The Rain Just Kept Coming

I have not posted all that much becuase to be honest, I have not done all that much. It seems that spring has turned to monsoon season. We have been getting lots of rain. While Mandy was here, we installed a new drain trap for the tub. The drain was just running off onto the ground under the house before I installed it. We have put up several different types of trellises in the garden to give the cucumbers, tomates and peas to climb on.

We had a lot of rain and wind and the corn was looking weak so Angela propped them up with some bamboo and when the wind and rain let up she repacked the soil around them. They are doing fabulous. She went our several times during the week-long storm, wearing her welly boots and trying to keep the umbrella from blowing inside out. The first bed is starting to take off and it will be interesting to see what all come out of it. The tomato plants are all about 6-12 inches tall, except for the brandywine tomatoes, which are very small. The lemon cucumbers have climbed over our small 3' trellis and are reaching another foot in the air. They are loaded with blossoms about to open. The corn has small ears nowand the silks they have made is long and golden. It appears that each plant is about 4 feet and has just one ear so far. Since it's my first corn crop, I'm not quite sure what to expect. The pinto and black beans are very densely planted and have many pods and flowers. The butternut squash is also doing very well and is just getting long enough to train up the trellis.

There have been a few disappointments. The cantaloupe concerns me- the leaves are kind of yellow in color compared the rest of everything else but hopfuly they will be fine. The red bell pepper plants we planted are very tiny and we just learned that they drop there flowers when the temp reaches above 90 degrees. :( That will be any day now. We are thinking of giving up on them and planitng somthing else.

So while it was raining and the garden out of reach, we worked on some minor things around the house. I repaired the HVAC, more on that on another day, installed a small cabinet over the toilet in the main bathroom. Today we also dug up the old pavers and relaid them.

With all the rain came some unwelcome refugee visitors, Carpenter Ants. So we had to call an exterminator and had them spray the house inside and out. Since they came we have not seen any ants which is good, since Angela was having ants making guest appearances in her dreams. The Exterminator I used was Peninsular. They were quick, professional and not that much money. I would recommend them if you need pest control services in Jax.