Amy, obviously I need a keeper, too. LOL re new thread! See? I need a keeper to let me know what day it is! Now that I got here, a fun conversation from EveryOne. Hahaha. Grandkids are the best--but don't you find you're exhausted when they go home? They just suck all the energy out of a grandparent, cuz the grandparent is 24/7 about them!

I am also in the "not-a-fan" of Black Fridays. Friends talked me into several years ago in Mpls, and it was NUTS! Decided I wasn't warrior enough to tackle Black Fridays.

What gorgeous country you live in, Jacob!! The first picture background looks just about like our neighborhood. The second one is just exquisite country!! Oh my, to have THAT view! I suppose the ticks have quieted down now in your neighborhood?

Yep, trees don't look like they've lost ANY leaves yet,, though I did gather up a few loads last week. And since they're white oak or post oak or hybrids, the leaves look brown--unless the sun is just right--THEN they'll look red/orange. See? Those two pictures were taken within the same 3 week period last year. Don't know how to delete. Tried to delete the middle one. Well, obviously the bottom two were taken at the end of that 3-week period. But truly--the ones in the top photo only look so colorful because the sun set was so spectacular that late afternoon-- I ran outside and quick took the photo.

Good lighting can make a world of difference--right?! lol

Dawn--the great Daylight Savings debate. Yes I love Daylight Savings time--just wish we had it year around. I learned to hate it working up north for 30 years. When the fall end of Daylight Savings came, I'd leave for work at 6:30 am and get back home (if lucky) at 5:30 pm. And it'd be dark when leaving in the morning and dark when getting home in the evening. I HATED that. But even besides that, as you know, I'm an evening person, and love the sun going down at what, 9:30 or so on the longest days of summer. I probably wouldn't do worth a darn in Alaska winters!

How long is Tim's commute? Sounds horrible. And sounds like he'll never retire! We do what we must, huh? Even in the city, my commute to work was half an hour on a good day.

HJ, I cannot even begin to comprehend how hard you guys worked last week and over the weekend. I was exhausted halfway through READING about it. God BLESS you guys! I was a music major in college, had loved the horn since I was 9. But I hate, hate, HATED marching band (as did my bassoon-playing buddy). So we talked our music teacher into letting us play tenor drums during marching band season. That made it not quite so onerous. And we had no choice. Marching band was just part of the band package.

And, Lonejack--you say your fall potatoes were an experiment? It looks like your experiment worked out pretty good! Wow--that's a haul.

Rebecca, I think I'm remembering that this back stuff is a kind of chronic thing? qI'--aggh! Get this cat outta my face! What a pity--feel for ya.

Kim--Amy has helped me get the garden stuff organized; thanks, Amy! I'm STILL working working on spreadsheets. Which will include my memories from the last two years of plants performing, dates to plant, and stuff. Otherwise, I tend to make notes on "planners," lose one, go find another one. . . I have notes in 2 spiral notebooks, and the wall calendars! I would write on whatever was handy. Not good with desk planners, obviously.

Oh, I was mightily pained today; had to go with GDW to Tulsa for the truck. And we may have to go back if they didn't fix the problem. Truck is less than a year old--seems some odd component is draining the battery--so we'll have to take it back and leave it overnight next time. BUT there was a happy ending for me. We'd been meaning to check Reasor's meat department out, so I loaded up. It was so much FUN! And to my everlasting delight, they carry lamb!!! Oh was I one happy camper! (Unfortunately, lamb's so expensive, I couldn't really "load up" on that! Still came home with four shoulder chops--not as wonderful as loin chops, but they TASTE the same. And of course they're twice as big. I'll take the size over quality. And I have this honkin' big leg of lamb roast just waiting for a special occasion, too. And I'll have a source to get lamburger for Greek stuff! Woo-hoo!! )We grabbed a quick early dinner at Chile's and headed home. Most oddly--the groceries at Reasor's in many cases were cheaper than at our Walmart here! Crazy wrong.

Cheers, everyone!

Thanks Nancy. It is pretty. We have quite liked Oklahoma as well, especially the rural countryside and we used to camp on the Oklahoma side of the Ouachita National Forest. OK seems a bit more primitive camping friendly than AR. We used to live in Missouri and its not bad but I prefer OK and AR personally. The chickens seem to keep the ticks down most of the year with free ranging.

Amy, it's a beautiful area. Seems it's gotten a bit touristy in areas but you can find hidden gems that leave you in awe.

Nancy, leaves look the same here. I notice when it's overcast they look halfway pretty but when it's sunny they look so ugly.

Hj

I love near Caprock Canyon State park

My property has a stunning view of the Caprock. My vision and dream was to build a house with that view.

Some place here use Caprock in the name

Salon at Caprock, Caprock cafe.

Nancy - yes the fall potatoes were an experiment. This is the first time I intentionally grew potatoes in the fall. I usually had some volunteers sprouting up in whatever I followed the spring potatoes with which was usually carrots or lettuce most years so I figured why not actually plant some and see how they do.

The only problem I had was getting the seed potatoes from my spring crop to break dormancy and sprout prior to planting. I wanted to plant them a few weeks earlier to give them more time but they wouldn't start sprouting. I planted 4 types to see which would do better in the fall...Yukon Gold, German Butterball, Austrian Crescent, and French Fingerlings. The FF and Yukons did the best. I think next year I am going to buy some extra Yukon Gold seed potatoes in the spring, put them in the fridge, and then start chitting them in early July and plant around July 20th to give them ~100 days before our first frost.

Jacob,

One of our neighbors had a feral hog butchered and processing at a meat processing place once. He gave us some of the bacon. It was not good. I wouldn't waste my time on a feral hog after tasting that bacon. (The neighbor had warned us that we might not like it, and he was right.)

LoneJack, Nice potato harvest! I agree with you that breaking dormancy for fall potato planting is the most challenging part of growing fall potatoes.

My prediction is that your Chiefs are going to slaughter my Cowboys. I've had that feeling all season and nothing has happened to change my mind. Y'all are going to beat us by at least 20 points. I hope I'm wrong, but don't think I am. Honestly, y'all seem to have a better team than us this year and, fan sentiment aside, I feel like the better team almost always wins.

Jen, I agree with you on shelter language. Our black dog didn't come from a shelter, and he really is a lab mix. (grin) Congratulations on the adoption of your littler Tigger and thank you for rescuing her from a shelter. She's a lucky girl. As with all puppies, I am sure there will be ups and downs (our last two puppies, between them, ate a recliner while we were busy with the winter wildfire season shortly after adopting them, but thankfully they have grown up, settled down and responded to being taught proper vs. improper behavior).

Jennifer, Different cats react to catmint and catnip in different ways. Most of our cats just like to roll on the leaves, which bruises the leaves and releases the scent. Yellow Cat likes to eat catmint, but mostly just rolls on catnip. Both plants have a compound in them that gives most (not all) cats a sense of overwhelming joy or euphoria. We've had a few cats who have shown absolutely no interest in catmint or catnip at all, but will fall down on specific weeds (I don't know what these weeds are called) in the pasture and roll on those the way most cats roll on catnip.

I'm glad the kids were pleased with their performance and I think 9th overall is really great. I appreciate all that you and Tom do with the Food Crew to keep the kids well-fed so congratulations on achieving that. I'm sure non-band parents like me have no idea how much work it takes to keep the band kids nourished for their performances. I never thought about the kids with special diets--which clearly makes it more of a challenge to get everyone fed.

Amy, I noticed some stores did that last year too. I hate how the stores open on holidays now. Back when we were kids, there was one thing for certain---everything closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, except maybe for a random gas station here or there and the pharmacies. I feel bad for everyone who works in retail now and who is expected to work on holidays, or even up until the last minute on holiday evenings.

