Thanksgiving on a Soft Food Diet

Happy Thanksgiving!!  It was a quiet Thanksgiving this year, but we enjoyed the day.  We are healthy and enjoying the retired life.  We indeed have much to be thankful for. 

One of the local tv personalities  talked about Thanksgiving in terms of family, food, and football, which is probably a pretty good description.

I will start with food.  This is not necessarily the most important component of turkey day, but was a bit different this year since the Frog is still on a pureed or soft food diet.  Family members expressed some concern about that, but I am here to report that we did not starve.  The Frog got a turkey breast from Honey Baked Ham.  Although we had bought many hams from them over the years, this was our first experience with one of their turkey products.  It is fully cooked and pre-sliced, making it perfect for grinding in the food processor.  I also made dressing, although with the more ground up bread rather than cubes.  I made my usual (at least in the past few years) faux mashed potatoes, i.e. pureed cauliflower.  These all seemed fine when smothered in gravy.  That and some pureed broccoli, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie made it a more or less traditional Thanksgiving day feast.  It seems weird to not have the remains of our usual 20 lb pterodactyl in the fridge, but we still have plenty of leftovers.  I was even able to sneak onto my plate some cherry tomatoes which had been picked earlier in the day from the garden.

Without the long roasting time for the turkey in the oven, I decided to take several short cuts this year.  The dressing was assembled the day before, then baked in the oven Thursday morning.  The faux potatoes (pureed cauliflower) and the pureed broccoli were made the day before and reheated in the microwave.  I did not make home made cranberry sauce this year, but got the jellied kind in a can for the Frog (I did not know how to make this kind which had no pieces to chew) and the full berries kind in the can for me.  That left only making the gravy and grinding the turkey as actual preparation before dinner. 

As you can also see from the pictures, I also cheated and did not use the good china or the good silver so that more of the dishes could go into the dishwasher. 

Family, of course, is the most important part of Thanksgiving.  We weren't with them in person this year, but we were able to share with them electronically during the weekend and thought of all of them fondly during dinner.  Thanksgiving, after all is the ultimate throwback Thursday.

The Thanksgiving dinner spread.

There were handmade items on the table from several different Gwen periods:  the Thanksgiving runner, hotpads, and turkey pine cones.  I also always think of Paul and Gwen when I have the gravy boat on the table. 

The white linen tablecloth was originally my mother-in-law's, part of her wedding gifts I think, but what we have been using for years.  The small relish dish is what I always remember from Thanksgiving when I was growing up.  I wish I knew a more complete story about the history of this dish, but it has been at many Thanksgiving dinners over the years both when I was growing up and then on our table.

Finally there is football.  Thanks especially to Zeke and Dak, it is really exciting watching the Dallas Cowboys this year.  However, watching the Cowboys on Thanksgiving in our family goes back considerably before our move to Texas.  I don't have any pictures of us watching the Cowboys this year, but this is a picture at Mom's of Thanksgiving 1980. 

Unless I am seeing things, I think it is the Dallas Cowboys original #88, Drew Pearson, on the TV scre

Well, that is about it from here.  I feel most thankful and blessed.  From here in Texas to y'all, Happy Thanksgiving.

Hitting the Trails--Part 2

It has been a year and a half since I blogged about walking, i.e. Hitting the Trails.  Now that I am retired full time, daily walking has become a standard routine for us.  However, the actual locations for that walking have evolved, so it is time for an update.

Due to multiple minor sprains and strains, our daily walks have been cut back to the 3 - 3.5 mile range rather than the 6-7 miles we were doing earlier.  We might return to the longer walks at some point, but the shorter walks seem to be working well now.

Other than the distance, the biggest difference between our current and previous walks is the location.  This is due to the completion of several new parks nearby and/or the receding of floodwaters at Lewisville Lake.  Our current walking locations of choice are usually one of three nearby locations:  Doubletree Ranch Park, Lake Park, and LLELA. 

