Beer, Bikes, and Snow

June 6th - Had the intention of purchasing tomato baskets to support my plants.  After wrestling a few of the baskets at Home Depot, I got frustrated and spotted these colorful spiral supports.  For only $1, I thought they might look nice in my garden. The cucumbers I planted as seeds were struggling so I picked up two pepper plants and two basil plants to fill in the spots. June 14th - I spent some time weeding and cleaning up my plot.  It was a hot, dry week so I made sure the plants got plenty of water. June 22 - my zucchini seemed to explode over the past week.  A nice mix of sunshine and rain made my plot very happy.  Seems the grass and weeds were popping up again.  I managed to clean up things before leaving for vacation. June 29th - I was dreading coming back to my garden.  While we were gone, I got a flurry of emails from "the Mayor" about a hose/water issue.  And there was mention of a vole attack on one ...

When I was planning out my season, I made Bear Creek XC my last race for the season (I'll save those details for a later post).  I love the course - climbing and rocks.  And I had success there last year.  However, four weeks ago I wasn't sure I would be racing due to my crash at Jungle .  My ribs were still sore and I had to cut back on my riding.  Would I be able to handle the course? I went up the Wednesday before the race to give it a test ride.  While I felt some discomfort, it was nothing that would stop me from racing.  I had in my head this would be my last race and I was sticking with my plan.  I did two laps at my pace and registered for the Pro/Cat 1 race. Ribs Schmibs...not holding me back from racing Race day arrived and I saw who I was racing with.  With a field of mostly Pros, I knew I had to just race my own race and survive.  I got some insight on the course, and that it was similar to Nationals with a few tweeks...

I realize it's June.  But between school and racing, I haven't had a chance to update on how my garden is doing.  My last post left off with me putting in tomato plants, beets, cucumbers, and zucchini.  So what happened during the month of May? Really not much in the way of my plants.  However, there were a lot of emails going around about the vole issue.  Yes, voles . They apparently look like mice and create headaches for our garden.  So I've been told. Pesky residents in our garden (or so I've heard) The woman (let's call her "the mayor") in charge of the garden has been talking about the vole issue since I first got the plot.  Being a "green" gardener and this my first year with a plot, I can't imagine that these rodents are running the show in our garden. The mayor has talked to "vole experts" at Rutgers Cooperative Extension.  She's researched how to combat the critters.  Some of her ideas include putting up rap...