The zucchini that ate South Dakota

Our various garden plots aren't doing as well this year as they did last year. The combo of a late spring, a great deal of rain, and then some really horrendous heat (nothing but corn likes a heat index of 118) set everything back by at least a month. That said, interesting things are finally happening.

A friend gave us a single climbing zucchini plant. It took a long time for it to do anything, and it was fairly reluctant to climb the little trellis that we fashioned for it. But it surely did crawl. It not only expanded a good 8' in front of the stalk, but it snaked around the front of the house, another 10'.

It is also setting the most fascinating fruit, which look nothing like regular zucchini. We've eaten one or two, and they're okay, but I suspect they'll be better as ripe squash. Or more fun yet, as dried gourds. We'll have plenty of options, since it's zuking out all over the place- curly fruits everywhere.

My grape tomato plant is huge, and there are hundreds and hundreds of blossoms, but not many sets. By this time last year, we were harvesting bowls full of tomatoes every other day. This year, we've been able to pick (and immediately eat) a handful here and there, but that's it. We may well get another two months for ripe fruit (the plant is close to the house, so it won't freeze easily), but it's going to have to hustle if it wants to catch up to last year's levels.

I started the heirloom tomatoes from seed, and though they're behind as well, I am finding lots of little tomatoes on the vines. We probably won't have enough to can, and it'll be late to dry them, but I doubt we'll have a hard time disposing of them when they finally do ripen. We've picked a few, and... oh my... they're wonderful.

The jalapenos are thriving though. I've already sliced a half-gallon of them (I do them refrigerator pickle style because canning them makes them mushy), and we have many more to come.

I planted something else in this pot in the spring, but it held marigolds last year, and the volunteer flowers overtook everything. At least they're pretty. Pushy, but pretty.

We planted maybe 10 hills of mini-pumpkins, and for our trouble we got lots of vines, and many many blossoms, but only three pumpkins. Next year, we'll plant them in a different place. And I'll skip the mini-variety. If we're only going to get three per season, I'll opt for size over cute.

This little fellow chose his camo well. I wouldn't have seen him if he hadn't jumped when I got close to his hiding place.

I know they're weeds, but I can't bring myself to pull them out.

The cottonwood tree knows that fall is coming.

So do the crabapples.

These marigolds are not accidental. They partied and went a little wild while we were in Michigan.

Finally, while we were in Michigan, the water level in Turtle Creek fell. The water is still higher than normal, but it's a lot lower than the level has been for a year or so. The high water mark is way up on the peninsula, where the dark green starts.

This is A Good Thing. If we're going to get the wild and wet winter that the Farmer's Almanac is predicting, it would be handy to go into it with the water lower than flood stage.

Water everywhere

We are not dealing with Minot-style flooding, nor are we downriver from the Oahe Dam, where things are really dicey, and are apt to remain so for a long time. But even so, we're experiencing water levels that are unheard of at this time of the year.

 This is the city park, where I run every day. I ran there on Friday. I took this picture on Saturday morning. See that green thing sticking out of the water? That's the top of a bench. The bench is on the far side of the running path. Which is not exactly usable at the moment. See the white foamy stuff in the distance? That's where the creek is supposed to be, and the foam indicates the ferocious current.

I also ran here on Friday. The running path follows those bushes back there... the ones that are under water. The sandy bit in the front of the shot is the volleyball court. When the water recedes, I'll take a pic to show you just how far away from the creek it ought to be.

Every day last week, I said to myself that I should risk ticks and thistles and wade through the high grass to take a picture of Turtle Creek, and show you all how the water level had dropped. It was still higher than normal (by a good 8'), but it was much lower than our high-water-thaw levels. I waited one day too long. This is what the creek looked like yesterday- the waters are almost as high as they were in April, which is astonishing. You can see that the rows of corn disappear into the water, which means that the creek is back up on the peninsula again.

I've never seen anything like this.

(and we're safe, our house is still far above the water levels).

