Accessible Gardening: #21 Practical Matters for Phsically Challenged Gardeners, 1 by seacanepain

seacanepain wrote:
Hey, Gang! We\'re back. The weather has been freaky lately. Biblical downpours, fierce winds and 110 days. It was cool enough to be called brisk very early this morning. Just frekin weird. Like Mother Nature is suffering from a major case of PMS.
Our local radio announcer kept telling us the current temp in Phoenix, AZ. I\'m not sure what the point was. \"You think it\'s hot here, but check this out!\" or, maybe, \"You wimps! 110 heat index temp ain\'t nothing.\" I was hoping it wasn\'t quite as wickedly hot in your part of AZ as it was in Phoenix, but it sounds like it is as bad or worse. . The strange thing here was the actual temp was only about 94. It was the 70% humidity part that was pushing the heat index, feels like temperatures so high and it only lasted a day. The crazy winds and rains came and now it is back to our norm.

I doubt this place is up to the same standard as yours and Carrie\'s house, TTC. I would get the better end of your vacation rotation deal. We decided not to build until the land was paid off and that will not be for another year or two, depending on how many double payments I make. My workshop is the only permanent structure on the property. Nadi lives in a micro-house that could be scooped onto the bed of a big truck. Kay and I live in a mobile home. manufactured in the 80\'s. With all the craziness that has cropped up since our northern neighbor arrived, I doubt we ever will built any significant structures here. More micro-houses and a RV hookup for Kay\'s family reunions, probably. The place looks like a modern gypsy encampment during get together. We were planning to run with that. Install proper RV hook-ups, an outdoor kitchen and a bath house. We are already set up for showers outside. Kay and I get really dirty working in the garden and Nadi doesn\'t want to let us pass through \"her\" clean kitchen. She trained us long ago to take our work shoes off outside the kitchen door, , but on some days losing our shoes isn\'t sufficient in her opinion. Kay refuses to take a cold shower no matter how hot it is. Tepid is acceptable, but not cold. To maintain harmony, I set us up for hot water outside. If Nadine\'s cleanliness obsession extended further than the kitchen, our house would be spotless
What is the hottest you can ever remember it getting in Milton, Carrie? When it was so hot, I told Kay moving to Vermont was looking like a better idea. She said, \"No way! Did you know there can be killing frost in New England in June!\" lol. She\'s been reading a gardening book by an author who lived in Connecticut.
I tore out a section of wall in the bathroom. Took it down to the outer wall and installed new fiberglass insulation. Well, it wasn\'t as boring as painting or as irritating as plumbing. This place dates back to the 80\'s, as I said. It has the unusually sized and shaped windows and doors popular then. . The doorway from the master bedroom to the master bath is five-sided. I think it was meant to give an Egyptian look, but it is a PITA. It may be meant to echo the shape of the bathroom window seen through the doorway. That window is even more of a PITA. I will never again buy a house with unusual windows. They tend to leak and they are all but impossible to replace. I think sophisticated was the look the designer was going for. The look he got was pimped out. It had beige carpet and mirrors everywhere when we moved in. The potential buyers I keep in mind as I re-model is an elderly couple. The w/c friendly doors and accessible kitchen counters I\'ve put in will be an asset to my imagined buyers. Things hard to come by in affordable housing for people with retirement incomes. .
The dry roast summer flowers like Indian blankets and verbena are trying to bloom, but not liking sauna summer conditions. Flowers are sparse, but fruiting is going well. We are picking blackberries, red raspberries and tomatoes. Ears are beginning to form on the corn and the lemon cucumber is flowering. The olive cuke is still growing like mad, but hasn\'t produced a single bloom yet. We are harvesting mints, catnip, pineapple sage, anise hyssop and lemon balm. It\'s tea time! No fruit on the pomegranates. I was afraid that wind and rain storm that hit while they were blooming would do some damage.
For a man who has no biological children, I had a good Father\'s Day. Kay\'s girls and one of the young adults who lived here for a while checked in. I got to cheat on my diet and have waffles for breakfast. Nadi made me Sesame chicken and made sure there was lots of baby corn in the stir fried veggies. :-) Love baby corn!
Hope Dave doesn\'t have to do any outside work. Pray it lets up soon.
Enjoy your good weather, Carrie. Iris coming your way after the first of July. They will love the cooler temps.
Today\'s daylily is \'Dixieland Band\'.