The harvest begins

I somehow thought I’d be able to keep up with my blog posts better after I retired, but it turns out not to be the case. I planned to post yesterday afternoon, but when I turned on my desktop computer, it began to boot up normally and then suddenly presented me with the Black Screen of Death, which was even more alarming than the usual Blue Screen of Death. I turned it off and on. Same thing. I was able to get the Task Manager, and after clicking through every option I could find there several times, I finally saw the familiar photo of a misty morning on Hungry Jack Lake. Phew! I spent the rest of the afternoon backing up tens of thousands of files. I hadn’t done a backup since January of 2018. I am always astounded by the number of files on my computer. Really, I should clean them up someday. I can’t possibly need them all, can I?

We had a busy weekend. Hilda’s college friend, Eloise, came for a long weekend. They had not seen each other for 17 years. Eloise is an avid game player, and we had a good time playing Mexican train. She taught us two new games as well. Terry took the fact that he could still learn games as evidence that his brain was still good.

Terry, me, Hilda, Eloise (left to right)

On Sunday, Hilda made roast chicken with vegetables. Although she had to buy a chicken, all of the veg came from the garden. Here is our first harvest of potatoes, carrots, and beets. The tender potato skins wash right off with the dirt. New potatoes are so lovely. We also had zucchini, which is not pictured. I only planted 3 zucchini this year, and already I can’t keep up with them.

Beets, carrots, and new potatoes from the garden

We are harvesting peas and green beans every other day. I am freezing what we can’t eat.

The Queen Anne’s lace is blooming. My heart always sinks a little when I see it. Summer is on the downward slide to fall. When I worked at camp in the summer, I remember feeling like I was just getting in tune with the rhythm of nature when the Queen Anne’s lace bloomed, and I had to go back to living in the city, waking up to an alarm instead of the sunrise and the loons calling. It’s different now that I don’t have to go back to work in three weeks. My summer can extend into September, even October if the killing frost is late. Perhaps over time, I will learn to not be sad when I see the white umbels along the road.

Many other things are blooming as well. In my experiments with native plants, I have found that beebalm (a.k.a. wild bergamot) and New England aster are pretty invasive. I’m okay with it as long as it doesn’t crowd out my other natives. New England aster is good to have around because it is one of the few plants that bloom late in the season. The bed behind the tractor shed has beebalm, New England aster (not in bloom yet), cone flowers, and butterfly weed.

Behind the tractor shed, left to right: New England aster is behind the purple cone flowers, the butterfly weed is orange, and everything else is the rapidly spreading beebalm (wild burgamot)

Among the mixed seeds I got at the native landscaping seminar last year, I have one swamp (a.k.a. rose) milkweed, which is exciting. The only other survivors are—you guessed it—beebalm.

Rose or swamp milkweed

The butterfly and hummingbird garden that I planted two years ago is thriving. When I got the puny plants in the mail, I thought they were just kidding about planting them in a 75 ft² space. They weren’t. It’s good that they are doing so well, but I will have to divide them in the fall.

My overcrowded butterfly and hummingbird garden

The meadow blazing star is a magnet for monarchs. There are six of them in this photo.

Six monarch butterflies on the meadow blazing star

This picture shows a monarch with its proboscis in the floral tube.

Monarch sucking nectar from the meadow blazing star

The beebalm lives up to its name, particularly for bumblebees, which are ever-present on the flowers.

Bumblebee on beebalm.

These are the glory days of summer when humans, insects and all other organisms enjoy the bounty that the warm weather brings us.

Sexual dysfunction in zucchini

Zucchini flowers are beautiful, but botanically imperfect. A perfect flower has both male and female function. Zucchini flowers are either male or female. One plant will produce both kinds of flowers, which we call monoecious (“one house”) in the business. Being retired and no longer having a whole college on which to pawn off excess veg, I have only three zucchini plants. It is not unusual for plants with single-sex flowers to offset male or female function to encourage cross pollination. Often, different plants will mature at different rates so that one will be producing pollen while another has mature stigma ready to receive it. Unfortunately, my zucchini are all maturing at exactly the same rate, and all have female flowers before male ones. The female flowers have a fruit (ovary) below the flower, as can be seen on the right in the photo. The male flowers (front and center) have no fruit and just produce pollen. 