My sister and I used to shop the Black Friday sales in the 1980s when they weren't such a big deal like they are now. I remember when Wal-mart and Target would open at 6 or 7 a.m., with a few (very few) big sale items that truly were discounted. Not many people got out of bed that early, relatively speaking, so they used gift bags filled with freebies (silly almost useless things) and coupons to lure people in. We sisters would leave our children with my parents and go out and shop very early and get a ton of stuff done and be back home well before noon. By the time we got home, stores were just starting to get busy and we were glad to be done with it all before the stores got crazy. Now they get crazy early, stay crazy all day, etc. There is not one single thing in this world that I'd ever want to buy badly enough that I would be willing to get in a line hours and hours before a store opens. It just isn't going to happen. I don't even like to step foot in a store on the Fri., Sat. or Sun after Thanksgiving. I prefer to miss all that craziness. Online shopping and having UPS or FedEx deliver my purchases directly to the house has just spoiled me in terms of shopping.

Puppies can be challenging, and Honey certainly is. I'm sure that as she grows up and learns what is and is not acceptable, she'll settle down and live up to her sweet name. When Jersey was a puppy, we had one of those Christmas trees with the built-in, pre-wired lights. She chewed through all the wires on the lower branches. She wouldn't do it when we were here, only when we were gone, so it took us a while to figure out why the lights on the lower limbs weren't lighting up. Jersey's chewing was not too hard to correct, but of course, the tree's wiring already was destroyed.

Nancy, Tim's commute is about 85 miles one-way. It takes him about 90 minutes to get to or from work, depending on the time of day. He normally leaves around 5:30 a.m. and gets at work in time to work out in the police gym before he showers and gets dressed for the workday. Then, he gets off at 5 p.m. or thereabouts and usually is home by 7 p.m. His workdays are long, but he doesn't mind the commute as much as you'd think. He spends most of the commute on his cell phone dealing with the plethora of phone calls, text messages, voice mails and e-mails that flood his phone 24/7. At least when he is in his car, he's not at home with a wife who tells him to put down his phone and leave work behind when it is his time off from work. Truthfully, he is pretty much "on duty" 24/7 in terms of being accessible to his employees, co-workers and his boss. Even when we lived in the DFW metro, though, his commute from our home on the west side of Fort Worth was an hour each way, so to him, that 90 minutes is not significantly worse than the 60 minutes was. The DFW metro area is so huge now (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area has a population around 7 million) that anyone who chooses to live a little outside the metro area, as we have, has a huge commute. That's the price you pay to escape the metro area's urban and suburban neighborhoods. Once he makes it to Sanger (about halfway between Denton and Gainesville, TX), the traffic drops a lot and the speed limit goes up to 75 mph so the commute from that point northward is pretty fast. Still, he's often commented that if there was a commuter train from Gainesville to the airport, he'd happily use it. You'd be surprised how very many people live here in southern OK and commute to the Denton, Dallas and Fort Worth areas. There's a lot of folks like Tim that make the long commute in order to work for big city wages and live a small town life.

Kim, I love Caprock Canyon! How many miles will you have to move for your new job?

Dawn

90 miles, Dawn. It's not that far on terms of West TX mileage. Lol. I would rather drive from here to Lubbock than 10 miles across Denton.

Kim, there was a post on facebook showing a tiny teardrop camper and the blurb said woman lives in camper....I thought about you and how it's not as romantic as they make it sound. I'm rooting for you.

Kristen Chenoweth is BA's benefactor. She's a singer, too.

Tulsa schools have gone downhill and some of them were already in the pit with nowhere to go. We moved to Owasso for the schools in 1992. Our old house was in north Tulsa and those schools were bad THEN. And we wonder why kids are the way they are today. Their schools have failed them dramatically. Second only to parents who failed them. So those small and less urban districts are better all the way around and parents like H/J help make them exceptional.

Absolutely, Nancy, I'm on alert the whole time my grandson is here. You don't realize it until they leave. And he's at an age where he chatters constantly. He SOOO reminds me of his daddy. I hear him playing and making up conversations and sound effects. His daddy did that.

Dawn, I have read that cats react to valerian the same way they do to catnip. I keep trying to get valerian to grow, but never get past the seedling stage. I don't know if it grows wild around here, but they must all be in the same family.

We had an artificial tree stored in the garage that dogs chewed the ends off so it wouldn't connect together. I was really depressed that year, and DH went out and found a half price live tree that was the most beautiful tree ever. Smelled devine. It made my Christmas that year and I haven't had an artificial tree since. We used to wire our trees to a hook in the ceiling to keep the cats and dogs and kids from knocking them down.

I'm surprised that Tim's commute isn't longer. I would think just the DFW traffic would make it longer than that.

I spread some Elbon rye today and watered it in, but then got vertigo and didn't get to finish my plans. I have Austrian winter peas soaking. I wanted to plant garlic today. One step forward, two back.

It does sounds romantic until the repairs out cost the value of the camper. And you can't stretch your legs without knocking something over lol. I got over the romanticism way back.

I would rather live in the tent in the garden. That would be romantic lol

Jen, I can imagine your delight with Tigger, I love your photo. I'm glad you got the other two turned around, and, hopefully, they'll teach her THEIR good manners now. . . good luck! She's precious. I cannot comprehend having more than one dog--two CATs are 1-too-many for me!

In my whole life, I've never had more than one dog and 1 cat. I don't like being with groups--people OR animals! LOL But I sure appreciate folks who collect both cats and dogs. And so now with two cats and one dog, I'm feeling overwhelmed--bet a lot of you are laughing at me.

We had a traumatic event today. I can't even handle two kittens. Jerry and Tom are adorable, but could not be more different. Jerry's easygoing, anything goes. We scoop him up and Garry can put him to sleep in less than two minutes in Garry's arms. Tom is intense. I thought he'd never acclimate, or accept us. He did, after 2 weeks, and now he is the devil wanting to be petted and wrestled with. He's the pest when I'm just sitting here trying to research or work on the computer. . . BUT he does NOT like to be picked up, so we don't. In my defense, if one doesn't look closely, they look just alike. Well, Jerry (not) was lounging on the extra chair in my art room, as he usually does. . GDW comes in frequently just to socialize with the cats; and Jerry is always the one lying on GDW's chair. So Garry came in this afternoon and said, "Well, mister, you're in my chair. . . what am I supposed to do?" Me (wrongly assuming it was Jerry), said, "Well you just reach over and scoop em up and out". I proceeded to do so and all hell broke loose. I had the proverbial Tiger by the tail! Took about 5 seconds for it to register with me that it was TOM, and then let go fast as I could, but not before I had terrific deep wounds (nothing to worry about, but ouch). NEVER assume anything. How many many times in my life have I said that, and how many times, always to my detriment that I have. You'd think a person would learn, right?

I was sure Tom was traumatized deeply--he totally disappeared. I thought, "Oh no, I'm back to Square One with him, probably won't see him for 2 more weeks." But I was wrong. He forgave me. Showed up 8 hours later to check out the food, then went over and snuggled up to his brother. So sweet, their hugs and kisses. And then an hour later, he came over to me and I gently petted him, but not effusively, and not for too long. Whew. We're good. Who NEEDS this aggravation! I felt SO bad for the past 8 hours!

And so funny to me, that I chose cats by looks, now these two plain gray tabbies have captured my heart. Daff didn't like to be picked up either, but she was a wimp. Tom is not a wimp---Tom is scary!!! LOL Bet he'll be a terrific hunter! ouch, ouch, ouch.

Yeah, Kim, living in the tent in the garden WOULD be awesome dream, til it got below 68! LOL

Amy, I am distressed about the OK school systems, and the legislature's goals in general. What ARE voters thinking!!! I'm so glad we connected in person--both of you are my kind of people.

Dawn, I was just researching seed-starting in this forum. . . as always--this is how I think of you: When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I learn from ALL of you, but you are the touchstone. SO many of you are experts, and I have read through SO many back posts. Invaluable advice! Thank you,

.

