Staking the Tomatoes and Cucumbers

It rained last night.  I slept eleven hours, woke up at 12:30 and read for about an hour then went back to sleep until 7:00.  It's 62 degrees in my room.

I am itching...broken out with a rash on my upper body...and my kidney hurts.

I did my exercises and dressed for work.  I don't change clothes as much here.  I work in the same clothes Sunday through Thursday.  I change clothes after my shower before lunch every day, but I wear one outfit Friday through Monday and then a new outfit for Tuesday through Thursday.  Hand laundry and going to the laundromat makes me want to use as few clothes as possible.

Our job today was to stake the tomatoes and cucumbers.  We walked over to the river bank and cut some bamboo poles which we used as stakes for our plants.  We tied the poles to the mesh cover with strips of old sheeting.  We used more strips to tie the plants to the poles.

Cutting bamboo poles for stakes.

Tomatoes and cucumbers staked.

We spent the rest of the morning making more rows in the vegetable garden.  John made rows between plants that were already up, and some rows where plants had failed to come up.  The row is made by pushing the dirt back to either side with a trowel.  Add bluestone, fertilizer, and compost into the row to prepare for planting.  We planted one row with Lamb's Lettuce.  The rest of the rows must wait until we go to town on Friday and buy some seeds or plants.

New rows ready to plant and the newly staked cucumbers.

John says the Chinese use every square inch of space in their gardens.  The Yugoslavians, Italians, and Greeks are also very good at using all the available space.  But, John says the Chinese are the best.  They are our inspiration.  We are trying to use all the space in our garden, too.   We plan on planting our baby tomato plants in the pineapples.  The tomatoes will be able to grow up above the pineapples.

Lunch was papaya, 1-1/2 black sapotes that were grown here on the farm, 1/2 avocado, banana, sapadilla, coconut, and passion fruit.

It was too cold to sunbathe today, so I worked on the computer instead.  Consultations were at 2:00.  I still weigh 55k on this scale.  Karen is on day 5 of her fast.  She's feeling tired now, but she borrowed my computer for awhile this afternoon.

Supper was lettuces from the garden, tomato, 1/4 of a very large avocado, sauerkraut, two dates and pecans.  I practiced flute, studied pediatrics, and read.