August - What's happening in your garden? Part 2

We came from here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1021987/

Adina – beautiful pic of your garden!
Mau – Have fun at your daughters! Looking forward to pics when you return!

84.2 °F
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 56%
Dew Point: 66 °F
Wind: 0.0 mph
Wind Gust: 8.8 mph
Pressure: 30.06 in (Falling)
Heat Index: 87 °F
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 6 out of 16
Clouds: Few 4400 ft
(Above Ground Level)
Elevation: 18 ft

Tonight
Partly cloudy. Areas of fog late in the night. Low 76. South winds 5 mph.

Talk about the cat days of Summer!

Yes, it seems you're right! LOL

they are sooo funny!

Looks like they are both wanting a good belly rub!

Monty got his. LOL

Mr. Wester got his too!

LOL! Sharon! You & Celia are way too funny!

Weather---2 muggy!, spotty showers, & the mosquitoes are terrible!

Work (1st day) went very well! :D Those people are so laid back...it will take some getting used to... :D (my official title is...Research & Development Animal Lab Tech)--OK, so I get to play w/ fish & I have my own computer in my own cubical. :)

Kelli, Love those shots! It looks as if someone went riding thru where the water used to be, tho. But I really like the wild heliotrope! Very dainty looking.
Adina, I think that you have 2! green thumbs! ;) Gorgeous!
Sharon, E. Hookeri is simply out of this world! :D
Rann, Hope that things improve and soon...
Ric, Sounds as if you had a great time pond walking! :D

Well, off to bed..

Joey

(Garrett having fun)

LOL! Dead Cat Month!

Kelli Thanks for the photos!
It's amazing all that still blooming out there.

Adina your Yard is lovely!
So much maturity for a young garden.
Good Work!!

That moth is a Cecropia.
Fairly common in the east and the biggest silkworm moth in the USA.
We raised them all the time as kids.
The cats are fearsome looking

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/49/189434979_20c0e9dff4.jpg

But quite harmless.
We'd find them or the cocoons all over place in late summer.
Put them in jars and keep them in the frige.
In the Spring bring them out and release these giants as they emerged.

Thanks for the comments on the yard.
I have a few yard art shots ready.

Today we started a new project.
I 'was' going to do more shingling on the addition but got roped into the pond remodel.
Hot and Humid!
The digging wasn't bad but man were we wringing wet w/ sweat.
We moved three cubic yards of dirt from about 11 AM to 3:30.
2/3 of that was that clay!
This was the hardest part of the digging.
3' deep and 6' wide. Now we'll taper up to the existing 18" deep part.
Eventually it will be 12' long....

Here's where we started.

Here's where we dug.
After removing this monster of course.

Here's where we ended the day.
It's 38" to the top of the cinder blocks.
The rubber liner will go over them forming the pond edge.

Minutes after this shot a T-Storm came in.
Close lightning and some of the loudest and longest rolling thunder I've heard in a while.
Lasted about 2 hours and dropped the temps by 15 degrees.
The hole now has 8" of water in it.... lol!

Was more humid than hot today. Storms rolled thru last night and again between 3 and 5pm. KC had some funnel clouds and areas south of here got wind and tons of lightning. I got some rain and thunder and the occasional lightning.

I have raining, windy and lightning hit around before 5 pm then later on will be more raining and lightning... Oh I just hate thunder noise scare Rusty for sure!

Joey: Garrett is brave! At least he appears to be well padded and is wearing a helmet!

another project, Ric! will you and Robyn ever be finished? Oh, wait--a good gardener is never finished, right? At least the rain is helping to fill the pond--LOL

Thunderstorms have been moving through here off and on since 2 p.m. One just went over--apparently more are on the way. The temperature has dropped by several degrees.

Have a good evening, everyone!

Well if the rain had waited till AFTER the liner was in...... lol!

This is the last physically hard project.
After this a shed and GH will be built but that's just carpentry work.
The foundations are already done.

Ric

OK I'm way behind again! lol I started writing this post yesterday but didn't get to finish it .... then when I posted it this morning we're on a new thread! lol I'll post it again over here :

It stopped raining :-) At least for now. Partly sunny yesterday ... or mostly cloudy depending how you look at it ... pretty warm and fairly calm. I'd guess high 50's. Sunny this morning :-) There is a bank of clouds to the south, hope they're moving away ... should be around 60°F today. Just a light breeze blowing.