Oh dear Nancy.

Hi everyone! I finally caught up reading all your posts after 2, 3 weeks of not checking. Didn't want to miss out on anything. I have been mostly busy with house/Halloween/family stuff. The dishwasher has been fixed and the home warranty place just approved our repair cost for the jetted tub. It will take them another 2 weeks to order and receive the parts.

As for gardening, most of my plants have wilted even though I tried to cover my fall potatoes and zucchini plants (that were on my deck) with 6 mil plastic sheeting. That was what my father-in-law (FIL) suggested, but I don't think it helped much. FIL came over with his best friend last Thursday and raided my whole garden before frost killed all the plants. I didn't even realize there were one pail full of tomatoes and another of peppers in my garden until we were stripping out the plants off the raised beds. In retrospect, I should have taken a photo! I also planted some garlic last Tuesday (per Amy's suggestion of when she usually plants hers). It took up more space than I thought it would. I am not sure if it should take up the whole raised bed because I only have 4 in total! Haha I definitely bought way too many garlic to plant.

Very late reply but Amy, I think you drove by my house when you were heading down to Lee's Feed and Supply! I live along the county line road in the Redbud area. Haha you made me laugh when you said you waved when you drove by. I have been there once to get my dog's nail trimmed and I was browsing their seeds.

Nancy, I know what you mean. I would be overwhelmed too. A dog and a cat is probably the most I will have. Maybe you should put different collars on them so you can tell Tom and Jerry apart. Hope your wounds heal soon. My cat always accidentally scratch me when she tries to hop over to me and misses.

Kim, I'm so happy and excited for your new venture. Can't wait to hear all your updates. Also, I just googled Caprock Canyon State park. It looks amazing! I may have to make a road trip there next year.

Dawn, I am surprised there are many people travel from southern OK and commute to Texas. I can understand why though after your explanation and having personally lived in a big city and small town. I wish there's a commuter train too. I think my ideal career is in a big city but I want to live in a small town.

Jennifer, you did a lot in a week with the Trunk or Treat and band! I had no idea so much work in involved to get the kids to and fro their performances.

Jacob, do you hike/camp a lot? You always have such nice photos! You need to recommend me a few great places to hike in OK and/or AR.

Ok, got to go. A day of errands awaits me. Flying off to Vegas on Friday. Doing a road trip to Grand Canyon and LA for a week. If anyone has any recommendations (gardening related or not), let me know!

I feel I like I am so far behind again that I'll never catch up. By the time I get to the end, I forget what I read at the beginning. So, I'm working my way backwards.

Eilene, Enjoy your trip. There's tons of folks who live here and work down there in Texas. One popular place of employment is the Peterbilt truck factory in Denton. We know several people who work there. We know several who work in fire or police departments down there and live up here, or who work for school districts down there but live up here, etc. It is crazy. When we moved here, we did know two families up here who had members that lived here and worked down there---one was Tim's current police partner at the time we moved here, and the other was a retired cop who'd once been the Liuetenant that was Tim's supervisor in the early days of his career. Then, we met a retired Irving firefighter who lives here, and his son, who lived here and worked for the Lewisville, TX, fire department. Then we met the brother-in-law and his wife who lived and worked down there but spent weekends at the old home place up here. Then we met a guy who was a retired Fort Worth cop (he lives about 1/4 mile from us). Then we met a 'new' family (newer than us by a smidgen) who was building a home here and then they were going to move from Ft. Worth to here...around 2000, I think, but continue working down there, joining the large group of commuters we have here. They lived about 3/4 of a mile south and slightly west of us. It was and remains the craziest thing that it is, apparently, such a small, small world...and those are just the ones we know who commute to jobs in Texas. I'm sure there's a lot more we don't know.

Congrats on getting the dishwasher fixed. It must feel good to be able to get back to normal life a little bit in that regard.

Nancy, Cats will be cats, won't they? I second the suggestion to put different colored collars on them. There are breakaway cat collars that come off if a cat gets hung up on a fence, shrub, tree limb, etc. (because cats will find ways to get in trouble).

One of our cats bit Tim's hand once. I think Tim was putting a usually docile cat in the cat carrier to take it to the vet, and the cat was of the opinion that it did not wish to get in the cat carrier. Tim washed his hand well after the bite, but rejected my suggestion that he go to the doctor, and flew off the next day for a quick reunion with his two sisters. Two days later he was at an emergency clinic getting medication for his swollen, infected hand, which might have ruined their visit at his sister's new beach condo, but I think the daily rain already was sort of ruining the trip anyway. Between the daily rain and the infection, it didn't feel much like a vacation (but, of course, he always enjoys visiting with his sisters.)

A couple of cats together usually are easier to manage than 1 single cat because they have each other to play with, sleep with, annoy, etc. Three or more cats together? They're like a little Mafia gang---they get along with each other and form a really tight family unit, but if you cross any one of them, they're all going to be mad at you.

Since we moved our cat family into the sun room, they are incredibly easy to manage and the cat mess is all confined in one place. I do love that. I let various ones come in for little visits with us (one at a time, so they get solo attention) now and then (so they can shed hair all over us, apparently) but then they go back out to the sunroom. They have no problem living in that room---and often jockey for position to get the best spots to sleep in the sun. Each of them seems to have a favorite spot, and heaven help anyone else who gets in their spot. Shady didn't eat for a few days after Milky Way died, but his appetite seems to be picking back up. He's our oldest cat, and it must be hard for him to have outlived his father and his siblings. He's pretty well bonded with the other 5 cats though, so maybe he doesn't miss his blood-related family members as much as I think he does. Still, he is at the age where he is really slowing down and getting a bit thinner so, you now, he is closer to the end of his life than to the beginning.

Jen, The photo of the dogs is so cute and your little one looks so precious.

We had a really good older female dog in Ft. Worth. She was a border collie. When our younger male dog would dig under the fence and escape to go running around the neighborhood, she generally would come running into the house via the dog door, wagging and barking to let me know he was out. She apparently couldn't stop him from digging under the wooden stockade fence (one single strand of electric wire fencing did put a halt to that behavior) but she was quick to come tattle on him so I could go find him and get him back into the yard before a car could hit him. I think she enjoyed ratting him out. Eventually he seemed to calm down and perhaps learn from her, but you know, puppies just act like puppies sometimes. It was so much better once he was a bit older and not so energetic and....reckless. We really only had to use the electric fence for a brief while. Once he'd been shocked by it once, he avoided it and would, in fact, almost get hysterical if I was gardening near it. He was so intent on keeping me safe from the electric fence that he'd grab my arm (gently) and try to pull me away from the electric fence. I never told him that I turned off the electric fence once it had trained him to stop escaping.

Kim, I might live in a tent in someone else's garden, but not in my own woodland-surrounded, venomous snake-infested garden. Living surrounded by wildlife sounds better than it actually is in reality. If we'd known how many venomous snakes we had here before we bought this land, I think we would have kept looking for land on higher ground further away from the Red River. When I think back to that first month after we found this place and how we walked everywhere on it with our real estate agent at least 3 times in one month---in hot weather---without a care in the world and with no worry about getting bitten by a snake.....well, it makes me realize how lucky we were that a snake never bit us. After we bought the place and were clearing the property line in order to fence it, all the neighbors were quick to warn us about all the rattlesnakes and copperheads, and about the cottonmouths in the ponds and creeks. I still think we were slow to learn. We're older and wiser now.

Amy, I think you have to be alert when the grandkids are around. They can get into things so quickly.

When I grew valerian, the cats ignored it. None of them showed any interest in it. In my garden, it was invasive so I didn't grow it for long.