GPS tracks of some of our recent walks/hikes

These are vastly different locations, but all take advantage of their proximity to Lewisville Lake.  Even more importantly, they are all VERY close to us, only a few miles and a few minutes away (OK, maybe as much as 10 minutes at rush hour through school zones).

Doubletree Ranch Park.  Doubletree Ranch Park is a new City of Highland Village park in the northeast corner of Highland Village.  It opened to the public at the end of August, but is still not completely finished.  It is a very upscale community park with soccer fields, walking paths, 3.5 acre pond with fishing pier (under construction), splash pad (under construction), upscale pavilion, enclosed concessions building and more.

Doubletree Ranch Park Master Plan. 

One loop of the paved sidewalk around the park is approximately one mile, so we typically do three laps.  Although this is very much a city park, we still often see herons or turtles on the pond and hawks in the trees near the lake.

Sunrise over the pavilion at Doubletree Ranch Park

 

Concession and restrooms building.  The round building in the distance on the right is the pump house for the splash pad.

The pond and partially completed fishing pier, from near the lift station looking to the west northwest.

Looking south along the trail next to the fishing pier.

We were pleased to see that there was even recognition of the history of the site. When we moved to Texas 35 years ago this property was still some type of ranch.  Occasionally they would ride horses from the ranch as far as our house.  Later I remember voting in one of the buildings on the property after it became more of a meeting location for the city.  However, its history goes back much further than that.  It was apparently a dairy farm before Lewisville Lake existed.

Several features on the master plan, such as the bird blinds and the unpaved trail at the far south end of the park overlooking Lewisville Lake, do not currently exist.  I am not sure whether those will be added later or not, but hope so.  Even without those, it is a very enjoyable place to walk.  We are glad that it finally opened this fall.

Lake Park.  Another location we have been visiting recently is Lake Park, which is a huge City of Lewisville park on the shore of Lewisville Lake.

GeoJeep at Lake Park with the new hike and bike trail in the foreground and Lewisville Lake in the background

The 660 acre park includes an 18 hole golf course, an executive golf course, driving range, Frisbee golf course, athletic facilities (including the soccer and softball fields Gwen used years ago), and multiple lake related facilities. The lake related uses include an RV campground, beaches, boat ramps and picnic facilities.

We had not made much use of the lake part of the park for many years since it requires a fee.  However, at least this year, the annual pass to LLELA that I got for Christmas (thank you, Santa!) also includes Lake Park.  This was great except, as I blogged as far back as May 2015, much of the park was badly flooded.  Until very recently the day use area remained closed, first due to the high water, then to construction of a new hike and bike path.  Although some construction is continuing, I am glad to report that the park is now open. 

The new hike and bike trail is a great place to walk with lots of ducks and other water birds nearby.  In fact, the city provides a guide to hundreds of birds that have been seen there.

Ducks along the shore, including some that were scared off when I stopped to take their picture.

We rarely see many people in the day use area other than a few fishermen near the water or boaters at the boat ramp.  However, on one Saturday morning we got to see part of a cricket match on the cricket pitch, which is at the end of the road--near J on the map above.  One of the players let us feel the cricket ball, which is about the size of a baseball but harder and smoother.  No wonder the pitcher and batter wear all kinds of padding.  It would definitely not feel good to get hit by one of those.

We originally were walking on the path on an out and back route, but expanded that by walking along the athletic fields to make a grand loop.  On weekends, that means lots of soccer players and the accompanying support parents, but during the week the fields are home to a flock of Canadian geese.

Flock of Canadian geese on the soccer fields.

Tucked back near the end of the walk is also a plaque about an archaeological site, now submerged under Lewisville Lake, which contained evidence for one of the oldest civilizations in the western hemisphere.  Who knew???

Historical plaque in Lake Park

LLELA.  Last but not least is LLELA, Lewisville Lake Education and Learning Area.  LLELA is a 2000 acre wildlife management area below Lewisville Dam created in the early 1990's on land leased from the Army Corps of Engineers. There are three components to its mission:  the preservation and restoration of native habitat and biodiversity,  environmental education, and environmental research.


