As the Spindle Turns . . .

Yes, there is horrific flooding in Texas and now in North Carolina. It just started pouring buckets where I live in Pennsylvania. We had a three day heat dome. I won't comment on the blame game for those dead. If you want to do that, start with Exxon Mobile. The SMOC has reversed. The SMOC is the southern hemisphere version of the AMOC. Instead of saltier water near the bottom of the ocean, it's near the top, releasing more carbon into the atmosphere instead of capturing carbon. In other words, it reversed direction. Expect more of the same. Fortunately, the ESA is studying it and they haven't lost funding. We are in for a rough ride.

My heart and sympathy goes out to those who lost loved ones in the flooding, both in TX and NC. Without FEMA, those who lost their homes are kind of SOL. I have no words. NC is still ongoing.

As for myself, my baby skunks romp daily between 8 and 10 am. It does make it hard to do much out back. An awful lot of weeding needs to happen. A lot!

I worked on harvesting potatoes. The early potatoes are a mixed bag. The first 6 or so bags only yielded 3 pounds. A lot had been lost to too much rain or late frost. They weren't very hardy to begin with. The potatoes I started from eyes were especially weak. The ones that had been properly chitted were great. We'll see how the midsummer potatoes do. Apparently, I have a good Swiss chard plant in one of the potato pots. I won't know if that yielded potatoes or not until much later this year.

The extra soil in the grow bags from the potato harvest was used to pot extra tomatoes, ones that didn't fit in the garden. I don't have a place for them inside a fence so they have to take their chances with the deer. It is possible that the skunks are keeping the deer at bay, but that didn't work last year so who knows? Maybe there are just fewer deer.

My extra sweet potatoes got put into grow bags too. It might be too late to plant them for a good yield. The hot, wet weather should be good for them. I got a giant grow bag from a seed swap earlier this year for the sweet potatoes. I also have an old canning pot with a rusted out bottom. I filled that up and planted Lakota squash. It's 90 to 100 days until our frost, so it should be good. I checked to package for Days-to-Maturity. I planted more cucumbers from seed after I pulled the peas out. I remembered to also plant radishes to deter the squash and bean beetles. I did see one of those striped buggers out there. It flew away before I could get it. I have three butternut plants in the mandala garden.

With the weeds I pulled yesterday around the blueberries, I had space to pop in a few plants that have yet to find a home. I transplanted a zucchini and a crook neck summer squash. The rain started pouring down just as I got them into the ground. More rain is predicted for tomorrow.

I still have an assortment of herbs and flowers that desperately need a place somewhere in the ground. My whole garden does come from seed, not garden center plants. I'm looking to add new beds for next year. I have a lot of work ahead of me to achieve that goal.

For right now, I am content. I don't think I will reach my potato goal but I learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. The large plastic pots with new seed potatoes are doing great. A sprinkle of feather meal helped too. I'm trying not to spend every dime on gardening so I am looking for ways to avoid buying soil, soil amendments, and gimmicks. I used old tomato supports on the potatoes. It worked well. It might be worth investing in more pots next year. It's not like they go bad, but 10 is not enough. I am also toying with digging a trench for them in the way back if the soil is dig-able. The deer do not bother them. Ground hogs don't either. Containers just make it easier to harvest. Some experimentation is in order.

That's it for this week. Sun's back out and it's very humid now. Time to plan dinner.

I just put in 3 days of gig work. It's grueling and I am not sure how much longer my body can take it. Can you stand for 4 hours straight on concrete without moving, three days in a row? My body is saying no. There is no anti-fatigue mat. I don't get paid enough to continually buy new shoes, arch support, etc. That is the state of me. There is still work to be had. I wonder for how much longer?

A note on tariffs: If you are wondering what groceries will be impacted the worst and what to stock up on, I recommend Suttons Daze. https://youtu.be/WUw9W8AIoPc?si=7etP6sjXCfC3oIZ0
My thoughts are darker. Much darker. Her assumption is based on facts and well researched information. My mind always goes to worst case scenario. What if no one wants to sell us anything at all? As in embargo. We are detaining so many tourists from other countries. At some point, they may get so pissed off over how our government is treating them that they walk away entirely. I also think about climate change's effect on our food supply as well as lack of farm workers. I have a lot of dark thoughts that I hope never happen.