Tim's commute isn't bad once he makes it to I-35, and he generally drives west on Hwy 114 from the airport, which brings him to I-35 near Texas Motor Speedway. It used to be a pretty quick drive long ago when we first moved here, but so many people have moved out to new communities/housing subdivisions west of I-35 that it is not as quick of a trip as it once was. The state of Texas has built/expanded a ton of highways in the metroplex, and specifically in the area where Tim drives, in the last 10 years and those new roads and new lanes added to older roadways makes a huge difference. I think at its largest point, one of the highways he drives is now briefly six lanes---in each direction. It is just crazy. Looking at it reminds me of some of the big highways around Houston. I remember when that highway was one lane in each direction in the 1970s. The only time the commute gets really hairy is when a wreck completely shuts down the highway and he is just stuck, stuck, stuck. Thankfully that does not happen very often. Over the years we've worked out a dozen alternate routes to get him around traffic backups. April and May are the worst when I'm sitting here watching tornadoes and severe thunderstorms popping up between here and his employer and am trying to guide him around tornado warnings and just make sure he gets home safely. There's been times he's had to park his vehicle under a gas station canopy and flee inside for safety----and we all know that such action doesn't guarantee your safety if the tornado hits that specific gas station. Still, it is better than being out on the road. There was one time when I told him a Tornado Warning included the highway immediately ahead of him. He sort of wasn't worried---thought he saw the storm cross the road, figured it was gone, etc., and kept driving. Then he started noticing highway signs down and wrecked cars turned over and upside down and realized he'd probably just watched a tornado (from several miles away) cross the road. He didn't see a funnel cloud, but he might have been to far away. He certainly saw the aftermath. Nowadays he is better about slowing down and waiting for a warned area to clear before he drives into it.

Kim, Ninety miles isn't too bad. I hope that's also not taking you 90 miles further away from Ryder.

I love Caprock Canyon and always will. Living there must have been awesome, but I'm sure the new place and the new job will be great too. I had to lol about 90 miles not being considered a far distance in west TX. That is so true! I love west Texas despite the dust storms, crop dusters and endless heat and wind. It is just so scenic---the way you picture TX back in the days of the cowboys and cattle drives, and the days of oil exploration and all that craziness. I love driving across west TX at night and seeing the jackrabbits in the headlights. I love the Monahans sand hills at the state park. There's a lot out west to love. I don't love the petroleum smell in the air around Midland-Odessa-Sweetwater but I guess the people who live there must get used to it somehow.

Thankfully, the only thing we must drive 90 miles to reach is CostCo, and I keep thinking that surely one of these days Denton will get a CostCo and then we won't have to drive nearly as far. For us, though, even though we are near some small towns, there's still things that aren't convenient. Just to go to what passes for a convenience store in either Thackerville or Marietta ends up being at least a 30 minute round trip, so it isn't all that convenient. Living here has taught me to stock up on everything and never run out of stuff---because it is too inconvenient to run out of something. I've gotten pretty good at stocking up by shopping at CostCo and Sam's Club, but you still have to have a place to put all the extra stuff that you stock up on and that can be challenging.

I'm glad you'll be living in a real house and not a camper now. I always have worried so much about you in that camper when a big wind storm sweeps through.

Today's weather is so very nice, although the night and early morning were a bit cool. I wish every autumn day could be this lovely.

Some of our red oak leaves are starting to show flashes of red. Yay!

However....tomorrow we are headed for near-record high temperatures here, which is not good considering we've already frozen and all the vegetation is dry. Fire danger is rising for us all. If they haven't changed our forecast for tomorrow since I last viewed it this morning, our forecast high is 87. That's ridiculous for November, but seems part of the overall trend towards warmer weather in autumn and winter.

Dawn

I did it!

Finally made hibiscus jelly from my own roselle hibiscus. It made 2 whole cups lol and i used honey. I am not sharing so it will take awhile to eat that maybe. I canned in 1/4 pint jars.

The jelly from the store bought organic roselle is quite amazing. Actually much stronger than I planned so I ran out of honey to sweeten it up. 4 cups are going in the freezer. Not wanting to waste a drop I boiled a little water in the jelly pan and made the tea yep I am hooked.

Caprock canyons are amazing. One of my favorite places to hang.out.

My little man actually lives in Lubbock with his momma. So that may be very beneficial.

Dawn about the wind, you and me both. My son never did tie down the camper. The only thing holding it in place is prayer wiring and plumbing. I am going to hang on to it for a few months until I get everything moved and then will list for sale.

I'm panicked! The yard's a mess. Went out today. . . I think I'm going to have to tear out a bunch of stuff and get some mulch in other places. I cut a whole bunch of black sweet potato vines and put a bunch in water, another bunch of cutting that were rooted, into pots, for the grow cart. Since hardly anything froze, GDW was going to water the deck plants. He asked if I wanted to do it or let them go. I opted for watering them. Better than looking at empty pots, I figured. I'm amazed at the alyssum, which is still flowering beautifully, and the verbena, which is coming around for what, the 10th inning? (Watching the last game of the World Series.) Tomatoes survived, as did the peppers--not expecting much but will let them do what they can. I want to winter-sow stuff, but there's no room. I have gardened with flowers for 30 years. I gardened with veggies for 5 years over 30 years ago. I must admit, we are both obsessed with veggies right now, and are building our veggies beds up--IF we didn't have all rocks, and IF we had enough sunshine, we'd be bigtime into it. But we DO and DON'T, so our new 470-ft beds will have to suffice. (Yes, I measured every foot of those expanded beds! ) It will be more than enough room for the 2 of us, but doesn't leave room for experimenting. I'm a little sad about this, but trying to stay focused on OUR staples. All the rest of the beds in the yard have to necessarily be flowers for the most part, though could still include lettuce, peppers--what else?

And so, as I'm ordering seeds this fall, most have been flowers and herbs (my herbs do great in not much sunshine--chives, lemon balm, parsley, thyme, oregano, sage, rosemary).

And I'm afraid I've gone WAY overboard with flowers AND herbs already.

Roselle, I ordered and received already. I am excited about roselle, Kim. I googled Caprock also--gorgeous!

Dawn, Tim's commute of 90 minutes while 24/7 on business. Yes, I'd have to agree--it is probably actually a good thing. In Mpls, I usually took the bus to work unless I was feeling indulgent. But in winter, when snow was predicted, I drove. When it snowed there, the buses were always delayed. At times, we'd stand at the bus stops (most, heated) for as long as 30-45 minutes--and they weren't heated THAT good! And then the bus would Finally show up and it would be standing-room only and then take another 45 minutes to get home. So sometimes it would take nearly two hours to get home, one hour of it crowded shoulder-to-shoulder, standing. Not pleasant. When I drove, it took about as long, but at least I wasn't standing shoulder to shoulder.

And Dawn, yes, I agree that in many ways, two kittens are easier than one. The little ones are doing just great, and Tom has forgiven me totally today. And yes, they do keep each other busy. I'm quite enchanted.

Eileen, have fun on your trip! No ideas from me!

Amy, I have been work work working on my plant database for days. . . it still has so much to be filled in! I've found some of your entries helpful; and thanks for that. Mine has been more centered around the seed-growing, for flowers. Geez, some of them are picky! LOL. I'll send mine off to you one of these days.

Best to you all!

Kim, Congrats on Roselle success. Even though they are so very late to flower in our climate, they are well worth growing. I don't grow them every year, but in the years I do grow them, I can a ton of roselle jam and dehydrate and then freeze lots of the calyxes for tea so that I can last a couple of years in between harvests.

That's great that you won't be too far from Ryder. He needs his grandma time and his gardening time.

Nancy, Don't be panicked. Everyone's yards and gardens are a mess---typical of this time of year and Mother Nature's own cycles at work. I don't rush to clean up the garden because it is full of lady bugs, butterflies and other creatures who need the cover of the frozen/dormant/dead plant material to survive. Today the ladybugs are everywhere....perhaps because it is already 86 degrees here, headed for a forecast high of 88 or beyond. Our record high for November, as far as anything I could find from the OCS, is 87 degrees, recorded Nov. 4, 1948, so we seem likely to set a new record today. New records are expected in multiple locations here along the Red River. Bees are out. Butterflies are out. Snakes likely are out as well but I don't want to see them. I don't know what they bees and butterflies will find in terms of nectaring, but the dogs and I saw dandelions blooming down low to the ground today while out walking, so at least there's that.

