Big Blow Last Night

A thunderstorm came through last night and blew down some pecan tree limbs. Pecans are brittle and are bad about losing limbs when the wind gets up. The wind also blew down the support for my black-eyed peas that I worked all morning yesterday putting up. The thunderstorm brought some rain however, so I won't complain about the damage to the trees (which was not too much really) or the support for the peas. I hear on the radio that the wind blew down some power lines south of town and up in Shelby County. My lights went off a couple of times too during the storm, but they're on now so I had better luck than some of my neighbors.
My new digital camera came in the mail on Tuesday, so I've made some new pictures.

I went to Lowe's in Nacogdoches on Tuesday and bought netting and stakes for supporting the peas and beans. I also got Roundup Concentrate and some Periwinkles to replace the petunias in the birthbath flower bed and the one outside the back door. The petunias succumed to the heat and I'm hoping the periwinkles will stand up better. The zinnias are up in the birdbath bed too. This morning I plan to use the Roundup on weeds behind the garage where I plan to put in a bigger garden in the fall. I also plan to use the Roundup to kill the grass for put a flower bed across the back in front of a rock wall. I've got eight azaleas to put in the bed in front of the rock wall. The azaleas are left over from the ones I bought in the spring to put in front of the house.

I don't remember of I mentioned it or not, but the black-eyed pea seeds I planted were part of some I bought to eat from the grocery store. Evidently the peas were from running plants because they've got shoots 6 feet long. I'll not make that mistake next year since it looks like all I'll get this year will be lots of plant and not many peas. The yellow wax beans, which were supposed to be the bush type, are trying to run, but the problem may be that the soil is so rich all the beans are making lots of bush. Both both types of green beans and the wax beans are full of blooms and tiny beans. Maybe next week there will be enough to make a mess to eat. Hope so.




I got out the dehydrator and expect to set it up to dry the figs I gathered on Tuesday. I also downloaded the instruction manual for the pressure canner from the Internet yesterday and intend to can some chicken broth that I made when I deboned some chicken thighs earlier in the week. I make the broth by simmering the bones all day then cool it in the refrigerator. In the past, I've always frozen it, but I plan to can this batch. I like to use the broth as liquid when I cook stew meat.

Here's something interesting I found on the Internet. The link is below if you're interested.

Scientists decode how plants avoid sunburn