Garden headaches

See that? That is a borer worm. Evil little sucker. Hollows out the plant then the second picture shows what's left. That is/was a pepper plant. Last month I posted pictures of my beans with a question of what did it, (ok, maybe I forgot to add text to that post.....) anyway, the answer is the pictured little pest worm. And no, this does not mean we are giving up our principles and turning to chemical poisons. We looked at pesticides at the garden store and every single one of them said: "WARNING, THIS PRODUCT KILLS BEES".......I refuse to be part of the problem. We need bees more than we need another pepper or bean plant. What we need to do is foster our lacewing population and get our soil even healthier to the plants can defend themselves.

Garden produce

Positive thoughts

It is possible that I am just trying to avoid thinking about the many negative things that I could gripe about (and have to my poor friends who are good sport about my whining), but here's a thought from Brave Writer:

Who in history would you be?

I would be me in a different era. I like me. I am not in love with 2007. I want to live on a farm, in a place that does barn raising and makes cheese from fresh milk and sweaters from sheep wool. Ok, maybe I want to be Amish with or without the whole go to church a lot thing. But really, the root of it is, in a community people don't use their neighbor's trucks for roman candle launchers.....because children and adults are taught to respect each other and each other's property, recognizing the hard work of others and not stomping on it. Fire blight, crop faliure, I can handle, but stupid people....not so much.

So, back to the history question. I would have liked to meet Amelia Earhart before she disappeared, asked those French royal dudes what kind of cake was their favorite before joining all the other angry housewives with bread knives, and then seen the Midwest's prairies before people planted corn everywhere. Maybe that's why I like Neal Smith Prairie Refuge so much. Then again, I do like the artistic visuals of planted corn and bean landscapes.

Update: forcast is busy

One of my three readers asked me why I had not posted anything since we got home. It's complicated. I took on an extra class in the middle of the semester and I have to redesign the course, create assignments, and quell student anxieties that are inevitable when a new professor steps in and takes over with only 4 weeks left in the semester. I have been very busy with that and my other 3 classes approaching their end date as well.

Then, we have been interviewing Realtors. It's a long, yet worthwhile, process. We learn a lot and they get to know the property. Then we are really busy getting the house ready to plant the sign in the yard. I am busy with my own anxiety about moving, or rather selling. I am rather attached to this house.

But mostly, we've been laying low and not doing anything really terribly interesting. It's hot and humid here and we are still tired from our trip. We went to park day, but it was pretty standard. I've been complaining alot out loud about 4th of July festivities encroaching on my quality of life, but I have declined to write about it. No neat pictures. No neat narrative. I promise I'll write when I have something lovely to share!