Hi everyone!

Jennifer, I'm so excited about my 2018 Garden too! This is my first year, and I should be better and earlier with my garden next year. Hopefully DH will work on expanding the front flower beds and fixing the ones in the backyard. (With all the projects I lined up for him, we might never move for the rest of our lives.)

Is now a good time to plant onions, garlic and shallots? I think it's time for me to pull out all my cucumber plants. The cucumber beetles have obliterated them.

Is the bug below a ladybug? It is the only one I spotted in my garden.

I tried this basic garlic butter tomato sauce recipe yesterday since I had many cherry tomatoes lying around. I thought it was pretty good on a toast for how easy it was.

Dawn, yes it's very unfortunate that cellphones, computers and Internet have all made it easy for one to never switch off from work. I have also been out shopping while DH is stuck on a work call. Ironically, his job is to make sure that the Internet infrastructure is working for everyone.

Amy, Nancy, I would love to join the y'all if you do meet up.

Jacob, that view looks gorgeous!

Lastly, I don't know what happened to my impatiens! A bunch of them fell down. Maybe it's the work of the possum that has been hanging out in the flower bed pretty often.

Eileen, looks to me like you're off to a good start with your plants. I am thinking your DH, like so many not-gardening partners, male or female, assume it's a matter of sticking a plant in and watching it grow. Makes sense, kind of, with his IT experience. Gardening's not so much a science (thought science plays into it mightily), but almost more an art. Going with the flow, adapting. So many "scientific and exact" things to know, but knowing that your best guess will often be wrong, and to adapt and think outside the box. I have assured my DH from the get-go, that it's a crap shoot; I told him there'd be failures and successes. He gets it in spades this summer. And with him, like for me, the successes, few though they may be, far outweigh the failures.

GDW's working his tail off this week, extending the veggie raised beds garden--it'll give us at least 200' sq more. Well, he's not yet, but began it today. Then one of our neighbors called and said they're tearing out their swimming pool and did we want any of the lumber or little benches or tables, so we went up and saw what there was--we said we'd discuss it--meanwhile, that was a 2-hr visit; then our wonderful gardening neighbor Scott came by to drop off our house key, and we launched into another 2-hr visit. So Garry got in about 4 hours of work on the extended garden; meanwhile I washed 11 loads of clothes in the past two days, have three enormous bags of clothes for Golden Rule, and 2 enormous bags of trash clothes. Come to find out, GDW had 2 large dresser drawers of stuffed in stuff, which turned out to be brand new T shirts! He's been wearing ragged, ready to throw T's since I moved down here. Now he has 38 GOOD T-shirts, all washed, dried and neatly folded. Idiot. LOL

Okay, Amy and Eileen, we need to set a date. . . do you do emails? That's actually my preference. . . my email is 2nrussell2@gmail.com. We should plan for about 6 hours of talking. . . LOLOL. . . or four, or whatever. And I'm the one who hates to spend time visiting! Having said that. Amy, I LOVED our time together. Amy, now not only am I anxiety-ridden about Mom, but also about you and YOUR mom. So concerned about her.

Jacob--I don't know what ATM is, and where ARE you???? :) Lovely photo, but where is it??

HJ, you boggle my mind with your "out-there" ideas and questions and thoughts. I adore you for that. I TRULY do. I laugh, always, but with admiration and wonder. Love who you are!

H/J, I'm hanging on for next week's cooler temperatures, but just barely hanging on....the heat index here was 105 yesterday and it felt every bit as bad as it sounds. If I was in charge of the weather, there'd be no heat index numbers higher than, oh let's say 99 degrees, in September.

We just buy fly traps, or release fly eliminators, which are available from places like Arbico Organics. Scattering DE on the ground around the chicken coop can help too. Flies are not a huge problem in dry years, but can be a very big problem in wet years. Lately we've had more wet years than dry ones and I feel like the fly population has increased accordingly.

We only had trouble getting the youngest chicks to go back into the coop for the first 2 or 3 nights. After that, they wised up and simply followed the older chickens indoors at night. Hopefully that will happen with yours as well. So far, the younger ones are still staying pretty close together in a little mini-flock. They like to hang out beneath the 4 o'clock plants underneath the big pecan tree during the day. They dig, scratch, hunt for insects, etc. and occasionally venture over to the coop for hen scratch or water. As the sun sinks lower in the western sky, they come out more into the yard and mingle more with the larger, older chickens and then they all go inside together. Augustus stands outside like a hall monitor and makes sure everyone else is up before he goes in, so if he is still standing ourside the coop door at twilight, we have to search for a stray chicken. If we find one, it usually is one of the younger ones that has, inexplicably, abandoned its flock and decided to stand around under the four o'clocks looking lost and abandoned. Sometimes I wonder if their brains fall out of their heads during the daytime and they forget who they are and where they are.

Our oversized garage/shop/barn (I call it the barn because it is red with white trim, and has a cupola with a weather vane on top since I designed the building and wanted it to look like a barn, Tim calls it the garage because it does have 3 parking stalls, and Chris calls it the shop because we have tools and everything else, as well as some workspace, in there) is crammed full of junk too, and I don't care how often we clean it out, it gets all junked up again. It drives me crazy. We're all bad about hanging on to things because we think we'll re-use, re-purpose, them, etc. so everything ends up in there. I'll give Tim credit though. If he knows something is in there, he can go right in there, rummage around and find it 95% of the time. Now, if he is on the phone telling me where something ought to be, I can walk around there endlessly, phone in hand with him on it telling me where to look, and I still won't find whatever it is.

Jen, When I save tomato seeds from O-P varieties, I get close to 100% germination. Saving seed is so ridiculously easy....even a cave man can do it. If you didn't bag your blossoms before they opened though, you may get crossed seeds. Tomatoes can (which doesn't necessarily mean they will) cross very easily.

Amy, I know your mom's surgery can't get here soon enough so that she can regain her mobility again.

I think a self-sustaining garden sounds lovely, but I like to try too many different things in different years so it wouldn't work for me. Still, my flowers mostly have become self-sustaining and I do like that. I just wait to see where they sprout, yank out the excessive ones, transplant some of the volunteers to new spaces, etc. My zinnias, poppies, larkspur, moss rose, datura, Laura Bush petunias, morning glories, some salvias, etc. have volunteered and self-sustained for at least 15 years, so I don't have to plant flowers much any more unless I want to add a specific color of a specific type of plant. Now that I'm planting more perennials in the border alongside the driveway/garden fence, I must have less tolerance for self-sowing annuals or they may crowd out the perenials.

You need another freezer. That's my solution. (grin)

Jacob, That is so gorgeous! I cannot imagine having that view. My view is of pastures filled with cows. Maybe an occasional goat.

Eileen, Now is a fine time to plant garlic, shallots and perennial onions. Any time from now through December works just fine.

That is a lady bug in your photo. We have billions of them here. Even when I think they aren't around, they are here. Know how I know? Because when the first big really cold front is coming and they are freaking out over how to survive the winter, they come into the mudroom, the greenhouse, the garden shed, the garage/shop/barn, etc. seeking a place to overwinter. I try to tolerate them in those buildings, including in the mudroom which has a french door that keeps it closed off from the house itself because I want to have plentiful lady bugs next spring, but if they come into the house and I find them, I vacuum them up with the shop vac and dump them back outdoors. Down here, that usually happens in October or November depending on how early the cold arrives.

I'm not sure why the impatiens fell over. Are they in a lot of shade? They might have been stretching to find more light and just got too tall and fell over. Sometimes, when that happens, you can cut them back pretty hard and they'll leaf out and bloom again. Sometimes it just is a signal that shortening daylength (hours of daylight per day) is signaling them that their season is ending.

I'm laughing with you about GDW's t-shirts. That sounds so much like Tim that it isn't even funny. Men!

FYI--ATM, as used by Jacob, means At The Moment, and he's in Arkansas, which certainly has beautiful vistas.

Dawn

Eileen, are you on facebook? We could communicate on messenger. Friend Amy Lambert on facebook. We'll talk. I don't expect to have much free time for the next 3 weeks, though. Nancy, we could do email, but we can do a group text on messenger in real time.

Nancy, my kids used to go out and buy socks when they didn't want to do laundry. Then they moved out and left their stupid socks here. I kept expecting them to come back for their socks, but no doubt they had already bought new. When I purged, I had 2 large overflowing baskets of white socks.

Thanks for your concern about Mom. She told me today she has a UTI, one of the things they mentioned would derail surgery. We'll see where that goes.

It is unbearably humid out there. I'm pretty done with that, too, Dawn. How funny that Augustus is head rooster. Need to teach him to go collect that lost chicken!

DH cleaned out our garage last weekend. It started with "I have to fix this toilet". But he couldn't find anything in the garage. And then there were the pantry moths (pantry is in garage). The toilet still is not fixed, and I still don't have the dishwasher installed. I cleaned out the fridge yesterday. A little here, a little there.

Honey was supposed to get spayed tomorrow, but with Mom's surgery (pre-op tomorrow) and some other things going on here, we have postponed till mid-Oct. She went to Atwoods with us today and is now at the groomers for a bath and nail trim. That should wear her out. I guess all the dogs in line get to play together. I need to vacuum while she's gone.

UTIs, the plague of the aging! Water water water!! Drink WATER!! Mom's usually are taken care of after a 5-day round of antibiotics--hope your Mom's will clear quickly! Prayers, will be thinking of you all through this ordeal.

Laughing about your socks glut. I was surprised to find how many cool season jackets GDW and I have between us; he has more, but I may have to retire a few of those. But I'll say, I found I couldn't really part with any of them, as we both wear them all. I did NOT have a suitable winter jacket--I had two heavy winter ones from MN, but one is heavy wool, dressy black but warm; the other was heavy nearly floor length poly-stuffed gray one--overkill for OK, for sure! But up at Mom's last week, chuckled at her six winter jackets. She always had more winter coats/jackets than she could wear. And so I relieved her of two that'll be perfect for down here; gave two to Goodwill; and left her two (which are still too many for her now).

I laughed at your story about Augustus, too, Dawn--but I laughed because I was the lost and abandoned chicken out by the pecan tree, whose brains fell out of her head during the day. I hate it when that happens!

Thanks for ATM tip. Ahh, so hard to be out in the cold with modern language. The one I hated the VERY most was the very cute corporate-ese "I'm out-of-pocket right now, I'll have to get back to you."

Eileen, the garlic butter tomato sauce recipe looked like a great winner! I grabbed it up. Don't have any cherry tomatoes right now, but this looks good enough to go find some.

I knew Jacob was my neighbor in Arkansas, but those mountains don't look like they have any trees on them. I was picturing all kinds of foresty mountains in Arkansas. That to me looks like NM or AZ. . . guess I need to travel over and see Arkansas! LOL

I confess we have ugly flypaper hanging from hooks on the deck "ceiling"; our only other combat weapon are our fun and trusty flyswatters; armed this way, as I've said, we get flies and also have fun. . . how lame is that!

