We Haven't Given Up ~ Yet

What can I say?  We have sure had our run of rains and now, once again, ~~~~HAIL !

 Our son calls from work this morning at 9a.m. warning us to put the vehicles under cover, there's a storm due to hit with large hail within a minute or two.  Not one minute later, the sky turns black, the air is calm and WOW, the winds and hail hit us Again !!!

We were the lucky ones.  We still have power, of which folks across town and to the west, including at the farm where my mother lives, my brothers, all 3, and a few sisters, had trees go down, but no hail.  Just east of my TX. sister that just moved north in June, there was a tornado that touched down but no one was injured.

 Considering all the ' what if's ' we tend to think about when weather turns mean, I'm glad to only have piles of hail on my doorsteps and a loss of my gardens, this time, looking more gloomy than a month ago when we were hit by our first hail storm.

 My carrot tops lay flat on the ground, but the carrots under the ground should still be very productive.

 We lost our red chard.  Every stem lays in the mud, some of the leaves stripped right off the stem.

 The cabbage heads split as they were pelted with hail stones.

The leaves have so many holes, and they just lost their 

' pretty appeal.'

 Tomorrow we will be making sour kraut and if we're lucky, 

a pan of cabbage rolls for dinner.

 Click any photo for a closer look at the damage.

The kale is stripped also with just the center ribs standing.  

The majority of the leaves lay deep in the mud and water.

 I almost cried to see the green peppers I'd left to ripen

til they turned red and sweeter.  I will salvage the little bits 

that are left for soups and homemade pizza.

 Even my flowers, the zinnias and cosmos, took a beating.

 You can also bet that I'll dig the heirloom tomatoes

out of the mud, wash them thoroughly and still enjoy them.

We already have lost so many tomatoes from the first hail storm, the centers rotting as they'd try to ripen.  Like I'd said last time,  I WILL be buying tomatoes...again!

 We will attempt to stand the corn back up, tho doubtful.

The ground is so saturated and their roots are so loose.

I think we'd best pick what we can and call the rest of it 

another loss.  But, how we love sweet corn cooked within 

ten minutes of being picked.

 What we both agree with, is that there will be no pumpkins to sell this year.  It's a shame but we cannot sell hail damaged goods. 

Besides, what the hail did not get, ---

 the deer did.  There are at least a half a dozen of the little darlings eating every bite full they can get.  Do they know something we don't?  Is this going to be another bitter and long winter?

Usually the deer don't start chewing on the produce until it's ripe.

 This last photo shows 3 of the vises of this years pumpkin growing.

One, the black foliage is loss of growth from the first hail storm. 

Second, tho nearly ripe, this sweet pie pumpkin is also a ' deer ' favorite.  Dang it. and

Third, there is hail damage now to this 2nd growth of foliage which will now die back and not allow cover for the pumpkins.  Any leaves covering the pumpkins 'does help' keep the deer away.

They do not like the stickers on the leaves.  No leaves, thus

easy pickin' and lip-smackin' snacks for the deer.

Though it doesn't look hopeful for us to have anything marketable for our pumpkin/gourd/flower/Indian corn wagon this season,

we haven't quite given up ~ YET !

So it's goes with this year's gardening in our part of the world.

We won't be eating a lot of this year's produce.  It's times like this that I'm grateful I'd made that extra jar of canned tomatoes 'last year' or frozen an extra bag or two of chard and green beans.

We are always blessed for our efforts, one way or another.

Stay Safe and Thankful