Saturday shopping and Sunday spring

Yesterday, we went to Sioux Falls (185 miles one way) to look for a Mother of the Beach Groom dress. The Hub deserves a medal for waiting, mostly patiently, while we visited a dozen stores, and I looked at and rejected 12 bazillion dresses (not so much for style, as color- it's a wedding and I'm the mother of the groom, color coordination matters), and tried on at least 40 before finding one, at the very last store, that will do, though I'll need a different jacket since there is just a tad too much black in the outfit for a joyous wedding (and it'll be a joyous celebration). Here's a rant for another day when I have the ambition to tackle it: every single dress that I tried on was theoretically the same size. Some were so small that I could not get them zipped, some could have doubled as a tent, others were cut so weirdly that I cannot imagine the figure that would be flattered. And here's the biggest puzzle: the number size was the same, but in some stores that was a Medium, and in others, it was a Plus. Gah!

 On the drive down, I finished one sock. I bought this yarn at Great Yarns in Everett, WA. It's lovely stuff, but I only got two balls. I had to use some stash leftover yarn for the toe. Are you surprised that I had leftover yarn that matches? You shouldn't be. This is a basic mitered-square sock: worsted weight yarn, size 5 needles, 3 rows of 5 squares, the rest worked on 48 sts.

 I worked a little more this morning, but I did finish the heel of the mate on the way home yesterday. These will not be identical socks, but they'll match closely enough.

 We drove through some interesting weather on the way home- hail, and ominous clouds. The clouds followed us, and I snapped this shot of a downdraft from our back deck.

 We decided that 6 hours of being on our feet yesterday qualified as exercise, and so we skipped the walk this morning (the iffy weather made that decision a little easier). Instead, we drove around and snapped a few flower pics. Last year,  this crab apple tree had about four blossoms. It may be overcompensating this season.

 Beautiful, beautiful overcompensation.

The lilacs are beginning to bloom

also the flowering crabs.

Such beauty. 

Maybe next week, we'll have some blooming irises.

 The water level in Turtle Creek has dropped (the high water mark is the green line on the peninsula), but it's still very high (it's still at least 15' above the normal level). Turtle Creek flows into the James River, which flows into the Missouri, which joins the Mississippi, along with every swollen creek and river in the entire Midwest. I am not surprised that they're readying for flooding down south. I put on my lawn-mowing shoes and braved the mosquitoes and wet grass to get that last shot for you this morning...

...unfortunately, I forgot to put on my lawn-mowing pants.

More Random

Or maybe not so much *random*, as non-existant. I've been working today on MG V.3.0 (woohoo!), so there isn't a lot to show except:

I finished the Good Health socks. They really are exactly the same size- the difference is an optical illusion.

And the creek is un-rising. See the dark ground on the penninsula? The water level has dropped that much in the last two days.

And the leaves are finally showing up. Woohoo!

I should finish a chapter today, and I should have more to write about tomorrow. I promise.

Sigh

The Daily Panorama

Turtle Creek rose several feet today.

I stitched 4 photos together for this panorama. You can see how fast the current is by the 2 identical ice floes in the center there- the single blob moved that far in the time it took me to snap 2 shots. The water is pretty far up on the penninsula now.

That is a whole lotta water.

Creek Update, and... gasp.... some knitting!

To put this shot into perspective, when Turtle Creek is at its usual level, we can't see any water from the house.
I took this shot from our back deck this morning.

 The ice dam seems to have broken up and moved on, but the water level is still rising. By the way, I posted a short video of the ice moving in the swift current on Facebook yesterday. If you're in my friends, check it out (if you're not in my friends, shoot me a friend request. The file is too large to post here).

 And another shot- same creek, same vantage, slightly different angle. Contrast this with the current blog header- nary a drop of water visible during the summer, and not just because the hay is tall.

It has cooled down considerably, so the snowmelt has also slowed, which is A Good Thing. Not so good is the rain predicted for tonight, and the snow predicted for tomorrow. I have a feeling that this will be another interesting week in a very interesting year.

 But when I'm not creek gazing, I doing some actual knitting, and not with leftover yarn. The Spring '11 Spin-Off issue featured a very cool, ruffly scarf project and pattern, that looked perfect for some lightweight handspun that I had on hand. The Helix Scarf pattern is free, and available on the website (as well as in the magazine.). The scarf pattern is simple- all garter stitch and short rows.

