I'm thoroughly disgusted and discouraged.  Our squash, zucchini, and now cucumbers have been invaded.  The culprit ... pickleworms.  At first, I thought the squash and zucchini were suffering from blossom end rot.  It made sense to me.  After all, we've been without rain since the beginning of April and I'm out there every day with the spray hose trying my best to water everything well.  I came to the conclusion that I wasn't getting everything watered deeply enough and the soil was drying out.  Then I discovered some pesky little critters devouring the squash and zucchini flowers and fruits.  I'm literally running on burnout right now (so many things on my plate and not enough sleep) so I hurriedly tried to diagnose the problem and ended up not reading thoroughly enough which resulted in a misdiagnosis.  Now that I know the real culprit, what I've read doesn't leave me much hope.  Apparently they are notorious in Florida and impossible to get rid of.  The Big Kahuna is going to be heartbroken that the 4 cucumbers that were growing so well are a loss.  An organic gardening book I have suggests using Rotenone - after reading the info at that link, I don't think so!  I'm shocked the book would even suggest that.  I've been trying to combat the problem by spraying everything down with a mixture of water and Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap.  I have a sinking feeling it's a losing battle though.  I had to yank one dead zucchini plant this morning.  At what point do I give up, accept that I'm going to have to buy these things at the store (*$igh*), and direct my energies elsewhere?

The natural foods market closing has me pretty stressed out.  I have been told that they are going to start discounting items soon, but I've also been told that a lot of other customers want to know what day this starts and what time the store opens that day.  Apparently they all intend to be there when the doors open (and here I was foolishly hoping I was the only one that had that bright idea!).  I'm trying to get a game plan together, but I may as well count on that all going out the window since I have no idea what kind of mob (or not) I'm going to be dealing with.  I'll also have Tiger Cub and Lion Cub in tow ... there goes all focus and reasonable thinking on my part!  (Seriously, I love my boys, but I am very easily distracted so shopping with them, especially in this scenario, is not likely to turn out well.)

Our school year is over and I am looking forward to a break.  The lazy days of summer (okay, it's still technically spring but it's going to be 93*+ here today so it may as well already be summer) have arrived. 

And I had to smile when I was presented with this last night.......

Mama Cat