Down and OUT in August - Highgrove Happenings

The heat is getting to us. Now I know why they call it the “dog days of August.” It really has to do with the “Dog Star” (Sirius) but I think it’s because all the dogs in this show are pooped out with the heat, including our three and the three humans in the house too. The dogs have all learned the joys of lying in front of the fans.

As you all know, I am a self-admitted plant addict, and to show the depth of my “problem” I am already planning my fall vegetable garden! Crazy, I know, but even though it seems outlandish, August is actually a great time to start planting the seeds for many of the things we like to eat from our winter garden – which in southern California is actually less work than the summer garden and just as rewarding. From now until the end of September and into October is a good time to get those seeds and seedlings into the ground and something to think about as you pull up your spent summer vegetables. The remaining warm days will get your plants off to a good start. Here are a few general timelines:

• August – plant your first crop of beets and carrots toward the middle of the month. We have a raised bed that will be in shade during the winter, but should be able to hold the beets and carrots that should be big enough to eat by the time the sun goes too far south. Also, even though I always put my sweet peas (flowers) in on Labor Day weekend, this year I will be planting them even sooner in the hope of having sweet peas for Christmas! If you want to try cabbage, broccoli or any other cole crop, this is the time to plant seeds in six packs.
• September – Plant garlic and onion seeds. They will mature in late spring of next year. You can also start lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, bush peas, and fennel. Every two or three weeks, sow a row or two of beets, carrots, lettuce and spinach, so you will have an on-going crop.
• October and beyond – Keep up your succession planting. By not over planting at any one time, you will continue to have a steady (but not overwhelming) supply of fresh vegetables.

It’s also important to be extra careful about renewing your garden beds. Add as much compost as you can find and turn the soil over well. Also add some bone or fish meal, or if you are not 100% organic, some slow release fertilizer such as Osmocote. The colder temperatures in the soil as the fall progresses make the nitrogen less accessible to the plants so it is important to have plenty available.

In our garden this month we have finished the plum and peach crops which were very successful this year. We were able to freeze peaches and make both plum and peach jam. A friend gave us part of his bumper crop of pickling cukes, so we made a ton of bread and butter pickles (about 20 jars!). The tomatoes are becoming more enthusiastic (a little slow this year due to the heat – too warm at night and nobody wanted to set fruit) and we have had masses of the most delicious summer squash ever. The winter squash is rambling everywhere in the orchard and we will have lots of squash to store. We have also planted a second round of squash and cucumbers (we’ll see if it’s too late or not) and a bed of late corn. These last are experiments but you never know unless you try, and we’re only out the cost of some seeds and a little water.

We had one disaster this year (well, actually two, no, wait a minute, three). First, the cucumbers died practically overnight due to a mass infestation of ants and aphids. Within a week, I had lost the yellow crookneck to the same invaders. I was despairing and thought that I might lose the patty pan too, but I started to use a strong jet of water on any of the leaves with aphids and also my neighborhood legions of lady bugs flew in to the rescue. Between my hose and the lady bugs, we have been able to keep the zucchini and the patty pan alive, although we may lose the battle here pretty soon. Finally, my beefsteak tomato was stomped flat by my Great Pyrenees Maggie in a showdown with the neighbor dogs. 105 lbs. of big white dog versus a tomato plant – you KNOW who’s going to win!

Things to do in your August garden:

• Pull out spent vegetable plants and keep produce picked to encourage continued production
• Water deeply, don’t sprinkle – sprinkling encourages shallow roots which are much more susceptible to drying out
• Prune back bloomed out perennials and shrubs
• Keep flowers picked off zinnias, asters, petunias and other annuals to keep them blooming, fertilize sometime during the month
• Cover any late fruit crops with bird nets until they are ready to pick
• Run in the sprinkler or jump in the pool if you have one, or at the very least, squirt yourself with a hose
• Take a nap in your hammock or lounge chair
• Read a book
• Sit out in the evening and watch the sunset and the bats and/or owls come out

Life is good.

