05-25-2026 — Memories

Howdy all. Please do take time to remember those that gave up everything so we can be free!!

On a less somber note, I’d like to remember when my back wasn’t hurting after doing a little work outside. Ouch. I am resting from an hour or two of spraying death spray around the yard. First ant killer on about 100 ant hills. Sounds like a lot of hills, but when I moved into this place 6+ years ago, you couldn’t take a step in the yard without being on an ant mound. Some very large mounds. I wouldn’t have even considered spraying individual hills. There were thousands. I was using garden hose sprinkler attachments to spray everything with killer, and then a couple days later adding granules, and then powders, and then more sprays.

It took a few years to get it down to the smaller scale I face now.

I also went out and sprayed weeds again. Those in flower beds, or along perimeters, or in amongst bricks and pavers. Yeah, I know that stuff ain’t good for the environment, nor for me. But I sure can’t hand weed the hundreds of individual plants. A sprayer with a cone around the nozzle works good to hit small areas.

I’d also like to remember my various green house tents and structures, I tried over the last 6 years. I got a reminder for Microsoft OneNote thingie today showing that on this date, just two years ago, I had large tomato plants in a tent, and even nice looking pepper plants with fruit starting. A greenhouse is about the only way you can have fruit starting this early in this area of Ohio.

Oh, wait.

Yep, I got tomatoes!!! These are the Husky Cherry tomatoes that always produce by the bushel baskets. The plants arrived here with a few blossoms and a couple pea sized fruit. I neglected to do the correct thing, which is remove those, so the plant would put its effort into growing leaves and branches.

I’m not removing them now for sure. Other tomato plants look like they are just barely alive and growing. So these may be the only tomatoes I get this year.

My back garden beds have thriving strawberry plants, with lots of flower and weed plants growing in them too. The potato plants are doing fantastic above ground. Hopefully some tubers will start growing below. Onions and carrots are sporadic. Some growing great, many not even sprouting.

Right now the soil is quite damp after the good rains. Unfortunately, the forecast says no more rain for at least the next 10 days. In a couple of days, I’ll need to get the garden hose out to water the beds. Ugh.

Writing of remembering, I need to remember to fill up the gas tank on my truck. Probably tomorrow morning. I last filled it on 9/11/2025 — about 8 ½ months ago. Gas was under $3 per gallon then. I think closer to $2.50. It will take about 25 gallons to fill. This tank full will cost me more than $50.00 over the last one. Now that is a pain in the backside (wallet).

No where near the sacrifices by those we remember today, but not a great way to Enjoy Life