I used to do fall garden cleanup like mad, but part of gardening in a way that is more sustainable means leaving those plants in place as long as possible so they can sustain the life of the creatures living in the garden. I don't like the way the garden looks right now, but I turn my head and look the other way for the sake of the little critters.

Yesterday I made Augustus a puddle in the driveway to stand in, and frogs appeared out of nowhere in mid-afternoon and were enjoying the puddle as well. That's actually bad, not good, because the chickens will catch and eat the frogs. Augustus won't bother with frogs. He prefers grasshoppers (and despite long freezing nights we still have some grasshoppers---you'd think they'd be freeze-dried by now).

Tim has two rough days today and tomorrow--in-service training from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. so he had to leave the house by about 4:00 a.m. today and tomorrow to be at work by 6 a.m., and he doesn't even get to go to the gym and work out.....unless he wants to arrive at work by 5 a.m., which he doesn't. His normal days are long enough when he is working an 8 hour day with a 3 hour commute, but are much longer if he's putting in a 10-hour day plus his commute. I don't know what they're doing today, but believe it is classroom-type seminars. Tomorrow I think they spend most of the day at the firing range. I'd be cranky if I had to work a 10-hour day instead of an 8-hour day, but apparently that's the shift worked by the training dept., so he doesn't have much choice in the matter.

The pickiest flowers are perennials that have specific cold-stratification needs or need moisture plus certain temperatures in order to germinate. Some plants need a very specific amount of moist cold weather and then warmer weather (but not too warm) to germinate. This makes starting some plants from seed very challenging. I'll use the Texas Bluebonnets as an example. Because they need certain soil temperatures to germinate and the right amount of moisture (not too much, not too little), if they are direct-sown where you want them to grow or naturally re-seeding here, they may pop up out of the ground as early as November and remain very tiny rosettes down low to the ground until March or April when they resume growth. Or, they may not pop up out of the ground until March or April. Or (and no one tells you this when you are sowing the seeds), because the bluebonnet seeds have a very hard coat, they may not sprout for 2 or 3 years. This sort of variability will drive someone crazy when they are trying to establish a stand of bluebonnets. It has taken me almost ten years to get a good stand of bluebonnets, and some of that is my fault because I am growing them in very dense, very horrible clay soil with no irrigation---and they very much prefer sandy soil. A gardener's heart wants what it wants, though, and I want Texas bluebonnets even though I don't have the soil they like in the place where I want them to grow, so getting a good stand has taken a ton of seeds and lots of patience. Now that little patch of bluebonnets is self-sustaining.

Some flower seeds that I could not get to germinate and grow well indoors have done just fine when direct-sown in the place where I want them to grow in the garden. I sow them in the fall and watch for seedlings in the spring. The hardest part may be remembering where I sowed them because at some point the cats will pull up my plant labels and carry them around the garden. No, I don't know why the cats do that, but they do it all the time. No plant label is safe from them.

If you've never tried winter-sowing in milk jugs or plastic berry boxes, you might check into trying it. Some seeds that are hard to start indoors under lights will eventually germinate in wintersown containers outdoors because they are exposed to alternating heat and cold like they need. There is a wintersowing forum here at GW or you can go to the wintersown.org website to learn more about it there.

Cats are so adorable. Our neighbors have some who stalk me and the dogs. I think they just like watching us since their people are at work all day. They'll walk along with us as we walk, only they are about 50' inside the pasture, prowling through the tall grass, walking around the cows, hiding under brush and trees if we look at them too intently. They make me laugh. I think they think they are hidden, but they are brownish-grayish tabbies with white chests, so their little white chest stands out a great deal in the dead pasture grasses. Another one is a silver tabby and his coat shines like a light in those fields.

The red oaks are trying to make red leaves. I'm so proud of them. Of course, since the freezes hit, we've had exactly what they need---cold nights and sunny, bright days. I'm worried this hot spell, with highs in the upper 80s and lows in the 60s may ruin the color change to red. I don't think nights in the 60s are cool enough for the red oak leaves to continue turning red.

The elms and persimmons are turning a lovely shade of yellow, so at least we have that color now. Most of the other tree foliage is still green---much later than usual, but we can blame the weather for that.

Dawn

Jennifer, such a sweet baby. [As I'm typing that, MY 50 pound "puppy" jumped in my lap. She rarely does that, so she must have been jealous I was talking about another puppy].

Nancy, I had a cat who my dad was petting and all of a sudden she turned around and bit and clawed the crap out of him. We never knew why, and it never happened again. I recently read you should let the cat pet you. I put a couple of knuckles up and let mine rub her head where ever she likes. I will stroke her, but much of that and the hair starts to fly, so I stop. I also read that cats don't like to stick their head down in a bowl because it bends their whiskers. Mine would never eat the food from the edges of the bowl until I started feeding her from a saucer.

Ha ha, ::waving at Eileen:: glad your dishwasher is fixed. Mine is still in the garage. I don't see that changing in the next week. Sounds like you are going on a wonderful trip.

Dawn, when my daughter was about 18 months she got between a dog and the cat just as the cat went for the do. She was bitten deep and and was devastated that the cat hurt her. (Her first word was "kitty") Her bite also got infected.

I laughed at your comment about the petroleum smell. I went to college in Enid, which had a refinery. Mostly you didn't smell it, but under certain weather conditions that held the air down under the clouds, whoooo. Tulsa has refineries, too. My DH had never lived near them, and one night, in a new apartment, I woke up to him crawling around on the floor. I asked what he was doing. He was sniffing electrical outlets looking for an electrical fire. I said, It's the refinery, come back to bed. It is a distinctive smell.

Next year I will have to try roselle jelly. My plant never made flowers this year. In the ground next year.

Ha ha, Nancy, you remind me of me. I have calmed down a bit and don't feel I have to do everything any more. I used containers for early experiments. Put some of your big fabric containers in a cheap kiddie pool. You can choose where to locate it sun wise. You put a couple of holes in the kiddie pool about 2" from the bottom, so you can bottom water, but if it rains it will drain out ot the holes. If an experiment works in a container, you can bet it will work in the ground even better. If it is average in a container, it may still be spectacular in the ground. And if it fails in containers, it still might work in the ground, but you know it's pickier than those that worked. Does that make sense? There's practically no limit to container growing. I have used 5 gallon buckets, foldgers coffee cans, yogurt containers. I've grown a lot of tomatoes in containers just so I could taste them.

Lettuce, Swiss Chard, kale, spinach for partial shade. Here's a good article. I think you can get away with a lot in partial shade in OK, just because the sun is so hot and intense.

I was soaking winter peas Tues night. I did not intend to soak them overnight, but I wasn't feeling well. I kept hearing "movement" in the kitchen. Like sprinkle. Sprinkle. As the peas swelled, they were pushing the top ones out of the bowl. Daughter has my vacuum. Sigh. I threw those peas into beds yesterday morning. Maybe they'll grow. Can we have some cold weather, but not down to single digits? I can't believe it killed my pretty purple garden last year. I still look at Dragon's Tongue mustard and almost buy it. I don't like mustard greens, but it is SO DARNED PRETTY. I should plant it where the coleus were this summer. Maybe I will.

Hi Dawn. . . I want to winter sow this year. . . That's why I'm doing some clean up. Yes, I've left all the plants (although have cut back the nicotiana, cleome, ripped a few smaller four o'clocks out). Mostly I'm just weeding. But I had a question. I plan to mulch wherever I can with mulched leaves. Does that interfere with the winter sowing. Thanks for the thread. . . I'll check it out. And yes, I particularly want to winter sow the ones that like alternating spells of cold and warm! AND everything I can, to make more room on the grow cart!

