.

This update is for those scores upon scores of people that have been begging me for any semblance of an update. I mean, two. Two people, not two scores of people. That would have been forty. It's not forty. It's two. So anyway....

I have gone all out again this year, and things are rolling right along. I already have a pretty consistent sunburn on my back and shoulders, I really hate bermuda grass, and my ninety year old neighbors are looking better than me. Some things never change, I guess. My neighbors, the Hardings, were really great to me this year. Mr. Harding let me use his tiller for my garden, which was completely unexpected and incredibly gracious. I guess I earned my chip last year, and I have been helping them out whenever I can, so they repaid the favors and then some. Absolutely great people.

I have put in about 700 square feet of garden space this year, which is a little more than half the space I used last year. I kept it smaller for a bunch of different reasons, but a couple of them were pretty big. I learned last year that too much space is too much work. If I had been attempting to feed a family of ten, I think that I would have had just about the right amount of space. I produced so much more than I actually needed that I couldn't even eat it all. When the tornadoes hit and knocked out our power for about five days, I lost everything that I had in the deep freezer, including a ton of extra veggies that I wasn't even sure I was going to eat. I lost ten one gallon freezer bags of okra, ten of green/yellow beans, about 150 bell peppers, and enough habaneros to supply cantina laredo for a year. The other big reason I cut the size of the garden down was to focus on the areas of the garden that get the most sun. I found that the half I cut out really only got about three or four hours of direct sunlight a day, which was not nearly enough to produce anything but cold weather crops like spinach, chard, bok choi, etc. I can always put that stuff in later in the summer after some of my current crops have died out.

I have a ton more to talk about, including everything that I've planted, so I'll be sure and get some pictures up next time.

What I've been listening to:

Esperanza Spalding-Chamber Music Society
JBM-Not Even In July
Tallest Man on Earth-The Great Hunt
Roman Candle-Oh Tall Tree In The Air
The Seedy Seeds-Count the Days
Beastie Boys-Hot Sauce Committee Part 2