The Good, the Bad, and Everything in Between

I was able to plant about 1/2 of my main garden on the 16th as I wrote about.   Then the rains came.  And it rained, and it rained, and it rained and it is still raining!  Hopefully I will be able to get everything else planted very soon.   In spite of all the rain, a few of our Nanking cherry trees are blooming - hardy little things, bless their hearts!  I am not sure, though, how well they will do this year as the mice chewed the bark off the bottoms of all the branches this winter.   The snow was deep, the winter was long, and the mice were hungry.  Harold and I are thinking we should paint something on the bark to help heal the stems.  Maybe wax?  Paint?  Tar?  Garden wrap?  We are doing research on the internet as to what to use.  The very fact that a couple of the bushes are blooming is a good sign, but they might not last more than this season.   The mice ate through our grape vines, too, but one vine shows signs of life.
     The constant rains are stressing out my peppers I planted.   The leaves are a whitish/yellow.  Maybe a couple days of sunshine will help.
     It has poured rain in more than one way, too.  Yesterday Harold had a PET scan to check for signs of new cancer.  Today we got the results - he has a new tumor on his spine up near the neck.  This is what has been giving him pain.  But his attitude is so good!   He says he is actually glad he has a "fixable" thing like a tumor instead of a non-fixable thing like lifelong arthritis.   Harold always has such a positive attitude - I learn a lot from him!  We will have to put garden work and yard work and house work on hold for a while.  Sometime within the next week or so we will be driving to Fargo every day for 3 weeks for radiation.   We go before that for Harold to get fitted with some kind of face mask made just for him, which connects to the radiation table and keeps his head and neck absolutely still during radiation.
     We hope my little car holds up.   Today the front wheel bearing went out (or it will very soon) and the check engine light has been on for about a week.  With over 188,000 miles on the car I suppose it's time for things to break down.   Well, we will get through all this.  Harold will be fine.  The garden will prosper in spite of too much rain, and a lot of neglect.  We certainly needed the moisture, so at least our drought is ended.   As soon as I can get to the garden I will post those promised photos!