Mature female flower, right; immature male flowers, center

I know from experience that unfertilized zucchini will not develop. I harvested these virgin fruits soon after the flower closed. I felt like there should be some special ceremony for preparing them, but in the end, I just cut them laterally and put them on the grill. One of the alleged virgins was larger than the others and seemed to have maturing seeds inside. How can that be? Perhaps it was “stepping out” with a nearby cantaloupe. Cucurbits are notorious for crosspollinating all over the place. It makes saving seed a challenge. I’m happy to report that I finally saw mature male zucchini flowers yesterday.

The last major weeding chore was the corn. Terry plants the corn and by house rules should be responsible for weeding, but he often finds other things to do until a crisis moment when I can’t stand it anymore. Here, for comparison, is a weeded row next to an unweeded row. You will also note that our germination rate this year was not high. Birds and/or ground squirrels got most of the seeds. We may have to hand pollinate.

Corn, before (left) and after (right) weeding. 

Terry was shamed into helping when I started working on it. When Hilda had the north garden under control, she helped too. That’s all done. We are now enjoying one millisecond of rest before the beans and peas will need to be picked and put up. Once the harvest starts, there’s little time for the weeds.

It has been extremely hot and humid lately. The chicks spend the middle of the day in the coop. Some sit in front of the screen door that has the fan behind it.

Standing in front of the fan

Some hang out around the water cooler.

Chicks around the waterer

Some sit on the low perch and pant. These two are male Murray’s Big Red Broilers.

Two male Big Red Broilers panting

We order all male meat chickens because they grow faster, but we seem to have at least one female. Notice the smaller comb.

A female Big Red Broiler next to a Black Australorpe

The young roosters are making pathetic attempts at crowing. I have also seen them making inappropriate and unwelcome advances on the pullets. This could be trouble before it’s butchering time.

The heat has negatively impacted egg production. The girls are using all their spare energy staying cool. I’m not sure what was going on with this egg, but it came out with little beads of eggshell in patches on the surface, making it look like a globe of the world.

Continents on an egg shell

The Baltimore and orchard orioles are still around. I remembered that they usually leave at the end of June. Maybe it’s the end of July. In any case, we are seeing fledglings at the jelly. Terry saw a male feeding a fledgling last week.

Baltimore oriole fledgline

There’s a new jelly-thief as well. Really? A robin? What is the world coming too?

A jelly-eating robin

I also saw a non-male hummingbird. It could be a female or a young male. Once the hummingbirds fledge, we see many more that don’t have ruby throats than do.

A female or juvenile hummingbird

The next few days are predicted to have record high temperatures. Any outdoor work will have to be done early in the day. I managed to finish the mowing this morning because it was too hot for dew overnight. Stay cool, everyone.

Architecture Boat Tour

A cool front came through just in time for us to meet our friends from Buffalo, Jack and Greg, for the Chicago Architecture Center boat tour of Chicago. Jack and Greg were in town for a conference. Terry and I left the house at 10:00 to get the 10:35 train to the city. Metra has increased the price of the unlimited weekend ride pass from $5 to $10, but it is still just about half off for us. An elderly couple (who am I to talk??) got on at Woodstock and sat in front of us. The woman flashed her Medicare card to get the senior discount, and the conductor charged her $9.50 for the two fares. He reminded her to buy her return tickets at the station before boarding to come home. Money saved: $1.00. To me, this was not work the aggravation of standing in line for tickets. I hope I never have to return to such frugal times.

The train got in at 12:23 as scheduled. We stopped at Jimmy Johns for sandwiches on our way to the boat dock.

We met Jack and Greg at 1:30 as planned. We hung out on the Riverwalk until it was time to board at 2:00. There were far too many people were wearing flip-flops for serious city walking. Ah, to be young again. It was great to be in the city. I counted at least 5 languages—Spanish, Polish, French, something Asian, and of course, English

The boat tour started right on time, as you can see in the clock on the Wrigley building. The flag was for the 4^th of July weekend. If you aren’t from around here, that is Wrigley as in the gum. Fortunes were made on chicle from the rainforests.

