Tux vs The Fungus

Tux's Fluconazole dose was reduced to once a day, per her AZ vet, three months ago. Her cocci titer had been stable at 1:8 for quite a while and the vet hoped she had stabilized. But the last month I've noticed weird stools full of mucus and that she is looking askance at food again, just like when she was sick. I feared the worst and indeed, her titer has risen to 1:32 since stopping the evening dose of meds. It appears her immune system is incapable of fighting this strain of Valley Fever fungus. She requires a high dose of antifungals to do all the work. I've added the second dose back and am awaiting further instructions from the AZ vet. Poor Tux will never be free of this awful fungus.

Other pictures

Some Walla Walla sweet onions drying next to our Bolt EV. We fill 'er up in the garage!

I guess we're warding off vampires (or is it werewolves?) in the garage. Garlic and onions will go into everything I cook for a while. I've already frozen some pesto but my basil hasn't grown very well so I won't be making as much as I like. I grew a variety called Pesto Perpetuo last year and loved it. It has varigated leaves and doesn't flower so just grows and grows for abundant harvests but it wasn't offered at any nurseries this year. Couldn't find seed sold online either. So I'm growing five different kinds of basil this year and so far I'm happiest with the Thai variety. One variety has big ruffly green leaves, one is purple, one is the usual cooking variety sold at groceries and one is purple/green with hairy leaves that aren't too great for eating, imho. 

As far as the garden goes there were some successes, some failures. I found a way to protect the outside plants from the rats and had some nice veggies but the tomatoes have been hugely disappointing with blossom end rot. I'm finally getting good fruit out of the Roma plant but the San Marzano isn't responding to my efforts to give it calcium and most of the fruit is going to the ducks. The Cherokee Purples, our favorite tomato, are starting to ripen with the two plants fully in ground looking much better than the two still partially contained in the soil bags. 

Raspberries are maxed out and slowing down while two of the blueberry plants are starting to ripen. The other two blueberries suffered winter damage and produced only a few small berries. The raspberries are spreading so aggressively throughout the garden that I'm entertaining thoughts of moving the veggie beds somewhere far from them. Their roots have infiltrated the asparagus bed and after the winter damage they suffered I think we'll never enjoy an asparagus crop.

It's been uncomfortably hot and smoke from the fires in British Columbia is thick in the air so I'm not working the sheep or Hattie. She's a very disappointed dog.

 I've been working on clay projects and was dripping sweat today - not nearly as bad as in Arizona but still uncomfortable with the high humidity. I'm making garden art - poppies and seed heads - experimenting with porcelain (too fragile, floppy and will probably melt in the firing), iron stoneware (good for the poppy heads but not the look I want for the flowers), and finally settled on a paper clay that is smooth, white and allows me to build the different flower parts without quickly drying and cracking or flopping. Now how many flowers will I get out of 25 pounds of paper clay?

Poppy seed heads

Poppies and pot