I cannot believe the day has at last arrived!

It’s the day before my 11-day road trip. It’s technically 12 days, if you count tomorrow when I hop on a flight from Salt Lake to Las Vegas to Buffalo, New York but I’m not counting that leg of the trip. The starting point is Buffalo, New York and that’s where I’ll begin the trip.

As excited as I am, I’m getting a bit of cold feet.

There are so many (too many) things to worry about, mostly in the garden. I tried to teach the family to operate my drip irrigation timer yesterday but they seemed so distracted as they browsed my garden like it’s a grocery store. “What is that?” They asked pointing at my peppers.

Hello, pay attention I wanted to say, I’m trying to ensure I don’t return to shambles of a garden.

I hope I won’t return to a garden in shambles – cracked tomatoes on the ground, over-ripe raspberries scattered on the rocks, plants dead from lack of watering, tomato plant leaves yellow and droopy due to overhead watering (my aunt’s favorite method of watering), etc.

Ugh, those images are just horrifying and it’s all conjured by a family of people who seem more interested in eating my hard-work than help me do a simple thing like press a few buttons to activate automatic watering.

Enough complaining, onto the photos.

Autumn, last year, I decided to cut all the raspberry canes to the ground, no matter whether it was a primocane (first-year canes) or floricane (second-year canes). It was an experiment that came after watching a bunch of YouTube videos. The only sacrifice was that I wouldn’t get a summer crop of raspberries but I would get a bumper crop in the fall.

I began harvesting on the 9th of September and haven’t stopped since. Even though this is the 5th years I’ve grown these raspberries, I’m still surprised by the speed the berries are ripening. They would be almost right in the morning and would be perfectly ripe by the evening.

I got nearly a pound of raspberries since last Thursday and decided to spend my Sunday making preserves out of these berries since one can only eat so many raspberries and cherry tomatoes in a few days’ time and I must finish those before leaving on my road trip.

I hope hope hope my garden will be okay while I’m gone. Crossing my fingers. 🤞

Sunday Stills