Well what a great report from you, pitimpinai!! The last I heard you were still very low in energy and still on a ton of medication and little appetite, and listen to you, helping the neighbor till up a lawn! LOL What a nice neighbor you were to plant tomatoes and Dahlias. :-) I am happy to hear that you've also benefited from a shorter work day. Great that you had all that time off saved up. I bet you really needed it to get your energy back. We have gotten pretty much back to what is normal for us here. The weather has been stupendous in the past month! I have never seen the cover crop in the veggie beds so high. We've also gotten all the leaves mowed and collected in bins, ours and three neighbors. [g] We have gotten somewhat cleaned up for the year in the garden, but I keep adding to my list of what I want to get done before the weather turns. Still have a small amount of bulbs to plant and three shrubs to get in the ground, some pots to clean and put away and that will just about do it. I am actually looking forward to a break from the garden. Not that we don't get outside and enjoy it, but it's nice this time of year, to focus on other things. During the gardening season, the garden seems to push out other priorities. [g] I enjoy the winter garden and by the time spring comes, I am just itching to get back to a new growing season. Glad you are able to enjoy gardening again and hope you stay well this winter! :-)

I have never had property damage due to falling trees. However when we lived in Wilmington NC we had three hurricanes in a couple of months, The worst was Fran. In those storms we lost 30 trees on our 0.6 acre lot, ranging from mature saplings to one white pine that was about 30" at the base. All of those trees fell parallel to the front and back of the house. The only damage we received was an inch tear in one of the screens. Our whole neighborhood of about 70 house was equally lucky, a lot of trees were lost but like ours most fell parallel to the houses, Of the neighborhood only 3 or 4 took damage.

Like LindaC, I have removed tarts from the pan, I have one of those fluted pans with a removable bottom, a gift from Evil Jessica. I miss her.... I also make deep dish pies because I love the filling and don't really like the crust. My crusts are made with home rendered lard and are flaky, but more substantial than the all butter crusts I sometimes make, so they might hold up to the "twirl", except that most of my pies have managed to bubble up and overflow and generally make a mess of the pan, and when it cools, it sticks. So, might work, but might not, with my pies, LOL, Like Cilantro, I'm also wondering if the crust would crumble and break when you cut it? Annie

PSA: Grow dill as a trap crop and then move your hornworms to the dill. Hornworms grow into hummingbird moths, which are pollinators, which are important for any flowers that open late in the day or are evening bloomers.