I have been laughing about finding kittens and you said you were always acquiring new cats that just show up. Well, we have a cat night watchman/woman now. He/she is very cute--black and white. . . Wilder than a March hare. But we began putting food out for it, and it comes and has midnight supper every night now. (Titan took out after it the other night. I was so mad at him that I went after him when he ignored me--the cat had made it up a tree. So I scolded him and told him to get to the house and he kind of skulked back where he got another scolding from Garry.) I think he got the message, and I think that's why the cat shows up for midnight meals now. Darn it. Tom and Jerry have discovered our bed makes a nice place for them at night, already. They get cuter and funnier every day. We were amused to find them in our bed night before last and last night, because they're not really that comfortable in the main house yet, since their art room is home.

Speaking of freeze-dried grasshoppers and frogs, I just saw a frog-sized grasshopper crawling around in the center bed! Haha!

Crazy crazy 82 degrees or so today. The tree leaves actually look kind of pretty, too--looking more gold than brown today. Fun day for working in the yard. Garry has an old klunker mower that he uses in the back for mulching leaves--He doesn't care if he runs into rocks with it. Today he said he needed to go to town and get a spark plug and additive for the gas, since he'd never put a new spark plug in it. I offered that an air filter might be in order, too? He said, "Nah," cuz he always blows the air filters out with the air compressor. Well, he disappeared for a few minutes, then came back and said, "You're so smart!" I wondered why, of course. He said he just realized he hadn't cleaned the air filter on that mower for a while--did, and it started right up. We both got a good laugh.

What's everyone else up to, today? Kim--when are you moving?

Okay, th Thank you, Dawn! I just checked out the winter sowing with a jug! Yay!! Thank you thank you, problem solved, no questions!

Amy, I think that's true about the cats wanting to do the petting. Works out well for me, because I'm usually writing or typing when our petting sessions are going on, so for every 6 nudges they give me, they get an absentminded pet or foreheads kiss from me. And some cats definitely do NOT like to be picked up. Daff was one, Tom is one, although he's awfully little. I'm sure he'll mellow out a lot.

Oh I am BEAT. Been blowing leaves the past 2.5 hours. I wanted to get some of our neighbor's because he always burns his. I hope it's okay with him, got them from his back 40. And I can get the ones from our neighbor across the street, and our other neighbor isn't here much of the time, so I know he's more than okay for me stealing his! LOL

Amy, I think your baby hasn't realized she has outgrown lapdog size. We've had 80 lb. dogs that thought they still could be/should be lap dogs.

Cat bites can be very bad because their paws and mouths tend to carry lots of bacteria. A friend of mine walked out the door between her kitchen and garage to go to work and apparently a stray cat had gotten into the garage. Unfortunately her cat had come out of the house with her. In attempting to break up the fight and get her cat back into the house away from the stray cat, she was bitten in the leg. She came in to work. Her leg swelled all day and by mid-afternoon we were urging her to go to the ER as red streaks began to move up her leg from the bite area. She went to the ER after leaving work that afternoon. To make a long story short, she had a bad infection and was hospitalized for several days on IV antibiotics. Just imagine how bad it could have been if she'd gone on home (she lived very far out in the country west of Ft. Worth) and not gone to the ER. That was my first experience (it was in the late 1980s) with the seriousness of a simple cat bite.

I think the winter peas will be fine. They should have soaked up enough water to last them long enough for germination to occur. You can have cold weather. Eventually. Not sure when, where or how. It isn't happening at our house for the rest of this week, but this state has to cool down again eventually. A gradual cool-down instead of swinging from frozen to burning up would be nice for the cool-season plants.

I have been known to grown mustard greens all winter mostly just for the looks---if you get a nice mix of colors and leaf styles, it is stunningly beautiful all winter long and well into Spring (depending on when it begins to bolt). Down here it hardly ever freezes, but if it does freeze, it tends to bounce back quickly with new growth because we usually don't stay cold long.

Nancy, Direct sowing in the ground in winter needs to be done with bare or nearly bare soil so the young plants can find the sun when they sprout. True winter sowing involves covered or lidded containers. Oh, I see later on that you read that. Where I live (because you know that we have abundant wildlife) the wild creatures will disturb wintersown containers so if I do it, I have to put my containers in clear storage boxes with snap-on lids. Otherwise, freshly sprouted tiny plants are too attractive to field mice, voles, possums, coons, rabbits, etc. Anything that can knock around containers and make them open up or make their lids come off will feast on tiny sprouts---including birds---so put your containers where the wind cannot blow them around and where the critters cannot get to them.

Y'all should see our sky right now. Well, the lowest levels of air down near the ground. It is so hot (topped out at 93 at our mesonet station but only 89 here) that bees, wasps, yellow jackets and lady bugs are swarming like mad. It looks the same as a really hot winter day, which also brings out the swarms. I think the lady bugs are trying to come indoors to overwinter. They rode into the house on my clothing, my bare arms and bare legs (I have on capris), my shoes, my hair, even my sunglasses. I was standing in the mudroom brushing them off of me, but some still made it indoors...and two of them bit me. I like lady bugs but not in my house. Right now they are flying around, but after they settle down, I'll vacuum them up and release them back outdoors. I was worried they were out of moisture, so made shallow puddles everywhere and the deep puddle in its usual place for Augustus. Yesterday's puddles, between the wind gusting in the mid-20s and the low relative humidity (14%) either have soaked into the ground or evaporated. I cannot believe it is November and I'm having to make puddles. I wish it would rain. We are about 6 or 7" deficient in rainfall for the year and I don't see how we get enough rain in Nov and Dec to make up that deficit.

Another fatality wreck in our county this afternoon, part of a very obvious trend this year towards worse and worse wrecks. Some family is having a horrible day. For such a small county with such a low population, we're having tons of motor vehicle accidents. I don't understand why it has gotten so much worse.

Our red oaks have tons of scattered red leaves today. I've been out talking to the trees (don't y'all talk to your trees?) begging the leaves to keep turning red because the few leaves that have turned already are so very pretty. The tree with the most red leaves? The one that gave us that one single red branch last week. It gets the gold star for top performance!

Dawn

We saw a lot of ladybugs, too, today! And butterfiles!

Amy--not giving any of my fabric pots up for veggie experimentation, but I like your idea, if I can put them somewhere that will be relatively safe from deer. Or I could have a couple nice little determinates here on the porch, or lettuce varieties. I'll have to order another five, right? LOL

At least 12 people on fb have complained about their houses being invaded by ladybugs. What's going on?!

It's times like today that I'm jealous of all of you work-at-home people. I haven't been home much at all and just want to be. Is that too much to ask?

I was hoping for a calm weekend, but it's not going to happen. I have a work dinner that I must go to tomorrow night. I also have Nebraska relatives coming in tomorrow night for an anniversary party for my aunt and uncle. The Nebraska family is actually my Dad's family, but they've gotten close to my Mom's family who are having the party. I feel bad because my schedule is so full and I just wish I could focus on them. AND I wish I had known they were coming into town because I would have ordered a 23 and Me dna test for my uncle who is coming. He is my Dad's brother and the closest relation left of my Dad's. I would love to know his haplogroups, because they would my Dad's as well. Obviously, being female, I don't have his Y haplogroup AND have my mother's mtdna haplogroup instead of his that he got from his mother. Of all my relatives, I look most like his mother who died when I was a baby. His family's actually genealogy has been traced to the crusades, but I still would like the DNA stuff too. I suppose I could order one and mail it to my uncle.

Then Ethan has CODA on Saturday (I won't go with him :( ) . and the anniversary party is Saturday. SUnday is work and a fund raiser and wedding shower. I'm working on MOnday --my day off because a friend and co-worker got their adoption date for a little boy they've had since birth. I'm working for her on Monday happily, but I might die. My death will be worth it though. IT's such a beautiful thing.

