Hello Everyone!
Adjusting routines, Getting more pyrethroid drops, A food treat, An anti-pestilence strategy & The new grass puts down roots!
Alright, I woke up a bit earlier than I did yesterday but for what it is worth it amounts to the same 'timing' as far as my sleep cycle goes. The only real downside to that schedule is that it leaves me making these entries after I have already been awake for seven or eight hours and am more in the mood for napping than for writing.
Not long after sunrise yesterday, I tried to get myself in gear to start working outdoors... but wound up spending a ton of time scraping together all the funds that I could so that I could get some flea meds, drinking water and food delivered. I once again got those flea drops that have etofenprox (a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide) as its main ingredient... but this time they had the ones for larger dogs in stock so I got them.
Since all the dogs responded well (by not responding) to that medicine I think that I should try to stock up on some of it along with the kinds of 'pestilence' medicines that I usually get but have not been able to afford. My big strategy for once I can afford it, is to get some more diatomaceous earth to spread all over the camp and in the tent... mix up some of the pyrethrin (made from a relative of chrysanthemum) concentrate that I already have in a spray bottle to spray on all the fabric items... dose all the dogs with their meds... and essentially try to wipe all the fleas out all at once... or as many as possible!
Thankfully, that last round of flea drops is still working because the fleas that are hatching (mainly on those super rainy and hot days) are dying off once they get on the dogs. The dogs themselves do not even seem to have all that many fleas on them either... which is a good indicator that things are moving in the right direction in regards to getting a handle on the situation.
Anyways, after getting all my supplies squirreled away I then got the food delivered... and in an effort to get the most bang for my buck... I got a two for one pizza deal and appeased my hunger. It is crazy that of the three different options that I looked at for food (from various stores) the best deal really was some cheap pizzas... because my usual shopping items of peanut butter, jelly and tortillas/bread would have cost way frigging more... and that would have made getting the other stuff that I needed impossible.
My resolution for now is to double down on my gardening efforts... and most importantly getting the one actual sunny area that I have here working as a functional gardening space. I spent a good amount of time looking things over in that area the last few days (as that big tree debris pile got cleared out) and for the most part... all that I need to do is start transplanting the stuff that I already have growing directly into the ground there.
There are even a few large soil/clay mounds, that I think that the pumpkin plants will do better in... than in the shady spot that they are in now. The same goes for all the corn plants that I have... because they all seem to have hit various sizes (similar within their grouping) and then have stopped putting on any more growth... but getting sun should solve that if I am fortunate enough not to damage them during the transplanting process.
On a different note, I have been thinking about how I can get the Kentucky-31 grass that I have growing along the driveway to spread faster... because even though I have seeded it all a few more times now... it is still looking thin. When I seeded it the first time, I did do it rather sparsely compared to how heavily I usually spread that kind of seed... which was due to also covering the seed with straw that has a lot of wheat seed in it.
I am unsure if I mentioned it before but all along the driveway, the edge's of the building and along the slope that I have been terracing... I spread an entire box of wildflower seeds... because I saw that one of the dozens of seed types was chrysanthemum. Given how cheap those boxes of flower seeds are... I am going to look up what getting them in bulk would cost... because they cover a hundred square feet (30.48 meters) and have three types for varying degrees of sunlight.
A lot can really be done in that entire area to create some privacy also (especially along the driveway) with some very simple trellises and all it would require is some well placed grape and jasmine vines. It will be interesting to see how much of it I can terrace also because although there is not a whole lot of room to say make one or two 'big' terraces there is plenty of room to make 'many' smaller terraces.
Well, I am going to get this entry wrapped up so that I am not scrambling to finish the editing and posting before the sun gets up over the horizon. I hope that folks are doing well. Ciao for now.