July 29, 2020
Liz Writes Life
Garden
Loved, loved, loved the heavy hour-long rain we received last
Wednesday night. One previously-empty bucket had over an inch in it. Yep,
didn’t have to irrigate for nearly two days. But, I sure don’t like the fires
that start from the lightning. Good luck and prayers for firefighters and
safety personnel! Go get ‘um!
Surprisingly, the zucchini babies have not grown much this
past week. The plants are huge and the leaves stayed happy through this heat.
But, there are over a dozen zucchini that are only about four-inches long. I
picked one that was close to five inches. The plants are healthy with lots of
blooms, so I don’t have the faintest idea why the actual vegetables are being
slow. The first zucchinis I picked seemed to double in size overnight. One
caught me off-guard at nine-inches long, but that was two weeks ago. Hum,
puzzling.
I see baby cantaloupe starting and several tomato plants are
boasting quite a few green tomatoes. There is one tiny bell pepper starting as
well. Yay!
One rhubarb plant had some stems kinda drying-up, which is
strange, cuz it gets plenty of water. So I harvested about half of it. Most
stems pulled right out with a little wiggling, which to me means they were
ready for harvest. The plant looks funky with half the stems gone. I used the
huge leaves to mulch around the plant and to cover the center of the plant to
protect it from the sun. On Sunday afternoon, in the 100 degree heat, the plant
was doing fine. Whew!
I have been told to only harvest a few stems at a time, but
these plants are prolific and huge at five to six-feet wide with very tall
stems and giant leaves. They seem to need the mature stems removed and
typically grow back to a large plant within a month. So far, I haven’t killed
them and they are producing well. Guess, what I am doing is working. Normally,
I don’t like to harvest during a hot spell, but this plant needed some clean-up.
The snapdragons and feverfew are dying back and need to be
trimmed. Under the pine tree, several four o’clocks are nearly three-feet tall
and producing white trumpets flowers. I am a little bummed. I like the bright
yellow, pink and red blossoms and will not likely get them this year, because I
let these volunteer from last year’s plants; and have found they tend to revert
to white. But, I love the green foliage and mixed with the ever-expanding tall pink
Japanese anemones, it is starting to look like a jungle! Another yay!
The six-foot tall pincushion dahlia opened its first multicolored
pink-yellow blooms. This plant also demands a lot of water and wilts by
mid-afternoon if it doesn’t get enough in the morning. (It looks so sad!) Oh,
yeah, the lavender phlox are in full bloom. Ummm, I love their scent -- reminds
me of picking raspberries at Mrs. Wixom’s house on Etna’s Main Street, when I
was a kid. They bloomed throughout her many rows of raspberry plants.
New scam
Well, this one is interesting and may not happen here, but it
is certainly worth exposing. This is about car-jacking. The would-be offender
sticks a piece of paper, receipt, flyer, etc, to your back window. After you
are in the car and see the paper, while backing out, it is natural to stop, get
out and remove the paper. This is when they attack you and take your car. If
you are a woman, your purse is likely in the car with money and personal info.
So, check your back window (and front car window) before you
get in your car. If you didn’t and there is a paper there, leave it! Keep doors
locked and drive away from the area. Geez, the bad guys and gals are getting
trickier and trickier.
Church restrictions
With all the rules and regulations regarding covid-19, some
things just seem odd – and I won’t go into all the rioting and those
frustrating issues. So, this story caught my eye.
In Carson City, NV the Calvary Chapel of the Desert was
informed by the state that it was violating strict restrictions of church
gatherings – apparently there were too many people in the building. Pastor
Chuck Carver thought about the situation and figured out a clever way around
the requirements. He installed slot machines in the church.
“We put up slot machines and bam – no more restrictions,”
Chuck told “The Babylon Bee” news. “The authorities dispersed and we pretty
much get to do whatever we want.”
He admitted it was “kinda goofy” preaching his sermon in
front of the blinking lights. On the upside, he added that the slot machines
are making up for tithing the church has lost over the last few months of
no-gathering allowed. And, yep, some of the congregants were testing their luck
putting a few quarters into the machines. I wondered if he was likely to preach
about the risks and sin of gambling?
Now, I gotta admit that I was taken-in by this “fake news”
story. It seemed a bit farfetched, but times are strange. I questioned the name
of the news site “The Babylon Bee” and did some internet investigating and
found it writes Christian satire. So, if you repeat this story be sure to
acknowledge it is satire, but it could be pretty close to the truth! Hope I made
you smile!
Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in
newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan.
Columns from the past can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at
530-467-3515.
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