I’m a little late to the party to welcome June, so forgive me.

May was certainly a busy month as the gardening season kicked into high gear (as if it hasn’t been high this year so far). Because of the trip to LA and Seattle, I had to jam as many plants into the ground as far as I could to save them. Otherwise they would die a painful dehydrating death.

The trip was fine, by the way, lots of terrifying moments along the way, most of them were in my ever-anxious head but I definitely saw quite a few things (some nice and some not so nice) along the way like the long jagged coast of the Pacific ocean along the California coast and the beautiful still-snowy forest of Oregon. The trip also meant I officially visited two new states – Oregon and Washington. I say “officially” because flying by in an airplane and wandering its airports don’t count as a visit to the state.

Meanwhile, the temperature was playing games with me all throughout the month of May. The weather would be alright for the weekdays but would get chilly on the weekends. I was so worried that before I left, I had to put up Wall-of-Water (WoW) around three of my precious tomato plants (I only had three WoW) and instructed my aunt to drape a double-layer of my most heavy duty frost cloth over the frost sensitive crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, and sweet potatoes.

Thankfully, most survived. I say “most” because I did lose a few but they were almost immediately replaced by a backup plant.

May ended with a cooking class and rain. The cooking class was educational and fun. It felt nice to be doing something as elaborate as bread making in the kitchen again. I haven’t made bread in probably 4 years, not since I was discouraged from making bread by my mom because she didn’t like it.

The rain was must needed. I thought I would get some while I was on the trip but I came home to disappointment when I found the rain barrels still empty. The rain this past weekend filled up three of the four rain barrels, giving me around 170 gallons of water. There was so much water coming down one of the downspouts that I couldn’t let the water go to waste, so I used 5-gallon water storage jugs to fill some of the water. I think I will need a bigger storage tank if I’m going to get this much water with 0.5-inch of rain.

In total, there were only 0.66-inch of rain for May, so every drop matters, especially, it rarely rains in the summer months.

What to look forward to in June?

I have another trip coming up next week. I’ll be in my neighboring state of Colorado, hiking and enjoying the scenery of Rocky Mountain National Park. Right now, I’m kinda nervous about the timed-entry but I think it’ll be fine. I’ll just focus on one or two spots to visit and leave some for future visits.