Rain

I don't know if any of you have kept up with the weather in the Southeast, but it's raining again here. So far this summer, it's been one rainy summer.

We have mosquitoes to the glory. Around here, we can't have any standing water. In 3 days you'll see mosquito larvae. That goes for any standing water. I've seen larvae in the dogs' indoor water fountain. We have one of those 1.75 gallon waterers. I only fill them half way so I can give them fresh water every couple of days. I was taking the lazy way out. I don't do that any more. That was just plain nasty. The girls get fresh water every day, even twice a day.

Another effect of the rainy weather is frogs. LOTS of frogs. We have tree frogs here and lots of them. They like to hang out around our porch light at night. I also keep a small container for the compost pile on the railing so I can put my coffee grounds and scraps in it every night. Then I empty it the following day. Well...sometimes a day or two after I should. The frogs find out that flies and gnats love to do their thing in the compost tin. They'll sit around it at night and snatch up the flies and gnats. Right now, we have frogs the size of pencil erasers coming around. You know the pencil...yellow #2. Yep. Frogs that little get around pretty well. They crawl up the siding and hang around the porch at night. They're fun to watch on the window. Last night, I watched one stalk a small fly of some kind. Frogs sure do have patience, don't they?! I hate to say this, but they pop when you step on them. Yuk! I didn't do it on purpose, mind you. It was a bigger frog a couple of years ago. I watch going out in bare feet now. Uh huh. Sure do!

Any how, every few days the frogs mate in the ditches. They sing so loudly for about 3 days until they get their stuff done. The noise is so deafening that you can't sit out and talk. Then you see little frogs everywhere. It's like magic.

Well. Because of all of this rain, we lost a lot of tomato plants. The tomatoes rotted on the vine and the vines are losing leaves and are growing spindly. It's time to plant winter crops, anyways.

The strawberry patch is holding on. The plants are losing leaves from the heat, but they're alright.

The elderberry plot has grown by leaps and bounds this year. We had two flowering stalks which were promptly eaten by birds or something. Next year should bring some good heads. I didn't gather wild ones this year, yet. I'll be hard pressed to find some still holding on to the stalk with all of this rain. What's funny is, everyone born down here thinks they're poisonous. I love to make jelly from them.

That's how things are going here in our piece of heaven.

Take care.