The Wrigley building decked out for the Fourth of July

A member of the crew gave us the safety talk, including the extremely-difficult-to-access locations of the life jackets. She also cautioned us against standing up to touch the bridges. “It’s just rusted steel,” she explained. I thought she was kidding until we went under the first bridge, which was low enough to hit the antenna of the wheelhouse.

Going under the first bridge--a tight fit

The volunteer tour guide then took the microphone and started talking fast and furious, and kept up the pace for the duration of the 90-minute tour. I cannot begin to convey all the information. He began by explaining, for the benefit of foreign tourists, the difference between an apartment and a condo. Elsewhere in the world, both are called apartments. Here we use the two terms to indicate rental and owned property, respectively.

It was interesting to see the buildings from the perspective of the river. We got better views of the whole structures than we could see from the street. This is an example of historic architecture.

Historic architecture

The shiny building on the left is Mid-20^th Century Modern. I just learned this term last week when Terry and I watched two TV shows back-to-back that featured the style in both houses and furniture. We recognized the vinyl and chrome we’d grown up with. We are mid-century modern.

Mid-Century Modern, left; Art Deco, right

The building on the left is Art Deco. The top floors are set back because of a Chicago city ordinance designed to keep the street from becoming like canyons. After a certain number of floors, the building had to be set back to allow light to come through. The style caught on, and setbacks became a feature of many buildings in towns that did not require them.

A new building is going up right across from condos that previously had a nice view of the river and Lake Michigan. A lawsuit to prevent it failed. If you don’t own the land, you can’t dictate how it will be used.

New construction

This building had to be built on a small footprint between the river and the railroad tracks. It looks precarious, but is apparently structurally sound.

How to put a big building on a small lot

This is an old cold-storage facility from the time before refrigeration was common. People would rent space to keep their food cold. Think of it. It was built without windows. When it fell into disuse, it was made into condos, which included cutting out all those windows. I bet they have good insulation.

Condos in a converted cold storage building

This view is from the south branch of the river.

The south branch of the river

The guide mentioned that Chicagoans sometimes have unique ways of pronouncing words. The black tower in this picture is spelled W-I-L-L-I-S and is pronounced “Sears.” Ha ha. He then discussed it using the same term I prefer, “The tower formerly known as Sears.”

The tower (black, in back) formerly known as Sears

This is the NBC building. Note the peacock logo at the top.

The NBC building

We went to the juncture of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. All along our tour we passed party boats blaring music and populated with people drinking and dancing. At this point, there was a larger party boat parked smack in the middle of the river. I wasn’t sure how we would be able to turn around, but the captain managed. Jobs I would rather not have.

The skyline looking to the north while the captain maneuvers around a party boat parked in the middle of the river

The south view

I did not have the presence of mind to take a picture of all of us. Here’s the one Jack took on his phone and texted to me. That’s Greg in the middle.

Me, Greg and Terry (Jack is taking the picture)

After the cruise we walked down Michigan Avenue looking for somewhere to eat. We came to a place called Nando, which Jack said served chicken. He was totally right. All chicken all the time. Chicken marinated in peri-peri peppers from Africa. There were varying degrees of heat from Mild-ish to Hot. I ordered level 2, Lemon-herb. It was lemony and barely hot at all. Greg order Hot and reported that it produced a mild tingling in the throat that “helped the beer go down.” All in all, a pleasant dining experience.

It was getting on to 6:00. Jack and Greg had to collect their luggage from their hotel and get to the airport for a 9:30 flight. They were far less concerned about being there two hours in advance than I was. On our side, our two train options were 6:30 and 8:30, the earlier train preferred. I was all for taking a cab, but I had not seen many cabs on the street. Greg suggested finding a hotel, which was sure to have a cab stand in front. I didn’t think of that because I don’t get out much. One block into our walk, we found a cab station outside a theater. Saved! We got to the station in plenty of time.

Our conductor on the train was a large black man with dreadlocks nearly to his waist. It made me feel safe—no one was going to try any nonsense with that guy in charge. Actually, there have only been a couple of times that I’ve felt uncomfortable on the train, and it always involved some guy who had too much to drink. This was not one of those times.