We've been trying to get rid of a yellow jacket nest in the garden for a few weeks now. The entrance was in a bank of soil. I tried to spray some bugspray into the opening a few times, but next morning the traffic continued in and out ... Finally we decided to light up the entrance and dig out the nest ... the first night we dug about 20 cm (8") into the bank without finding a thing ... couldn't find the opening either so we decided to wait until morning to see if there'd be any traffic still. There was. So the following night we lit another fire at the new opening and dug further until we finally found the nest ... about 50-60 cm (20-24") into the bank. Lit up the nest and thought that was the end of it. But noooooooooo ... yesterday morning there were still a number of wasps swarming around the burnt remains of the nest. Sheeesh! I really needed to get rid of them since I need to dig up the area where the nest was ... so I offered the survivors some grenadine in syrup served in a trap ... which they could not resist ;-) lol Last night when I went outside to clean out the rest of the nest, there was one lone wasp still there, the others were in the trap. So I think I finally managed to get rid of the whole thing! :-) Without a single sting! :-) Still can't believe how far into the bank the nest was.

Here's a photo of the dugout ... the nest was where the root is sticking out.

Hope you all have a great day!

Rann

79.6 °F and back to 90º for the high.
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 25%
Dew Point: 41 °F
Wind: 2.0 mph from the ESE
Wind Gust: 12.0 mph
Pressure: 30.14 in (Falling)
Heat Index: 79 °F
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 7 out of 16
Clouds: Few 13000 ft
(Above Ground Level)
Elevation: 4383 ft

Off to buy something for the GH.

Lining up and scolding me because I'm not fast enough filling the feeder.

raining

Dyson! There you are! We're having rain, too. Just north of here there has been a 'gully washer'! High water every where!

BBL.
Joey

I don't know exactly what is going on. There are springs, some of which smell like sulfur, but the next canyon over also has a creek with at least one spring but some years that creek goes dry. I would guess that "my" creek (Las Virgenes) has a larger watershed than the other (Cheeseboro). Las Virgenes doesn't have running water the whole length all year, but it will always have wet spots, like in that photo. Maybe there is a difference in the underlying rock. Maybe Las Virgenes has more springs. I have no idea. If I really think about it, it seems like kind of strange place. When I lived out that way, I used to sneak back there from time to time. It was private property back then and not open to the public, but no one lived there so I didn't think I would be bothering anyone. I knew where to avoid so that the security guard wouldn't see me. My life of crime. ;-) I could talk about that place for a long time, but I'll spare you.


Van Nuys, California (Airport)
Updated: 12:51 PM PDT on August 11, 2009
85 °F
Clear
Humidity: 41%
Dew Point: 59 °F
Wind: 5 mph Variable
Pressure: 29.99 in (Falling)
Heat Index: 84 °F
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 12 out of 16
Clouds: Clear -
(Above Ground Level)

a couple more pictures from Saturday
Yellow star thistle is an invasive weed and prettier in a macro than in real life.

I don't know what keeps California fuchsia alive in the summer

western tiger swallowtail

Here is a short video DH made of the butterfly. I didn't know he was filming. The clicking noise is my camera. I am talking to the butterfly and saying something like, "You have to expect this when you live in Hollywoodland." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRenDO12Pd0

Rann: so glad you didn't get stung by the yellowjackets--those things hurt! Ask me how I know--LOL
Celia: you have a demanding "audience"!
Joey: that looks scary!
beautiful western tiger swallowtail, Kelli! and the wildflowers, too.

no rain today--lots of big white fluffy clouds in the sky and plenty of sunshine--got up to 90 today

I'm heading home tomorrow but will stop by my MIL's house on the way to visit with her for a little while, then on home. It's been a good trip--today we went to Branson, MO and Springfield, MO--went shopping then came back to Harrison and got a pedicure and manicure--yesterday I had a massage. Feel very spoiled and pampered. Back to reality tomorrow--LOL

You can tell that's a CA tiger swallowtail by the sunglasses. ;-)

Mau glad you had a good time!

Rann you guys are VERY lucky you got rid of that.
That was a really bad accident waiting to happen.

Well we got the hole ready for the pond liner.
It's about 3 times the size of the old one.
We sweated off about 2 gallons a piece.

Ric

Ick, ick, ick!!! Is that clay? I don't know how you dig through that, if it is.