As for the garden, I ran the numbers. I am only behind 3 pounds on my goals to date. Crop failures include currants, raspberries and I didn't have time to harvest mulberries. Will I meet the rest of my goals? Probably not on the potatoes. The new seed potatoes are looking good. The others were hit with a killing cold snap. There are lots of empty grow bags at this point. The deep plastic pots are doing terrific. Basil had root rot from all the rain. The herb spiral is bare. I just plopped a few seedlings into containers. I'm hoping they do better. There is still time to replant.

Chrono's shows and hospitalization means I never installed my cucumber trellis. Those are sprawling but still doing okay. Looks like a cucumber that never originally germinated decided to grow in the front flower bed. I reused soil. Surprise!



Tomatoes need to be clipped. I bought clips. Do I know where they are? No. Suckers also need to be trimmed. With the skunks out and about, I'll be working in enclosed garden. I also need to get a few more squash plants into the ground. That means weeding first. There's a lot to do.



With luck the beans are on track. Tomatoes are on track. If the squash gets planted, that's a large chunk of my food goals. The jury is still out on carrots. One patch germinated but I'm waiting on the second. If I can find time, a third batch will get planted. Onions did poorly this year. I need to reorder potato onions. Look them up. They are a fascinating onion. Bulb onions don't like my growing conditions.



Fireflies are happy with my yard. It's fun to watch them from the window at night.
My skunks: https://youtu.be/2CRcR4sLkKA?si=8Ny2Yq7oInH1Gs2i

I am researching natural repellents. Irish Spring soap, Pinesol, Epsom salts, citrus peels . . .Some are for the ground hog, some for the skunk. Apparently they often co-exist in the same warren. The skunks are eating my slugs. At least there is that.

Food goal: Still at 325 pounds.

The rain finally stopped. After tomorrow, medical appointments will be fewer and farther apart. Hubby still gets confused. He took his evening meds in the morning which screws everything up. Not enough of his anti seizure meds at the right time. Tonight he forgot how to take a shower, at least the prep work and what he needs where and when. Leaving a towel 2 rooms away doesn't help you. "But I always leave my towel here" Yes, that is when you are done, not when you are stepping into the shower. "I have never done it this way". It's best not to argue. He gets this way when he takes his meds wrong.

Chemo took all day. It was 78 when we left home. The hospital must have been 65 inside. When we left, it was 109 in the parking lot. It dropped to 107 in the shade. Then down to 102 once we got home, much further away than the concrete of the city. Concrete holds the heat.

After chemo, we headed to the co-op for groceries. Supply shortages still continue. Whether you go to Whole Foods, Edens Market or the Food Co-op, there is a problem. It turns out that the main distributor for organic foods, Unified, was hacked. Fresh produce comes from local suppliers. Bakery comes from a local shop. Cheese was well stocked but gluten free options were missing almost entirely. There was no chocolate either. It's been just over 2 weeks since the hack. The state dept warns of more hacks against the US in retaliation after this week's air strikes. Great. This one was bad enough.

I spent a bit of time recovering from driving in the heat. The vehicle's air conditioner could not keep up. It's hard to see with sweat dripping into your eyes. Traffic was bad today. Strategic positioning of cops made it worse. Driving in that heat wipes you out. After a pause and ice water, I headed outside to water the garden. I almost got to the end of the hose when a baby skunk came right up to me to sniff me. She was so damn cute. She was thirsty. My first reaction was a blood curdling scream. The skunk was confused. She headed into the yarrow to "hide" but I could see the tail. I just began watering. When I turned around, she was on the front steps, looking for water in my planter bottom trays. When she didn't find any, she left. Geez give me a moment would you? I didn't get that far. I watered everything. Then went up the hill to the backyard garden. I watered that too. Several bowls got filled with water. Pushy!

The yard is quite overgrown and full of baby skunks. It's Mom and Dad I worry about. They can spray. The babies will take a while to develop that. I learned a lot about skunks one Pennsic. Baby boy skunks are stinky but don't spray yet. My skunk was not stinky so she must have been a "her".

