There is an old wives tale that says you should never kill a cricket in you house or it will rain.  Well if that is true we should have another biblical flood here.  I went down to my studio this morning about 6  a.m. to sew and when I opened the door I was frightened by a ton of big black crickets.  Norman had sprayed all around the base boards and the top of the walls about a week ago and that had kept them and the hornets out but now I was infested with the darn things so I got a can of the roach and ant spray and went back  down and sprayed that back wall good with that!  They came jumping out from behind the wall and in the seams of the outside wall.  They fell like rain!!  Those that were not dead I stepped on to stop them from jumping away.  I know I killed over 50 of them.  Then I stopped and went back to my side of the room and did my sewing.  The crickets kept falling and when they tried to jump up out of the recessed area where the stove is I stopped and stepped no them.  The other just twisted and died.   Twice when I was pressing my seams I got attacked by a cricket that was on his last leg and by then they had stopped falling from the back wall.  Maybe I got them all.  We’ll know tomorrow morning when I go down to sew again.  I will sweep up all the dead bodies this afternoon or tomorrow morning.  It is going to be very hot again today.  There is no relief in sight for the next ten days, a true heat wave.  I  wish the old wives tale would come true a  little so I don’t have to water the gardens this week end.

I got my sewing done and after breakfast I weeded the new lettuce while Norman sprayed  the fruit trees.  They are till looking good.  Lots of pears and a few peaches so don’t want to lose those to the bugs.  Then we went down to the big garden and picked a good bunch of  beans, one zucchini , and a meal of Swiss Chard.  There were no pests in the beans and nothing bothered the butternut squash last night.  There are four butternut squash set so now if we can keep the animals off these vines we will have a good crop of butternuts too.   Then I tied up the tomatoes.  Most of those are about 5 foot tall and have four to five clusters of tomatoes or buds on each.  They are growing so nice ands strong we should get a good crop of fresh tomatoes.  These we will use for fresh eating and the extra for salsa with the three kinds of peppers we have grown.  They are looking good too.  The beans in the corn are loaded with blossoms as are the other two short rows Norman planted so one day next week we should be ready to can our first beans – “God willing and the creek don’t rise” or I should say the animals don’t rise.  While I was tying up the tomatoes Norman finished cultivating the kitchen garden and planted more beans.  He got in three long rows and two short one so if all of the 150 seeds he put in germinate we will have lots of beans from this garden too.  We would love to get about four bushels to can so everyone gets all they need for next winter.

While we were in town yesterday we got some more bean seeds and some seeds for yellow summer squash.  As we pull up the potatoes we will plant beans and corn together as they worked out very good.  And a couple hills of yellow squash to can.  We should have zucchini  for Patty and her family when they come.  I hope they have lots of room in the truck when they come in July so they can take home some cans and potatoes.  Time now to get cooking all those wonderful fresh vegetable .  Have a great day!!