I finished harvesting the radishes from the garden yesterday. There is one radish that is so large it is practically a turnip. Yayy for actually growing good stuff!
The rest of the garden is both thriving and struggling. The cucumbers and corn look fantastic. The corn is already about thigh-high and the cucumbers have vined out and are flowering. All three carrot plants that took are also doing well, with large feathery tops.
One plant of five-blend lettuce is now large enough to make a decent salad for 2-3 people. Two other plants of lettuce are hanging on, but will most likely soon be overtaken by the cucumber vines. We lost all of the spinach plants, and roughly half of the broccoli plants. On top of the losses, much of the garden seems to be growing at a very shallow level, making the plants insecure. Not good when in the season of strong thunderstorms.
When we got back from the gym today Justin and I headed out into the garden to clean it up and put in a second planting. He and I both weeded out the few weeds, then while he replanted lettuce and spinach in the areas left open by the radishes and lost plants, I opened up a bag of potting soil we had on hand and shored up all of the plants that were growing to shallow. Justin rounded out the day in the garden by watering everything really well. Not quite half an hour of work and everything is back in order.
Hopefully the new lettuce and spinach plants take and we can have a lot of salads out of our garden around the end of August. If this second planting doesn't take, well, there's only half an hour lost.
We had some crazy weather here this past week. Tuesday was ridiculously hot, with temperatures in the high 90s. This in and of itself isn't too bad, but put 60 or 70% humidity on top of the ambient temperature, and you've got a sauna. Good sun-tea making weather, but suffocating to be out in.
Around 4 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon I checked the temperature online and saw on the radar that our area was about to get slammed with a giant thunderstorm. I called Mom to give her a heads up in case she wanted to try to beat it home, but I was too late on that call. While on the phone with her the sirens started going off in Cedar Falls. It seems there had been several reports, verified by Cedar Falls police, of a funnel cloud near the UNI Dome. Mom got off with me to head downstairs in her building and I got the local station on to see what was happening. It wasn't until many hours and sirens in Waterloo and Vinton later that it was determined there had not been a tornado, just something called a gustnado.
What is a gustnado, you say? Basically, a very weak tornado that forms at the front of a storm (typically, the really strong, damaging tornadoes form at the back of a storm). Gustnados are very short-lived and are often characterized by a small debris cloud near the ground.
Anyway, at the time of the storm everyone was operating under the assumption of a tornado, and subsequent precautions were taken. After watching the news for a few minutes, I stepped outside onto the driveway to check the sky for the front. Denver is about 20-30 minutes behind the weather in Cedar Falls, so I figured I could watch the front come in. If there was anything amiss, not only would I see it, but I'd be able to hear the sirens better should they go off.
When I walked outside there was a small breeze, but nothing significant. I looked to the Northwest, then West, then South, then East, then back to the West. As I finished circling and came back to face West I was slammed by a wall of wind. In less than 10 seconds we went from a 5 MPH breeze to 70 MPH winds. The Midwest girl in me went "uh-oh". Eyes back on the sky, which was turning a nice shade of green and brown. The clouds were swirling and twirling, but there was no sustained rotation.
The winds moved through first, and then came the rain. 1.5 inches in 20 minutes. Standing in the front room and looking out at the street I could barely see the houses directly across from us. It was ridiculous! The winds had loosened a large branch of the tree next to our driveway, and the rains finished the job. When they finally subsided the driveway was blocked by the branch. Fun!
Amazingly enough, only a few homes in Denver lost power. Cedar Falls and Waterloo weren't quite as lucky as falling branches brought down power lines, but overall the damage from the storm was mainly limited to tree damage. By 5:30 it was all over. Carrie went through the storm at work, just like Mom, only Carrie's experience was... enhanced by kids and parents huddling together in the bathrooms of the center. Gotta love summertime in the Midwest.
On Friday of this week Mom and I leave for New Hampshire! It's going to be lots of fun, especially since I have never been further East than roughly Ohio. Yayy for new experiences. Grandpa lent Mom and I his recently acquired GPS system, which will come in handy for getting around unfamiliar places like Boston. We are looking forward to meeting Norah and exploring the East Coast a bit. We'll be out there for roughly a week before heading back to Iowa.
That's about all the news I have. Nothing too exciting, but life as I currently know it.
Love!
~g
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