The deck has about 3 cubic yards of wet clay and muck on it.
But we did cover it w/ a tarp so it should be OK.

Celia many times it's a two person dig.
First person digs the clay and shovels it out.
Second person WHACKS the shovel w/ a hammer it get it loose.
Seriously!
It's really more cutting than digging.

I had my laser level out and it was too sunny to see.
So I got out the Red Glasses....
Here's what the camera saw......

Ric

LOL I imagine the hard work involved and I reach for the Sam Addams.

Cool pic!

Ric, your soil looks like ours, just wetter. It also looks like the soil in my parents' yard. DH used a pick when he put in our pond.

66.4 °F with 94º for the high.
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 26%
Dew Point: 30 °F
Wind: 1.0 mph from the ESE
Wind Gust: 6.0 mph
Pressure: 29.99 in (Rising)
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 0 out of 16
Clouds: Few 14000 ft
(Above Ground Level)
Elevation: 4383 ft

Ric: it's a red, red, red, red world! LOL and a mucky one, too!
Celia: some of our clouds yesterday looked like that--very pretty!

I'm heading back to Cabot today--should be plenty of sunshine and heat all the way!

Here's a portion of what we saw on the way back to Harrison yesterday from Springfield--you are looking at a part of the Ozark Mountains here.

Very nice, Marilyn

Van Nuys, California (Airport)
Updated: 12:51 PM PDT on August 12, 2009
86 °F
Clear
Humidity: 38%
Dew Point: 58 °F
Wind: 7 mph from the ESE
Pressure: 29.95 in (Falling)
Heat Index: 85 °F
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 12 out of 16
Clouds: Clear -
(Above Ground Level)

We went for a short walk today. We had never been to this place before but it isn't very far from where we live. It is a very steep walk up to the top. Here you can see where the houses have the grass and weeds mowed to about 100 feet away from the house, as is the recommended practice for fire safety. They also have fire-resistant roofs and may have sprinklers on the roof (I couldn't tell for sure).

The top of this hill is the most desolate place I've seen outside of the CA desert. There is plenty of evidence that kids come up here to drink and smoke, which is kind of scary.

Yep that looks pretty close to tinder dry... NOT a good mixture w/ partying.
Amazing how almost losing a county to fire gets people to obey the fire/brush rules....lol!

We saw a design show a while back w/ a flatroof house w/ a 12" deep pond on the white roof.
It recirculated into a pool in the backyard, both heating the pool and cooling the roof.
Cement walls and glass walls w/ insulated metal shutters.... it was basically burn proof.

The Ozarkie's!
Cool shot Mau!

Celia that's some wild clouds!

Hot and dry here for a change.
Thought we were going to get a pop-up for a few minutes.
Above normal high temps w/ below normal lows.
Makes for nice sleeping but the tomatoes just are not ripening.

We gave the ground a day to dry out, it's still a bit soupy down there, and us a day to recoop....
Got the liner and filter today.
I got a price from our usual place and started looking on-line.
Found a much cheaper price, 9 cents a square foot, for a better grade liner, Firestone Pond Liner.
9 cents may not sound like much but at 300 square feet that's 27 bucks.
And free shipping.
BUT I found out they were shipping from 1000 yards away from where we used to work.
It would be here Friday.... we picked it up around noon. lol!
Also got the filter there for about 1/4 off the usual internet prices.
Stuck it in the pool we have the plants and goldfish in temporarily...
the 125 gallons were crystal clear in about 2 hours.
The company is BestNest.com and they carry a lot more than just pond stuff.

We should be up and running by Friday!

Ric

63* mostly cloudy; some wind.
ric/your pond project is great; I can not imagine working in that kind of heat~
Dyson~very short, descriptive post:)
Music2Keep~go Garrett go~ cool pic.
kelli~as always, loved the hike from the cool comfort of home:) Didn't break the law, either:)
marsue~pampering is good~~~
rann~good luck in ridding the area of the hornets/wasps. Bet they loved the drink and will be gone now.
kwanjin~love the pretty mare's tail clouds.
We've been gone for a nice overnight at a beautiful lake/lodge. Perfect weather/food and scenery.

Great, ric. Good deal and ready to use very soon, now.

Hot and humid here.

Caught a little something from my brother's GF who then passed it on to my mom and me. Mostly runny nose and being able to breathe. Lasts a few days and is gone. Gotta take the nasty but very effective NyQuil tonite to beat it. lol

That's quite the 'Pond' you've got going there too Kiska!

