Year of the Fail.

Rain woke me up at 3am and didn't stop until maybe 3 hours later. It's not often that we get rain in July in North Texas. Quite sure I got the inch I hope for once/week for the garden. Just need to modify the schedule to water next Monday instead of this Thursday.

Started a post yesterday, but lost it due to an electricity failure. We have those on occasion even when there are no apparent reasons for them. First thing I did (after cursing the post I'd lost) was run to see if the light was still on the garage freezer. It was, but the reason I checked it was because one day last month I went into the garage and noticed blood on the floor in front of the freezer. A quick check inside showed that packages were soft. Seems something triggered the GFCI for the freezer. It started right up again with a push of the reset button.

The garage freezer is only about 5 years old, so I figured it wasn't the freezer which had the problem, and rather than panic and throw away all my freezer food, I opted to just refreeze and check things individually as we took them out. So far, we've successfully eaten frozen veggies, chicken, ribs, and ground beef with no ill effects. We were VERY careful to pay attention to even the SLIGHTEST odor coming off the non-vegetable packages as they defrosted and there was absolutely NO odor on any of them. I'm sure that means SOMETHING (related to how long the freezer was in the OFF mode), but I don't know what.

Houses and appliances have shelf-lives just like grocery-store products, and our house was built something like 12 years ago, so it's TIME. We've already replaced the microwave and dishwasher which came with the house, but our neighbors have replaced far more and remind us that we can expect our hot water heater ... which is in the attic over the garage ... and the air conditioner ... which is outside and in the attic over the garage ... and the refrigerator ... which is in the kitchen and the garage door opener and anything else to all fail at the same time ... pretty much THIS year.

Busiest time of the year came this week for Em and the Racetrack job, so it made sense that on his way to work he'd stand in the doorway between the foyer and the laundry room and feel water dripping on his head. He checked it out and there was a pipe that had separated in the attic for the AC system. He was able to get the pipes back together again, but not before the water had leaked pretty much COMPLETELY into the door between the foyer and the laundry room SWELLING IT.

So, now the door can't close, and TRYING to close the door results in damage to the frame.



Ceiling of the laundry room also suffered. Just think of that entire wall separating the laundry room and the foyer as full of water and you pretty much have the picture.



It's EXTREMELY creepy with the door ajar in the foyer ... like someone is in there keeping it open.

Fails in the garden ALSO hit this month, with the once-so-beautiful as to be displayed in a gardening magazine zuccini succumbed to squash borers.



Don't know WHAT to do with the infected vines, which included spaghetti squash plants.



The acorn (and other winter) squash seem to have squash BUGS, but not squash borers, so I squish the bugs and hope for the best. Majority of the fruits look GREAT, but I'm thinking I need to get them out of the garden before the insects get to them. Don't know what to do about that EITHER. Can WINTER squash be picked a little early to ensure no insect damage? I dunno, but I've had some balls of emerald green in the 2008 garden for a while now and I'm thinking that if I wait TOO long they'll succumb to insects.

Had some successes in the garden this year, as well, and will post about them this week sometime.