Inside The Perimeter

I’m back, and fuck it’s still hot.

Wee Little Farm is also suffering. Many large cucumbers were on the vines, some were over ripe, and some were consumed by pickle worms. More than half of the ones I picked yesterday were directly added to the compost bin. At least there were some I damaged ripe tomatoes on the vine. Later in the day I went out to look at something and saw that one ripening tomato I left on the vine had been eaten.

In doing research about the pickle worm problem, I read this:

“Pickleworms are native to southern states like Texas, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Sanford, Michigan, Connecticut, and even further up north. Pickleworms are excellent migratory insects”

Sanford? Did I miss Captain Chaos using an Executive Order to create a new state? And since when are Michigan and Connecticut southern states?

Wordle: five, a very disappointing five, my starter was WAGER

I am glad the Tour de France is back, but I really miss the commercial-free feed Peacock used to offer its paid subscribers. I am probably going to watch a lot less of the tour because the commercial breaks annoy me so much.

Wordle: four, my starter was TINGE

Happy Independence Day. Don’t hurt yourself, or anyone else, with fireworks today.

Wordle: four, my starter was BLAST

I spent all morning doing yard work, including mowing the front yard and cleaning up Wee Little Farm.

I then met my friends for lunch at Lan Zhou Ramen on Buford Highway; damn it was good.

My day out ended at Highland Tap. My buddies tried to go to the Clairmont, I declined, but were too early and they weren’t open yet.

It turned out to be a good thing that I returned home and diligently started doing my chores, because around 8:30pm the power went out and wasn’t restored until a little after 11:00pm.

Wordle: six, my starter was DRIFT. Admittedly I played Wordle poorly today.

Interesting (to me) Fact: my HVAC removes over a gallon of water per day from the house under our current conditions. I know this because I put a gallon jug at the end of the hose yesterday morning, and it was filled by day’s end

BRAG released some stats about Big BRAG the other day. While not shocking, there were some interesting figures.
Male/Female ratio of riders: 70%/30% (not exactly good odds for me, lol)
Average Age of riders: 56.9 years old

Wordle: three, my starter was LATER

You will shake your head when I tell you this, but I am reading a really great book about okra called “The Whole Okra: A Seed to Stem Celebration” written by Chris Smith. I’m reading this in anticipation of Wee Little Farm’s okra production later this summer, even though my okra growing has been underwhelming so far.

The refrigerator pickles I made yesterday were made using Alton Brown’s Bread & Butter Pickle recipe.

Last night I made a nest of Asian glass noodles and ate it with some yellow squash, zucchini, green bell pepper, and a pepper of unknown variety, all of which were harvested from Wee Little Farm.

My movie last night for Monday Dinner and a Movie was High Fidelity. I just realized that we missed John Cusak’s 59th birthday on June 28th.

Wordle: three, my starter was LATER

I binge-watched the rest of the fourth season of “The Bear” this weekend; still no laughs. 😉

I wonder when I will get back into exercising? Partially related, I’m battling an ankle injury that I have no idea how it happened. I’m also bummed because I don’t feel as if I’ve used these long days to their fullest potential.

Wee Little Farm is starting to crank out food — peppers (hot and sweet), eggplant, squash, potatoes, beets, and a lot of ripening tomatoes; cucumbers are starting to emerge as well. I hope that the tomatoes will be ready for use when I can process them. I might need to freeze ripe ones so they don’t go bad.

Wordle: four, my starter was CRISP

Can we please stop categorizing “The Bear” as comedy? I don’t think that it even classifies as a “dark” comedy. To my surprise the entire season of “The Bear” dropped onto Hulu the other day, I’ve watched on episode thus far.

Wordle: four, my starter was SURGE

Yesterday was mostly spent at the ITP Estate, except for helping Betsy out with an errand, and then going over to her house for dinner. The biggest wins for my day were mowing the front yard, and hammering in some posts so that I could secure five pepper plants which are finally starting to grow. WLF is at an interesting transition point, and unfortunately it appears that the seven fig tree saplings I transplanted on Tuesday have all died. In addition to my fig woes, none of my bean plantings this year have gone as expected; either I’ve had lousy seed germination, transplant mortality, or critters eating the plants.

Wordle: five, my starter was SLIDE

I’ve not seen Sluggo in a handful of days, so I expect it’s gone to another level of existence (read “died”). I can’t imagine how Sluggo can survive this heat and dry weather, so I think that I’m correct.

I did stay indoors for most of yesterday, save the couple of hours in the morning I sweat working in Wee Little Farm, declining to ride last night.

Yesterday was a money spending day! In addition to paying my healthcare premium, I ordered a reconditioned Shark vacuum from Amazon, and registered for the NC Mountain Ride. Good thing I have so much money coming in! Oh, wait…

While not cheap, the vacuum was much cheaper than a new one, which satisfies me since I will be pushing it to its limits with the ITP Estate’s needs.

Last night’s dinner was ramen with WLF vegetables — yellow squash, long purple eggplant, green pepper, and onion.

Wordle: four, my starter was STAGE