The neighbor has been enjoying watching the babies frolic with their mom at dusk. She says there are 5 babies. She thinks moth balls will deter them. I think I know the number of a trapper. I am afraid to weed my own garden. I don't know where they are nesting. I don't think they kicked out the Ground Hog. At least my fencing paid off. The babies didn't bother my plants. Mostly, they like grubs. The skunks have sharp claws. I noticed scratch marks in the driveway earlier this year (and in my pathways). Last night an adult was out at 12:20 am in the front yard. I smelled it. Unfortunately they will also eat the garter snakes. Rabies is also a potential problem.

Sigh. I can't wait for the weather to break.

The air is pure humidity. The sky is overcast. A thunderstorm of epic proportions was forecast to hit at 10 am. Rising early, I slathered myself in bug repellent. No, not OFF, a recipe from Rosemary Gladstar I found online. I figured I had about 3 hours to work.

Ever notice how easy it is to misread rain forecast into rain forest? That was pretty much my backyard after all that rain. I already have one Rodent of Unusual Size (RUS), the last thing I need is a fire swamp. The cleavers are as tall as me. The angelica was above my garage. Bindweed was the least of my worries. I need someone to watch out for dinosaurs. First I had to carve a path through that mess to the compost pile. Thistles, why did it have to be thistles?

The clearing of the path took more than an hour. I elected to remove the angelica seed heads and put them in a black trash barrel and seal it to sit in the sun (could we have sun later in the week?) The stalks I cut to dry and make a trellis with. They appear to be North America's version of bamboo. While I could hardly claim to have done the whole yard, the garage garden became accessible with the angelica gone.

I took a short break to hydrate. A neighbor was out pounding in fence posts. It's a good time to do it. The soil is wet and soft. I started in by removing the existing fencing. The garage garden is roughly 3.5 ft by 8 ft long. It's a cinderblock raised bed. I pulled all the Napa cabbage that went to seed as well as spinach and lettuce that bolted. I didn't bother with the compost bin. I tosses them into what used to be a raspberry bed. I don't care if they reseed. With the grid walls gone and fence pulled aside, I established a 6 ft vertical wall along the north side with old grid walls. Everything gets repurposed. The walls originally were Kirsten's at Fabric Dragon. I too decided to pound a post into the middle to support the wall. I live on a hill after all. I tied up tomatoes that were already growing (stunted by the angelica). They are now clipped to the wall. Some of my overflow tomatoes went in as well. I had SPACE! The bed has 3 Roma's and 3 black plum tomato plants.

The two zucchini's now have room to grow. Knowing that I will need to clip more tomato vines up to the wall as they grow, I made a path with wood leftover from my painters plus a way to access the bed. It's fenced in again and safe from the ground hog. Then I went on to plant carrots and yellow beans. Now to break into the mulch I just got.

Eleven am has come and gone. The storm did not arrive. I had a blissful shower and a change into clean clothes. My arms are scratched to heck. I'll work on the mulch later. It isn't immediately necessary. Tools have been put away. I figure 3.5 hours is enough for one day. The rain is still threatening.

Results: https://youtu.be/YsNF-ho-sUw?si=l8EZX10B2XaNQArI

Today's to do list:
Make Russian Teacakes -Done
Make yogurt - In Process
Make Vanilla Ice Cream Base
Weed and get carrots planted
Go to bank
Go to grocery store?
Bookkeeping
Bills

We've been under flash flood warning for several days now. The rain has been intermittent. Yesterday allowed for some gardening but not today. Friday was bad too. East Pittsburgh saw some drastic flooding. Fire Departments pumped water out of people's houses. Cars were floating. It wasn't good. I myself am trying to figure out how water is getting into a small spot in the basement. It's concerning in that it is directly behind the electrical breaker box. It only happens in extremely heavy rain. I looked and checked the exterior of the house. I couldn't find anything amiss. All I can think to do is gutter repair and brick pointing. Climate change has made these occurrences more frequent and therefore more urgent to repair. I am guessing at what needs to be done. It's not obvious.

I have taken the opportunity to work on indoor projects. I didn't do these all on the same day, but I am working on my pantry.