Okay, Dawn, NOW I totally get your pique with the weather. Oh, I get it. Today is HOT. I can't begin to say how sorry I feel for all of you who've had little-to-no respite from it! As it is, I set out the water, but no way am going out to work in the yard, nor is Garry. We DID move our tall bookcase, which was next to the kitchen, out to the "art/gardening/quilting" room, and put my beloved Grandma's not-large hutch there instead. I've loved it since I first met it, in the early 60s when I was 14 or so; Grandma told me someday I could have it. Thankful that Mom wanted it before me, too. And now here it is. And I liked putting my few favorite cookbooks on it, and still plenty of room for some memory things of Grandma's and Mom's, and storage.

The house feels a lot lighter with stuff all taken out and organized--the next big project is the art/gardening/quilt/computer-station room. That'll be no small challenge!

That means Grandma's giant suitcase jammed to the hilt with doilies is going to have to be dealt with! Anyone have any brilliant ideas? I have seen some framed with a background of velvet. . . I think I'll do that with maybe 3 or 4; Some folks have sewn them onto cute sweatshirt tops. . . maybe, though I don't see myself as a lacy sort of person (grin).

Lantanas--now THERE is a workhorse in the flower garden. I sure hope the three I got this year are as hardy as advertised! Arp Rosemary's in that camp, too. I'll just mulch heavily and cross my fingers, as with the brug.

You got me to groaning, first, Amy, then laughing, then thinking. I have come to think that part of our problems with keeping in touch with friends and loved ones is not knowing which tool to use. Most of my younger friends text. I refuse to. My IPhone had a microphone, so I could. Haven't figured out how to use one or if there is one with the Samsung--BUT, I can't use my cellphone at home ANYWAY, so it's a moot point. I love emails, but none of my younger friends and relatives use it, nor do many of those who are my age. Letter-writing and sent by USPS; my mother's preferred mode and I acquiesce to her wishes there. (Only she loves to get letters, but hasn't written any herself for about 15 years; so that requires a follow-up phone call.) My very longest bff, Sue, only does phone calls. So one has to learn which mode of communication one must use depending on which friend is the recipient and sender. Sheesh. I HATE messenger on my phone and refuse to use it (again partly because I never use the cell at home), use it sometimes on the computer to send messages. I got a chuckle out of Dale Spoonmore's post featuring a wifi remote for watering the lawn. Yeah, right--that'd never happen with me. I garden to relax, not to be irritated by yet one more techie gadget! LOL, Dale.

I'm procrastinating. Out to the art room I go. . . .

I've seen lots of Pinterest ideas for doilies. One was soaking them in some sort of cement slurry, then draping over something to make pots or bowls. This would be great for those too stained to really enjoy ones. Another connected them together to make a table runner, which I thought looked pretty. Similar idea, someone made a window valance from them. And starch them & use as snowflake decorations for winter.

Nancy, we will drag you kicking and screaming into the new tech age. I remember how devastated my boss was when we moved from DOS to Windows. I have had to learn to text because my children don't talk on the phone. I've trained them to use messenger rather than text my cell phone so I don't use minutes (yes, I have a tracfone, no unlimited plans for me). The nice thing about messenger is we can have a 3 way conversation.

Yes, dehydration may be a big cause of problems with the 80ish adult. Mom has been harassing dad to drink more, because he put himself in the hospital that way, but she is no better. I read today, to make up herbal tea, and chill it so it is something you want to drink. They suggested Celestial Seasonings fruit teas, but there are a lot of lovely herb teas available. I'm going to see if I can get them to do that. It is a problem I don't understand. I feel naked if I don't have a drink next to me. Used to always be iced tea, I went through gallons! (Unsweetened, I'm sorry southerners sweet tea makes me gag).

Doilies, ah doilies. I have one of those framed velvet backed doilies. Mom made it, it now sits on my mantle. I think the doily was made by my dad's mom. You are a quilter, I can't believe you didn't think of making a quilt from them! I have seen them attached to a canvas as a wall hanging, but how do you keep them clean then.

Honey is home, I didn't get my vacuuming done, but she seems exhausted. Maybe, just maybe, she won't slice my arms up with her claws now.

Still don't have much time. Kind of running in and out of service ATM (haha Nancy). No it's not Arkansas by the way. It's Colorado lol. I only wish Arkansas had those views!!!

I don't like sweet sweet tea either, Amy.

I not only don't like sweet tea, I don't even drink ice tea any more. I still like a cup of hot tea once in a while. Heretical! Aha. Colorado. Okay, I'll buy that. BUT. . . those must be in the southwest, maybe? Just guessing. Doesn't look like any of the CO mountains I've been around. . . fun guessing game, though.

Nancy, I had to go back and look to see what weird thought I had shared most recently! LOL. Looks like nothing, but thanks for being amused and not scared by me. ;) If you only knew ALL the stuff that goes through my mind.

I love tea. Don't drink it sweet though.

Thanks for your explanation of saving seed, Amy. And Everyone's opinions about fly traps!

The Augustus story is hilarious. Augustus the Hall Monitor! Love it.

My little girls are still scared of the olders. The older ones will even peck them on the roost bars if there is still some light. The little girls all huddle together at one end as far away as they can get. I think it's getting better, though.

Beautiful, Jacob.

Eileen, It's too early to plant onions, right? Garlic should be planted in a month or two. However my garlic failed last year. But that's a weird deal.

HJ. . . I found the last thought you posted--I wanted to get into it with you, but had to do some other stuff, so didn't. But hadn't forgotten it, and here it is:

HJ: For me it's more than just being boring because I like to garden. It's all the weird things that I think about. How are we all connected? What is the origin of everything? Why are so many holidays of various religions at the same times of the year? What is that connection? What is the origin of rh negative blood--it's unlikely that it is a mutation. Why do all of the US presidents have rh neg blood when only 15% of the US population have it. Is there still nephlilim blood in some humans today?

It goes on and on for me. Gardening keeps me grounded. It gives me something tangible to focus on. And I love watching things grow. It still amazes me that a little seed knows what it's supposed to do. And sprouts and grows and makes more seeds. It's a tiny miracle every time. Anyway, most of those things aren't interesting to most people.

As you'll remember I spoke very fondly of you for your "weird ideas." To me, they're not one little bit weird, and I love who you are, that you actually can articulate them. Most (including me) don't bother. You have so many interests, some might call your tastes "eclectic." My brother was the extreme eclectic, and I considered him my closest friend. I LOVED his many fascinations! (Eclectic: deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources). David not only had eclectic interests, but was somewhat adorably eccentric. Fascinating person! So! You are one of the most UNBORING folks I've met! I'd love to discuss some of the ideas in your "weird things you think about" paragraph! You have mentioned similar(but not the same) interesting ideas at various times, and I'm always interested when you do. So. Does that clear the mystery up a bit for ya? :)

You mentioned once that I reminded you of your friend in Jr High. Well you remind me of my longest bff, Sue, who was my best friend from kindergarten until about now, actually. Interesting, no?

Aw thanks, Nancy. You are so sweet. I had a conversation with a friend/coworker yesterday about this. Sort of. INFJs (which he and I both are) tend to feel alone even among friends and like we just don't quite fit. But, back to gardening. There are many reasons why I garden. Even though I've worked outside the home since becoming a Mom, my main focus was on growing my kids. That job is coming to an end. It's important for me to grow something. I KNEW I would need a focus once Ethan grew up, and the garden and my property and animals are it. Of course that's not the only reason. However, growing things (kids or garden) keep me grounded. Otherwise, it's like my spirit is just out there floating...

I actually looked through my seeds two days ago. I'm beginning to plan what I want to plant next year. Dale gave me a ton of seed that a local nursery gave to him. A lot of it is greens and lettuce and such. I love Dawn's idea of making my new shadier garden bed into a bed for lettuce. Do any of you cover your lettuce and green with insect netting?

I have access to some old wood that was part of a playground set--one of those Rainbow systems. I am wondering if the wood is safe to use for garden beds. The replacement set smells like cedar. It's also a Rainbow set. The old set is approx 20 years old. Does anyone know when arsenic stopped being included in treated lumber?

I want a fall fling! I can not keep up in these posts. you all make me laugh out loud.

All is well here.

I am so glad everything is okay there, Kim--I was going to add a PS last night saying--KIM!! Where and: how are you?--you must have gotten the transmission. :) I want a fall fling, too!

I want to make friends with people who give me bags of seeds. I've seen about a dozen posts on various facebook groups of people who got bags filled with seed packets. Alas, I'll stick with my seed swapping.

Speaking of, I'm organizing one on the frugal garden group. I'll post a thread for it in case anyone wants to participate.

Is that part of the same swap as yours on OK Gardening Network? :)

There. I've got some service here now. Anyways, the picture was at the Continental Divide in more central Colorado. I think we were at 11,900 feet in elevation or something along those lines. We've been out here camping for the last week. Headed home soon. Apparently temperatures have been in the upper 80's, so I sure hope none of my lettuce, cabbage, or spinach has bolted....we had them getting water from our watering system though, and I put them in a spot with 4 hours of full sun, shade the rest of the day under a tree. Hope that helps. They are in starter cells....I'll do some catching up now.

HAHA. Just read about a couple who got married in St. Louis in 1964 and took their '58 VW bug up Schofield Pass with no problem, something we could hardly do with our 4Runner. Sure goes to show you how powerful the rear wheel drive is on those....can you imagine how rough that'd be with the suspension in those things?! It's horrible on paved road in our '66 LOL.

Nancy, yep its the same one.

Smart--should/may get lots of sign-ups that way, right?

Fun trip, Jacob! And yes, it has been hot here the past 3-4 days. Seems our neck of the woods finally caught up with some or most of the rest of you. Nice thing about the VW bugs was that if you did get high centered or stuck (say at Schofield Pass in the snow) you could just pick it up and move it.

Nancy, DH used to have to help with gardening a lot when he was a kid, so he's been trying to avoid gardening whenever he can these days since his work is quite stressful. He knows that gardening is a lot of work. Thankfully he also recognizes the fact that it'll be easier for us if he's the one building the flower beds. Haha it must be fun for GDW to find 38 brand new t-shirts! Also, I am totally up for 6 hours of talking/listening when I meet you and Amy. (LOL) I agree with Jen that you should look at pinterest for some ideas on repurposing the doilies. I usually get my DIY ideas from there.

Dawn, wow I'm definitely buying some of the flowers that you have listed! 15 years of self-sustaining volunteers would be a dream for me! Now, I really want to see your garden! Hopefully as my gardening improves, I get more beneficial bugs in my garden too.

Amy, I hope your mom's pre-op appointment went well. I always hear from people that cranberry juice helps prevent UTI. DH and I also cleaned up our garage two weeks ago. DH would keep opening the garage door to admire our clean garage. Haha hopefully it stays like that until we can afford more garage storage. We finally got someone to come down to look at our dishwasher. They said we have to replace the control panel, touch panel and gasket which should all be covered under our home warranty. We still have no idea if the previous owner paid for the year of home warranty or if we did. I can't find it anywhere in the paperwork.

Jacob, have fun in Colorado and share more photos! Haha I can only live thru your photos. Not sure when I can afford to fly or drive 10 hours there. I just googled Schofield Pass, and it looks like quite an adventure!

