Wednesday, July 01, 2009

the #2 grandson's BD

Yesterday was Daniel's BD (our #2 DGS) - he was 6! We had the family party at our house - my DD called and asked if it was OK, since every Daniel BD party since he was born has been at "gramma's house". It was just going to be a bit odd since his dad had recently re-married & would be there with his new wife. But that was OK, we like them both just fine. So we provided the house, the iced tea and the chips & dip, while DD & SO and 'D & D' brought the rest of the 'fixins' for a party. There was an ice cream BD cake as that is what Daniel had requested. Our #1 GS had been working for his dad, but showed up too, so we had a really nice party & a good visit with everyone.
It's been nice & warm around here during the days, but at night gets quite cool - this morning was 38ºF again! I absolutely have to get that temp GH up this weekend. We want to have some tomatoes & peppers, to say nothing of getting some beans.
There were cherries at the local Farmer's Market this Saturday, so got some for us to eat - love those cherries! & they are here for such a short time.
We had an incredibly gross occurance at our place this weekend, too. I was outside working in my garden beds & decided to check on the fruit trees to see if I could tell what sort of harvest we might expect. Looking at all of them usually gives me great pleasure - until I got to the yellow plum tree - IT WAS ENTIRELY COVERED WITH GREY-GREEN APHIDS!!!!!! And when I say entirely, I mean it. The bark on all of the branches was completely aphids - the whole tree looked like a fuzzy grey-green and all of the leaves near the ends of the smaller branches were shrivelled and dying. "the Postman" came out for a look and asked me if we had anything that could help; I told him we did not as I try to do things as organically as I can. At that moment in time all I wanted to do, however, was kill the buggers!!!! That afternoon we went down to Lewiston to get some cutting cords for the 'weed whacker' and we stopped at the hardware store where I looked at all of the pesticides to see what would kill aphids - there was an amazing number of "killing" chemicals there. I chose one that seemed the least of the evils, but was still recommended for aphids. DH ran the neutralizer through his sprayer and I read up on how to apply it. We mixed up the strongest amount described in the literature and sprayed the whole tree up & down. He held the ladder while I got up there and drenched it. Monday night he said there were dead aphids all over the place. We figure we will have to spray again to make sure they are not on the other trees. For once I have to be thankful that there is still something that can kill pests when they are overwhelming like that! Luckily, one can use the fruit after a relatively short time period, so it will be OK by the time it is ripe.
Tonight is my monthly knitting group, so I'll stay after work, get some supper & then go knit with friends. It's fun to get together with like-minded individuals.

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drMolly, the BeanQueen