New Piano

The piano arrived about a week ago, a very generous and thoughtful gift from her Po Po and Gong Gong. Zoe is still too young for lessons - hands are too small and we doubt she has the patience and aptitude for formal training yet - but she certainly shows enthusiasm for playing and singing to it!

Aphids, Ants and Ladybugs

We have a severe infestation of ants and aphids on our corn. I noticed the ants way earlier, but thinking they are not too much of a problem, I didn't do anything about them until about two weeks ago, when I realized that they are all over the corn. I sprayed the corn with diluted vinegar because that supposedly chases the ants away. Going out to check on the corn a few days ago, I realized that the corns are turning black with aphids. It turns out that - after some basic research on the internet - ants "farm" the aphids. The ants keep aphids the same way humans keep cows. The aphids are terribly proficient at sucking sweetness out of saps, and the ants milk the sap out of the aphids.

I thought I would resolve the problem by introducing more ladybugs to the area. Every ladybug can eat hundreds of aphids a day. It is not clear to me if this will work at all now. I noticed, after dumping a box of ladybugs onto the corn, that the ants were actively attacking and chasing away the ladybugs. The ladybugs are much bigger than the ants and yet they seem easily deterred by the ants.

In short, I think I will probably have to resort to a different method: more neem oil and soap.

We probably won't be eating home grown corn this season.

Sequoia National Park

We went out to the Mineral Kings area of Sequoia National Park over the July 4th weekend. I think it is one of our best camping trips ever. The area was beautiful - full of alpine scenery, lush green meadows and vistas of jagged peaks. We camped right next to the Kaweah River and fell asleep to the sound of rushing waters. And we got plenty of exercise, though we didn't quite make it to the alpine lake we wanted to get to. We are, alas, no longer in great physical shape. I have bun 2 in the belly and Zoe plus pack is just about 30 lbs on Dennis' back. Still, we got to romp through the dusky wild. We think Zoe enjoyed the trip very much too.