Seems like I'm the only person here that loves tea/coffee/caffeine with sugar. It is so difficult to cut down on sugar and grains like y'all have mentioned in the Medical Herbs thread.

H/J, I thought it was later for onions too until I went to check the OSU Fall Gardening doc. It says 1 Sep. Dawn said it's ok to plant garlic, shallots and perennial onions now. I guess I better start doing my research on them, so I can roughly figure out what to buy/grow and where to plant them. What happened to your garlic last year?

Jen (jlhart76), I will see if I have enough seeds to join your seed swap! Have to think about my wishlist too. Haha

Eileen, I've always had issues with garlic--one of the easiest things to grow for most people. In the past, it was probably planted in an area that stayed too wet--the side of the house. However, the pepper plants are doing well in that same spot this year. BUT, I did build up the bed a little AND the side of the house has guttering now.

Last year, I decided to plant the garlic in giant pots. It was probably planted at the end of October--maybe first of November. It grew and then that very cold snap we had in December (0 degree temps) "killed" the growth. It never rebounded in the spring.

It's possible I'm planting the wrong kind of garlic. I just buy whatever is at Natural Grocers and plant. I'm confused on softneck, etc. I should know more about it because I use it often. Luckily it's cheap. But I still want to grow my own.

I'm so sleepy. I'm not sure how I'll get through the day. We had a game last night. Luckily have nothing to do tonight. NOTHING! Yay. I'm trying to find a restaurant in Norman that has a good vegetarian menu. I wanna go eat and come home and walk my dogs and sleep. Tom invited band people over tomorrow to work on the food trailer at 7:30! Ugh. I might stay in bed, but I'm sure the noise will wake me up. Maybe I'll paint the garden shed side of the shed/coop. The coop part is finished. Amy (and others who have chickens), the poop hammock/sling is working out well. I unhook it each morning and shake it out over the compost pile. If I have time (and it needs it) I spray it off with the water hose and rehang to dry. It's made out of laminated fabric.

Eileen, join in! Minimum is 10 packets, that way more people can participate. Just going on what I have set aside, most are liable to get 15-20 back.

We survived Mom's pre-op appointment. At this point there is no determination about the UTI. She is to take antibiotics, if it doesn't clear up they will cancel surgery. It was a long day of doing nothing.

I suggest you all who want to learn about garlic, etc read Southern Exposure Seed Exchange's info. I ordered softneck garlic from them this year, it arrived Wed. You don't have to buy from them, but that's a good general information article. My garlic didn't do well last year, either. I expect the roots died in the pot when it got so cold, H/J. Garlic is very cold tolerant, but the pot probably didn't offer enough protection. Mine is in raised beds with a straw mulch. Part of my problem has been that I didn't realize different varieties matured at different times. Rule of thumb, harvest when half the leaves die off. I waited till the majority of the plants were at that point. But some were ready earlier and would have completely lost their leaves. Duh.

Grocery store garlic is fine. Look for bulbs that have not had all the roots scraped off. Or, Cherry Street farmers market has a garlic vendor, other markets probably do, too. Generally, store garlic is softneck. I have seen hardneck at Sprouts and Whole foods. You can tell because there is a hard stem in the middle of the bulb. I expect it is more expensive than regular, LOL. The last 2 years I have planted my garlic on Oct 23. I remember because that is my daughter's birthday.

Jacob, I made the Colorado trip SOO many years ago, before I was married, in a Plymouth Scamp. Have fun!

Jen, you have a lot of work ahead of you with that swap. Good luck with it. I have sworn off swaps for the time being.

Eileen, Mom's problem is she doesn't drink enough. Cranberry juice might help, if she actually drank it. But lets face it, NOBODY wants to drink it. DH keeps buying it for me. Last one, 100% juice no sweetener, puckered my face so bad and made me shudder. They have pills, which I think mom has. I look forward to a meeting with you and Nancy.

Amy my mom has recurrent uti and it makes her crazy. It is horrible so drkim says cranberry pills every day and when you feel it coming on double up.

I read an article that they believe chicken is to blame for the rise in uti's. Because the antibiotics in chicken pass thru and kill off our good biotic. Well I think it makes sense. And there has been such a push to eat more chicken the last 20 years. With uti's also watch for low sodium and potassium. It all seems to go hand in hand with older people.

I am going to talk to lady tomorrow about a job in Lubbock after the market. Send good thoughts and prayers my way.

That's exciting, Kim!

Thanks for the garlic suggestions/advice, Amy. Maybe I should try garlic in the ground again instead of the pots.

City of Norman has compost and mulch available if anyone is interested. If they scoop it's $10 per/scoop. If you shovel it yourself, it's free. Trying to figure out when I can get some tomorrow. I really want a scoop of each...

Interesting Kim, about the chicken. I buy Aldi's, which claims to be antibiotic free or sometimes Sprouts, don't know about theirs. Mom shops at Walmart. I bought a couple of fruity flavored herbal teas today for mom to try. She has real bad dry eye, too. Wonder if drinking more would help that.

Good luck with the job!

She wore jeans to the doctor yesterday. She said she wasn't sure an 87 year old woman should be wearing jeans. I told her an 87 year old woman can wear whatever the hell she wants. They were just denim elastic waist pants, I would laugh if she ever put on real jeans. I told DH I plan to go braless and wear sweatpants, just so he's prepared.

H/J, if you use pots, find a way to insulate them. Straw bales around them or I had a pot I wrapped in bubble wrap for winter.

I read an article the other day about magnesium deficiency. It is almost always mentioned in regards to insomnia and muscle cramps. Most of the articles want you to buy their $40 spray-on magnesium. This one was foods high in magnesium. I have supplements, but I don't know how well they are absorbed. One of the things mentioned was cacao nibs. Sprouts had "dark chocolate covered cocoa nibs" don't know if it is the same thing, but a few of these with some nuts would be a pleasant bedtime snack. I can't find the stupid article now.

To mention gardening...my daughter's dogs and Honey are racing around my garden. It is too hot for me and should be for them.

Amy I take magnesium glycinate. It is imo better because it doesn't cause intestinal distress.

There are so many herbs and supplements sometimes it's hard to know what's right. My mom doesn't eat right so I encourage her to take a few supplements. I guess I should take more I have living on beans beef and bacon lol

I was thinking about your Rainbow wood, Jennifer, and was even researching it a bit. . . but since it wasn't MY wood (lol), I didn't go into full detective mode. Still, you know it had to have been treated. I may be all wet, but erring on the side of caution. If it were me, I would not use it except for non-edibles. Ever since I got freaked out about non-organic pesticides, and then the contaminated compost stuffs, I am really really wary now. Even that chicken poop we thought was probably okay last spring. . . even after I did the (what do you call it, Dawn? Bioassaying?) test, I still didn't use it even though everything ended up growing the same. It's on the outside of the veggie garden in a new compost heap I began.

Haha re Myers Briggs. . . I've done those occasionally--usually came up with either INTP or INFP, as I recall. I recall once we had to take the entire thing for a work deal. Whatever! rolled eyes, still rolling eyes! LOL

I agree, Amy--an 87-yr old can wear whatever the hell they please! Good response! I do hope the UTI clears quickly so she can proceed. My thoughts will be with her and you all.

Other Jennifer, and what kinds of bags of seeds are you looking to receive?? LOL

Eileen--ouch! I can see where you DH being a gardener himself could be a good thing/bad thing! :) Aha! So it's a good team thing, then?

I kinda like that in most areas of our life, one of us is the more "expert," or THE expert. Having said that, discovered something very interesting about GDW with my quilt-making. I haven't done too much since being down here; just four projects, I think. But I has having a devil of a time finding just the right fabric for part of the project, and was auditioning all kinds of stuff. Told GDW and told him what I was looking for; he went over and started looking and came up with a couple I hadn't considered. And one of them was perfect. He did it on three different projects, and turned out he was actually very good at it. Don't recall if I ultimately chose his picks on the others, but certainly enjoyed and appreciated the picks. And likewise, with fishing. He taught me everything he knew (so he says) and now it's a toss-up to who catches the most at any given time. Love it! I don't need to worry about him every knowing more than I do about gardening, because he can't remember names! LOLOL However, he's doing really really good.

Amy, you are wrong. Here is one person who ADORES cranberry juice! :)

Ahhh! Magnesium! I always forget about magnesium until I begin getting the frequent muscle cramps--and insomnia, you say! Wow. I have both. Thank YOU! Here we go, spinach, yogurt, black beans, avocados!! Light bulb going off in head.

I dug up one sweet potato plant today (I figure Oct 1 or so is when they'll be ready; there are a couple flowers, a few declining leaves) just to see what's going on. 8 lovely almost uniform medium-to medium large ones. Excellent! GDW was so excited, too. Now comes the pressure--to try and find a way he can eat them. He swears that if we can grow it, he's happy to eat it. But I don't want him eating something he doesn't like.

So I spent a couple hours today combing through recipes. Think we'll go the savory route first. And maybe hot and sweet. And definitely Crash Sweet Potatoes. Desserts--great--except we really don't eat desserts.

Likewise, we decided we must learn to love okra, as it grows so well in OK. I DID love the pickled okra I tried. I DID NOT like the deep-fat fried stuff. But I adore cajun, so maybe we'll have gumbo more often. :) And meanwhile will continue to explore recipes and try it various ways.

So. After our first real year of gardening, (the first one, 8 potato plants on gravel and 8 inches of oak leaves, all eaten by ants; and one 10' in diameter tomato plant, that provided a couple gallons of red tomatoes and 5 gallons of green tomatoes; then the second year, a few potatoes and a few tomatoes and a lot of butternut squash and a few zucchinis in mostly just oak leaves and a tiny bit of compost and dirt) we had major success with cucumbers; looks like we'll score with sweet potatoes; peppers peppers peppers; many but small onions; about 3 months of potatoes; 6 cabbages, most of which were cat-attacked, but useable; sucky tomatoes, but a lot of them and 40 pints of crushed tomatoes. A few small heads of garlic. Progress! AND we have a new round of potatoes going, so might end up with more. There are 8 in one bed and another 8 volunteers in another two beds, so that's fun. Have the early girls I put in last month that look great but may not grow fast enough. . . and 3-4 volunteers-tomatoes that also may or may not make it.

If the job in Lubbock pans out, be sure to let us know, Kim. I think of you every day; you're a champ!

Let's see, what could Dawn be doing. . . painting? doing fires? resting? (Nah). Needing to be alone with her thoughts for a while? Whatever it is, hope all is good with you.

And Jerry, I'm worrying about you and yours. I hope everything is okay over there.

