July 21, 2012

• Summery Saturday

  Today I worked on something that I have been wanting to do but just haven't been able to do yet.  I planted cucumbers.  I know, earth shattering.  We secured planters yesterday and 4 kinds of cucumber seeds.  All the seed packages said that I could plant them in July.  Here is hoping that we can actually grow them.  The cucumbers are actually serving a dual purpose.  I would have really liked to have started some cucumbers as soon as we got here, but that is just not how it worked out.  If all goes as we hope we will have yummy cucumbers to eat AND shade from the hot summer sun.  Since cucumbers tend to grow up in a vine-like manner, the theory is that given a path to follow the plant will grow up and fill out the provided guides thereby creating shade.  We have a net in place for the cucumbers to grow on.  This is nothing new in the world of gardening, but it is a new project for our family.  Recently more and more people are doing such things to cut down on the direct sun that comes into the house during the summer.  This country is all about saving electricity since the March 11, 2011 earthquake hit, and all the issues surrounding the nuclear reactors.  One of my neighbors has a great start on her cucumbers and morning glories growing and it is creating a great natural shade.  Another neighbor recently got started on their cukes, and they are just now ready to spring straight up the string they have strung up for it.

  In addition to planting cucumbers, I worked at pulling up weeds around the yard.  I noticed that our front yard, under all the weeds, had three furrows like someone had grown things in three short rows.  We are thinking to do the same.  Since it is getting to be a bit late in the summer, I think that we will just plant some flowers, but we would really like to get a vegetable garden growing next year.  

  We haven't done anything more today than yank up weeds and turn over the soil.  Three furrows of freshly turned soil sit waiting for something.  Since I cannot do anything about it tomorrow, I have a little more time to make a decision about what to plant.  Corey will weed eat the remainder of the yard tomorrow before the day grows too warm.  The yard is not big enough to do more than weed eat it as a manner of mowing it.  I know the neighbor whose house is in front of our front yard is very happy to see that we are doing something about our yard.  She came out to talk to me a couple of times while I was working.

  Of course, she mentioned several times that it pretty hot to be working in the yard.  This all being said while sweat was pouring off me.  Between the dirt and the sweet, I got a nice cool shower in.  However, the afternoon Saturday cleaning of the house pretty much undid the shower.  Bummer.  I have been so thankful that even though our daytime highs have been in the middle 80's with heat indexes 10 to 20 degrees more, that the evenings do cool down very comfortably.  Now, I know all you stateside readers are balking at that mid-80 temperature, but even though it isn't nearly as hot as some of you all have been experiencing, I do need to remind you that the humidity is pretty high, and most Japanese homes do not have central air.  In fact, our current home does not even have a wall unit at all.  This is actually a first for us, and we may consider finding a small unit for one of our rooms, for those handful of days that it is just simply unbearable.  As a whole though, this summer has been pretty good to us so far.

  But August is coming.  August is when we tend to have the hot temperatures that do not really even drop at night.  Those are the hard days.  The days that you feel like you are just living your life walking through the sauna.  I really do think someday I will write a book with the title "Walking Through a Sauna".  

   

  • 8:27 am
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