LLELA is relatively undeveloped, i.e. no visitor center, but there is still plenty to do.  Many people enjoy fishing on the Trinity River below the outlet from the lake.  There is also paddling on the Trinity River or on a paddling trail.  Our interest is primarily in the seven different trails with miles of hiking opportunities. 

There is also an 1870's pioneer homestead (originally located off of 407 in Highland Village, but moved to LLELA in 2005 and since restored), and lots of birding opportunities with very nice bird blinds.

LLELA is run by a consortium comprised of the University of North Texas, the City of Lewisville, and the Lewisville Independent School District.    The operation of the site has undergone significant changes in the past several years, with the City of Lewisville taking a more active role. LLELA used to be open to the public only Friday-Sunday, but is now open seven days a week.  New this year, the annual pass for LLELA also includes Lewisville Lake Park.  These two changes make it much more attractive to us.

We hiked on the Black Jack trail several times starting last January. 

The Frog on the Blackjack Trail in January, 2016

Unfortunately, the other trails were partially or completely submerged under water due to large water releases from Lewisville Dam.   The campground was essentially destroyed and has yet to be repaired. 

We were finally able to hike on the Redbud and the Bittern Marsh trails for the first time this fall.  They still need work and are quite muddy after rains, but are passable. 

Early morning view of the Trinity River from the Redbud Trail

We rarely encounter other people on the trails.  However, there are plenty of interesting birds.  On our most recent visit we even saw an osprey eating his breakfast high in a tree.   We have also fleetingly seen deer on multiple occasions, including a buck with a large rack.  

On the boardwalk to the bird blind on Bittern Marsh

 There are also more interesting plants than we will ever be able to identify.

A bur oak acorn--that is Texas size!!

Walking along some of these trails, it is hard to believe LLELA is within the city of Lewisville and only a few minutes from our house.  We have not spent much time at LLELA, but hope the weather cooperates so we can hike these trails much more often in the future.

Fall Garden in Texas

Today is officially the start of fall.  There are still issues, but I am glad to report that our vegetable garden is finally beginning to look like a garden.  It was always intended to be a fall garden, but for many months through the summer it looked like there would be little or nothing there when fall arrived.
 

Garden on 9-20-16

There is still not much produce that will be available soon, but at least it looks better.  If the plants continue to grow, there may be plenty to harvest in October and on through to at least the first frost (approximately mid-November).  If we are lucky we might have fresh garden produce for Thanksgiving dinner.

From left to right in the foreground inside the cages: lettuce, broccoli, carrots, beets, and onions.  In the back: tomatoes, peppers, and beans.

Banana peppers.  Most notable among the successes is the banana pepper plant.  This was one of the first plants put into the garden way back on June 6.  For most of the summer it did essentially nothing except grow taller.  The plant now tops out above the six foot tall pole (11 inches of which is in the ground) that I recently added to help with any gusts of wind.   When a week long "cool" snap hit in mid August, with high temperatures only in the 80's instead of 100 or above, the plant immediately began to flower like crazy and set fruit.  Despite the return to warmer temps since then, the peppers have continued to grow.  I am not 100% sure when the peppers should be picked, but based on their yellow color I am presuming soon.   In the next week or so I hope to turn them into something like the pickled banana peppers they serve at Subway. 

Banana peppers

Continuing struggles.  Despite the success of the banana pepper plant, there have been more "learning experiences" than successes.  Why all of the problems?  1. We had no idea what we were doing...mostly we still don't.  2. There are more predators than I could have imagined.  They span the range from very small (an army of aphids) to moderately large (the neighborhood bunny).  They all view the garden as their personal smorgasbord.
 