At one point in the trip, the conductor unlocked a little storage cabinet next to the lavatory. It had a lot of boxes with wires going in and out. The door had storage for various cautionary stickers. The conductor took out one that said DOOR INOPERATIVE USE OTHER DOOR. He used the sticker to tape the doors open. Whatever works.

How to fix a door with a DOOR INOPERATIVE sticker.

We were home by 9:00, and glad to be there.

Fireflies and summer heat

You know you’re in for wicked heat and humidity when the windows are condensed on the outside first thing in the morning.

The kitchen window first thing on a hot, humid morning

Yes, the pleasant days of early summer have been replaced by the sticky, suffocating midsummer weather. For most of my adult life, the first week of July marked the halfway point of vacation. I gave myself a little pep talk about how if I had a real job and had six weeks of vacation ahead of me, I would be thrilled. I was seldom comforted, especially if I had to do major course revisions before classes started. That totally sucked. This year and forever more, vacation will just go on and on.

With the onset of the hot weather, we get up early to do as much work outside as possible before we melt. One of the great pleasures of summer is taking my shower in the afternoon. Showers during the winter are largely a formality, taken in a hurry in the morning mostly to avoid going out in public with bed-head. During the gardening season, showers take on their true function of cleansing. Every inch needs to be scrubbed to remove sweat, dirt, blood from scratches and fly bites, dead mosquitoes, insect repellent, and sun screen. I emerge spiffy clean, pleasantly tired and sore from a good day of physical work. I love it.

We have dinner and watch TV. As the sun goes down, I walk to the apple orchard to shut the hens’ coop. It is a beautiful time of day. This last week, we’ve had rain showers in the evening, and the clouds often move off just enough for the last light to make them orange and pink. Then the fireflies start flashing. Green plants are the miracle of summer, but fireflies are the magic. They start low and fly higher as it gets darker. “Here I am,” they say in their own special code. 

Firefly in flight

I often catch one, just to prove to myself I still can, even though it hardly takes fast reflexes. I just find one hovering and scoop it up. I say hello and release it.

Hello, little buddy!

I finally got a picture of a male ruby throated hummingbird that shows his ruby throat!

Ruby throat of a hummingbird

The chicks are getting more used to their freedom. They still take to the coop in the heat of the afternoon sun, sitting in front of the fan at the coop door. In the cool of the day, they eat and drink under the sun shades.

Dining out

They can fly well enough to get up on the windbreak, which is a favorite hangout.

Meat chickens on the windbreak. The Cornish X Rock would never be able to pull this off.

Hilda gave them some watermelon rinds. These three were unimpressed, but all the watermelon was gone by the time they went inside to roost. There’s a learning curve.

What are these strange, red wedges?

The meat chickens are noticeably larger than the laying hens. 

Australorp female, left, is noticeably smaller than the meat chicken, right.

If we’d gotten Cornish X Rock, we’d be two weeks from butchering. We’re six weeks out instead. We’ll see how we fell when the time comes, but so far, the slower growth seems worth it. They are so much healthier than the Cornish X Rock couch potatoes. I noticed this morning that some are starting to make a few lame attempts at crowing. All of our meat chickens are males this year (we ordered them that way—they get bigger than females). I wonder if they will get aggressive before they go to freezer heaven.

The yard has been filled with baby ground squirrels. This little guy is only a little taller than the grass. They are cute until they eat all the peas.

Baby ground squirrels everywhere.

The Fourth of July came and went. Pat and Nancy were entertaining company from Norway. Kate was in Oshkosh with her family. That left only Jane to celebrate with us. The four of us had to eat a whole peach pie by ourselves. We were able to soldier through. Everyone got a piece of pie for the next day.

Fourth of July peach pie

After supper, the usual evening storm produced a fabulous rainbow that lasted a long time. Jane and I both took picture after picture. This is the one I thought came out best.

Rainbow

We lit snakes and threw snap-pops while we waited for the fireworks in Sharon. The birch trees are getting so big that we had to move our chairs to the north side of the deck to peek through a gap between them.

It was a pleasant, low-key day.