Morning garden update, evening style

The garden. How's it coming along? Considering that it didn't get planted until the first week in June, it's doing quite nicely. I've harvested and enjoyed a couple of Anaheim chiles and a total of five cherry tomatoes. The corn is growing, beans and cucumbers and pumpkins are getting ready to flower. It'll come along at the natural pace for vegetable production. I hope to be very busy putting up pickles later in the summer.

This one's got a date with a BLT!

Corn jungle after watering.

Pumpkin jungle before watering.

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The heat. In the last 10 years we've had precisely five days, including yesterday, with air temps of 100 or above. Doesn't quite fit the narrative, does it? I suppose Kimball could be the one place on the planet which isn't being destroyed by the narrative. Or, as Occam might say,  perhaps there's a simpler explanation.

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Today was a recovery day, a day of rest and nutrition designed to help heal and support the old guy body, mind, and soul.

Rest is relative rest rather than physical inertness. The trifecta of body-mind-soul need stretchies and muscle loading and movement and cardio every day. Also, recovery days are when I putter around and work on non-priority, "sure would be nice" chores.

This morning I ran on the track at the high school. I generally dislike track running, but sometimes the smooth, slightly yielding surface is just the thing to help me shake out and normalize my gait. As usual the first mile kinda sucked but once I caught a good rhythm the next four were very nice indeed. It was coolish and slightly cloudy when I started, and when I finished the sun was blasting down and the air temp was just touching 90. I had a couple of nice conversations with fellow Sunday morning exercisers. Youngsters in their mid-40's. I was the only dude there with his shirt off. Old dudes don't care. And to be precise, no dudettes were running ilma särkideta (the Mother Tongue!) either. It was a beautiful and refreshing run.

While I rehydrated with iced green tea/electrolytes I took in the beauty of a July morning on Howard Street.

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I headed out to the ranch and after checking cows worked on a walk-through gate in the barbed wire fence near my Dad's cairn. That chore involved a mile-long walk from the cairn to where I'd left the skid-steer parked, which was a very pleasant little hike. A Swainson's Hawk kept me company, following along overhead and hoping to see me kick up some tasty little rodents for him to pounce on.

Once I had the skid-steer and attached post hole digger back at the work site I drilled a hole and set a post.

When I attach the wire to the new post there will be a barely person-sized gap in the fence, too small for a cow to get through. A person, on the other hand, can squeeze through, so long as they're not a big tub o' lard. This will allow my Mom to visit the cairn on her walks without having to mess with opening and closing gates or trying to crawl through the fence.

I'll describe the chore in more detail tomorrow, when I finish the project and get more pics and perhaps video.

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One way to beat the summer heat is with a cold treat. All you need is frozen fruit, sweetened condensed milk, a blender, containers and a freezer. All you need? When I think about it and about how I take having those things for available for granted, this purple simulated sherbet becomes a special treat indeed!

Ingredients

Mix 'n spin

Portion

Freeze

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What a delightful day for livin'! Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty.