Monday evening, with rain

[ksmith]

And thunder here and there. It's been quiet for a while, however. King's asleep. Fingers crossed it remains quiet for a few hours or I will be peeling dog off my lap.

In early September, as the last of the tomatoes were ripening, my heirloom Black Crim contracted late blight from one of my two storeboughten plants. In a week, all six plants went from full and green and hearty to withered and blackened and dead. I lost about half a grocery bag's worth of tomatoes. I picked them as soon as I realized what was happening and tried to ripen them indoors, but it was too late.

I thought I would have to excavate all the dirt in the raised bed and start fresh in order to get rid of any lingering spores. I phoned the Lake County Extension Office this morning to confirm this. Talked to the Master Gardener and *yay*. This late blight was southern in origin and not hardy. The winter cold killed it. So I don't have to excavate all that dirt, which makes me very happy--I'm taking a vacation week next week, and I wasn't looking forward to spending a day I couldn't spare lugging 40-lb bags of dirt and pushing wheelbarrows. Now I can just pull the early weeds, turn over the soil, and plant my lettuces.

Comments

[goingferal.livejournal.com]

King stresses out during thunderstorms? You might check out http://www.entirelypets.com/dapcollar.html --I've been hearing some positive buzz about these collars and how they work very well for some dogs.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip. I needed to place an order for King's Glycoflex, so I threw in a collar. I hope it works. It wouldn't be so bad if he were content to just lie beside me on the couch, but when he starts trying to crawl onto my lap, or worse, stand on my lap... I was working at the time, and my laptop flipped onto the floor. Luckily the lid was closed, and it flipped onto the nice thick rug. I don't want to think about what might have happened if it had hit the hardwood floor.

He's the same way with firecrackers/fireworks. If this collar works, I'll buy a case.