ANd then let's top that off with the accident that Ethan had a few hours ago. It could have been so much worse, but his hand is swollen (and he plays bass guitar, trombone, baritone, and other things) and has CODA on Saturday. SInce his car is at the dealership awaiting repairs, I have to figure out to get him there because I have the relatives and anniversary party on Saturday.

I just want to be in my garden, cleaning it up and dreaming about the spring...

I want to pet my chickens and finish my wine bottle garden. I might need to drink a bottle of wine tonight.

Oh, HJ--so sorry! And that's after last weekend, which almost killed me just to read about! Oh dear, for Ethan! I am so so thankful it wasn't worse, but sorry about his hand. No broken bones in it, I hope! Maybe a bottle of wine. You definitely need a BREAK in your schedule!!!!

Didn't even stop to notice if these were real ladybugs--at least we haven't seen any in the house; if we do, I'll have to see if they're real ladybugs. Once again, I am SO glad I happened onto OKGW after finding, over and over, that when I googled questions, OKGW's people had the most expert and sensible advice. It's a little scary, all the misinformation online!!!

I just sent a post to the FB forum--should have just asked you! Have many of you started the new F1 New Guineas from seed? Are they difficult (Swallowtail has several varieties, but they're understandably expensive)?

Loving having two kittens, Dawn. Hysterical hijinks! And they look SO different. Tom looks like a big thug tractor, and Jerry much more delicate and streamlined. Jerry's eyes are somewhat almond-shaped and his face is narrower--a narrow triangular face--Tom's eyes are more round and are hysterical, as there is a straight line across the tippy tops of the eyeballs--kinda like he's not fully awake. His face is full--if he were a person, he'd have a "round" face.

Amy, yes, my preferred way of touching with them are the knuckles, gently, especially since Tom likes to gnaw on my fingers--not hard, but bite gently. It's kind of endearing, actually. Jerry is definitely more interactive more often. He was over in Garry's lap for about an hour and a half tonight--HIS idea! Cool. That's perfect. Garry loves sitting! LOLOL. I cannot sit still for longer than, say 30 minutes, unless I'm sleeping. Just as I feared/thought. J is going to be Garry's. I get the one who tore the heck out of my hand the other night! LOL. I DID race in and wash it good and put alcohol on it. I've never had a toxic reaction to a cat bite (and have never had a really deep or severe one), but because I'm so allergic to them, and they immediately start itching, I always jump up, wash good, and apply alcohol.

I'm certainly the chatty Kathy this evening, aren't I!

Oh, I also posted this on FB, but some of you may be interested, though may have seen it on a previous post via Annie: http://www.alchemy-works.com/fall_planting.html

I tell you, Dawn--winter sowing is going to provide so much freedom for my seeds and me!!! I am so excited to get with it. Have spent 3 or so hours reading up on it today--undoubtedly will be doing much more. Can hardly wait to begin collecting more containers. . . saw one cool idea of growing them IN baggies, with clothes pins to hold the "pot" apart. Oh my, the sites I've visited today. Gave me a fairly clear idea of where I'm heading. I am thinking I will try to obtain containers that are on the sturdy side, however; trying to think of a safe area to put them. . . that will take a bit of thought. Well some can go on the open deck that isn't roofed--oh. Well, I guess all of them can! Protected for the most part from critters, somewhat protected from wind. Okay then. Experiment, here we come! But it only makes sense that this will work better than other things. I expect there will be a few disappointments, but I KNOW this is going to be very good!! In truth, there were many disappointments with the grow cart! So this is a WIN/WIN!!

Our leaf blower is industrial sized, if they have categories. I can pack it around on my back for a couple hours, but there's no way I could get it on my back unless I put it up on a counter-top. It's heavy, so would be a big effort to get it onto my back from the ground. I'm sure I COULD, but thankfully have Garry "saddles me up." I LOVE the exercise it provides, and I don't mind the exercise--indeed, LOVE the exercise. Love it a lot more than mowing mowing mowing piles of leaves and hauling hauling hauling. Thankfully, GDW's preference is to mow and haul. Works out perfectly!

I used the rest of my alfalfa bales today. Put down wet newspapers on top of the oats that were growing up in the raised beds, and hopefully am smothering them with the alfalfa hay! I will never ever again buy "straw."!!!!! (Straw is assumed better than hay precisely because it does NOT contain seed.) Well straw is only STRAW if you cut it after you harvested the seeds, so it doesn't seed much. We harvested "straw" when I lived on the ranch, that was STRAW. I have learned. MY lesson, NEVER mulch with straw again, unless it's 15 years old. Mulch with alfalfa hay. No seeds, higher nutrition. Alfalfa hay rules!

And so ends my learning for tonight. XOXO

Jennifer, The swarming of the lady bugs happens every year. These generally are the Asian (imported) lady beetles commonly sold in little bags as a form of pest control. I'm not overly fond of the Asian ones, but any lady beetle of any kind is welcome in my garden during gardening season. The problem is that the Asian lady beetles want to overwinter indoors in our homes so they'll swarm the house either trying to find their way in through cracks and crevices, or just by being bold and flying indoors when someone opens a door. If and when I order lady beetles, I only buy them from reputable insectaries that provide native North American types of lady beetles. Still, there's Asian ones everywhere---I'm sure they've spread all over the country. Normally, I see them on the day before the first big cold front, and they loiter near doorways hoping to come indoors. This year, oddly, they were nowhere in sight last week when the first big freeze as looming. I always thought that maybe they respond to air pressure changes or something that somehow tells them the cold is coming---but last week they didn't. Now, I'm wondering if they respond more to daylength, associating a certain daylength with the approach of cold temperatures. Regardless, yesterday was their day to swarm.

Yesterday the lady beetles were a sight to behold. Traditionally, at our place, they were allowed to overwinter on the screened-in back porch and that worked well until we replaced the window screening with glass windows and turned the screened porch into a sunroom. So, they still show up at the back porch/mudroom door, but I don't especially want them in either room. However, they fly in every time a dog, cat or person comes in or out through a door so they get inside. I vacuum them up with my upright vacuum cleaner (which has a dirt cup, not a bag) and dump them outside on the ground. They seem to survive being vacuumed. If you let them stay indoors, you'll eventually smell them---especially if somebody squishes one and it dies. We had thousands of them in the air outside the mudroom door yesterday and hundreds more climbing on the house, the nearby shrubs, etc. When I went outside they landed on me---I had them on my clothing, on my bare skin, in my hair, and even on my sunglasses. I tried to brush them all off before I opened the door to come inside, and they weren't happy about that---a couple of them bit me. When I tried using the front door instead of the mudroom door, I found only a few dozen there, so I used the front door for the rest of the day. When I let the dogs out the door that leads into their fenced dogyard, there were hundreds there and they were quick to fly into the laundry room. They drive me nuts, but it usually is only for a few days and then they settle down and find a place to spend the winter.

The lady bugs are free to spend the winter in our greenhouse, garden shed and garage/shop/barn, but they are smart enough that they never attempt to overwinter in the chicken coops.

When I worked which was way back when Chris was very young, I was jealous of my friends and my sister in law who were full-time stay-at-home moms, but you know, part of that is the whole grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side-of-the-fence syndrome I thought. So, I kept working and kept wishing I was at home doing the things that really mattered to me. Eventually, when Chris was 8 years old, I gave up my career to stay home full-time and never regretted it. Well, I missed having that paycheck because we had to learn to live much more frugally on one income than on two, but I got used to and I was deliriously happy because I was at home, taking care of our home and garden, cooking and baking, raising our son, volunteering at his school and in the community, etc. If I did have any regrets it was that I didn't do it until Chris was 8 years old. I wish I'd quit working outside our home right after he was born. Hindsight is 20-20. For me, that was the right choice, but I know other women who quit to become stay-at-home moms and didn't like it at all---there was just too much housework and drudgery compared to the work they did in their careers. Some of them went back to paying jobs, and some have moved in and out of the workforce by choice over the years---almost like they cannot decide which they prefer so keep going back and forth. Everyone has to find their own path and that path can change over the years, but my path never took me back to a paying job. To my husband's everlasting credit, he doesn't mind being the sole breadwinner (some spouses do mind) and he's always the first person to tell friends, family and coworkers that I work much harder at home than he does at work. I'm not sure that is true---I think we work equally hard but at different things is all.

