August 28, 2013 - Wind, Weather, Wilt, and a Cranky Old Woman!

Sunday evening we had another windstorm, with gusts up to 50 MPH.  Oh, the mess!  You would think, after all the storms we've experienced this year, that our pine trees would be nude by now!  But the aren't.  I spent half the day Monday cleaning up boughs, branches and pine cones.

The wind flattened the new stand of fall corn, but it seems to have uprighted itself now.  I'm glad, as it is already tasseling, which means I'm probably assured of actually getting a harvest from it before our autumn frost.

 The fall planting of corn is tasseling.

It's also beginning to form ears!

We did have one calamity out in the garden.  A large branch fell out of the neighbor's walnut tree, landed on my net covered garden in the kennel, and ripped a big hole.  That netting was protecting my fall cabbages and keeping the leaf miners out of the beets and spinach.  I won't be replacing it this late in the year, but I might have to see if I can round up enough to patch it and get the crops through to maturity.

I may have "accidentally" dropped the limb back over the fence and into their yard.

Even though our daytime temperatures are still in the mid-nineties, the garden seems to have slowed in production.  I'm rather glad the pole and bush beans are taking a bit of rest, as I'm getting really tired of beans!  It seems like nearly every day I am either eating them or freezing them.   Freezer space is really tight now, and there are still a lot of peppers and, hopefully, some snap peas later on.  Many of the tomato plants have succumbed already.  I still have 3 healthy plants, 2 sickly but still producing plants, and 3 cherry tomato plants.  All of the others have been removed.

Even with only a few plants left, I'm getting 4 or 5 quarts of tomato juice each week, plus plenty for fresh eating.

The fall planting of cucumbers is beginning to blossom, but unfortunately they are also beginning to show powdery mildew.  So many of the squash and cucumber plants get so ugly this time of the year, but I hate to tear them out as long as they are producing.

I tried moving a few strawberry plants this week, but it looks like all but one died.  It's just so hot!  

The ones I planted a couple of weeks ago fared better.  It looks like I'll only have to replace two of these.

I have plans to tear down the raised beds that now hold the strawberries and raspberries, and moving the plants into narrower beds (for the strawberries) and directly in ground, with room on each side of the row to keep suckers tilled out (for the raspberries).   The new strawberry bed must be established before I tear out all of the plants and remove the boards.  I'm not looking forward to the job, mainly because I'm still getting over a pound of strawberries each week.  I'm quite sure they will bear right into November if given the chance.

My next job will be trying to remove this giant broccoli plant.  It's so big, it is falling over from its own weight, and it is also trying its darndest to bolt to seed.  Since I have several others that are giving me nice side shoots, I've decided getting this thing out of the garden will be the best plan of attack.  It's almost falling into the strawberry bed!  That's a 4' high fence behind the broccoli plants, so you can just imagine how tall it would be if it were standing straight.

Its stem is bigger around than my lower leg!

!!Rant Time!!  

This past week has been rather interesting, to say the least.  I've been a customer of Charter Cable for a few years now, receiving my phone, internet and TV service from them.  I have never been late paying my bill.  In fact, I always pay it before it is due.  Last week, in the mail, I got the following from them:

We're sorry to lose you as a customer.  It was a pleasure to serve you. Please pay the balance due immediately (the balance was ZERO) and return any Charter owned digital TV, Internet and Phone Equipment.  This statement may not reflect equipment already returned.  We look forward to serving you in the future.

I called the number on the statement for an explanation.  I was informed I have moved.  Uh....I've lived here for nearly 25 years.  I haven't gone anywhere, and they sent the statement to this address.  That was the only explanation I was given, even after informing them I would be changing providers, as I didn't want to lose those services.  I then contacted DISH for our TV, and Century Link for phone and internet.  DISH was installed on Monday, Century Link ran into a problem with our phone line today and won't get the installation completed until tomorrow or Friday.

A couple of days after receiving the Charter statement, I got a postcard from Charter Cable in the mail:  

Your postal address and email on file have changed.

Uh....you sent the postcard to the same address where you've always sent written communications.  The same address that has not changed.  

The next day, I got my email statement for next month.  Emailed to the email address that has not changed.  With another price raise.  The third since December.

As soon as Century Link gets my internet going, all of Charter's equipment will be promptly returned to them, as they have requested.  Granny is feeling cranky over the entire ordeal.  And Granny will probably be even crankier with internet speeds that are 1/10 of what I've been getting with cable internet.