I don't have any UTI things yet, but I do have recurrent chigger bite problems. I almost went crazy tonight. More than I've every had--16, I counted! AGGHH! Bathed and scrubbed the heck out of the bites with soap and water, then scrubbed the heck out of 'em with alcohol afterward. Good for tonight. Gotta get some Calamine tomorrow. Then I recalled that Benadryl is sometimes helpful--never have taken one before in my life but when I was cleaning out all Mom's stuff, brought her OTCs down, as she couldn't have any in Amy Holt (nursing home) and remembered she had some in her stash, so took one tonight. Well, I don't itch, but am feeling rather sleepy, so checked out the side effects of Benadryl. . . it appears I may be off to bed shortly. LOL

Yes, benadril makes most people sleepy. I used to give it to the kids before flying, both to clear their ears and to dope them up so they wouldn't bounce off the bulkheads. Give it to dogs freaked out by fireworks. I use benadril gel on chigger bites. Witch hazel feels good too. I don't think calamine will help chiggers. The old stand by, nail polish, works by blocking oxygen from the bite. Pretty much anything that will seal the skin from oxygen will help the itch. I will save all the cranberry juice DH buys for you.

I have Restless leg syndrome and neuropathy in my feet. No, I don't have diabetes. I don't understand the neuropathy, but my Gram had it, Mom has it, brother has it. I keep thinking magnesium related, but I take gabapentin for it. I hate that my Gram couldn't even describe what she felt, and doctors no doubt blew off her complaints. Kim, I will look for magnesium glycinate.

H/J, I wish I know a restaurant here in Tulsa with a good vegetarian menu. Just can't find any other than a veggie bagel from Old School Bagel Cafe. If anyone knows any, let me know! I also wonder if there's any free compost/mulch in the Tulsa area. Norman is sadly too far for me.

Amy, thanks for the tips. I will read up on SESE's website. I am going to the Cherry Street farmers market in a bit. Will look out for the garlic vendor. Hoping to find some apples today. Haha I don't mind cranberry juice but I haven't tried the unsweetened ones. I don't mind prune and grapefruit juice too. DH would not drink grapefruit juice even if you pay him $500 to drink a cup. I wouldn't drink tomato/carrot/beet juice though. Oh, and I'm only slowly starting to appreciate the taste of kombucha (Gingerberry) after y'all were talking about it.

Nancy, yes it is a good & bad thing at the same time. Haha but like you say, it's a tag team. Whoever is better at something will be the designated person, and that's why he tries not to cook too often because he'll have too many "signature" dishes that he has to cook when we have any cravings.

Ok DH is chasing me out to go to the farmers market since we stayed up to go early. Happy Fall everyone!

Kim, good luck with the job opp!

Just arrived back home at about 7:00 A.M. Feels kind of nice. On a quick garden check, the beds are full of weeds due to my dad having mowed before we left, blowing seeds and all into the beds!!! Other than that, everything is great. Lettuce is about ready to go out. Spinach doesn't look very happy. The seed I ordered from BC would never germinate no matter what I did, so I bought some more from Burpee at Lowes and will plant that out instead....Cabbage is fantastic, and getting big!! My two dozen spring cabbage needs to go in the ground in another week so I'm going to clear the pumpkin patch and get some compost in there for it. Frost is due in 3-4 weeks so I gotta work quick!!

Too bad I have so much trouble sleeping while it's daylight....I'll just hold out until tonight lol.

I'm not sure where the weather cool-down is, but it is not here yet. Although...I don't think today is quite as hot as the days earlier this week when our high temperature hit 96 and 97 and our heat index hit 105 or 106. Still, even though it is slightly cooler, it isn't cool enough yet. I feel like the yard, garden and I are just barely hanging on trying to survive until cooler weather gets here. Today when we were out shopping, there were autumn pumpkins and other fall decorations everywhere, and I was just shaking my head and hoping that eventually we will cool down enough that pumpkins won't roast if you leave them sitting on the porch.

Are y'all seeing all the stories on the news and on Facebook about venomous snake bites? There's been a lot in OK lately, and last night a friend of a friend was bitten here in Love County. They kept him at our county hospital (which does not keep antivenin on hand) until they could stabilize him enough (which took a while) to be able to transport him safely to the next closest hospital for treatment, which was in Ardmore. Eventually, via our Fire/EMS radio, we heard them transport him Code 3 (lights, sirens, etc.) to the hospital in Ardmore. Then, from there, apparently he was airlifted to a larger hospital (I'm assuming in OKC) and the last thing I heard is that he is doing much better today. I'm thankful for that. However, all this recent snakebite news just makes me want to stay out of the garden even more than I have been. I've been looking forward to the cooler weather so I could do a lot of weeding and garden clean-up, and now I'm thinking maybe I wait another month or so for the snakes to settle down and get ready to hibernate. If there is any upside at all to having very cold nights (which hasn't happened yet) at this time of the year, it is that it cuts down on snake activity a whole lot. So many people in our county have been bitten this year by venomous snakes that I've lost track of just how many. It has been a lot more than usual though.

Jacob, Welcome home from what sounds like a wonderful vacation trip. You didn't miss anything here---just heat and misery. I loved Baker Creek for so many years. When I first started buying seeds from them, it was still a pretty small company, and then it blew up and got bigger and bigger and bigger, and I found that I started having some germination issues, but mostly what I had was seeds not coming true to type. So, I've largely stopped buying from them, and that makes me sad. I'm a picky gardener, though, and if I order a specific variety, then when I grow those seeds, I expect them to be the variety I bought---and in that area, they've failed too many times in recent years. I'll probably never totally stop buying seeds from BCHS, but they don't even get 10% of my business nowadays compared to once getting a large majority of it.

Eileen, I hope y'all had fun at the Farmer's Market.

Y'all, for magnesium, I use Dr. William Davis' recipe (from his Wheat Belly books) for a simple drinkable form of magnesium that is easy for the body to absorb. You make it by adding 3 tablespoons of regular, UNFLAVORED, Milk of Magnesium to a 2-liter bottle of seltzer water (not tonic water). It has to be unflavored because the flavorings prevent the chemical reaction (that occurs between the seltzer water and the Milk of Magnesia) from occurring that creates Magnesium bicarbonate, which is the most highly absorbable form of magnesium.

So to make the magnesium water, I open up a 2-liter bottle of seltzer water, pour off about 3 tablespoons worth of seltzer water, add 3 T. of unflavored milk of magnesia to the bottle of seltzer, cap the bottle and shake it up to combine the two. I leave it on the counter and check again in 10-15 minutes to see if all the milk of magnesia is absorbed. If it isn't all absorbed or dissolved yet, I shake it up again and leave it on the counter for a few more minutes. Then (and this is important) I label it. I stick a piece of duct tape on the bottle and write "Magnesium Water" on it with a big black marker so no one will accidentally drink a lot of Magnesium Water (which would have a strong laxative effect).

To get your daily dose of magnesium, you drink 4 oz. of the magnesium water twice a day, which gives you 180 milligrams of easily absorbed elemental magnesium daily. (A person needing to correct a magnesium deficiency can drink up to a total of 16 oz. per day, which would give them 360 milligrams daily.) Before trying the magnesium water, I had tried various forms of magnesium supplements in pill, tablet or caplet form, and it didn't seem like they had any effect on my body so I think I wasn't absorbing them well.

You can add a few drops of liquid stevia to the magnesium water byusing flavored Sweetleaf stevia drops (they come in fruit flavors like berry) or the flavored extract of your choice if you don't like the natural flavor of the magnesium water plus liquid stevia for a little sweetness.

I cannot believe how much better I sleep (I'm even sleeping through Tim's alarm clock going off at 5 a.m.) and how much better I feel (and no muscle cramps) since I started drinking the magnesium water regularly---instead of intending to drink it but then sort of forgetting and having it be hit-and-miss. Consistency seems to matter. (grin)

Jennifer, I've always been extremely cautious about avoiding pressure-treated lumber because of the way it was treated with arsenic compounds, but now that it is treated with copper, we have recently begun using it in the garden. (We did wait a good 10-15 years before using it, figuring if there were problems with it, we'd have heard about them before now. ) Regarding the old wood you have, if it smells like cedar, it probably is cedar and therefore would not have been treated with the arsenic compounds (which they stopped using in 2003) anyway. They didn't treat cedar since it was naturally rot resistant. So, if I had the wood you have, I'd use it without hesitation.

Nancy, I've been busy painting, and I guess next week I'll be busy scraping paint off all the glass on the 4 French doors (two single doors, one double one). I hope this paint job lasts forever because I never want to paint French doors (or any doors with windows) ever again.

It was sort of a hard week, but not because of fires. We had to euthanize our old daddy cat, Emmitt Smith, who was around 17-19 years old at least. We aren't sure of his exact age because he was an adult male when he showed up here out of the blue one day either in 1999 or 2000, needing a home. He had developed stomach cancer, just like his sister (who showed up with him) developed a few years ago. He was such a good father cat--raising his kittens to be good, and if they misbehaved, he'd get in their face and set them straight. He didn't tolerate much fighting between his kittens (even after they were old cats themselves) and he did not tolerate disrespect. Once he got sick, he went downhill a great deal in just a couple of weeks time, so we had to let him go so he wouldn't suffer. It was so hard. We still have two of his sons, who are around 15-16 years old, but both of them are getting pretty frail themselves. He was so healthy and robust that I thought he'd probably outlive them, at least until the cancer hit him.

Oddly, there are not many fires lately and we're just holding our breath and hoping that continues for a while. All that's really been burning is hayfields, hay bales, an occasional hay baler or barn, and not in our fire district. We've been very lucky here in our fire district lately. I hope our luck holds. All bets are off once a hard freeze hits everything and sends the still-green plants into dormancy, but until then, I think we are good, although we've been without meaningful rainfall for about a month here. I even hate to say we aren't having many fires lately for fear I'll jinx us.

Kim, There are so many supplements that it can be hard to know what to take. I'll try various supplements but, if I cannot tell they make a difference, after a while I tend to stop taking them. So then, what I am left with is supplements that do seem to make a difference, and that's why I keep taking them.

I do buy only chicken raised organically without antibiotics. I think it does make a difference too. I do not get UTIs any more but went through a period in my young adult years when I did, and I took cranberry capsules and they seemed to really work. I preferred taking them to drinking actual cranberry juice. I don't have any trouble staying hydrated as I drink water and green tea all day long. I guess I've gotten used to drinking enough to stay hydrated now, but I used to not be so careful about drinking enough. Now that I drink enough, I've noticed that if there is an occasional day when I don't stay well hydrated, I really feel it.

Keep us posted on the job. I think it would be fun to work on someone else's farm so they could be the ones taking the financial risk, though I am worried that I am too hard-headed and would want to do things only my way even though it is their farm. I'm sure you're not as hard-headed and as stubborn as I am.

Amy, Dogs are just silly that way, aren't they? Sometimes ours want to go out in the most miserably hot weather, and I let them, but it usually isn't too long before they are sitting on the back porch wanting back in. Then they some in all hot and stinky and I wonder why I let them out in the first place, knowing they'd race around like maniacs and make themselves all hot, sweaty and stinky. I see 4 dog baths in the future---maybe tomorrow morning before it heats up too much.

This is the first Saturday in ages that we aren't either mowing (too hot) or working on some sort of home improvement project (too lazy) so I'm watching a college football game. We used to always watch college football on Saturdays, but that was when Tim worked 4 10-hour days and we could spare one of his three days off for nothing but grilling and watching football. Nowadays, we've been staying too busy to watch football so I think this is the first time we've sat still and watched college football this year. So, we watched the incredible AR-TAMU game with its huge number of lead changes in the second half and then overtime, and now we are watching OSU-TCU. Being a Fort Worth native, I always root for TCU, even when they are playing OSU or OU, but I never really have high hopes that TCU will win. At the present time, it appears TCU has a chance to win this one (but you never can rule out OSU because they can come back and score a lot of points in a hurry) and it still is early in the 3rd qtr.