The yarn was spun from the Ianto roving, that I bought and from Yummy Yarns in '08. It's Finn (very soft Finn, I might add). I'm using size 6 needles, and while the scarf is not knitting up quickly, it is knitting up beautifully. Part of the slowdown is that I am using this project to practice and perfect my purling back backwards technique.

When you knit back backwards, you achieve stockinette stitch without turning your straight needles. When you knit one direction and purl back backwards, you get garter stitch without the trouble of turning things around constantly (which would be a pain in this project since every row has 2 short row segments that form the ruffles).

I'm getting faster with the purling back backwards, and my tension is evening out (that takes practice, and I am getting a LOT of practice in with this scarf). I think I'll add it to the longer version of my Little Tips and Knitting Tricks Class. There isn't time enough to try this in the usual version of the class (which fills up a 2-hour slot nicely), but I'm teaching it in a 3 hour block at the Michigan Fiber Festival in August, and it'll make a good addition to the roster. And by then, I should have the technique down pat.

Turtle Creek- 2 hours later

The ice broke downstream, which caused a dam at the bridge upstream, which caused the water to rise several feet in the space of a couple of hours.

Compare this with the photos taken earlier this morning (in the previous post).

Here's a shot of the ice at the bridge.

 And it's going to be awhile before I can run in the park. Those poles there... they line the running path.

Checking in with Turtle Creek

The thaw has gone slowly, which is the best possible way for a thaw to proceed when we had so much snow. Even so, Turtle Creek is rising steadily.

It's foggy this morning, so it's a bit hard to tell, but the water has come up a lot in the last five days. In case you don't remember, here's a comparison shot. The creek is up on the penninsula now, and once the fog lifts, we'll be able to see the water from our house (which we cannot, when the creek is at its usual level).

These may be weeds, but they're green, and we'll take all the green we can get.

And much of our current snow will be gone by the time we get more (predicted about mid-week).

The geese are gaggling, the robins have returned, and the air smells different. She may take her own sweet time arriving, but Spring is on the way. 

It's that time of year again

Don't get me wrong- it's still winter, and our heaviest snows often come in March, if they don't come in April. I remember one year with measurable snow in May. We are not digging our shorts out yet. But, it is thawing.

See that? Standing water. And patches of bare ground. The ground itself is still frozen a good 6' down, but the surface is thawing, and soon, snow or no, we'll see a hint of green in the grass.

But a thaw, even an early, temporary one, means that the creeks and rivers are starting to rise. I remember years when Turtle Creek (which is back behind our house )(way back, and way down- far enough that if we're ever in danger, the entire state will be under water) ran dry for years at a stretch. But we've been in a wet cycle for over a decade, with water flowing constantly, during all seasons (under the frozen surface in the winter). We started out this winter after very rare fall flooding. We had plenty of water already.

And now that the thaw has begun, after a winter with a whole lot of snow, Creek Watching has become a Taylor Pastime. So as a baseline comparison, this is what the oxbow looked like yesterday afternoon:

The water is already a good 10' above normal levels. Temps are supposed to get into the low 50's today, with rain tomorrow. Give it a day or so, a week at most, and it's going to get reeeel interesting back there. We'll take pictures. Lots of them.

Receding Waters and the changing seasons.

We walked into town this morning, for the Sunday paper.

It's about 45 degrees, with a light wind, sunny and beautiful- perfect for about a 4 mile trek. The grass is beginning to green, but the trees still have no leaves.

The flood waters are receding, and Turtle Creek is almost back in its banks. You can see how deep the water was by the debris left behind in the branches.

Soon enough, the wind will blow those top-heavy weeds over.

We don't have many pine trees here. This one seems to be thriving.

And at home, the tulips are growing. Those other spiky green shoots are irises, which probably won't bloom because the bed desperately needs to be thinned out.

Too bad I can't let you listen to the birds- geese flying over, the soft gurgling of the cranes and pelicans, the Meadowlarks, and the cacophany of the blackbirds, massing by the hundreds in our leafless trees.

Spring, I love it.