Harvests, Smoke, Seed Spreading, Melon Haul, Clearing Air

Thankfully the fire was largely controlled yesterday with only a few areas that needed the Fire Boss planes to attack in the north while the helicopters worked the south end. And now as I type this at 7am on Tuesday the rain has just started to fall and it sounds GLORIOUS! Rarely have I been so happy to hear the pitter patter of rain drops falling on the pergola.

My morning harvest came in okay. I ended up with 25 cucumbers and 16.5 pounds of squash, thanks to skipping a squash day.

It was a bit tough picking the squash though as the plants were covered in fine ash which kicked up into the air as I worked my way through the rows.

Mid day the smoke was a whole lot less than it had been for the past days and as the day went on it only got lighter as the storm system made its way into the region. The winds turned to push north and that pushed most of the smoke away by the evening.

With rain in the forecast(happening now) I had to move a number of things so they didn't get soaked. The tobacco seed heads were on the rack but not really fully dried and I have over an ounce of the SUPER tiny seeds saved already. I took the mass of pods and walked around the farm tossing them here and there and everywhere in hopes that the pods will pop open and drop their seeds so I can maybe get TONS of tobacco plants growing all around the farm. One variety is Delaware and the other Hopi which I really want to get naturalized to the farm.

The tomatoes managed to give me a nice haul of 9 pounds. I am really happy to NOT have cherry tomatoes this year, the larger varieties are much easier to deal with and give us more tomato and less skin.

It was 2 pm when the boys and I headed up to the melon garden and to see Anita and see how she was holding up. The melons really put out nicely with the biggest of the Minnesota Midgets being ripe. The squash and gourds are growing really nicely and I have a dozen large pumpkins hidden in the mass of growth.

120 pounds of melons got picked. 36 pounds of Golden Watermelon, 68 pounds of Minnesota Midget, and 15 pounds of Pear Melons.

Later in the afternoon I was throwing darts for a bit and found myself dialed in nicely after a short warmup. This is my first triple triple 18 for a 162. Slowly, ever so slowly, my aim is improving. J also came into the house and said that the road had now been closed and I found out that we are now in level 1 evacuation zone. Apparently they didn't have the man power to set the zone up as they have to close roads and keep track of people more.

I got dinner made for the boys and I then went out to soak. Hive account@stryeyz eventually got home and joined me.

It is raining now and I couldn't be happier for it. Not only to help kill the fires and remove the smoke from the air but all my plants in the garden have been in dire need of a good rinsing from above to wash all the dust and ash off the leaves. The entire region has been so dry for the past months that this could really help stave off the approach of Fall for a while longer.

I have to get harvests done between rain showers today, if it lightens up some I want to go pick peaches with the boys on Greenbluff but that may wait till tomorrow after the rains, and we actually get to have the windows open again now that the smoke is gone!