I saw pansies and mums at stores today, but there's no way I'm buying and planting any of those while we still are having high temperatures in the 90s. It may be autumn officially, but looking out the window at the parched dry landscape, and looking at the thermometer showing 92 degrees, I feel like it still is summer here and it still is too hot for pansies and chrysanthemums. Maybe I'll feel differently a week from now after we've cooled down.

Dawn

Apparently I never blanched okra before. I did not expect it to get slimy if I left it whole. What did I do before?

My Korean Kudzu has kicked the bucket. I really haven't seen squash bugs, but lot's of leaf footed bugs :( Brought in a bunch of cowpeas today. The yard long beans are amazing me. The first time I grew them, it was in a 5 gallon bucket. They didn't do much. I didn't plant many this year, but they are going crazy. I can't keep up with them. Had some nice tomatoes today, too. You would not believe the number of ladybugs on the cowpeas with aphids! I don't think the aphids hurt production much, just made the plants look ugly and leave red(?) stains on your fingers.

Ha, Eileen, kombucha is an acquired taste, I think. Did you find any garlic?

Welcome home Jacob.

The dogs trick for the day? Stealing bread off the counter. I have kudzu and Cujo.

Dawn, I guess you posted while I was typing. Good to see you. Thanks for the magnesium water recipe. I'm so sorry about your cat.

I organized a couple swaps last winter & had a blast. I think it feeds into my "Santa Claus" mentality. I get to look through all those seeds & pick the ones that so-and-so might like.

A bunch of interior design places have an annual surplus drive where they give away all their leftover samples. I think it took a couple hours for everyone to pick everything clean. I got a bunch of formica chips & am going to try making plant markers out of them. Even if they just last a year, I can't beat the price.

Hi Dawn! I can't stay here, I'm in the process of making flour tortillas, then enchilada sauce, then a big supply of ground beef enchiladas and chicken enchiladas. We have kids coming tomorrow and I don't want to cook, so will just have a big ole pan ready for them; no, I don't always make my tortillas, just when I don't have any (which is far more often than not). I do have some corn ones, which is good, cuz I don't have any masa on hand. haha, so it worked out. Packaged corn tortillas sure don't taste as good as fresh!

Amy! HJ! I DID grow PEPE's, after all, I think!l--totally forgot! I was just experimenting, I now remember. I had an empty large fabric pot, and threw just a few seeds in. . . not all that long ago, it seems--maybe what, a month/6 weeks ago. . . really don't remember. But I was astonished tis morning to see all these long skinny beans. . . and some of them were turning kinda purplish. Am I right? I'd been wondering what I threw in that pot--for a while I thought they were four o'clocks, but couldn't imagine why I would have done that! This is SO funny to me--there are lots and lots of long skinny beans. Please tell me they are indeed PEPEs! (Although they could hardly be anything else. . .)

Back later. I'm so sorry about Emmett Smith, Dawn, and you'll have to tell us where he got his name. God rest his little soul. . .

Dawn, I'm so sorry about your cat. I'm happy he had a long life. Sounds like he was a blessing to you.

I am feeling especially sensitive to pet death, I think. Charlotte has feline leukemia. Our sweet Harry started getting sick at age 9 and we finally had him put down a year later. Really about 6 months too long. I just loved him so much. Charlotte is 5. Something has changed with her. It concerns me, but I'm prepared--and have been--since learning she is positive for it. I know she will eventually get sick, but was hoping she would go until age 9, like Harry, without symptoms.

Thanks for your opinions, Dawn and Nancy, about my "Rainbow" wood. The new set smells like cedar, but I'm not sure about the old set's wood. I will check it out before using it. Ideally it's cedar too. I'll have to research Rainbow playsets from 20 years ago... I have both untreated and treated lumber in my garden.

Nancy, I see you as an INFP or ISFP- S/N is hard to determine sometimes. I think Myers Briggs can be very useful and is quite accurate when done properly. I think it's less useful when just the 4 letters are looked at. For one, we are all thinkers. all feelers. all intuitive. and all sensors. It's just about preferences. AND there are introverted and extroverted in each of those 4 categories. Basically, you have to look at the cognitive functions. (The average folk find the cognitive functions too much to think about and won't bother with it.) And sometimes it is difficult for people to answer "truthfully" instead of how they want to be. So, it can be flawed. In my experience, it's INFPs and INFJs who are most interested in these types of systems. Oddly enough, the sensor types--particularly the thinker sensor types dislike it most (in my experience). They feel it puts people in boxes. This is most interesting to me, because they are typically the most "in" the box people. They like rules (the J's anyway) and concrete, tangible things. I think it does NOT put people in boxes. It's just one way of understanding individuals. Along with many other things that make up each unique person.

And, Nancy, enjoy your purple hull peas! I love them.

Jen, someday I want to participate in the seed exchange. This isn't the year for me, though. Have fun with it!

I know I"m leaving stuff out, but I'm tired. We managed to squeeze in time to get a load of compost and had to shovel it out of Tom's truck. Hard and hot work, particularly because the compost was still hot. Anyway, it's sitting in a pile which it will stay until the spring. I want to put a 3 tiered spiral type of garden bed I saw in a magazine. I saved the magazine, but have misplaced it. I think it would super cool for herbs.

Night everyone.

I'm sorry about your cat, Dawn. Losing a pet is always very hard, especially if you've had it for as long as you have....I always find it amazing how long cats can live (especially as compared to dogs). I've actually just read of a cat that lived to 32 years old today. Amazing!

So I've never had purple hull peas before. What do they taste like? I'm assuming that they're a type of "cowpea?" I don't like cowpeas (ironic, living in the south) much but these purple hull peas sound interesting.

I spent some of the evening picking green beans. I planted a small crop of both Top Crop and Dragon Tongue beans about mid-may for harvest in late July, and I planted another small crop of the same varieties in early August for harvest right about now. So far the fall crop has blown the spring crop away in terms of yields. Interesting. Top Crop is by far my favorite bush bean variety. It produces at least 3-4 times as much as the Dragon Tongue!! We eat quite a few beans. I'm hoping to plant two 15x3 foot beds full of beans next year. A row of pole beans in the middle of each with a row or two of bush beans on either side (for a spring crop). I'd like to can enough to last us the year...

Oh, the brassicas in-ground in the first picture are cabbage. In between in the trays and pots I have a basil plant, a tray full of 80 or so Grenoble Red lettuce plants for overwintering, 2 dozen spring cabbages. The second picture shows Purple Sprouting broccoli in the ground in the front, with a few rows of beets for root in the back, beginning to bulb. The trays here hold some Merlot red lettuce and some crappy spinach from BC (big surprise there). Also more basil! Don't mind the weeds. Lawn mowers tend to do that...I must have dropped some random seed in my bag of seed compost, because there is some sort of plant coming up that I certainly didn't plant on purpose...

I love the raised beds, Jacob. Where'd you find the borders? What are they? Look great, as do the plants. I am beyond excited with the very slow progress on our enlarged garden area. . . tough slogging, GDW putting in new posts for the fences on top of nearly solid rock. And the 10 feet of extended garden area is full of crabgrass and Bermuda. . . I groaned. . . but when I addressed it, found it was far more crab grass than Bermuda--the Bermuda is not thriving right there, and so I was mighty thankful for for "just crabgrass." LOL

Amy, you may have been right about us relaxing and taking time to decompress. Instead, I went into must clear everything up and out mode, and worked like a fanatic the first 2-3 days, I've moved Mom twice, and it was so stressful, trying to do right by her and moving what was important to her vs what she wouldn't need or want, And inevitably, I screwed up. This job has been one of those, "No good deed goes unpunished" kinds of things. I never want my kids to be in that position, so I'm sure that's what has been the force in my past week's purging. But I've been dragging the past three days, and although I've been way busy, have felt largely ungrounded, and not as peaceful or laid back as usual. And now the house looks great if I shut the door to the art room and adjoining garage. And the yard and gardens look pretty good, save for the sad plants in many cases. To the unknowing eye, it looks okay. To my eye, the beds are a largely failed "cottage-garden" attempt. It would have been good to return home and just rest and relax and mow the lawn and not worry about anything, but suddenly I have been uncharacteristically driven to simplify simplify, get all tasks and chores caught up and current. But we do what we do. . . it's where I was. Glad to have some stuff done, but has been a tiring week.

Our daughter and SO/fiance who were looking at the place 1.5 miles away from us put an offer in--but not on it! (Thank God.) On a place 45 minutes away from us. Garry and I both had a very negative reaction to the place near us. We didn't like the neighborhood; we didn't like the old large yard with nothing but black walnut trees; we didn't like the house. It was large, but the rooms were all tiny and broken up. We felt positively claustrophobic. It had a "sun deck" on top of the first floor--the sun deck was enormous, but indeed it was a SUN deck--who the heck in OK in the summer needs a SUN deck! LOL. The house they put their bid in was like a summer vacation home for someone with money. . . very informal, very alluring, on the lake, a wrap-around delightful deck; three sliding glass doors across the back facing the lake--a kitchen I could live in and sleep in forever, with the gorgeous deck adjoining. It's the only other house I've ever seen that I would love to have, other than this one. It's nothing like this one, but I am in love with it and told them so. I'm so excited for them. Would I trade our place for it? Almost. . . . Our blankety blank shade drives me nuts as a gardener, but I must admit, 100 degrees on our deck is doable, when it is doable no where else in OK. It's quiet, it's peaceful. Their new-to-be-home is in a hub of many folks flocking to the river/lake. Although we have very close neighbors on the north/south, the east and west are adjoined by forest, and so it feels very much more private here. Still, I love their new house--should go smoothly. We had a blast visiting them and it today, and then drove back right through Wagoner onto Muskogee to get the remaining things for the enlarged garden--more fencing and another 4x4 post. I told GDW I felt like I was going back to Wyoming. I HATE driving for stuff. I'm a real pill about it.

I picked up a flat of cabbages and red romaine lettuce at Lowe's' will toss them in somewhere--I am beginning to think fall is a fabulous gardening time, am I right? I am loving this dual season gardening thing y'all have here. . . and am fairly laissez faire about it all.

Dawn, I remember when I said I was going to grow blue pimpernel, you commented that you liked what was tried and true, and didn't stick to prima donnas. I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist. Well. I am all about the workhorses now. What does great is what I'm gonna stick with. Four o'clocks--in my opinion, the most under-appreciated flower in my garden! Three times I've whacked them back--not because they were flopping over or diseased, but because they were too obnoxious. Three times they've come roaring back--full of flowers and beautiful scent. This will be a mainstay.

