Trapped

For at least the last three days, the mosquitos have been HORRENDOUS! They were bad before that, but you literally cannot look at any space in the air two foot by two foot that doesn't contain ten or more of the flying bastards. And when you walk through them, every one attacks. Plus the hundreds more hiding in the grass along with them. The hum from their tiny wings in your ears is the only sound you can hear, and you have to continuously fan in front of your face to avoid inhaling them or breathing them into your nose. Meanwhile you can feel them biting on you're hands, neck, and any other exposed flesh. I've never looked forward to winter IN MY LIFE, but will gladly cut wood to burn to try to stay warm beginning tomorrow if it means I can have surcease from their torture! And forget about trying to cut wood NOW. Going into the woods is a thousand times worse than just walking across the field to water the goats or close up the chickens for the night!

Trapped in my own house by BUGS. Its like Covid with sucking mouth parts...

Dear Anonymous

So, I'm sitting here minding my own business, and all of a sudden, I get an email telling me I haven't posted anything here in awhile from someone named Anonymous. And I look back and see that the last thing I posted was back in November last year. And THAT was a political puff piece.... Well, thanks to Anonymous, I realize that there are some lost souls out there still wondering if I'm alive or not, so here's an update. This little farm Rose and I live on has been GREAT! I have two male and two female rabbits, Flemish Giant/New Zealand mixed from last years babies, and the two females are both due any day now. I'll keep two and two and either sell the adults along with any extra babies, or put them in my freezer. Probably sell them as even though I have no problem eating farm animals, I'd rather not if I have other options. I'm on my second set of chickens. Just got rid of the last bunch because they were eating eggs almost as fast as they were laying them. Started fresh with 7 leghorns and 20 black Austrolorps. Thanks to hawks around here, I'm down to 4 leghorns and 12 Austro's, but they are big enough now that the hawks have been leaving them alone.

My garden did better than I expected, though not as well as I'd hoped. So far I've gotten about 4 quarts of tomatoes, Roma and San Marzano sauce types, which Rose has made into some FANTASTIC spaghetti sauce! Going to put some pints up tomorrow if I get my butt going... Only one beefsteak tomato ripened so far, but a LOT more green ones getting big.

The first pic is my 16x8' garden and the second pic is my wife's white pumpkin. Yes, white pumpkin. I know, but she likes them, so I grew one... I also put a greenhouse up to get an early start on the years gardens, and to keep my tropical herbs; ginger, turmeric, pineapple plant, and kiwi alive over the winter.

Corn kinda fell over during some MASSIVE storms we had here. My landlord/neighbor had his three cars parked in front of his house and a tree there broke in the storm and totalled his truck and electric car, and dented in the top of his wife's car while shoving a branch through the sun roof. Good times!

Next to the greenhouse is my herb garden. Lots of different mints, Spearmint, Peppermint, Catnip, Chocolate mint, Mojito mint. That's dill hanging over on the right side. I have borage, sage, oregano, celery, lemon balm, lemon basil, purple basil, thyme, marjoram, stevia, and yarrow growing well there. A few weeds and grass, too. But with my cancer, I just haven't been able to keep it up as well as I'd have liked, nor a garden as big as I wanted. Speaking of which, I don't know if I mentioned my cancer ever before on this blog. But if I haven't, I HAD splenic marginal zone Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Long name to say my white blood cells never grew up and my spleen was the approximate size of Newark. Been getting a MonoClonal Antibody treatment. Not quite chemo, but feel just as shitty afterward. Six monthly treatments and the first few had my temp up to 103 and pure misery. But I'm feeling MUCH better NOW.... Seems the treatment did what treatment is supposed to do, and I'm getting back to myself. Cancer free for the first time in over ten years. Still no real energy, but my spleen is spleen sized now, and I can breathe without feeling like my lungs are mouse sized from being cramped anymore. Which means I can walk more than ten feet without being winded so much. And on a side note: Ever noticed how all the medication commercials on TV, if you look at the product name, instead of the marketing name, half of them end in MAB now? That stands for MonoClonal Antibody. The biggest breakthrough since penicillin. Soon everyone will want one... My dog Moop is gone. Internal problems. Pooped out his intestines. Not pretty. I'm still looking for another medium pal since he's been gone, but figure the right one will show up when its time. Scooter is still kicking. And still think he owns the place... I lost a sister to Covid after my brother... I wish we had been closer, but she was a lot older than me and we never bonded as much as my siblings closer to my age. Well, Anonymous, I just heard the oven alarm go off, which means my chocolate cake Rose is making me is done. I have to go bug her to get it frosted. (and yes I know it has to cool off, but its more fun to bug her...) Take care of yourselves, those of you who are reading this. Life is too short to spend it eating broccoli when there's cake involved...