Aphids and Lady Bugs.   Aphids love the cantaloupe leaves.  Due to the aphids, many of the cantaloupe leaves were badly distorted and the plant was struggling.  I used insecticidal soap to kill the aphids.  Unfortunately, I applied it incorrectly, did not rinse it off, or something.  In any case, the cantaloupe leaves ended up badly burned and I nearly killed the plant.  It does not look great now, but it has at least partially recovered and looks great compared to what it did. 

Since I thought I had killed the plant, I stop spraying and the aphids underwent a population explosion.  That is when several lady bugs, a natural predator of aphids, showed up. 

Lady bug on cantaloupe leaf (8/22/16)

I only saw a few lady bugs, but they were obviously crawling around eating aphids.

About a week later I noticed lots and lots of these strange looking bugs...almost like black and orange miniature crocodiles.  They are lady bug larvae and they, too, love to eat aphids.

The black and orange bugs are lady bug larvae.  The teeny tiny white things scattered across the leaf are aphids. (8/29/16)  Not sure, but the funny looking white thing on the left may be an aphid lion larva (sans dead aphid bodies, see below)

Fortunately I was able to identify these as good bugs before taking action to get rid of them.  There were lots and lots of them and they quickly spread throughout the garden.  They seem to be little eating machines.  Within a week or so they had taken care of the aphid problem.

It was at about that time that I started seeing these strange "growths" under the leaves, which I found out were lady bug pupae, i.e. little lady bug cocoons.

Lady bug pupae on green bean leaves

I never did see a lady bug emerge from one of these, but that must have been what was happening here since the wings are evident and it kind of looks like a lady bug.

Partially formed lady bug from the pupa (9/5/16)

Of course, these were not the only bugs in the garden.  I noticed this very strange black bug one day.  I took its picture in hopes of identifying it.  I still don't know what it is, whether it is friend or foe.  However, I did notice the white bug that was also in the picture.

Unidentified bug (black bug on the upper left) and a green lacewing larva more commonly known as an aphid lion (white thing on the right)

Aphid lion.  I had been focused on the larger black bug, but it was only after looking at the picture that I realized there was something else interesting in the frame, the white thing that looked like it was covered with small bugs.  It is apparently the larva of a green lacewing, another good bug since it eats aphids.  The dead aphids are what are covering its body.  According to this source, it uses these as camouflage against the ants (which protect the aphids) as it runs around eating aphids.

Now that I know what to look for, I did some exploring on the plants and found another one.  It is nearly impossible to see the individual aphid bodies in person, but they are readily apparent when blown up in the picture.  (Not bad for my cell phone camera!)

Close up of  what is apparently an aphid lion.  The individual white aphid bodies are visible.

Tomato ghosts.  While the aphids, lady bugs, and aphid lions were battling it out, there was even worse damage due to larger predators.  In an earlier post I had noted damage to low hanging peppers from night predators, presumably rats.  Soon after that they also took a bite out of a small green tomato. 

Predator damage to one of the green tomatoes

In addition to upping the war on the rats with the aid of our pest company, I added organza bags to the low lying tomatoes.  I think of these as tomato ghosts.  The bags were available through Amazon for wedding favor items.  I was not sure they would be enough to deter a truly dedicated predator, but I was hopeful they would encourage the casual predator to move along to something else.  It did work for at least those few low lying tomatoes that were hanging on through the worst of the summer heat.

Tomato ghosts (8/10/16)

Neighborhood rabbit.  Despite the success in battling these various pests, the biggest nuisance and greatest threat to the garden is a cute little bunny that spends a large amount of his time in the side yard.  He is around so much, even when I am in the yard, that he is almost tame. 

He often "hides" (although not especially well) behind some of the plants while I work in the garden.

Bunny hiding next to the house. 

He has gotten so tame that he will often roam around and come out to eat even if I am close by.

 

Bunny eating clover while I water the garden

He has even hopped up into the garden while I was standing there watering.

I knew he was eating the new growth off of the cantaloupe vines that were on the ground, but figured I could live with that since it is sometimes recommended to cut back on the vines to promote ripening of existing fruit rather than more vine growth.