HJ, did an update "test" on the Meyers Briggs, said INFP. I don't totally reject these kinds of tests, and love to take them sometimes, frankly, I understand and appreciate the methodology, but distrust the test-takers, actually--it's as you said, sometimes folks don't answer honestly--and that certainly can apply to me. It's a very good test to take, just to inform ourselves about who we really are. I don't know about you, but I know that many folks don't see me the way I see myself, and so I think these kinds of "tests" help us know a bit more about ourselves, and, hopefully, inform us about how others see us.

Regarding the wood--whatever Dawns says is the way to go!

Dawn, the milk of magnesium without flavor added--is it easily found in, say, Walmart? Where do you get it. I am all over the magnesium.

Feline leukemia, I've only had one kitty that got it, was heartbreaking. She bled out with me there. I was glad to be there, but it was very sad. I love cats. And dogs.

Amy, you're freaking me out a little, now, about the slimy okra. BUT. I am on a mission now, to find a way to make it a favorite thing to grow despite my misgivings!

Blessings to all of you--in life and in gardening. Over and out.

Hello ladies. Things are starting to fall into a routine again. Nobody ever warned me that teen and early adult years were much busier than when the kids were all young. Three of my older kids had jobs this summer, so there was a lot of running around for me. One of this jobs, which was only on the weekend, was a two hour trip one way. I made them pay for gas, but we ID put a little wear and tear on the vehicles. They still padded their savings account.

We've developed and implemented our homeschool schedule for about three weeks now. I'm fierce at guarding that time as so many things want to keep us from sticking to our schedule.

Only two weeks left until DH returns from Japan. I'm trying to get some of the small things that have fallen apart over the course of a year repaired before he gets home. His list is long and dense as it is. I had to work in our family fun time as soon as he gets back as I know he won't want to stop working once he gets started. We ate planning a kitchen remodel and he'll be making the cabinets. He also plans to dig and lay water lines out to the barn. We've been running a t least 200ft of hose out to use for the animals for three years now.

I also managed to kill two vehicles and a third one is limping since he's been gone. With two full time workers in the home, and a full time taxi driver (that would be me), we need more than one reliable vehicle. That's on his list of things to do as well.

I let my gardens go over the summer. They still produced but not nearly as well as they could have. As usual I bit off more than I could chew on my front perennial garden. I hope to be able to manage my time better someday. I'm learning the importance of being intentional with my time now with so many things demanding it. I'm starting to track on a calendar even the most routine things. My nature is to be laid back and wing things. That worked well when I was home all the time when the kids were small.

I'm trying to slowly uncover my perennials to see what survived my neglect and formulate a more feasible idea about the size I can maintain. I'm so happy that my autumn sage is still alive. I started that plant from seed over the winter. I saved the seed from a large stand I found at a nice hotel the autumn before. It was just covered in butterflies. I meandered out to that sage at the hotel to see if I could collect seed. You should have seen me out there with a disposable cup collecting seed. If someone came around I'd stand up and pretend I was just watching butterflies until they passed, then I'd get right back to my seed "stealing". I don't think anybody would have minded but at such a nice hotel I probably would have looked like a nut. I could have pretended I was the garden keeper and then I could have taken all the credit. The seed I collected from there is now a plant in my own garden.

I'm still collecting Big Red Ripper cowpeas. We haven't hulled them yet. I told the kids that would be a big family project. At some point when the days turn off cold we'll all sit around our 10ft table shelling peas and singing together.

I do still have sweet potatoes growing. I dug up one and between the tuber I got and the way the leaves look I don't think they are ready. This is only my second year growing them and last year was not a success. From 40 tubers last year I only got 20 lbs. And they were almost all cracked. This year they are in a much better organic soil and I put at least one variety that was supposed to handle clay better in the ground. I'm still concerned about then splitting from the two inches of rain expected Mon-Tues.

I didn't get any fall crops in. I'm so sad about that. I just love going out at Thanksgiving and Christmas to pull up carrots to cook for our meal. I keep wondering why I didn't do so well with my garden this year and then I remember that I had to spend more of my time doing things my husband would do if he were here, like fixing vehicles.

So I turned the turkeys and seven duckling with the mother out into the garden. They'll help break some of the dried corn stalks down by trampling on them, debug, and fertilize. My cowpeas and sweet potatoes are still in there but they are surviving.

I did as much reading as I could on here to get caught up but there's too many posts, I'll have to work through them slowly. I did notice that someone else on here is also on a Decluttering spree. I'm finding I need to simplify so I can enjoy being in my home more. I've built myself a notebook where I will list declutter ideas room by room as well as ideas to dress up a room. I've never been much of a decorator but I'd like to start now that my youngest is six. I'll have to get all my Decluttering done in two weeks before my husband gets back, he's a hoarder. He's going to be surprised, I've already been in his workshop simplifying and organizing.

I should try to get back to sleep now, although I'm not sure I can now that I've thought of some new ideas for simplifying, organizing, and beautifying. Maybe if I write it on a list I can relax and go back to sleep.

Nancy, it sounds like you have pink eye purple hull peas (PEPH) in your pot. Jacob, these taste much better than black eyed peas. PEPH don't have that dirt taste. I also like them best cooked in chicken broth instead of water. Try them both ways with ham or bacon. I bought my first "mess" of PEPH peas at the farmers market to try before growing them. Even if you don't like them, they are an excellent nitrogen fixing summer cover crop. Your seedlings look great.

H/J, I'm sorry about your cat, too. We lost one to feline leukemia many years ago also.

Nancy, it's called "hitting the wall" my friend. Might be time to go fishing and go slow for a few days. I believe it is Phillips Milk of Magnesia, the old constipation remedy (which is why you don't drink too much). You can get it at walmart or any pharmacy. Your daughter's place sounds really nice.

Denise, if you were told the truth about raising children, you would never have had any! I remember sitting on the 3rd base side of a softball field with my binoculars so I could watch the youngest play on the adjacent baseball field while my daughter played softball. With home schooling and taxiing you must be extremely busy.

Jacob, your beds look great! Very nice. You and Nancy planting lettuce and cabbage is making me feel a little sad about not doing a fall garden at all. But, really, I have so much to work on this fall and winter that it's for the best. So many projects.

Hi Denise! Yes, older kids really do keep you busier in some ways. In most ways for me. It is rare that we get to eat a proper sit down dinner during this season. Maybe when you get your cars fixed (if you do) and your husband is back, you can catch up on your garden for next year. OR you'll be doing a kitchen remodel. lol. Did that last year. Hard to be without a working kitchen. It was worth it though.

Jacob, PEPH taste like other cow peas only better. So if you don't like cow peas, you might not enjoy them. You could try growing a few to see.

Amy, when Ethan played baseball there was a family with 4 boys. They all played and were on different teams because of different ages. Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma would all come to the games and rotate watching each boy.

Nancy, get some rest doing whatever is...uh, restful to you. :)

My crane melons may have a mildew. Once plants have mildew do their fruits usually ripen completely? The plants are still trying to make new fruit, but I just want the larger fruit to make it. At least. So badly want to taste one.

I woke up around midnight in pain. I've never felt this type of pain. I'm pretty sure it was from shoveling 2000 lbs of compost yesterday. Plus doing other physical things. yikes. I like being sore from using muscles, like a day after a good workout, but not this.

We had a near miss with our dogs last night. I didn't post about it last night 'cause I was still too upset. Josi has figured out how to lift the latch on their gate. We have been putting a carabiner on it. Only I forgot when I went in to get Kane some medicine 'cause he's hurt his leg again (long story about an injury from his puppy hood.) and while I was in, Josi let them out. They are such wild idiots when they get out, they run fast and far (even with a hurt leg). The chickens were out, but the dogs were so intent on getting away, they didn't notice. Luckily. Tom was mowing and went to chase them, while I went to get the chickens back in their pen, which isn't easy because they aren't the brightest bulbs in the henhouse. So, got them back in just in time and here comes Kane. He's hurting and tired. Josi, no. She's so fast. So, Tom went back to mowing while I watched for Josi. Here she comes and she completely ignores you when she's out. I mentioned a couple of days ago that our neighbors to the west have penned chickens, but a couple sneak out now. Guess what? One was out. Josi sees it starts heading for it at full speed. I can do nothing as I'm an acre away. This chicken runs right into the pen fence. Two seconds later Josi hits the fence and bounces off. There's not an opening there. How did that hen get in? It was like going to Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter. It magically opened up for her and then shut on Josi. I really thought she was going to kill it right there in front of me. I felt drained after the entire thing was over.

This morning I took her out first and went back to get Kane and the food--30 seconds and she was gone again. Of course it was on a day that I HAVE to be at work on time. Plus I needed to look good. I couldn't just put my hair up in a clip. Normally I'm with children on Sunday mornings, but needed to talk to the entire congregation today. The dumb chicken was out again, but their donkey was guarding it. Luckily, Josi wanted her breakfast so came back in about 20 minutes.

I've thought about taking her back to the rescue to see if she could find another home. She will either get run over out here, or shot if she starts killing chickens. And, yes, I need to be very mindful of the carabiner, but I'm afraid she will find another way out. As much as I love dogs, I'm really a cat person. I'm not a good trainer and should stick with small dogs.

That is all. Thanks for reading my rambling story.

Oh, H/J, I do understand. Dogs that take off are a problem. My daughter's Max (because he's maximum trouble), figured out how to climb the fence. Instead of chasing him she asks if he wants to go for a ride. He goes to the car and dutifully climbs in. She drives him around the block so he doesn't know he's being duped. There are days I think we bit off more than we can chew with Honey. I never had a dog tall enough to "counter surf" before. On the other hand daughter got Max so her older dog would have a playmate and not be so destructive. He is now the old man and will grab Max by the collar if he is misbehaving. It's rather funny. I think he still tears his bed apart in the kennel, though.

I have 4 kids, some summers they all played ball. It was difficult. (I think Denise as more kids than I.) We had them all in scouts. They could have one other outside activity, like softball or baseball. I admit, I do not miss those days at all. If it's Tuesday it's spaghetti because mom just runs the same meals every week because she doesn't have time to be creative. I taught #1 to drive and told him it was his job to teach the next one. I never went to sleep until they were all home and in bed. Sirens terrified me.

I expect you did hurt after that much physical activity!

Hazel, in my experience with both downy and powdery mildew, the existing fruit still ripens. Sometimes just a little bit slower....New fruit will form as long as the vine is not completely covered, but once it's covered and killed the vine, only existing fruit will ripen...

Garden is dying. I think just too much disease, too many bugs, and too much dry. Butternut squash I think has powdery mildew, maybe. It's dying a leaf at a time. What's left of the spring tomatoes are just trying to hang on long enough to ripen what's left on them. Might be losing one or two of the fall tomatoes. Heirloom bush beans are starting to die off, but the Provider beans still look good. Something ate my lettuce down to the soil. Beets are growing, but I definitely have to replant carrots and spinach. I lost one of my 3 rosemary plants. I'm taking a huge bag of poblanos, Anaheims, and jalapenos to work tomorrow, because I don't have anything I can do with them without tomatoes. I think I left the eggplant on the plant too long, and they've gone over ripe. They were pretty small and I thought they'd get a little bigger. Now they're mushy and turning yellow.

All in all, a pretty pathetic sight out there.

