Hello!
Well I had a great month of sculpting at the fair... pictures soon! It was great to see family and friends in the area-- almost made me sad to leave! But there's something about being home and seeing the beau that surprisingly tips the scale.
I do not have a ton of time to write as you see I got home just in time to start canning and as you know tomatoes do not wait for long! About 35 plants made it through our scary wilt that had us both depressed earlier in the summer. For a while it seemed that every day more plants were showing the inexplicable symptoms that promptly leads to death. All it seamed we could do is watch. Toward the end I tried burying the steams of the very newly infected plants so the tomato could make new and hopefully more effective roots. I don't know if this made a difference but most of those plants recovered and the spread stopped-- although that could have been lucky timing.
The wilt claimed just about a dozen tomato plants and decimated our zucchini... but then stopped... and we are grateful. Of course then the counters are covered with impatient tomatoes yelling at me to make decisions and do something yummy with them-- and hurry up about it. It's not too bad and so far I've been able to keep up reasonably well and even can salsa at a friend's house with her tomatoes last week. But I'm just barely keeping up... if I finish my two batches of salsa today I would have cleared the house of harvested tomatoes. .... ... but I know there are more waiting in the garden! Part of me is thinking about how things would be had all of our plants lived-- I doubt I'd be at the computer right now.
In other news I have surgery scheduled for the 15th . I'm getting my thyroid removed. This has been a little while in the making. It started with a routine physical that lead to a thyroid ultrasound to measure the larger bumps thereon. From there it was suggested that the largest bump (or node) on each side be subject to a fine needle aspiration (tiny biopsy). When both sides came back "highly suspicious" for cancer the decision was made to remove said thyroid. Of course a few days of freaking out were included in there too for good measure-- can't skip the freak out!
So I have a lot to do before then... the tomatoes are calling!
Well I had a great month of sculpting at the fair... pictures soon! It was great to see family and friends in the area-- almost made me sad to leave! But there's something about being home and seeing the beau that surprisingly tips the scale.
I do not have a ton of time to write as you see I got home just in time to start canning and as you know tomatoes do not wait for long! About 35 plants made it through our scary wilt that had us both depressed earlier in the summer. For a while it seemed that every day more plants were showing the inexplicable symptoms that promptly leads to death. All it seamed we could do is watch. Toward the end I tried burying the steams of the very newly infected plants so the tomato could make new and hopefully more effective roots. I don't know if this made a difference but most of those plants recovered and the spread stopped-- although that could have been lucky timing.
The wilt claimed just about a dozen tomato plants and decimated our zucchini... but then stopped... and we are grateful. Of course then the counters are covered with impatient tomatoes yelling at me to make decisions and do something yummy with them-- and hurry up about it. It's not too bad and so far I've been able to keep up reasonably well and even can salsa at a friend's house with her tomatoes last week. But I'm just barely keeping up... if I finish my two batches of salsa today I would have cleared the house of harvested tomatoes. .... ... but I know there are more waiting in the garden! Part of me is thinking about how things would be had all of our plants lived-- I doubt I'd be at the computer right now.
In other news I have surgery scheduled for the 15th . I'm getting my thyroid removed. This has been a little while in the making. It started with a routine physical that lead to a thyroid ultrasound to measure the larger bumps thereon. From there it was suggested that the largest bump (or node) on each side be subject to a fine needle aspiration (tiny biopsy). When both sides came back "highly suspicious" for cancer the decision was made to remove said thyroid. Of course a few days of freaking out were included in there too for good measure-- can't skip the freak out!
So I have a lot to do before then... the tomatoes are calling!
We're feeling that it is the best decision given the circumstances.