However, he seems to have taken a liking to green bean leaves.  I thought I saw evidence of where he had been munching on them and even caught him in the act.  However I was not overly worried.  How much could one little rabbit eat?

Caught red-handed (red-pawed?) eating the pole bean leaves

Apparently he can eat a lot.  The final straw was when I came out one evening and discovered he had eaten the leaves off of all of the young wax beans, about eighteen plants. 

The two squares with the bare dirt had a full complement of young new wax bush beans growing.  This is a picture of what was left after the bunny's afternoon snack, i.e. only the stems.  The chicken wire around the outside was added later. 

Unfortunately there is not a good way with the current location of the trellises to completely fence off the entire garden.  However, I have now enclosed a good number of the bush beans.  I had originally intended for the covered cages to only be used for seedlings, but will leave them on as long as possible.  Before the next garden I will incorporate some type of fencing to exclude the bunny.  Of course, a perimeter fence alone will not be enough since the birds and squirrels can still get in if the top is open.  Sigh....

Despite the issues, planning for and working in the garden have been fun ways to spend my time.  I have learned a tremendous amount about all kinds of things.  The garden may not be a great success as a source of food, but it has been a rousing success as a hobby.

Soft Food Diet after Oral Surgery

It has been three weeks since the Frog's oral surgery for full arch dental replacement or sometimes called all on four dental implants.   The surgery went well and he seems to be healing properly. 

One of the selling points of this procedure is that it is a one day procedure.  That seems to be essentially correct (albeit a VERY long day), but that statement is a bit misleading out of context.  Although it is a one day surgery and he now has teeth, he can not eat anything requiring chewing for at least four months.  In his case, he will require another implant in December which will presumably add another four months. 

That is the long way of saying we are three weeks into at least 32 weeks of a soft food diet.  We got very little direction from his oral surgeon on appropriate things to eat, other than the general suggestions of scrambled eggs, soft fish, or things that are pureed or could be mashed with a fork.  Definitely no pieces of meat, no lettuce.  Needless to say, I have been digging into this further and have discovered he needs a pureed diet or something on the very soft end of a mechanical soft diet.  Yes, I am eating the same thing (or at least for dinner) since it makes no sense to cook two different meals for two people.

Here are some of the highlights of what I know to date while I can still find everything.

Resources on Soft Food Diets.  By far the best resource I have found to date is a book by Sandra Woodruff and Leah Gilbert-Henderson entitled Soft Foods for Easier Eating Cookbook.  This book contains not only specific recipes but also has a tips on pureeing or grinding different types of foods in general, information on recommended equipment for the kitchen (blender, food processor, meat grinder, masher, potato ricer, etc.), descriptions and sources for various commercially available pureed foods such as Thick-It (which we have not used and likely will not) and nutritional supplements such as Ensure (the Frog has used Original Ensure or Ensure high protein for between meal snacks).

My go-to resource for preparing soft foods.

Other sources I have found helpful include:

• Easy-to-Swallow Easy-to-Chew Cookbook by Donna L. Weihofen.  This book has more "easy-to-chew" recipes than pureed recipes, but it is still useful.
• Essential Puree the A to Z Guidebook by Diane Wolff.  This book is by a gourmet cook.  The recipes likely taste better but are sometimes more complex, which is a negative.  My bigger complaint is the greater difficulty in using the book due to its layout and lack of index.  However, one of the big pluses is an accompanying website and blog (http://essentialpuree.com/blog/), which has all kinds of hints and suggestions from recipes to tips for how to fly on a commercial airline if you require a soft diet.  I have yet to make my way through all of the blog posts.
• Eating Guide for Pureed and Mechanical Soft Diets, from the memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center site, https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/patient-education/eating-guide-pureed-and-mechanical-soft-diets   This site has lots of practical information about the differences between a pureed and a mechanical soft diet, appropriate foods for each type of diet, what to look for at the supermarket, and specific recipes.
• Healthy Nutrition for ALS,   http://www.neurology2.ucsf.edu/brain/als/pdfs/healthy_nutrition_for_als.pdf  This site also has general info and some specific recipes. 

