Yesterday was my father's 83rd bday. One year ago on his bday, our ice storm hit and by this time of the day, hundreds of limbs were down,(One through the thin tin of our mobile into the living room), the electricity was out and a huge limb bigger than my waist fell into the field where we had parked the cars, just brushing the rear bumper of our son's van. This year it can't possibly be as bad for us as we had a metal roof built over the trailer and a carport built, and there just aren't that many limbs left to fall. We also bought a generator and a couple battery operated lanterns to go with the candles and oil lamp. We survived 9 days in our home because we have a wood stove and propane cookstove, but no electricity because the small generator that we borrowed was only big enough to keep the freezers cold, although DH did disconnect the freezers each evening long enough to pump hot water into the house for showers. I've prepared though. Filled several gallon jugs full of drinking water and brought in 2 five gallon buckets of rainwater to flush toilets if need be. Done laundry, charged cell phone, filled woodboxes. Now need to take a shower and I'll be prepared. Right now here in extreme eastern Ok, it is either 27, 30 or 33 depending on which of the outdoor thermometers is right. There is a thin coating of ice on the porch railing and 3" icicles hanging from the roof, although the sidewalk is still just wet. So far we have only had light rain and right now it has stopped. I pray it stays stopped until DH gets home this evening. George, we also cook on our woodstove a lot in the winter, soups, stews and beans mostly. Thanks for the idea of making bread. I ground the last of my wheat yesterday and will make 18 hr no-knead bread for tomorrow. The recipe is simplicity itself. 4 cups flour (I use a mix of whole wheat, 7 grain, and unbleached white) 1 & 1/2 cups warm water 2 tsp salt 1/3 tsp yeast Mix everything briskly in a glass or crockery bowl, cover with a towel and set on the counter overnight. The next morning beat it down and let it rise again--twice. Then oil your hands good and form it into a loaf and allow to rise for the final time. Cook at 375 til done. Great stuff. Develops a bit of a sourdough taste. The 18 hours is an estimate. How soon it will be ready will depend on the room temp. Everybody stay safe.

Barbara, I went out and harvested what I could today, and covered the beans and cukes, hoping to keep them producing at least one more week because they have lots of little beans and little cukes. I don't know what will happen here....might have frost or might not. We're in the 'iffy' zone. We had a high of 71 today and clear, sunny skies with light wind. The wind has pretty much stopped, the sky is still clear and that 71 degrees is a distant memory--it is now 52 degrees and falling fast. I'll be surprised if we don't go at least to 38 here. In a 'normal' year (if there is such a thing) we'll average one almost-freezing night a week from mid-Oct through mid-Nov, when the first hard freeze generally arrives. So far, we're right on track....one almost-freezing night last week, and now one due to arrive tonight. However, our daytime highs (until today) have been averaging 10-15 degrees below normal, so I've been expecting that early frost. Even if we have a hard freeze and lose everything, I don't normally clean out my garden until we're consistently having very cold nights and days......there's too many snakes slithering around as long as the days are marginally warm. Usually, we're pretty much snake-free by December and I can clean out the garden to my heart's content without running into a snake. Dawn

Maybe some day I will get to grow the 'real' Seminole. I have tried two different years now and still haven't succeeded in getting what I think I should get. I would be happy with a smaller squash since Al doesn't really like winter squash and I can't eat a big one alone. One year I planted twice and didn't get one plant, then a couple of years ago I got that size and shape that no one had seen before. I bought new seeds but didn't get them planted this year. This year I have several huge Zucchetta that hardened on the vine. If I use them I will need to cook one and freeze many bags for later since there is no way I could eat one of these. I usually only use this as summer squash, but I have always known that you could leave it on the vine to mature. I saw a mature one at Baker Creek several years ago, but it wasn't nearly as large as a couple of these that I have. I will probably search through the vine tomorrow and see if it has more squash worth saving before the freeze comes. It is a huge vine so I may have missed some.

Barbara, All of them can take some frost and some freezing damage, but every one of them has their limits. With all the cool-season crops, the most important thing is 'how' the first freezing weather arrives. If you are having very warm to hot days and the first frost or hard freeze arrives in the middle of that, it can do a lot of damage. If your plants have had a lot of near-freezing nights, though, they usually are more hardened and will have less damage. I think that cabbage can tolerate hard freezing temps down into the low 20s as long as it has had time to gradually acclimate to the colder weather, and so can spinach. It helps to keep them well mulched and to pull or rake the mulch up over them if the nighttime low is going below 25 degrees. Just having a little mulch over them can protect them from the occasional very cold night and keep them growing a while longer. In the morning, you just pull back the mulch so they won't roast in the sun. I've had both spinach and chard overwinter. Sometimes a very cold night has frozen them back to the ground but they've resprouted. They do better in a more consistently cool winter than in one with weather that swings wildly from mild/warm to cool/cold. Salsify, parsnips and carrots all can take a lot of cold, and the longer you leave them in the ground, the better they taste. As long as your ground doesn't freeze, you can leave them in the ground all winter and dig them/use them as needed. Exposure to cold makes them tastier! Chinese Cabbage is less hardy for me than regular cabbage. It seems to winterkill when temps drop into the mid-20s and also seems to bolt more easily if the temperatures are having those wild temperature swings from warm to almost hot autumn and winter days to cold nights. The cole crops are reliable only to the mid-20s too, although I think cabbage and kale handles the cold better than broccoli and cauliflower. Brussels sprouts often can take temps down to about 20 degrees but don't do well if the days are staying very warm (over about 65 degrees) and the nights are very cool. They're happier if the days stay cooler--about 55-65 and the nights stay 25-45. Peas that have already formed on the plants can take some pretty cold weather (about 20-25 degrees), but their blooms abort once freezing temperatures arrive. So, whatever peas you have on the plant when freezing temps arrive are likely to be all you get. I just throw a bedsheet over the cool-season crops when a frost threatens, but the green beans and cukes get an actual Reemay-type frost blanket that is supposed to give them 4 to 6 degrees of protection. Sadly, a milder, cooler fall is better for the cool-season crops and damages them less than a fall with really warm days/cool nights like we're having here in Love County this week. They start liking those warm days and putting out excessive new growth, and then that new growth is damaged by a very cold night. Dawn