The Zucchini are ripening faster than I can eat them. After planting four zucchini plants two years ago and two last year, we learned our lesson and have only one this summer, but it is huge. We have already harvested three of its fruits and there are many blooms, promising Zucchini well into the fall.
I like zucchini, especially sliced and pan-fried with onions. I just don’t want it every night. If the oven worked, we could have zucchini bread. (Darn those solar people blowing out our oven!) I expect to be eating zoodles before the week is out.
We also have some nice cucumbers, many of which will end up as pickles. We’ve eaten all the peas and are now starting on green beans, which are just starting to mature. This year’s variety is nowhere near as productive as last year’s. If you want lots of green beans, I recommend Provider, which flooded us with beans in 2023. Provider has the added advantage of being an heirloom.
Our blackberries grow like weeds, and the crop is in the early stages of ripening, and I’ve already eaten a few. I expect it will peak late next week.
Driving home the other day, I saw an apple from a nearby tree had fallen into the road. It was still green, but the apples appear to be ripening early this year.
This is what I call the fat time of year. It is the only time of the year when the amount of food available locally is more than we can consume. If we were bears, we would begin fattening up for the winter. In a survival situation we’d do the same, plus we would be furiously canning and dehydrating the excess harvest. We’ll still put up food, just not as furiously. My wife has already said she won’t be freezing zucchini this year, so we’ll begiving them to those unlucky souls who don’t have gardens.
Critters
Do snakes count as critters? It’s been a big year for them. I have seen at least six and my wife a few more. Half of them have been black snakes. We’ve not seen any poisonous snakes so far. I doubt a snake could bite through my muck boots, but I‘d prefer not to test that theory.
This weekend, we passed the neighbor’s house when we hiked further up the mountain on a cool morning. As we approached, my wife pointed out something was moving in front of their house. As we got closer, we could tell it was a cluster of three young raccoons. But why were animals that are usually nocturnal out in the daylight?
There have been stories of rabid animals in the area who charge humans, so I said to her, “Take the dog’s leash; If they charge us, I’ll shoot them.”
“Do you have a reload?” she asks.
“Yes,” I said, slightly insulted that she thought I might miss. Then again, they are a small, swiftly moving target. But still…
“Good,” she says. “Carrying all that stuff might finally come in handy.” For the record, I don’t go armed in fear or raccoons, rabid or not.
The raccoons were not rabid, but they were hungry. We watched them climb the neighbor’s blueberry bushes and eat the berries. Later, I called him up and told him what I’d seen. He was surprised. “We thought birds were getting all the berries,” he said. I didn’t even know raccoons ate blueberries. But they are so tasty, why not?
More Critters
Apparently, the warm winter made it a good spring for furry animals to reproduce because we have seen more this year than in previous years. My wife surprised a groundhog one morning, and a skunk surprised me the other night. The dog desperately wanted to chase it, and I desperately didn’t want either of us to get sprayed, which lead to a tremendous tug of war between me and the 90-pound dog. (I barely won.) The skunk ducked into the culvert under our driveway and made its getaway with no spraying.
While I am not against skunks, I am against getting sprayed. I put two Conibear traps in the culvert’s entrance. For the last two nights, I have donned my night vision, put the suppressor on my 10/22, and staked out the driveway from what I hoped would be the safety of our raised deck. Never saw it. Not even a rustle.
When animals mature and leave their mother, they often wander in search of territory to call their own. I will have to hope the dog caused this critter to settle elsewhere. I’m not a big fan of blueberry-eating raccoons, but I’d rather have them around than skunks.
Beekeeping
I have eight beehives, but three of them are producing most of the honey. I plan to harvest in August, but I may have to pull some supers off the hives before then. One hive has six on it, and I can’t reach any higher without a ladder.
The other day, I didn’t wear gloves while beekeeping. I often taken my gloves off to use my phone or operate my camera, and when handling a queen, but I usually wear gloves while opening the hives. Beekeeping barehanded was a first for me. Only, I didn’t do it on purpose. As I walked back to my truck, I saw my gloves on the tailgate. I looked down at my hands and I thought, “Huh, I wasn’t wearing my gloves.”
The next time I was in the hives, I purposely didn’t wear gloves. I got stung twice, so I put them back on. I may not swell up any more, but getting stung still hurts enough to be annoying.
Video of the Day
Here’s a video from Bob Binnie, a great beekeeper and all-around nice guy. I’ve queued it up to the part where he talks about Selena, the female beekeeper in his video, who is tending hives in short sleeves with no gloves. I’ve worked with beekeepers who wear Crocs and shorts, but I’m not there yet. I wear long pants, boots, and at least a jacket with a veil. Maybe in another four or five years. Or not.