Living here in the MIdwest you grow up adapting pretty well.
When I was a kid our usual winter temps were mid teens/20's for highs.
Single digits for lows.
(During the winter of 1980 we did hit -30 once and -25 for 3 nights.)
Summer routinely upper 80's/mid 90's.

Down here it's rare to hit single digits anymore, even mid teens were an event.
This Summer we might have hit 90 twice.
We'll be at 60° by morning....

Hi, everyone! I've been busily organizing homeschool stuff and haven't been posting much. My parents are on their way down here again - yayy! They got a late start (from southeastern Ohio), so they're staying in a motel just south of Cincinnati tonight... I told them to wave at you as they went by, Ric. Did you see them? LOL

They are not coming down at Christmas time this year as they normally do (we'll be missing them in December!), so they're making a short trip now instead. The December trip are always nice because they get a long winter break and can stay down here for 2 or 3 weeks. But Dad has trouble driving in the dark these days, and the winter nights come awfully early (although not nearly as early as it does for Kiska and Rann!)... it makes driving such a long distance really hard.

Tomorrow the bunnies and I will be cleaning the house and getting things ready. Mom and Dad will get here sometime Friday afternoon. Today I organized the dining room, which we use as a homeschool room. My sister-in-law gave us a bunch of her old homeschool books, and they've been lying on every horizontal surface in there waiting for me to sort through them. It took a while to get through it all and rearrange shelves to put stuff away! The rest of the house will be just the usual clean up, and will be much more fun than usual since we are looking forward to our company coming. :-)

It's been hot and humid with occasional rains in the afternoons - perfectly normal August weather. We're still in a drought because of how dry the spring/early summer was, but at least I'm not having to water every day. There are a couple of tropical waves in the Atlantic that we're keeping our eyes on, but so far it's been a very slow year for tropical storms - which is a blessing! There have been no tropical storms or hurricanes at all in the Atlantic, and only 2 tropical depressions.

Our bird bath died last month - the neighbor cats kept jumping on it to try to catch birds (grrrrrr.......), and the last time they tipped it over it hit a flagstone and cracked. :-( We're thinking about putting a pond in that spot instead. We haven't decided what kind yet, but I love looking at your pond tour photos, Ric! They give me lots of things to drool over... :-)

OK, back to the homeschool stuff for a bit before going to bed... I'll try to check in more often. I love all of your photos, even though I haven't commented on any of them!!!

Marylyn, we missed you!!! Sad about the birdbath and no company for Xmas but glad they're coming to see you now. Nice haul on the supplies.

Kiska, so easy to see why people fall in love with Alaska. Nothing looks like it. Beautiful!

Kelli, EEEK!!! Silly people are everywhere. Our mts. look the same and they still shoot fireworks/party/light campfires in the wrong places. Grrr...

Mau, so green. I love it!

83.6 °F with 97º for the high. We hit 97º yesterday so today we may hit 100º.
Scattered Clouds
Humidity: 25%
Dew Point: 44 °F
Wind: 3.0 mph from the SE
Wind Gust: 12.0 mph
Pressure: 29.90 in (Steady)
Heat Index: 81 °F
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 4 out of 16
Clouds: Few 14000 ft
Scattered Clouds 20000 ft
(Above Ground Level)
Elevation: 4383 ft

Good afternoon !

It's mostly cloudy, with a few warm, sunny spells inbetween .... VERY nice for August! :-) Around 56°F ... feels much warmer when the sun's out :-)

Thanks for the well-wishes on my battle with the yellow jackets! :-) I'm winning! lol The grenadine in syrup is totally irresitible to wasps, so the trap is crammed with them now ... hardly any left around the nest area. If you ever need to catch wasps, grenadine is a sure thing. I first put just syrup in the trap since we were out of the grenadine syrup .... caught two in a week .... after I added the grenadine the trap filled up in a few minutes.

We went on a day trip yesterday to a place in the south called Þjórsárdalur. It was kind of a waterfall- sightseeing trip ... the river Fossá (waterfall river) has quite a few of them. I think we saw them all! lol The weather in town was cloudy but where we were it was sunny and about 65°F :-) We had a great time.

Before we started the waterfall tour we stopped by a replica of a farmhouse from around 1100. Since houses made of rock and turf don't last for centuries, there are no originals left ;-) Here's the outside. The small building on the right is a church.

Rann