Thursday, September 04, 2008, 03:43
Flat Tire
"I suppose," I said to my husband Monday evening, "if I'm going to ride my bike in the mornings when it's cool, I ought to pump up the tire."
My husband looked at me for a moment.
"I already pumped up the tire!" he said.
"You did?"
"Yes, yesterday. Didn't you hear the air compressor?"
"I didn't really pay any attention," I said.
"I pumped it up," Randy said.
"It's flat now," I said.
I followed my husband to the basement where my bicycle was sitting with a flat tire.
It all started earlier in the summer when I rode my bike to the farm to take care of my nephew's dog while everyone was on vacation. For nearly a week, I rode the bike over the bumpy crushed rock that was the road surface up until the road was paved last week.
After that, the bike developed a flat. Randy tried pumping it up several times, but each time it went flat again. Finally he took the tire off and found a hole in the inner tube.
We decided it was better to get a new inner tube rather than a tire-patching kit.
So, on Sunday when we were in Fleet Farm, I was thrilled when I found a "self-sealing" inner tube for my bicycle.
Right.
Randy put the self-sealing inner tube on Sunday evening and pumped up the tire. As it turned out, the tire promptly went flat. Monday, Randy took the tire and the inner tube off again.
The problem was easy to spot. The brand new self-sealing inner tube had blown a big hole in it -- bigger than the hole in the old inner tube -- and it obviously was NOT self-sealing. Or at least, it did not "self seal" that particular hole in the inner tube.
The tube it going back to the store. And so much for for bike rides in the morning when it's cool on our newly paved road. For now, anyway. (sigh)
Weather Change
It was hot and humid and sweltering over Labor Day weekend here at Rural Route 2. The temperature was in the 90s and dewpoints were in the 70s. The weather forecast predicted torrential rain for Tuesday.
I was skeptical -- but we did get some torrential rain. Two different squalls, in fact. The torrential rain lasted for all of three minutes. In the end, we got about two tenths of an inch. The drought, it would appear, is still with us.
On a brighter note, the weather Wednesday was very cool, with a breeze out of the north, and lots of sunshine. More rain would have been nice, though.
I enjoyed the cooler weather very much when I went for a walk Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, the ragweed pollen is still with us too. By the time I got back, my eyes were itching, my nose was running and I felt like I'd been run over by a truck. And this was in spite of Zyrtec, diphenhydramine, allergy nose spray and allergy eye drops before I went out. . .
Cookbook
Copies of the Rural Route 2 Cookbook ought to be arriving any day now. The next challenge will be to find time to promote the cookbook.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Saturday, August 30, 2008, 06:15
Worth the Wait
After I fed Isabelle and Kajun Friday morning and gave them fresh water and picked up horse manure, I went for a walk around our hay field.
I don't know if I can rightly call it a hay field. There's not much out there except oats stubble and some short ragweed. Even though the ragweed is only maybe six inches tall, it still has pollinating heads on it. Other than that, I can't see any of our new seeding. No alfalfa sprouts. No timothy. It all looked so good to begin with, too. But now I think it has all died out because the weather has been so dry.
Anyway, I went for a walk around the field. And when I got back around by the garden, I stopped to look at my muskmelon. I've got two different types. One kind is supposed to set huge muskmelon on it. The other is supposed to set smaller melons. The larger-type muskmelon has just nice-sized fruit on it. Nothing huge or giant or anything like that. The smaller-type has fruit that would, maybe, have a couple of teaspoons in each one if they ever get ripe. None of them have gotten enough rain to develop any size to them.
I've been keeping my eye on one of the larger-type melons for a week or so now. It was the first one to show up, and I was figuring it ought to be ripe soon. I touched the melon -- and it fell off the vine! No doubt about that, then. It was ripe.
I took the muskmelon up to the house and set it on the counter. I was going to cut it and eat half and leave the other half for Randy. But then I decided to wait until Randy came home from work to cut it.
Friday evening, I cut the muskmelon. I cleaned out the seeds, gave one half to Randy and took the other half for myself. Inside, the melon was a deep, dark orange. And it smelled so sweet.
I took the first bite. And nearly fell off my chair.
The taste was incredible. It *was* as sweet as it smelled. It was downright delicious.
Randy didn't say hardly anything at all. He was too busy eating his muskmelon.
My dad would have been proud, I think. He used to raise muskmelon in his truck garden to sell at the farmer's market. His garden was a retirement project for him, and he enjoyed raising all kinds of different things: cabbage, horseradish, radishes, carrots, beets, sweet corn, green bell peppers, sweet red bell peppers, tomatoes, muskmelon, watermelon, onions, green beans, wax beans.
The taste of the first muskmelon from my garden this year ranked right up there with any of the muskmelon Dad raised.
It strikes me that those particular muskmelon vines are somewhat drought resistant, too. So, I'm saving some of the seeds for next year.
I'm working on raising Pok Choi seeds right now, too. I've never planted Pok Choi before. Actually, it's what's known as a "baby" variety. But what I like about it is that it grows quickly and is ready to eat in only a few weeks. The leaves are deep green and sweet and crisp and crunchy. And what's nice about it is that even after the leaves get quite big, they are still sweet and crisp and crunchy. The stuff is tall enough now that it is setting seed pods. I paid $2.59 for the packet of seeds. And it strikes me that each one of the pods on the plants I've got growing in a tub has about the amount of seeds as were in the packet that I bought for $2.59. There's quite a few stems sticking up in the tub, and each stem has maybe a half dozen seed pods on it.
If I can get the seeds mature, I'm going to have plenty of Pok Choi to plant next year. As I told Randy, if it looks like we're going to get a hard freeze soon, I'm going to ask him to help me carry the whole tub in the basement so my seeds can continue maturing.
LeAnn R. Ralph