Equipment we find useful. 

• I am so thankful that we already had both a Vitamix high speed blender and a Cuisinart food processor.  We used these only occasionally in the past, but now use one or both of them nearly every day.  I don't know what we would have done without at least one of these.  I am very glad that we have both since they do slightly different things.  

Vitamix 5200 Blender and 7-Cup Cuisinart Food Processor

•  I also bought a potato ricer for "mashing" sweet potatoes and other veggies and to help when reheating polenta (https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/9036-reheating-soft-polenta), a good soft food when originally made but a bit of a challenge to reconstitue to porridge consistency. 
• I am using our 10 oz Pyrex custard cups to make single serve timbales (no, I did not know what a timbale was before this either!), but need to get more. 
• The cookbooks suggest numerous other kitchen gadgets, but we have not needed anything else special so far.

What works and what doesn't.

• Breakfast has been pretty straightforward.  Scrambled eggs work if eaten slowly.  Instead of English muffins or toast, which would not work, I fix hot cereal.  The cereal of choice so far is oat bran, which is much smoother than oatmeal.  Cream of wheat would likely also work, but I think oat bran has a lower glycemic index.  I add almond butter for taste and some fat.  It is topped off with pureed sliced peaches for the Frog and seasonal berries or a banana for me.
• Most of the cookbooks feature smoothies or blenderized soups for lunches.  We have had both, but they have not been especially popular.  Most of the lunches are now leftovers from dinner.  
• Before surgery our dinners were typically fish and a vegetable, a meat and a vegetable, or a meat/veggie stir-fry, with the occasional taco dinner or fajitas.  Fish fillets of soft fish like swai or salmon work well and we continue to have them, but unfortunately beef, chicken, or pork require much too much chewing nor do they blenderize well. They normally must be combined with something else for a better consistency.  This is still a work in progress, but things that have worked so far include chicken tetrazzini (http://www.neurology2.ucsf.edu/brain/als/pdfs/healthy_nutrition_for_als.pdf), chicken or ham timbales ( Soft Foods for Easier Eating Cookbook), and very smooth meat loaf (Easy-to-Swallow Easy-to-Chew Cookbook).  
• Anything that is a bit chunkier (salmon loaf, shrimp and mushroom souffle) has not worked well...not smooth enough; not easily mashable.
• Vegetables also need to be ground, but most of them are a mess even after being ground unless a thickener of some type is added.  We have had success with recipes that incorporate either potato or potato flakes as the thickener: zucchini-parmesan puree and savory carrot puree (both from Soft Foods for Easier Eating Cookbook) and puree of broccoli with garlic (https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/patient-education/eating-guide-pureed-and-mechanical-soft-diets ).  These result in something with the consistency of thin mashed potatoes.  Stouffer's frozen spinach souffle also works as a veggie with no modification.
• Vegetable baby food is easy to heat in the microwave, but has been unpopular primarily due to lack of taste.
• Macaroni and cheese works reasonably well, but needs to be blenderized with lots of extra milk. 
• Another starchy side that works well and tastes good is polenta parmesan (Soft Foods for Easier Eating Cookbook). 
• Sweet potatoes are supposed to work well, but I did not get them smooth enough in my one attempt.  I plan to give them another shot.
• Applesauce is a frequent addition to lunch or dinner.
• Ice cream is the dessert of choice.
• Between meal snacks include single serve pudding or Ensure.

This is a start. We are not starving, but there are more starches and carbohydrates than I would like and we need more choices to build in more variety.

Up and Down Week with the Veggie Garden

It has been and up and down week with the garden.  I had been having so much fun until recently, but now I am getting discouraged.

I still feel it was a good idea to start with a fall garden, because I have had lots of opportunity to focus on only a few types of plants at a time.  Unfortunately I forgot that the many different predators are more adapted to our backyard and its climate than the vegetable plants I am trying to grow.