Making Butter for the Freezer


Making Cardamon Plum Danishes


I didn't have enough of my own strawberries so I hit up the farmer's market and did a half my rhubarb and half the farmer's market strawberries. I still maintain that there can never be enough strawberries in my world. If you have only ever eaten store bought strawberries, you have no idea what you are missing. Homegrown is the best. So much flavor and so sweet when perfectly ripe! Maybe when the rain stops, I'll be able to find more of my own to harvest. The farmer's market ones were also lacking in intense flavor.


From there I moved on to a UFO. Back in 2022 I ripped this for the first time. This weekend I ripped it again. The sleeves didn't shape correctly. I was using Ann Budd's book on building any sweater. The second time I tried two separate patterns - one for the sleeve shape and the second for the neckline. I just couldn't put these two together. With help from Gwen Erin's Fiber Shop, she found me a pattern to use.

Old


New


You might not think that's too bad, 2022 to 2025 to focus on getting a sweater done. I dyed that yarn back in 2014. It had been a very dull moss green (Think George W era sad colors). Who knows how long I had that yarn before I dyed it? It's in remarkably good shape. I think the sweater will last me a long time.



I still have to cook dinner tonight and get some dishes done between lightning strikes. Who knows what I'll get done tomorrow?

It's been a week. The drugstore's automat prescription renewal still tells me it's not time to renew, even when down to one pill. Thank goodness humans are still available. Work went okay. I served seasoned, microwaved potatoes. I think fewer people are shopping and several I talked to were from out-of-town. Then this happened before I left for work on Tuesday:



The tree made a big boom. It missed our yard and my poor garage. It landed on the neighbor's trampoline. Then another limb went down the next day. I had thought about burning near my tree stump to kill the roots. I am so glad I was working in the driveway instead. I do have work to do back there. I still have to tame the jungle. The tomatoes need a trellis set up. A ground hog fence needs to go around the garden. The angelica must be chopped down. The list goes on and on.

Chrono headed to Chicago today. Hopefully the chemo side effects will stay away for the weekend. I am anxiously awaiting her safe arrival text. Blurry vision and neuropathy are the common side effects of this particular drug. I am poised to leave if need be to assist. Load-in is tomorrow. Hubby was a childish pain by announcing that he may have had a petti-mal seizure. He hasn't been sleeping. He fell asleep in his chair. He was aware I'd walked by but couldn't wake himself up to speak. He said this so I wouldn't leave. This is intentional. As he ages, his behavior approves that of a 5 year old. As I am writing, he screams something incoherent so I run down the stairs. He is yelling Good Night at the top of his lungs. Perhaps 3 yrs old is a better analogy. Epilepsy and dementia go hand in hand. Some days are better than others.

Why am I writing this publicly? Folks should know the real reason I am not at Gulf Wars or at Pennsic. I am a caregiver first. An income would be nice. I haven't had time to update the website or to send newsletters.

I can manage to pop out and weed or plant green beans while YouTube babysits him. Today was hot and it took longer for Chrono to leave. She does have to take things in smaller increments. She is super sensitive to sunlight.

Pots needed a wash before getting put away.


In reality, I would not consider leaving Hubby alone. I would have taken him with. It would have cost more than the show is worth to take a hotel room. However, a show of this caliper has a long waiting list. Chrono would not want to lose her spot.

I managed a shower, dishes, and some knitting. I got my butt over to the farmer's market. We were totally out of maple syrup and honey. This is an allergy thing. A capsicum allergy means that even the bees cannot be pollinating pepper plants for our honey. June is when beekeepers harvest spring honey - no peppers. I got berry blossoms. Next time I'll pick up honeysuckle before it's gone for the season. After that, maple sugar is what we'll use.



The recipe for strawberry rhubarb jam has been calling to me. I don't have enough strawberries. Can anyone ever have enough strawberries? I found some at the Farmer's Market. Food preservation will happen tomorrow. I still worry about power outages with the June storms. The US is in for a wakeup call. With NOAA and weather services being cut, storm predictions are not good or accurate. Instead they have gone to AI to predict shit. Good luck with that one. Six fingers on a hand, 2 left feet, monkeys feeding runaways in South Carolina, sure AI can do the job. So can a Ouija board.

