Don't you just hate summer?

Don't you hate summer, when you can't just sit around and play computer games all day? (And blog.) Or is it just me?

Sorry about the lack of posts here, but... well, I spent most of Sunday afternoon picking strawberries. (The rest of it, I was trying to erect a barrier to keep the squirrels from my apricot trees,... which was a complete waste of time, because there are only about three apricots they haven't already destroyed, at least on my Chinese apricot.)

And yes, I should have done that Saturday, but I had other stuff that just had to be done, so I'd barely started on the strawberries when it started to rain. I continued to pick, for awhile, but it's hard enough crawling around on my hands and knees under the bird-netting without coping with rain, too.

So, anyway, I had nearly every container I owned filled with strawberries by late Sunday afternoon. I gave some to a neighbor, but most weren't in very good shape. (Early in the season, I give them away, because they're really nice, then. By now, they're much smaller and very much bug-eaten, so I keep those for myself.)

I should have picked through them Sunday night, so I could freeze them for the winter. But instead, I played Arma 3. Now, yes, I've been spending a lot of time playing this game, but only at night - and even then, only on Saturday and Sunday. Is that so bad?

Well, I guess it was that time, because by Monday, those strawberries weren't looking too great. But I still couldn't get to them immediately, because my cherries were turning red, and if I want any cherries at all, I have to keep the birds away. So I spent six hours Monday afternoon putting bird-netting on my cherry trees.

After that, I came inside and immediately started on the strawberries - the mostly rotten strawberries, by then. I spent seven hours picking through rotten strawberries, cutting off the least rotten parts of them, and freezing those. (Yum, yum - I'm sure they'll be tasty next winter.) It was 1 AM before I finished!

After a refreshing 5 hours of sleep (I had things to do), I was back outside spraying fungicide. You see, I'd discovered that the sweet cherries - on my one tree, at least - were rotting on the tree. (Maybe that's why they say sweet cherries aren't really suited for Nebraska.) I'm not sure how much good it will do to spray them now, but it can't hurt, right?

I had some errands, so I got cleaned up and left, getting back mid-afternoon,... and I just couldn't face more yard work at that point. I was tired, so I took a nap, then got up and played Distant Worlds: Shadows all night. What can I say? If I were ambitious, I'd still be working for a living. :)

At any rate, I got up and went right to work this morning. I washed a couple of loads of laundry, and while that was going on, I went back out to spray my fruit trees again (a pesticide, this time) - all before breakfast. In fact, I'm just finishing breakfast as I type this.

And now, I have to go pick strawberries again. And the lawn really needs mowing (again!). Plus, I'm behind in thinning my fruit,... and I need to get started with summer pruning sometime, too.

Don't you just hate summer?