Good Morning All. Mostly cloudy and 77°. Looks like the neighboring Weather Underground's thermometer is on the fritz again.
Fortunately I have my own which is showing 77°. NWS has added isolated thundershowers to today's forecast, maybe because someone noticed some on the radar. Currently one about 20 miles east and another one 40 miles north. Neither one will move in my direction, but conditions are right for one to pop up anywhere, anytime, any place.. Ten day outlook is for dry conditions with a temperature range of 75° in the morning to 95° in the afternoon. For this time in June, that's a bit warmer in the morning, but a bit cooler in the evening.
Quite a busy morning yesterday, all with medical stuff. I started by reviewing the 32 pages of documents that I was handed when I checked out of the hospital. Much was relevant, but I was mostly looking at and making notes on the newer meds, and the changes in the old ones that the cardiologist had made. After that I had a previously scheduled video appointment with my primary care doctor. He was 20 minutes late, so I had to wait on that. Then the call lasted a lot longer than planned as I brought him up to date on the weekend visit to the hospital. We reviewed all of the medication changes and he made some more and undid a couple as well. He agreed with dropping one of the BP ones and the adding of all of the new ones, but we'll review all of them in two weeks. Meanwhile I had to scan and E-mail him the 3 pages of medication instructions for him to review visually. My wife then got on the phone with him because she has been extremely ill with some kind of chest infection. He scolded her for not coming to see him until she reminded him that she was in the hospital with me! After all of that, I then had to drive to the pharmacy to pick up the three new meds for me, plus an antibiotic for her that the doc prescribed for her.
After lunch and a nap, I went to the garden and picked nearly 15 pounds of Green Beans. And I only got through about 25% of the row. Next it was Tomatoes.
Train shed took over from there for about 45 minutes of running and just general puttering around before it was time to hit the pool for an hour! I had adjusted the pool chemicals before I did the medical documentation and all was perfect in the afternoon. Next was supper prep. Somewhere in there I did the overdue bed linen laundry! All in all, a busy day and other than the garden not too strenuous.
Today though, is a definite mower and weedeater day, starting around the back porch.
Karl - Dang! It's about time for a picture or two. Looks like a neat kit. Does Medford Trains still exist? First and only time that I have seen anything by them.
Tom O -
This may sound dumb coming from a person who has done over 1000 model train weathering commissions since 2018 but who’d have thought you could paint miniatures for commissions!
What a great idea and their reasoning on the website says it all. You may not have the time or the artistic skills. I never bring up artistic skills but always mention that I will save your time for other things.
In this day and time, people will pay for anything, many who just don't want to do it themselves. There are some who may not have the skills, but I look at "no time" as a cop-out for most.
Marco - I planted 63 Tomato plants and only lost one to cutworms. Harvest, as you can tell, is going well. This after last year's tornado destroyed the entire planting...too late to replant last year.
BP meds - I was on 4 different ones, now 5. One of the old ones was dropped and 2 new ones added although one of them is only supposed to be temporary. Lisinopril is not one of them. Some names that I can remember (and spell) are clonidine and losartan. I am mainly on beta blockers and diuretics. I don't think that any of them are ACE inhibitors like Lisinopril.
Troy - Your wife's Zucchini plants are suffering from malnutrition and not lack of pollination, since the flowers are not even opening. In answer to your question, yes they have to open before they can be pollinated. That's how bees get access in nature.
If these are growing in a pot, it's most likely root-bound and/or a lack of calcium in the soil. It's important to note that a healthy plant has a root system as big as or larger than what you see above the surface. Commercial potting soils are mixed to provide quick results with lots of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. They rarely have the calcium, magnesium, boron or other needed elements. They also need to be porous enough to allow oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide penetration. Plants in pots can easily get water-logged which inhibits the absorption of these gases. I would venture to guess that even a 5 gallon bucket is too small for Zucchini. I don't know what size she's using.
Todd - The covered hopper is designed to just have weights in the two outer compartments, over the wheelsets. I added the pennies both above and below the existing weight to keep it from being top-heavy. In retrospect, I could have added two of those four on top to the bottom, but I initially didn't know if there would be enough room. Those are also on the A-end of the car. I keep that truck tighter than the B-end to increase stabilization on all of my cars.
Patrick - Despite my run-in with the tornado last year, I have noticed less of them overall. I read an article about two years ago in which the author stated that "Tornado Alley" seems to be shifting NE a little bit every year.
Music icon Sir Paul McCartney is 83 today. For you younger folks, he was once with a group known as The Beatles.
Everyone have a wonderful Wednesday.