I picked up more meat to pressure can. I have a lot of catchup work to do. Turns out my new senator from CT is on the energy committee. I live in PA. This is a sore point. (Y'all ain't from around here)I fired him off a letter about the BBB. He needs to know how that hurts his constituents. Will he even read it? I doubt it. I hear it's better to call. Apparently my electric bill went up 20 % as of June 1st. I might need to implement a policy, no lights after sundown. I have solar but no battery. Time to do some research on that. Who am I kidding? I can't even afford a lawnmower. (Know anyone with hungry goats?)

Pansies got planted

There are a lot of dystopian books out there in the SF world. A lot. I read one back in the mid aughts on if an EMP hits us. It was fiction. It showed how much we'd like to believe we could handle anything. Truth is after Friday's power outage, I realized just how ill prepared I am to handle such things. I didn't even have my full SCA camping kit this year. No propane. Need a new propane hose and a new tank. Yes, that is still being grid dependent.

I had just bought meat and had no way to store it IF it was a long term outage. I have small solar collectors to power the phone. The router was another matter. Without a router, I can't use my air printer. Not that printing was an immediate priority, but I did have to make labels for the upcoming show. The funny thing was that we had cell towers even though most of the area had no electric. If another country had wanted to take us out with an EMP, those would have been gone. We are also still in a solar maximum. The possibility of a Carrington event is never zero. These are the kind of things that run through your head.

Mother Earth News hit me up right after the lights went out and I was fussing about how much meat could I personally eat in a three day period. Yeah, I fell for it. I broke down and bought their Lights ON book and a few other titles I have been on the fence about owning. Since almost all books are printed in Hong Kong, I figure if I get it at the regular price, I'm still getting a deal. They threw in a homesteading magazine as a perk.

People have lived for thousands of years without electric. I just want to know how to store meat long term. Do I have to raise chickens and butcher one each time I want chicken for dinner? That's kind of the Appalachian way of thinking. Fresh on the hoof as it were. How did buffalo get cured to last all season? Do I have to have a spring house? and an ice house? a fishing pond? Inquiring minds want to know. How many new skills do I have to learn? I have at least 15 more years of life left in me. How does an aging person be self sufficient? I'm allergic to legumes so vegan is not an option. Besides, rice is an endangered commodity due to climate change. Although rabbit is an option, people can die living on a purely rabbit based diet. They call it protein poisoning because you are not getting enough fat. Besides, they are too stinking cute. For me, it's a dilemma.



Variety is the spice of life. I don't want to go through eating only asparagus for a month followed by spinach for a month, followed by strawberries for a month, well maybe strawberries would be okay. You get the idea. That's how food allergies occur. Too much at one time.

If you have any recommendations, reading sources, etc. Drop them in the comments. I can pressure can for now and pick up some jerky. I am not fond of jerky. But that is not a long term solution if the lights go out.

I still want my hobbit hole to have a well-stocked pantry.

No, the storm wasn't predicted for here. My heart goes out to folks in St. Louis and the greater Louisville KY area. We didn't have tornadoes. We had wind. I moved the plants to a sheltered area. The brick on the porch blocks the worst of it.



I also got some tomatoes into the ground. Now that I've done that ,temperatures are expected to hit 41 degrees F on Monday night. The basil already got planted too. Going to have to pull out the frost blankets again. Meanwhile, Friday was so hot, I got a mild case of heat exhaustion. I can't win.

At 1:13 am earlier this morning, very early, the power went out. I gave up and got up at 5 am. My mind was racing a bit. We rarely lose power and when we do, it's for a long time. My thoughts were:

* What do I do first?
* How do I salvage all the meat I just bought?
* How am I going to get ready for my fiber show without electricity? My scale is electric. I can't measure yarn.
* Finally, I don't have time for this shit.

First, I found the solar lights that have battery storage that can also charge devices. I plugged in my husband's phone with his pill alarms. Yes, he'd let the battery go almost dead. I unplugged all extraneous devices from the wall circuits. We have solar panels but no battery capacity. If we got enough sun, it might run the freezer. That was wishful thinking because the Generac net meter unit runs on electric. So, no, no electric. I learned just how dim our house is without lights. I would have moved the basement seedlings outside once I could see without hurting myself. Unfortunately, the bathroom is located down there. I do have windows, but not enough light until the sun clears the mountain.