I have not given up yet, but I am afraid the arrow on the success-failure dial is wiggling in the middle and starting to dip towards failure.  I am hoping that things will turn around once the weather gets cooler and the plants are happier, but here are the current problems.

Newly installed second trellis on Sunday, 7-31-16

First the good news.  The good news is that the tomato plants, peppers, and cantaloupe are all growing.   The cantaloupe is is especially doing well.  It is producing lots of flowers, including both male and female blossoms.

Cantaloupe flowers.  The male flower is on the left and the female flower (with a mini pre-cantaloupe fruit at the base of the flower) is on the right.

There are also lots of flying insects around the blossoms, including an occasional honeybee, all of which can presumably pollinate the flowers.  I have not yet seen any cantaloupes that are obviously beginning to develop, but I am hopeful.

At least one pepper on the Big Bertha pepper plant is turning red and is nearly ripe.

Finally, it is now August, so it is time for the next wave of plantings.  We added a second trellis (primarily for the pole beans) and on Monday, August 1, planted two squares of pole beans (8 seeds each), one square of bush wax beans (9 seeds) and one square of bush green beans (9 seeds).

Now the bad news.  The bad news is that every type of plant is under assault and having problems of some sort. 

High temps. The tomatoes and peppers are not setting any new fruit, presumably due to the high temperatures (typically around 100 F each afternoon and no lower than about 78-80 in the mornings). However, lots of posts online indicate they will begin to do so rapidly once the temperatures drop if I can keep the plants growing until then. 

Spider mites.  The lower branches of the tomato plants seem to have spider mites.  It was spreading rapidly across the four plants and up each plant.  Spraying with insecticidal soap seems to have contained the problems to the lower branches, but I am continuing to monitor the situation.

Paul Robeson tomato plant with spider mite damage on lower branches

Aphids and ants.  There were ants on the underside of some of the cantaloupe leaves, generally clustered around some small yellow things.  I think the yellowish things are aphids.  There are varying opinions about whether ants are a problem or not in the garden, but the aphids are a problem. The aphids live by consuming the juice from the plant leaves, which of course is not good for the leaves.  I sprayed the cantaloupe with insecticidal soap, which seemed to get rid of the aphids initially.  According to the web, the ants are only interested in the aphids, or actually the aphids' honeydew, and not actually the plants so they also initially disappeared.  To get enough protein, the aphids have to suck a LOT of sap.  The extra unused sap, which includes lots of carbohydrates (i.e. sugar), is excreted by the aphids, hence the interest by the ants.  There are suggestions that the ants actually bring the aphids back so they can collect the honeydew from them, i.e. they are farming the aphids.   Despite an initial decline, both the ants and the aphids reappeared with a vengeance.

There were so many ants that I thought their nest might be in the flower bed.  Even though some people think ants are a good thing in the garden, I decided to try and get rid of them since there were so many.  But how should I proceed to get rid of them?  After some considerable looking, including finding them ahead of time in their inventory online, I finally tracked down some boric acid at a Walgreens in Flower Mound.  Even then, the manager had to go digging around in the back room for their last two bottles.  Who knew it would be so difficult to find?!

I dissolved the boric acid in some orange marmalade from the back of the cupboard.  The marmalade had a "Best used by date" of 09-00, so it seemed like a good candidate for this project!  I put the boric acid/marmalade mixture into a larger jar and laid it on its side under the cantaloupe leaves.  The ants were definitely interested.

Within a day there was a trail of thousands (or at least hundreds) of ants which I followed out of the garden, across the yard and at least 30 feet away into one of the rat bait boxes left by ABC Pest Control.  Gently raising one corner of the box caused a massive flurry of ant activity.  Yes, I think this is their nest.  I did not expect it to be so far away from the garden.

