Aphids! Not.

I did some research and discovered that the problem I'm having with my tomatoes is blossom end rot...not aphids. I've read different philosophies on what causes it and how to treat it, but most of them agree that uneven soil moisture has something to do with it. I can see where that might be my problem since I wasn't watering the gardening at first. I was just letting the rain take care of it. Then I decided that I needed to water and I soaked the ground every 2-3 days. Maybe not such a good idea, but I really don't have much of a choice since I'm out there for 2-3 days then gone for 2-3 days.

Some websites say not to panic, that only the first fruits will be affected. That seems to have been the case with mine. Unfortunately, now that the blossom end rot appears to be gone, the vine ends are splitting open, rotting, and are getting eaten by ants. Grrr! I've read that the soil moisture can be a cause of this problem.

Despite the problems I'm having with the tomatoes, we've actually gotten to eat some of them. I've been harvesting them before they are completely ripe - not as tasty, but still quite good. On Saturday I cooked lunch for Tom and myself at the farm. We had, from our garden, squash seasoned with a tiny jalapeno, salt and pepper, sauteed in butter, sliced fresh tomatoes, sweet corn (having problems with ants and caterpillars) and a little dab of leftover pork BBQ. It was so good. I'm not much of a squash lover, but even I liked it fixed that way.

The wood floors that I ordered have arrived (partial order as expected). Tom decided to scrape the popcorn ceilings himself and has been working feverishly on that. He got all of the kitchen/dining/hall area done and started on the master bedroom. He's planning to finish that on Wednesday, then we will have the floors installed. After the floors are installed, even though the house won't be completely ready, we can start moving in. We'll finish the rest as we have time. It's important for us to move some of our belongings and mostly live out there for two reasons: (1) we need to make our current house show ready by cleaning it out (2) we need to be at the farm most of the time so that we can work at making our farm productive.

Also, the barn is being built. When it's finished, we'll be able to store a lot of stuff in there that we don't have a place for yet.