5.14.12

I've been seeing the numbers again. It had been months since either of us had seen any but they started for me last week or so. 11:11 then 1:11  in the same day. No numbers for a few days then numbers almost every day. In particular … 12:34, 12:12, 11:11 and 4:44. This morning I took a short nap and woke at 11:11

The day is beautiful!  But still no rain at all. It was predicted for Saturday and Sunday but not a drop. I’ve also had a lot of trouble getting online. I started the computer trying to get on early this morning, it’s 1:40 and just now finally connected. I don’t know about the rain but the connection could be because of solar flares. Nik has a theory that we may all have to become nocturnal. He gets the computer in the evening and has had a lot less trouble. Last year the only way I could get peppers was to grow them in the shade.

I spent most of the morning working on my studio. It’s coming along very well. I’ll have room to paint and create and a space for sewing. Sewingwise, I’m making drying bags from old sheer curtains/ several sizes including a huge one for drying black walnut leaves on their branches. For years I’ve dried a great deal just hanging in the house but the flies this year are worse than I’ve ever seen them .

I have a pretty good fruit fly trap so I need to work on the houseflies now. I’m going to try spraying the door screens and around the outside of the doors with 4 Thieves. It works so well on other things I believe it will work.

The garden is slow going but it is finally going. Our legs and arms are numb from tilling but eventually it will be done. I wanted to see if I could find someone to plow it for us just once but there’s no way to get a tractor to it yet. We’re going to dig out a drive at the far end to run up to the pond field but that’s a ways off.

On the popcorn, I tried growing popcorn in florida but as I recall, it didn’t do well for me. I believe it’s much slower to germinate and mature than other corns. I’m thinking it takes almost 4 months from seedling to corn. I intend to let them dry on the stalk and then pick the ears, shuck them and store them for further drying in brown paper grocery bags filled loosely. I think the only way to know if they’re dry enough to store properly is to try and pop some. If they pop the corn is read to remove from the cobs and store or eat  J  I believe you can use the cobs from popcorn just like other corn cobs.