The heat is unremitting.  I set the alarm to get up early so I can get into the garden, but by a bit after nine, it’s almost too hot to continue.  I have been pulling vegetables that are kaput to make room for new seeds and plants I’m starting inside.  I filled 6 bushel baskets with dying plants and many many weeds.  All the lettuce plants except for a bunch of Jericho Cos lettuce have now been pulled. Jericho was bred in Israel to withstand heat, and it actually does for longer than any other lettuce I’ve ever grown.  My cucumbers that did little I pulled and the dead cilantro and dill.  I started new cilantro yesterday and will plant dill before the week is up.  It just requires getting up early and getting out asap.

The drought just keeps getting worse.  Every few days, another beautiful bush or perennial dies. There is no way we can get enough water to keep them going.  The chipmunks ate ALL the tomatoes, both maincrop and paste.  Now the pasters are trying to make more little green tomatoes. We have tried everything supposed to discourage chipmunks, but they go after the green tomatoes.  As long as the drought lasts, so will their desire to get water by eating green tomatoes.  The eggplants, both the Oriental and the Italian types, and the peppers are prolific. They like hot dry weather.  The zucchini is having another spurt.  The pole beans are giving and giving. We’ve had three several times and we’ve frozen 17 pounds so far.  I’d like to do 20-22 pounds.  We are inundated with peppers and eggplants and I keep searching out more recipes on my computer, in my many cookbooks and once in a while, on line.

The pollinator garden is full of blooms as it gets water when the main garden does.  The bees are happy with them but it’s very hot for them. They don’t like such heat and drought.

The results in Kansas made me very happy.  I worked on abortion rights for years.  From the time I was 19, I helped women get abortions.  I am furious with the Supreme Court and their attempts to push the country back into the 50’s when women were subservient and dependent economically, Blacks were kept in their place, gay men were a joke, Lesbians were put in mental hospitals, etc.

This will be a quiet weekend as we have too much garden work to go out or have anyone over. I include in that all the freezing and dehydrating I’m doing.  We always can much tomato sauce and many paste tomatoes in jars.  I don’t know if we’ll have a single tomato this year.  It has never happened to us, but global warming is getting to us as well as everybody else.

I took part in an interview this week for Jewish Currents and a sci fi venue.  The woman seems very nice.  I hope it turns out well in print.  I am back to writing poetry after a hiatus last week when I was swamped with vegetables to deal with.

Shaman is totally at home.  He is everything I hoped for in a kitten, enliving the lives of our other two cats, who now get far more exercise playing with him.  He is an affectionate companion, playful, bright, cuddly. It’s was six weeks this Friday since we got him and how quickly he has become part of the family.  Willow is quite happy now and much livelier.  Schcwartzie has an important role to play as playmate, mentor, pal and nursemaid –although as Shaman grows, this isles necessary. He doesn’t have to protect Shaman from Willow as she now totally accepts him and plays with him.