Lives end. Life goes on...

Zeus update

Zeus is fading fast. There is more going on than the hot-spots. My kids have been alerted so they can swing by the house and say "Good-bye". Zeus was Kubota's dog and he is taking the news hard.

There are a lot of moving pieces. One of the big ones is how to bring him back home without freaking out Quicksilver. The time windows when the vet is open and we are not watching her are very short slivers of time.

Quicksilver knows about death. She has seen dead chickens and her papa, Handsome Hombre "took care of" the raccoons responsible for the dead chickens. We walk country roads and she is keenly aware of the dead birds, rabbits possum, raccoons and deer that we encounter.

I don't think she is ready to process a family member dying. More honestly, I don't have the energy right now to help her process that.

Southern Belle update

Southern Belle took the vegetable seedlings to her Wednesday church-group meeting. One of the other women there was recently widowed. Her deceased husband was the gardener in the family. The widow longingly looked at the seedlings and said "I wish I could take some but planting a garden is beyond what I can do."

Southern Belle stepped up. "I can plant your garden" she said.

I looked at the widow's address on Google. Her entire back yard is 1100 square-feet and the "garden" is a narrow strip of bare dirt next to the concrete patio.

The irony is that I am planting SB's garden and she is going to plant the widow's garden. You know, I really don't have an objection to that. My goal is to have her family be proficient at growing food. If it takes a grieving widow to prime-the-pump, it is just more evidence of God's mysterious ways.

Fishing report

I sat in a chair on the beach while Shotgun fished. He had two bites but landed neither one of them.

Biological Calendar

The Black Locust, iris and first white clover are in bloom. Alas, so is the Orchardgrass.

The peonies are just opening up and our first head of broccoli is ready to harvest. If you look very closely at the ends of the new shoots on the pecan trees you can see the tiny shapes the will become clusters of pecans while the catkins are strewn like confetti along the length of the twigs.

The horseradish is done blooming and the raspberries are near the end of their blooming. Our last lilac, Betsy Ross is near the end of its show.

The bluegills are newly on their beds. I could smell them as I sat on the beach. I can also smell the male Honey Locust flowers.

The geese have goslings in tow. Swallows are abundant. 

The grass needs mowing and the garden needs weeding. 

Stuff I planted yesterday:

Another 60 feet of sweet corn in Handsome Hombre's corn patch.

Two cantaloupe plants. Interplanted with turnip seeds for greens.

Two Atlantis cantaloupe seedlings.

A row of broccoli on the left and newly planted sweet peppers on the right.

Eleven sweet pepper plants in Southern Belle's garden.

Twenty marigold plants and five small rhubarb seedlings.