August 19, 2025
On Friday (August 15), I got a package. I opened it to make sure it looked good and everything worked. I adjusted the straps. I am still not certain the straps are right.
On Saturday (August 16), I took a picture to share of the package contents. I bought a garden apron!
I decided to purchase this Grace and August gardening apron. I was tired of trying to remember to bring the soapy spray, a bowl or box for harvesting, and my garden gloves.
The apron has a zippered pocket for my phone, pockets for gloves, and a large pouch for harvested fruits and vegetables. I can also carry the sprayer with the soapy water spray. It works great!
Bruce and I added more pine tree chips around the blueberry bushes as mulch. Bruce shoveled chips into the cart while I put down cut-up cardboard boxes between the blueberry bushes. Once the cardboard was down, Bruce dumped the pine chips onto the cardboard. Bruce dumped three loads of chips and then went off to mow. I spread the pine chips evenly over the cardboard.
I noticed this Pearl Crescent butterfly and managed to get a picture before it fluttered away.
I went inside to cool off.
Bruce finished mowing.
I went back to the garden to see what might need to be done.
The Squash Vine borer killed off the last of my squash plants. I pulled up the dying vines. I killed more tomato hornworms.
I took pictures as butterflies fed on the nectar from various flowers.
On Sunday (August 17), Bruce and I headed over to the RV park to check on the RV. The gutters were full of leaf litter. Bruce washed the gutters out and cleaned the roof. The sides of the RV got rather nasty from the junk from the roof. Bruce and I cleaned the junk from the sides. The RV park owner stopped by to talk to us.
These two butterflies visited.
When we got home, Bruce headed out to mow. I headed to the blueberries. I dug out the rest of the broomstraw grass and put cardboard down.
I saw this beautiful Monarch butterfly feeding on the red clover growing in the pepper buckets.
The sunset was beautiful.
On taking Nox out for the night, Bruce and I saw this toad on the step.
On Monday (August 18), I headed to the barn to get the mower. I backed the mower out of the barn, turned it around, hitched the cart to it, and drove it to the remaining pile of chips. Bruce caught up to me as I was raking loose pine chips into the pile. Bruce filled the cart with pine chips while I continued to rake the loose pine chips into the rapidly shrinking pile.
Bruce dumped the cart of pine chips on the cardboard. He asked what else he should do. I had him load the cart with the raked pine straw and carry it over to the strawberry bed. I spread out the pine chips on the cardboard.
Both Bruce and I managed to step into fire ant beds and get bitten. I stepped into one as I was spraying the apple trees with soapy water to kill aphids. Bruce stepped into a fire ant bed while looking at the strawberry bed.
I noticed these mushrooms popping up in the back pasture.
I shoveled the short pine straw needles over the strawberry bed. I moved the strawberries around so they weren’t covered by the pine straw.
Bruce asked me if there was anything else I wanted to do. I told him I wanted to hang up the “Dragonfly” artwork. I suggested using wire on. The wooden frame. Bruce thought that was a good idea. Getting the artwork hung went quickly
It looks washed out here, due to the reflections of the curtains.
As Bruce stood back to check the picture out, he realized the colors went with the lampshade. I mentioned that the colors went with or matched several items.
With a break from the heat, we felt ready to tackle another outdoor task, the fallen-over trellis. It was hard to harvest the cucumbers and beans on the fallen-over trellis. It was time to take it apart. I pulled up the cucumbers while Bruce started pulling up the beans. I continued to pull up beans while Bruce dismantled the trellis. As I pulled up the last of the beans, fire ants struck again. I leaped out of the garden bed, howling and cursing as the fire ants stung my ankle and leg. Bruce asked what was wrong and I managed to get out “Fire Ants!” between clenched teeth while I frantically brushed them off. The backs of my gloves are mesh and fire ants stung me through the mesh. Ugh!
Two fire ant attacks in one day are more than enough for anyone! I left all the trellis dismantling to Bruce while I went inside to deal with the fire ant stings.
We are going to let all the plants die on the netting so they will be easier to remove. That was the last task we completed for the day.
Blackberry Homestead 
Are those your new glasses in the “Garden Hair” photo? They are very flattering. You look like a teenager!
How do you like the apron? Do things fall out of the pockets when you bend over?
Does the soapy spray bother the fire ants? You need some way to get revenge on them. Maybe order an anteater for your yard?
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Those are my old computer glasses. My new right lens worked surprisingly well with them. I can see 20/20 with my right eye and at the computer screen distance with my left eye. This works better than my old pair of regular glasses. Those were giving me a headache.
I love the apron. Nothing falls out when I am bending over or even crawling around on the ground.
Soapy spray doesn’t bother fire ants or the South would be covered in bubbles! We are going to poison all the fire ant mounds on Friday before we leave for two weeks to help out my FIL. We’ve been reluctant to poison fire ants close to the house since we are afraid Nox might eat poison. I don’t like using poison near the garden beds, but trying to grow a garden in fire ant mounds is not going to work. The poison will have broken down by the time we get back.
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There seems no end to what you can do in a day! Most impressive!
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Oh, the blueberry bush mulching took several days due to the heat. We have to take frequent breaks unless we manage to get outside before the heat is too bad.
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