Mine's pretty ragged-looking, too Rebecca. I try to just look at the stuff that's doing okay! LOL

Denise, you've been gone for so long--but you have so much to DO! How long has your husband been gone? Sounds like it has been quite a while. Bless your HEART! I bet it will be good to have him home! Yes, I remember the old taxi driver days, too, with my boys--and there were only two of them! It made me almost glad when they got driver's licenses, though that was pretty nerve-wracking. Yes, me decluttering, too. I finally got the courage to start on the "art" room tonight; it's going surprisingly well, and I got the beautiful little card catalog cabinet in here (that my wonderful DIL in Mpls got me a few years ago for my CDs; and I wouldn't dream of putting CDs in there; then couldn't see them at a glance. She was dismayed, but I had all my little quilt fabric leftovers in there until I moved down here; now I'm going to use it for my SEED collection. I think that's a brilliant idea, myself! LOL) She will laugh when I tell her what it's being used for now. You sound about like some of the rest of us, biting off more than we can chew--and I don't know about the rest of you, but somehow I never learn my lesson.

HJ, we had the running problem with Titan when we first got him; and we were scared someone would shoot him because he looked ominous. Plus for all we knew, he was causing trouble. We finally let him go one fishing day. I mean, left him. He got away from us when we were loading up to come home; it was evening and beginning to get dark. We spent an hour trying to get him to come, and he'd just race by us and take off again. And so we left. We were SO mad--AND sad; but we were so tired of chasing him down when he'd run off, too. And so we slowly drove away, and he just took off the other direction. We returned the next day and didn't see him and the next. Had out-of-town friends visiting then, and we took them out on the boat two days later; as we were heading back; I glanced out the window and hollered, "GARRY! THERE'S Titan! STOP!" GDW slammed on the brakes, I jumped out and hollered at him, and he came running so fast he knocked me over in the road, and jumped into the truck right on top of our company in the back; and hasn't ever run again. Well, not REALLY run. For the next year, he'd have to check on the neighborhood daily, and he got into trouble with the nasty female dog across the street out raiding garbages. Thank God those folks moved so she disappeared, and now Titan's good as gold. In fact, now since he got sick, and then spent the week traveling with us, he hasn't even been out of the yard. There's something different--he's much closer to us than ever before. And that is a good thing.

At any rate, I know how frustrating it is; I wouldn't blame you a bit for saying adios. I know how difficult they've been for ya, and I feel for you. That's actually how we got Titan--the lovely young couple we got him from had admitted defeat, realizing with them both working 40-plus hrs a week, they had bitten off more than they could chew with him. Now they get to visit him sometimes on FB. :)

Are you okay? I hope the pain you were feeling was just sore muscles!

Hahaha, Amy. Yeah, I guess we hit the wall. BUT spent 6 hours not working here yesterday, but with kids; church today and then a 5-hr visit with more kids, and dinner. That's enough of that stuff! Exhausting! Working hard in the house or yard is easy compared to protracted visits. We are a couple of pills; I don't know how anyone puts up with us. Everyone's always trying to get me involved in stuff, at church, in the neighborhood; in town. So far I've managed to weasel out of it all. I tell them I didn't wait 50 years to be with GDW only to be spending time away from him. And THAT is the truth. (Plus I love being at my home.) AND we're gonna FISH this next week. Tuesday morning--sposed to rain later and Wed; and then we'll fish again Thursday or Friday. I invited a church friend before we went to Buffalo; I know her hubbie doesn't fish, but she loves it. She accepted--and we had a blast! This week, I'll invite our gardener, babysitter buddy Scott one day, and maybe our church friend again the second day. GDW and I both get such a kick out of Scott--he has the biggest heart! I think he's about 20 yrs younger than we are. His yard is amazing! They're talented folks--at landscaping, planting, building.

Amy, I'm thinking of you this evening, and your Mom, and all, for some reason. I know you're tough. . . but you have a lot on your plate with the complications of that. Including getting your dishwasher going! :)

Dawn, I always miss when you're not as talkative; I always love reading your posts. Thanks for the milk of magnesia tip. I am going to do it straight-away. Good luck razor-blading the paint off. Really, it's kinda tedious, but at least it WORKS! I also hope you never have to repaint them--what a gigantic pain! I didn't check your weather for the upcoming week, but I hope the cool-down reaches your neighborhood!

I hope you all have a lovely and peaceful week.

Yes, I'm fine, Nancy. Shoveling that compost was quite a job. Tom has helped in the past, but was busy with different projects. And Ethan had Saturday band practice. One of my favorite essential oils is True Blue (Rocky Mountain Oils) with blue tansy. Tom rubbed it on my shoulders and neck last night and I'm much better. It's a good oil blend. At first I didn't like the smell because it has that bengay smell, but it warms your skin and feels like it soaks into the muscles. Thanks for asking.

There's so many dogs that need homes and so many that are high energy and need good, consistent training. Most people aren't able to provide that and then dump the dogs or take them to the shelter, etc. Kane was dumped and Josi was a rescue dog and had a hard time being chosen. She is super cute but has a high pitched bark and wouldn't stop barking during rescue events. I'm a fan of spay and neuter.

I'm so glad Titan has come around. That's a crazy story about him being left at the lake!

Rebecca, my garden is rough too. Although the tomatoes, peppers, and even the strawberries are making a comeback.

Jacob, I so hope my fruit ripens. Thanks for giving me hope. I probably planted them too close. I didn't know that every single seed would sprout and grow. Thanks, Bruce, for good seed! Also, the PEPH peas are crammed in that same bed. Too much.

Amy, I'm assuming you blanched your okra in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. You blanch smaller pods for 3 minutes or larger ones for 4. Sometimes I don't blanch. I oven roast it instead. I slice it into bite sized pieces and roast it in the oven until it is crispy/crunchy. Then I freeze it. Technically this is not blanching, but it works. The only problem with doing this is that if you sprinkle a little salt on it, the roasted okra makes a fine and healthier substitute for potato chips. I can sit and eat all the oven-roasted okra and it never even makes it into the freezer. So, for me, it is best to oven roast okra just after I've eaten a meal so I won't be hungry enough to eat it all up instead of putting it in ziplock bags and freezing it.

Emmitt Smith (technically Emmitt Smith II) was a black tuxedo cat who bore a strong resemblance to Emmitt Smith I, a black tuxedo cat we had in Fort Worth in the early 1990s when the Dallas Cowboys won those three Super Bowls. Chris had named Emmitt Smith I (who simply showed up at our house by getting into the back yard with our two dogs and coming into the house through the dog door and meowing for food....and he never left us) during those great years of Dallas Cowboy super bowl wins. So, when this Emmitt showed up looking like our previous Emmitt (who had died a couple of years before), it was just natural to name him Emmitt Smith as well, even though by then, the Cowboys' glory days were a fading memory. Emmitt Smith II fathered a couple of litters of kittens right after he showed up here, and then we had him fixed so that there wouldn't be any more baby cats, but he was a fantastic father and took great care of his babies up until the day he left us. He considered every cat his child (and pretty much treated baby bunnies or baby squirrels as his babies too) and had the strongest paternal instinct I've ever seen in a cat. He could break up a cat fight just by walking up to the fighting cats and staring them down. No matter what they were doing, all he had to do was give them "the look" (shoulders raised high, head tilting down a little, his jaw jutting out a little and a very intense stare) and they'd stop fighting and go their separate ways---and it worked with stray cats or neighbor's cats that weren't even ours. "The look" must have said something to them that didn't require he even use any language to make his point. He was the alpha males or all alpha males but he maintained his domination without really fighting. About the strongest action I ever saw him take was just to raise a paw and do a little slap-slap to knock two fighting kittens apart, sending them rolling in opposite directions. He was a peacemaker and he wanted his cat family members (and all guests) to get along. Emmitt Smith had a lot of personality. He didn't kill birds and he didn't like for any of the cats to kill birds, so if he saw a cat going after a bird, he'd put a stop to that as well. Our little cat family misses him. His two boys are really grieving his death and have almost completely stopped eating. I hope they'll snap out of it as they are really quite elderly and thin as it is. The younger cats, like Pumpkin and Tiny Baby, weren't his kittens, but he loved them and they loved him in return and I can tell they miss him. Tiny Baby likely takes over as the alpha male in our little cat family now, but Pumpkin may fight him for that position. Tiny Baby is three years older than Pumpkin and about 5 pounds heavier. He sort of has the build of a well-fed, slightly lazy adult male cat. Pumpkin is quite a bit more lean and mean as he still wanders and plays endlessly. I don't think he'll challenge Tiny Baby, but who knows? With the arrogance of the young, he just might do it. We'll see if Emmitt's love of peace has rubbed off on the other cats, or if they start misbehaving now that he isn't here to keep them in line. Emmitt was a great garden cat. Until the last couple of years, if I was in the garden, he was out there with me. He loved to find a shady spot and sleep the day away, and he loved the catnip beyond all reason. He had taken to staying indoors a lot more the last 2 years, but he was in his late teens, so that is not surprising. I really miss him. Thank you all for your kind words about his loss---he was our fur baby for so long and the house seems so much quieter with him gone, although he really was a quiet cat and didn't really make noise. He just had such a great, sweet presence about him. We have had a lot of cats in our lives, but he was really very, very special.

Jennifer, I am so sorry to hear about Harry, may he rest in peace, and also about Charlotte. We took in a little stray cat once that showed up at our house in Fort Worth (shortly after our original Emmitt Smith showed up, in fact). She was a small gray cat, so we called her Little Gray. It was obvious from the start that something was wrong with her so we took her to the vet and he diagnosed her with the final stages of Feline Leukemia. The vet felt that she was so far advanced that she was not going to eat (one reason we took her to the vet was because she wasn't eating or drinking much if any at all) so he recommended euthanizing her. Even though she'd just been with us a few days, we were getting attached to her and knew we had to do what was best for her, so we agreed. That was our only experience with feline leukemia. I hope Charlotte's health stays good for as long as possible.

The three-tiered spiral bed you're going to make sounds nice. It sounds like a traditional herb spiral or possibly a spiral version of a keyhole bed. I've seen both featured in magazine articles before. It was too hot to be hauling and unloading compost! We mowed this weekend and it really was too hot to do that, but getting it done did lower our fire risk. Or, at least, it left us with shorter grass that would burn more slowly if wildfires start up. It's just about that time of the year, and I'm dreading it.

Jacob, Your garden beds look great. It is hard to describe the difference between regular cow peas (by that I mean most crowder types and anything that is a black eyed or green eyed pea) and pink eye purple hull peas but I find the PEPHs have better flavor. It is all in the cooking too, I think. We like them best when I cook them with some bacon fat, a slice of bacon chopped up and cooked in the pot with them, and chopped onions and maybe sometimes jalapeno pepper added to the pot, and salt and pepper added to taste. I can make a meal out of nothing but PEPH peas and cornbread. I don't like plain southern peas just cooked in water with a little salt and pepper---they have to have the bacon, bacon drippings, onions and peppers too.

Nancy, I hope you haven't been overdoing it. Just reading about what all you've been doing wears me out and makes me tired.