I left everything alone, hoping all of the worker ants would transport enough boric acid back to the nest so it would kill the queen and hence the entire colony.  I am still waiting on that.  If they don't go away soon, I can probably take more action on the nest directly now that I think I know where it is.

In the meantime, there seem to be many more ants with aphids on the cantaloupe.  I am spraying yet again with insecticidal soap.

Squash vine borers?  Even worse than ants, aphids, or spider mites is the possibility of invasion of the cantaloupe by squash vine borers.   I am actually not sure this is the cantaloupe's problem, since the base of the cantaloupe vines don't quite look like the pictures I have seen, but I am watching closely since it could quickly kill the plant.

Some of the cantaloupe leaves are wilted and the stem looks a little weird, but I don't know that I see the frass (sawdust like droppings) described everywhere when discussing squash vine borers.

I thought I was coping with all of these various problems, but then things got worse.


Night-time invaders.  After planting the various bean seeds on Monday morning, I put the white shelving (i.e. makeshift cages) over dirt where the beans had been planted.  They have some fairly wide openings, but I thought they were overkill since I figured everything would be ok until the beans actually sprouted.  I thought they would provide more than enough protection until I could get new chicken wire cages constructed in a day or two.

Monday morning, August 1, with white cages over squares of planted bean seeds

Unfortunately I was wrong.  Tuesday morning was a very sad day.  When I went out to check on things the white wire cages were not moved, but there was a sizeable hole in the location of one of the pole bean seed plantings and multiple seeds scattered along the top of the dirt.  I quickly covered the seeds up with dirt, but I did not have any idea how many of the seeds were still in the ground.   Were they now all eaten except for the three I had found?  Why would predators dig up the seeds and then leave them?  Maybe they only ate some of them?  Even worse was the fact that the white cages were not moved.  It was not a rabbit, oppossum,  raccoon, or armadillo.  Whatever had done this was very small.  It likely had to be a mouse or rat.  What was even more distressing was that either of those might be able to make it through 1 inch chicken wire, which I would prefer to use for cages rather than something with an even finer mesh since I have a lifetime supply of the chicken wire.

It gets worse.  Whatever was roaming around in the garden Monday night apparently did not like the bean seeds, but it did like bell peppers.

What was left of the small bell pepper on Tuesday morning after being chewed on by the night invader.

OK, at least I can try cages made out of chicken wire.  I made two of those and put those over the four bean squares.  I did not know if the critter would be able to make it through the 1 inch openings, but I did not have much to lose at this point.

Tuesday morning with green chicken wire cages over the bean squares.  The red bell pepper is in the center of the pic behind the marigolds.

I went out on Wednesday morning.  There was no evidence of any disturbance under the cages in the bean squares, but another bell pepper was eaten.  I only had one bell pepper left and it was almost ripe (i.e. mostly red) so I went ahead and picked it before the night invader could get it.

By Thursday morning things were beginning to look up a little.  Several of the bean seeds were sprouting...at least not all of them were eaten!  There was no evidence of anything having been inside the cages.  Maybe the chicken wire cages will work after all.

Separate from those issues, the cantaloupe, is growing like mad up the new trellis.  Even if we never get any cantaloupes, at least the plant is making pretty yellow flowers.

Thursday, August 4--the cantaloupe continues to climb rapidly up the trellis

Even more exciting was the unexpected appearance of a hummingbird at the hummingbird feeder.  It was the first one we had seen this year, despite the feeder being out all summer.

First hummingbird of the year

Even better was the fact that he visited the red flowers on the turk's cap plants in the yard, one of the new perennials we added this year with the new backyard landscaping.

Turk's cap plants in our backyard

These were chosen for their potential to attract and feed hummingbirds, so it is good to see the little beasties actually checking out the flowers.  Apparently turk's cap plants are edible for humans, too, but I think I will leave them for the hummingbirds.


Things seemed awfully bleak earlier in the week, but perhaps things are turning around now.   I am cheering for the bean sprouts to sprout and for them to grow without being chewed on by the neighborhood wildlife.