Hot…

The weather this weekend is forecast to be hot… the hottest so far this year…  over 100 degrees inland…a year that so far has seemed warmer than recent past years.

I welcome the hot weather…  The garden is in and will benefit…  I enjoy the heat… more than most people.  I have on more than one occasion visited Death Valley in the summer…  Sunset Magazine has an article on the crazy people who visit Death Valley in the summer…  By logical deduction based on Sunset as an authoritative source, you may now assume I am one of the crazy people…

I also visit Death Valley in other seasons… most recently last March, but previously New Years week… each time I visit it is different, each time compelling…   In March I was camped on an alluvial fan… In December I stayed at Furnace Creek Ranch…  In mid-summer (many years ago) I was camped in an empty Furnace Creek camp ground…  We ended up sleeping on the golf course… under the sprinklers… after all, it was hot…

Here, along the coast, long the bay, it won’t be that hot… just hot enough to want to cook outside… to sleep with the windows open and enjoy the evening, at least until the heat driven winds kick up and the fog moves in… 

Here, at home, the heat is what makes the garden grow…  here, heat is our friend… as long as there is water enough, with heat the plants grow… with more heat they grow faster… if later in the year fruit would ripen with the heat…  so with the garden in and established, the heat is welcome…  beans are climbing 6” in a day… tomatoes are setting fruit… corn is sprouting… 

The last several summers have been short on hot…  We have a water park at work, aka… the place I formerly worked… and the weather since we opened It has not been hot… and business has not be as robust as expected… we (or the group of which I once was one of the we of…) have great hopes for this summer…  

Back to the garden… I find myself out, hand watering morning and evening…  part of a series or rituals that include walking the dogs and feeding the pigeons…  The pigeons now an important source of manure for the garden…  All part of the circle…

I am planting the third round of corn… a second round of lettuces… a third round of basil… all extending the bounty that the garden will soon grow into…

Over several years, the garden, the yard has become overgrown… but with new found free time comes time to work in the garden and yard… Today I ordered a second green bin to hold the garden debris  that comes with more free time…   I am making good progress, but with progress comes more debris… so a second green bin…  each decision leads to another…  so retirement leads to two green bins and $3.00 per month… 

And as I write this outside the smoker sits, heat hovering at 160 degrees… a pork shoulder, some ribs inside… the heat is coming from hardwood charcoal… augmented with grape cuttings from the vines overhead…  not this year’s cuttings, instead last year’s cuttings… stored in a spare trash can… now dry… ready for the smoker… such is the way of the garden…  the circle…  

I tend to the smoker… adding charcoal… adding grape vine cuttings… I “mop” the pig with the vinegar marinade… creating piggy goodness…  It is my dirty little R2-D2 unit… dome top… full of piggy goodness…

So, its hot… and all about the garden and the smoker and food… 

And 79 days to retirement…  (But who is counting? (beyond me))

Randy