Bill's back

Bill's back. He left for parts unknown yesterday but this time it was a short trip. Bill's MS sometimes does strange things to his cognitive abilities and anytime he has a fever or an infection, takes too much of one of his meds, gets dehydrated or too hot, his symptoms get a lot worse for a period of time. He can't transfer or follow instructions, loses control of his arms, can't reply to questions and in general is impossible to deal with. It's very scary. Sometimes, like yesterday, it is only for a few hours. I was able to get him to the hospital before he was not able to get in and out of the car (sometimes we find him on the floor, then we have to call the paramedics).
This time all they did was test him for infections and watch him. He was not so far out of it that he needed a sedative. Other times, he has needed a heavy dose of Ativan so he won't fall out of the bed or hurt himself. He took a long HARD nap mid-afternoon and when he woke up, for some reason he was much better. By the time my sister Joan showed up with hamburgers from In n Out, he was making sense again, and the hamburger and strawberry milk shake (his favorite) brought him completely back to earth again. We went home about 9, after stopping for a burrito. For some reason he was still really hungry.
Kudos to Kaiser this time. Even though we were there for hours, the nurses and ER doctor were
very nice and very kind. Dr. Yi, who was the internist who came to see him about 8:30, was amazingly nice and explained all the lab results to me. I had never had that happen before. Someone brought me one of those lovely warm blankets at one point - I was freezing in there.
Sometimes I really appreciate new technology. While I was waiting, I kept Matt, Danielle and Laura up to date by text message and called Joan on my cell. All without leaving Bill. They are not worrying so much about cell phones in the hospital any more (at least not in the ER), just as long as you don't bother anyone else.
They never did figure out what was wrong this time. Maybe it was because it was Saturday.
Today he's just fine and has been perking around the house all day. I am always grateful when he comes back to us. I hope we never have to see the day when he doesn't.

Why I'm like my mother

This past week was the 10th anniversary of my mother Esther's death. She died on July 1, 1998, while I was in the middle of graduate school. We never found out what was wrong with her for sure, because she was "done" with tests and other invasive treatments by that time (she was 86, and had had at least six major surgeries in her life - she wanted no part of any more). I think she died of a broken heart. The last year of her life, my dad was becoming more and more confused and "demented" - it was the year of the huge "El Nino" and they spent nearly the entire winter in the house. Dad wouldn't go anywhere, and he would barely let me take her anywhere. She had lost her sister Carrie and sister-in-law Winnie during the previous two years and was losing her friends right and left. Every time I talked to her, she had been to another funeral. It was as if everything that had given her a reason to live was leaving her. We were the only thing left.

At Mother's Day that year, I remember thinking, "this is the last year I will have my mom on this day." She wasn't eating much and she just started to fade away. She died a month and a half later.

The night she died, we were all at the nursing home, waiting. She was out of pain, they had given her morphine, and I sat holding her hand and listening to her struggling ragged breathing, telling her it was ok to go. She finally took her last breath about 8 p.m. and nearly at the same time, a small bell rang in the hall.

At the time, I didn't want to be like her. She had picked a difficult man to marry, my father, and I felt that she often let him walk all over her. She didn't know how to cope with his rages and made excuses for him and didn't know how to protect us from him. She should have left him years ago, but wouldn't go. It was a source of frustration to my siblings and me. There was nothing we could do about it except forgive her, which I eventually was able to do. It was a different generation and she just couldn't bring herself to leave or kick him out.

Now I can think of my mother with joy and fondness for my memories of her life and a new appreciation for her accomplishments in spite of the limitations she had. From the vantage point of ten years after her death, I can see the gifts she gave me by what I have also accomplished in spite of my OWN limitations and I see that many of my own areas of interest had their beginnings in something that she exposed me to in one way or another or encouraged me to do.

Just a few...

• I love birds, being outside - all our trips to the Sierras (the bluebird above was hers)
  
• I am a farmer at heart - growing things gives me an enormous satisfaction - I used to follow her around in the orange grove and help with the irrigation. I started pulling weeds at age 4.
  
• I love to help people - we have a long streak of "social worker" types in our family - my mother was always helping someone, including the hobos that came to the back door in the early 50s.
  
• I love books - Mom took me to the library weekly in the summer and made reading a perfectly good alternative and reward to doing chores
• I went to college with no support from her and Dad (he was retired by that time and didn't have any extra money) - she made it clear to me that I was absolutely capable of it and shouldn't think I couldn't. I managed it somehow.
  
• I love God - while she couldn't go to church for most of my childhood (my father wouldn't let her) - she encouraged me to go with my grandmother and aunt. This is a foundation of my life.
  
• I love to cook - she let me try weird things when I was taking cooking in 4-H and ate my concoctions even if she didn't like them (I remember one shrimp curry that was particularly nasty...). She was also not a slave to recipes and taught me the basics of canning.
  

I DIDN'T get her drawing and painting ability and though I can sew, it's hard for me to take time to do it right now. Maybe later. My daughter got the artistic genes and the pie-making genes - I am hopeless in that category. And I am definitely not the fisherman she was!

Today I told my daughter that I was canning and she said "you are totally turning into Gramma!" That's what started all this...

Mom, I miss you.