Rain, Skeeters & Fleas

The weather has been quite odd even by Mississippi standards as of late. Practically every afternoon and/or evening, we've had rain. Enough rain has fallen that we're now officially out of our drought conditions and now have an excess.  It's not as bad as the flooding in Louisiana but we are saturated. 

Every morning and afternoon I sit with my ducklings while they eat and the skeeters suck a blood meal out of me. I slap the skeeters until I look as though I've taken a load of bird shot from a shotgun with all the blood splatters but otherwise enjoy my time spent watching my "peepers" grow. I do keep buckets & such around the eaves of the house to catch rainwater to use where the rain doesn't reach. These I have to monitor closely to keep them from becoming mosquito breeding pools.

My tomatoes were rather dismal this year, putting on lots of leaves and flowers but few fruit. Root crops and corn were a total bust and peas only produced about enough to replace the seeds I planted. Okra, squash and gourds were all  flops as well. I did manage a few assorted chili peppers and cucumbers made enough to share a few with my Mom. I may manage to get a few melons before all is said and done. My best crop this year has been sunflowers. I'll have enough seeds to roast a pound or so of seeds, save a few to plant next year and use the small ones as bird food.

Vlad, my Jack Russell terrier is sorely allergic to flea bites. One flea will drive the boy crazy. Well, he'd been chewing on his butt so I went to the vet the other day and got him and Bella some chewable flea killer medicine. Dr. Gail didn't have to stuff we'd been using in stock but instead had some other stuff that's supposed to be even better. A 3 month supply for the 2 dogs was not cheap but it made my kids feel better almost right away so it was money well spent.