I went outside. It was much brighter. I pulled a bag of ice from the freezer for drinkable water- put it into a stock kettle to melt. Took the bacon and eggs out of the fridge. I went outside to my little makeshift chimney stove. Since it had rained recently, I cleaned out the wet ash. I light a candle. It took several tries to get old paper to light and start it going.

Picture from April 2021


The wind was calm or else I wouldn't have tried to light it. The bacon was so good. I also mixed up some chopped potatoes with vidalia onions and apples, fried in the bacon grease. Then scramble some eggs for my husband. I also looked at the solar oven and thought about pulling a roast with carrots and potatoes together to cook in the sun, but the power came back at 8:12. I kept thinking, how much meat can I eat in a day? The freezer would become a fridge so possibly I'd have up to 3 days to eat everything. Fortunately I didn't have to test that. The meat was still frozen when the power came back on.

Lessens learned:
* A place for everything and everything in its place, especially in poor light.
* I have a better visualization memory than I thought and a good sense of what's in my pantry.
* An eating area on the west side of the house never gets morning sun. I was looking at setting up an outdoor eating area before the power came back. At least then we could see.
* Thank goodness for SCA camping skills and gear.
* At least I have fresh food if necessary - the garden has chard, spinach, celery, and lettuce:



After a nap, I dyed a pound each of hemp in blue and purple. Undyed yarn was wound and labeled. Tomorrow's skeins are ready for the dyepot too. Saffron and Forest green are planned, if I can get salt. I bought the wrong kind last time. No one had power today in the area. Even the post office. Shopping was off the table. Not all areas had power restored when I did. My understanding is that a large area was without power and equipment had to be obtained. More crews were called. I may just pay more and get grocery store salt. I don't want to explore. This afternoon was also windy as heck.

It's always best to get plants planted right before it rains. They need to acclimatize without severe direct sun. I was to work from 3 - 7 pm handing out coffee samples. Rain was to come in around 7 pm. It was pure sun this morning. I couldn't do anything with all that strong UV light. Early on, 8 am, I was out cutting weeds, quack grass and so on. I prepared two beds. When the clouds started to move in at 1 pm, I had to get ready for work. Also the painters showed up. I will say the house looks a heck of a lot better out front. Let's hope I can make the landscaping look as nice.

The area between the pomegranate and the quince tree had more lupines and foxgloves added to it. I think more foxglove grew in the delphinium soil cubes. They don't look like delphiniums at all. I also tossed in some purple carnations. I want the flowers to be blues, purples, and whites in that area. I have purple alyssum to go in once it's big enough.

The next bed got copper colored strawflowers. In front of those will be blue bachelor buttons, once they harden off. Then orange calendula which is free range anyway. Nasturtiums and marigolds also dot that level of the terrace. It should be a nice mix.

On the eastern corner, I had to cut back the last barberry bush as it was invading another area. It's only partially trimmed. I now have access to the area on the eastern front. Up top also got weeded. I pulled coltsfoot and bindweed. I planted a Campfire Rudbeckia and more strawflowers. Six or so more nasturtiums went in as well. I had to have put in at least 26 plants. Everything is well watered. Mulch also got added (so I can see where I put the flowers).

Bins and bins of weeds got added to the compost pile. It may sound like a disease, but I have cleavers. They are everywhere. I pulled so many cleavers yet there are still tons of them. I sliced at the invasive weeds in the back behind the garage. I also had thistles., burdock, and rose of Sharon. The compost pile is looking impressive. I also started moving cinderblocks to create my tomato patch. There is a nice mound of dirt from my hugel culture pile that I am harvesting for my tomato bed. That is going to take more time.

I did go to work for all of 15 minutes. The product was on sale through Sunday. They had already packed it up to go back to the supplier. Apparently they weren't going to sell it as a regular line. So I went home and gardened. Score! That's how I got so many plants planted. I also had a good time chatting with the neighbor. We were both working side-by-side. I will get paid for an hour of my time. Getting the timing of my plants in was priceless.