Our four o'clocks have spread like a ground cover beneath the pecan tree west of the garden. Because they are in morning sun/afternoon shade there, they get about 4-6' tall stretching for light. They work perfectly there because they are so tall that the chickens can hide beneath the four o'clock forest when predators are after them. I've never yet seen a hawk come down into the four o'clocks after them. The fact that they bloom and also have such a delicious aroma is just a bonus. I do have to fight like mad (and not very successfully) to keep them out of the garden beds as they reseed vigorously. Getting them out of the beds while they are young enough and small enough to yank out is important because if I let them stay a couple of years, they have big tubers that range from softball sized to larger than a human head and become impossible to dig out. It is those big tubers that help them survive our frequent droughts though, so that's a plus. I'm glad you like them. The night-blooming moths sure love them, so I like them for that reason as well.

Nancy, The unflavored milk of magnesia is on the same row at Wal-Mart as all the stomach remedies like stuff for gas, reflux, diarrhea, etc. Our Wal-Mart has two kinds of milk of magnesium in blue bottles---one that is unflavored and one that is flavored. At our W-M, the seltzer water is on the same row as drink mixers like tonic water and ginger ale. Be sure to get unflavored seltzer water too. There is something in the flavorings they add to the lemon-flavored seltzer water that prevents the chemical reaction that makes the magnesium so easily available to our bodies when we drink the magnesium water. I was skeptical when I first made the magnesium water, but taking magnesium tablets always seemed to make my lower back hurt (I think it was my stomach or intestines that were hurting but I felt the pain in my back, so to speak) so I wouldn't consistently take them. Who wants to take a supplement that makes them feel like crap? I sort of thought that maybe the magnesium water might have the same effect but it doesn't Since I started drinking it, I sleep better, feel better in general and have no headaches (I used to have migraines). It is so simple to make and drink and I just love the simplicity of it plus the fact that it seems to work.

Hi Denise, It is so good to see you here. I agree that the teenage/pre-teen years are an incredibly time-consuming period. It is amazing how much time all the different activities and interests of kids that age can consume. I bet you've been busy beyond belief! Life didn't really slow down and get quieter here until our son (who is our only child) went off to college and then it was so quiet that it almost hurt. Luckily, he came home on weekends a lot the first year (though not so much after that) so at least we got to have him around a bit during that first year of college----he came home regular as clockwork on Friday nights or Saturday mornings, dragging his full laundry bag home with him. lol. He did his own laundry though. I did try to stuff him full of home cooking when he was home. The college years were really sweet years as we watched him grow into his more mature, adult self. I still really miss having a 'child' at home at times---like, when the school supplies hit the shelves, I feel like I need to find a child to take shopping for school supplies. I guess old habits die hard.

I am so thrilled to hear your DH will be returning home soon. Please remember to tell him that I appreciate him and thank him for his service to our great nation. I can only imagine how eager y'all must be to have him home again. Try to not work him to death the first week, okay? (grin) We remodeled our kitchen last year. It was a long, hard job because there's just not enough hours in the day and took us longer than it should have, but I loved every minute of it and simply adore my kitchen now. The kitchen we have now is so pretty and so well-organized and well-planned that I feel like it is so much more efficient than the old kitchen, though there was only a very minimal change to the floor plan. I hope your kitchen dreams work out as well for y'all as ours did for us.

I kill lawn and garden equipment the way you've been killing vehicles---just wearing them out from sheer usage. Tim gives me a hard time (in fun) about how I break everything, but then I point out that I break things by using them and that the only perfect machines that never need repair are the ones that sit in the garage/barn without being used.

I hope the rain doesn't make your sweet potatoes split. I admit I am green with envy (in a nice way) over the rainfall you're likely to get. We haven't had any rain in the last 30 days or so, and we are only expected to get maybe a half-inch here which won't even begin to close up the cracks in the ground. I just hope we get that half-inch. Often, with these big storm systems, when they are coming our way from the west they seem to rain themselves out before they even reach us. I hope that doesn't happen with this rain system. Unless the weather goes nuts over the next three months, there's no way we will end up with even average rainfall for this year. I think we're currently about 6" short from where we'd be in a normal rainfall year, and it would take a lot of extra rain in Oct-Nov-Dec to make up that missing 6". We rarely have a wet autumn like that here unless we are going into an El Nino weather pattern, which (sadly), we are not.

Amy, Isn't that the truth! New parents or parents-to-be have no idea what they are getting into in the beginning, right? I remember that all we thought about before we had a child was the baby years---I could picture having a baby and I knew it would involve tons of work and tons of sleepless nights, but I looked forward to it and all the little milestones like first tooth, first words, first steps, etc. Never, though, did my mind wander 5, 10 or 15 years ahead and contemplate what those later years would be like. Looking back at when Chris and his cousins (the two who lived near us and who were with us all the time back then) were little, I just remember life being a constant whirlwind of us going here, there and everywhere. We stayed busy all the time, but we had so much fun. No wonder I was tired all the time! I miss those days now, but like having a quieter, more slow-paced life now too.

Jennifer, I feel the same way about a fall garden, but just don't have the time for one. That, plus the fact that there's been a extraordinary increase in the number of venomous snake bites in our county this year, has led to me not really planting anything for fall except a few tomato plants. I have largely stayed out of the garden because of the venomous snake issue. I keep thinking I'll sow some lettuce and kale seeds, but with temperatures remaining in the 90s even now and no rain in over 30 days, I'm not motivated to even do that. The last few years, I have migrated from the garden to working on projects indoors in the August-October time frame, and I think I am okay with that. There's no way that I can work on indoor projects in the Jan-July time frame when the garden demands so much time, so perhaps this is just the best division of labor for me at this stage in our lives. November and December really are all about the holidays---not just holiday stuff for our extended family and our friends, but also various community events that the VFD participates in, so it seems like if anything is going to be done with the house, it needs to happen from August through October. That's just how our lives have evolved. It's all good.

The melons ought to mature if they are a fairly decent size. If the mildew on the plants does kill off the leaves, though, the melons may not mature beyond whatever they'll managed to do before that point. Often the mildew will just make the plants look like crap but won't kill them and the plants will keep maturing. However, as we go into autumn with more moist, humid weather (usually) and more rain (usually), the mildew tends to kill the plants more than it did back in the summer months when we were having hotter, drier weather.

That pain you're feeling is a definite sign of overworked muscles. Take care of your poor, sore body and let it recover. I used to always get that sort of soreness in late winter/early spring when I was doing tons of hard work in the garden---and especially when carrying wheelbarrow loads of compost from the big cmpost pile to the garden to spread it all. Now I work out year-round, and work out especially hard in Nov, Dec, and Jan to make sure my muscles don't get too soft and lazy over the winter. I do this precisely so that I will not (or hopefully will not) hurt myself when it is time to be back out in the garden doing the necessary hard physical labor prior to planting season. Football players go to training camp to prepare for the football season----this gardener works out in the weight room (we have a treadmill and a weight machine, free weights and a DVR/TV for workout videos in Chris' old bedroom) all winter to prepare for gardening season. I didn't have to do that when I was younger, but the older I get, the riskier it is to go into planting season unprepared for the physical labor it involves. I'm probably more physically fit now than I was when I was in my 20s way back in the 1980s. Back then, I just had the natural fitness you have while you are young and I believe I took it for granted, but now I have to work much harder to have at least that same level of fitness. I don't mind the work though---I understand it is necessary as one ages to 'use it or lose it'.

Good luck figuring out what to do with the dog. You know, you need to make the decision that is best for both the dog and your family. We have had some very challenging dogs, but have been able to deal with each dog's issue and resolve it over time. However, I am home all the time, and that makes a huge difference. If you are not home enough to deal with your problem dog, maybe you should return it to the rescue to see if it can be rehomed. I do not say that lightly----I say it based on knowing how long it has taken us (years!) to get some dogs to calm down and learn not to run wild and roam. With all our dogs, often it just took time for them to learn the rules and to learn to abide by them----and I think I always see the dogs settle down and get with the program once they are 2 or 3 years old. Yes, it is a long painful time of working with them to teach them and to help them mature, but eventually it pays off---but I am home and can do that. You are at work and may not have the time necessary to work that closely with a dog that sounds very high-energy. Sometimes a particular dog is not a good match with the family/living situation, and I think that's especially true when you have poultry. Some dogs learn to co-exist with them without hurting them, but others have such a strong hunting or retrieving drive that they never stop seeing poultry as prey. Perhaps your dog is like that. Jet was like that (he's part lab retriever) for a long time. You couldn't trust him around a free-ranging chicken until he was at least 5 years old so he had to be leashed all the time when he was out in the yard. Now he walks through a flock of free-ranging poultry as if he doesn't even see them---but, let's get real, he is 12 years old and very settled down and mellow. He certainly took many years to reach this point. Heck, he is so old that sometimes I wonder if he even sees the chickens---maybe it is more that his eyes are old and he's half-blind and he really isn't even seeing them more than just the fact that he's learned to leave them alone. He's reached the age where he'd rather be curled up sleeping on his blanket on the sofa than outdoors running wild---but he did have wild, running years.

Amy, When Chris was in high school and driving or out with friends who drove, the sound of sirens at night made me exceptionally nervous too. Our street was really quiet, so I could lie awake and listen to the cars come by and know when the two teens next door were home and when Chris was home. Then, I could sleep. Up until that point, if I heard a siren, I'd be trying to remember if I'd heard all the teens' cars come down the road on a weekend night, especially. Ironically, our VFD didn't work many motor vehicle accidents involving kids Chris' age when he was in high school. Since then, though, we have had to work a lot of them and the only difference is now that Chris has been out of school so long, we don't know any of the kids involved in the wrecks we go to---but we often know whose child or grandchild they are, regardless, and I think it is harder when it is people you know or know of. Especially if it is a fatality accident. Those are just the worse---and you know even while you are out there at the scene that some family is getting a phone call that no one wants to receive.

Rebecca, It is just that time of the year, you know, and cooler weather (especially nights) and shorter daylength contributes to it all. Sometimes I just take all the autumn decline symptoms as signs that it is time to let the garden go, do the desired cleanup, move on to to other projects and get some rest. You're had a really challenging year with the squirrels and other issues. Maybe your garden is trying to tell you that you've earned your rest and should have it now.

Nancy, I believe Titan's illness bonded the three of you together so tightly that he'll never run and roam again because he just won't want to leave y'all. That's a good thing. Many of the dogs and cats we have taken in over the years were dumped 'in the country' by people who didn't want them and were trying to survive by finding, catching, killing and eating wild things like rabbits just in order to survive before they found a new home. It can be hard for a dog or cat that's run like that and learned to hunt for survival to give it up, settle down and become a pet again, but I see it happen over and over again with time and lots of love. There always seems to be some point (more obvious to me with dogs than with cats) where they realize that the new life they have with their new family is far superior to running wild and free and being half-starving all the time. When they reach that realization, they almost become different animals---or at least much improved versions of themselves.

I miss y'all when I am not here daily, but I have to stay off the computer when I am working on house projects or I get derailed and don't finish the things I start.

Dawn