End of June Update

It seems like it has been forever since I posted an update, but things have been busy. Along with my usual routine of the different work that I am doing, my mom came up from North Carolina last Thursday to stay with us till this Tuesday morning. She mainly came to watch Yena in her swim meet this last weekend at Purdue and she did fairly well overall. She won her heats for the 100 yard fly and 200 yard backstroke. So between my mom's visit and the swim meet, it was pretty exhausting.

And then this week, the big thing has been all the smoke from the Canadian wildfires that has made it here. I know that we have already dealt with some smoke this summer, but this has been worse. The smoke and air quality is finally supposed to start getting better today with some storms coming in, but I didn't think that I would be so affected. For the last few days, it seems like I've had a constant headache, some nausea, itchy/irritated eyes, and allergy like symptoms. I am not sure if it is because one morning I went out to water the garden or what, but it hasn't been fun.

This is concerning because as climate change/global warming is only going to get worse, the fires in Canada and other places are only going to get worse. This is scary because how are we supposed to breathe without having to get oxygen tanks and masks or will it even be worth it. I have even started to wear a KN 95 mask when I go outside during these unhealthy air times and trying to stay inside. We need to address climate change/global warming and realize how our actions here affect what happens in Canada and vice versa. I have seen lawn crews or people yesterday when the air was very unhealthy outside mowing their yards or weedeating and it is like "God Bless!" I still see people in my neighborhood going out and spraying one little weed with their bottle of their herbicide that they have no clue how harmful that is, "God Bless!" Part of my heightened sensitivity is because I am currently reading Greta Thunberg's The Climate Book, which I will talk about in more detail in a later post.

Now, I will try to finish up this post with some lighter notes.

Last week for the Summer Solstice, I tried to make some honey cookies that I saw a recipe on Pinterest. It is hiliarious how much different they look compared to the picture on Pinterest, but they did taste good! They have some chopped up lemon thyme, lemon balm, and lavender buds from my yard/garden in them and I topped them with a chomomile flower too. Everyone liked them and they were fun to make!

I've managed to harvest just enough snowpeas a couple of times to saute them with a little garlic or garlic scapes, ginger, and soy sauce to make a fresh and tasty side dish.

Speaking of harvests, I harvested the first six or so very small garlic plants that were practically falling over. Obviously, they did not end up as big as we were hoping, but they were garlic and did taste good when we did cook them. We still have about thirty garlic plants in the ground right now and some are of a pretty good size, so here is hoping for some good garlic heads. The big garlic harvest is scheduled for this Saturday evening and I will let you all know how that goes.

My tomato plants all are doing well too! The cherry tomatoes are setting fruit in droves and I hope some ripen soon before we leave on our trip this summer. The other plants with the bigger tomatoes are doing well too, but I have had to take off quite a few tomatoes that were forming that had blossom rot on their bottoms or the big dark brown/black spots. I have read online those that they should be pulled because they stop the development of the tomatoes and it is better to pull those off so the plant can continue to focus on making new fruit. I hope that this doesn't continue with some of the plants, but it is always hard to tell how tomatoes are going to go. I am hopeful at least for a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes!

Okay, that's all I got for now. . . stay tuned for updates on the garlic harvest, the tomatoes, and books I am reading.