Reading your description of everything that's going on in your life right now reminded me very much of our lives in the 1980s and 1990s before we moved here---we were on the go, non-stop, all the time. While we were happy being so involved in our community and with our families back then, I have to admit that the quieter lifestyle we live here in OK now appeals a bit more to me---but every life goes through stages and we're now at a later stage in our lives where we get a lot more tired a lot more quickly. I don't think I could keep up the same pace in my late 50s that I did in my 20s and 30s. I also miss all the older relatives we once spent so much time with---aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles, grandparents, etc. Most of them are gone now, especially on my dad's side and I'm glad we spent all that time with them back when we could because once they are gone, that's that. I still have a lot of living aunts and uncles on my mom's side because she was 10 years younger than my dad. They all are in their 80s now, and my mom is getting close to 90, which just blows my mind.

I am sorry to hear about Ethan's wreck and just relieved it wasn't worse than it was. These sorts of things happen. Chris only had one minor wreck when he was that age---he was going too fast on a very long, narrow gravel driveway on a slope at a ranch and just sort of slid off the driveway into the pasture. I think he came to rest against a tree, but was traveling very slowly so damage to the car (and him) was minimal.

Chris' big wreck wasn't until he was in his mid-20s and he wrecked on the way to work one day. He swerved on an airport road on his way to the fire station, hit a bridge, bounced off the guardrail into a fence, etc. He swerved to avoid hitting a coyote in the road, which he now says he realizes was a mistake---he just should have hit the coyote. Anyhow, he tore up his shoulder pretty good and his Jeep was more or less totaled, but the insurance company wouldn't total it out---they wanted it repaired. It seems like it took two or three months to get that thing rebuilt following the wreck and so much was replaced that it was pretty much a new vehicle when he finally got it back. He still owns that Jeep, but drives his pickup daily. I think his girlfriend drives the Jeep.

Nancy, I've never grown New Guinea impatiens from seed---they tend to like/need more plentiful moisture and humidity than we have here, so I usually don't grow them at all. They are not a dryland prairie/minimal irrigation type plant that thrives in red clay so they don't make my grow list. However, I have grown regular impatiens from seed and they were easy. They are slow growing while small and while the nights are still cool, but grow pretty quickly once it warms up.

Tom and Jerry sound like fun. Kittens sure keep a place lively!

I do love alfalfa hay but it can be pricey down here. There is a hay seller in Gainesville who only sells alfalfa and he seems to be very busy all the time, so we aren't the only ones who love it.

Yesterdays ridiculous record heat has been replaced by much cooler, cloudier weather today. It is a nice change, though I think we heat back up again tomorrow.

It looks like the November weather is going to be a roller coaster ride. The trees now are really showing the results of last week's freeze and significantly colder weather. The elms, persimmons and other trees whose foliage turn yellow to yellowish-orange probably are at their full peak today. I'm surprised by how quickly they colored up fully after the cold heat. Some of the red oaks are coming along real nicely too, but it is interesting to note that the leaves turning red are the ones within the tree, not the outer limbs. I'll watch and see if that pattern continues. Already the red oaks probably have more red on them right now than they had all of last year, so I have no complaints. It took us a while to get some fall color, but we have it right now. Of course, it won't last long so we have to enjoy it while we've got it.

Dawn

Wow I have a lot to catch up on. I've had a stomach bug these last few days, and I'm much better today. The hard part is finding food to eat. My average breakfast is Sourdough bread with eggs and bacon. Lunch is usually a salad and sandwich lol. Dinner is usually a roast or something of the sort. Sadly I feel very sick if I eat any of those things (boiled eggs are a little better.) About all I've found I can eat is celery, carrots, white rice, and fruit. Unsweetened grape juice is very delicious at times like these...

That is very strange, Jacob, that celery and carrots are suiting you. I'll have to remember that! And I do hope whatever it was is totally gone tomorrow! You need to get back!

We had the same day you did today, Dawn. It was glorious for blowing leaves and mulching. We got lots of the little critters rounded up! And right after I was saying we just get brown leaves, they are not brown--they're lovely goldish/orangish brown in the later afternoons. I can live with that just fine! There aren't any red oaks in our neck of the woods.

I forgot, but now remember, that this year we had an enormous crop of leaves. All that moisture in the spring made the trees happy, that's for sure! We have barely tapped what's out there, and yet when we look up, there don't seem to be any leaves missing! We visited with our neighbor today, who was also out working his his yard. I asked him if it was okay that I had been stealing his leaves. He said, "Please steal them all!" I knew he'd enjoy the help, but still kind of rude to be on his property without checking first. In my defense, it was in his back 40, so way far from his house. This is our neighbor/friend who had tick fever about 16 months ago--and he is not moving as well as he did before the tick fever.

Yes, the alfalfa is a little pricey, at the $11-12 we paid; but I thought the STRAW was pricey, too, at $7. Was reading last night about how many horse people love giving away their moldy alfalfa. I may have to check into that. Boy, that'd be sweet!

That was such good news hearing that the Asian beetles are just as effective as ladybugs. Never again will I worry about them. Crazy, the misinformation that is out there, isn't it??

Well, you were no help for me, Dawn, re the New Guineas! LOL But here's a thought I had today. Nancy, you have happy shade-loving ferns who need lots of water (and are TOTALLY out of any sun). And since I mulched them heavily, they didn't even need that much water--ditto with the hydrangeas. If they're happy, I'm pretty sure the New Guineas will work. I loved growing them up north, but even up there, they fried in the sun. So I think I'll compromise and not get quite as many as I want to get this year. Maybe with succeeding years, the price will come down. And I have noticed how often what works well for you, doesn't for me, and vice versa. So wish me luck, here I go.

Along that same vein, I'm still having great fun this evening, reading up on winter sowing. I DO have questions. For all of you, personally, who do winter-sowing, what are your favorites for it? (Everything?) LOL

You all can ignore my winter-sowing question. I see you all have all your info on the Winter Sowing forum. Thanks!!

I spent 2-3 hours filling in my gardening spreadsheet. (Amy, it is already much more complete!) I'm horrified (but only mildly) on what I have spent on seeds this year! BUT I bought only six flower plants--begonias, a little hibiscus, a flat of black sweet potato vines, brugmansia. and coreopsis. The first year here, I spent a fortune! The second year, a much smaller fortune, as I started many from seedlings out on the deck when it got warm enough; so this year's "plant" expenditure was pretty easy. That's how I'm justifying the seed expenditure. It's my story and I'm sticking to it. And when I was ordering seeds this Oct-Nov, I thought I would aim for quality over price. Since we've worked so hard to put really really good soil stuff into the beds this year, I'm going to do everything I can to maximize the production of all the plants--plus, I have been educated by you all about VARIETIES of stuff, and most of the time, I could find only the varieties I wanted from these vendors. I stuck with Johnny's, SESE, Swallowtail, Victory, and Sustainable Seeds, Seeds Select, and Dixondale for the onion order. BTW, I see that I only ordered soft necks from SESE. Guess I need to order a hard neck variety, too.

Nancy, I WS'd a lot last year. The tomatoes were a dream. Peppers were slow to take off, this year I'll buy a couple to start with, and plan on a bigger crop later. Flowers were morning glories, galliardia, tithonia, zinnias, bachelors buttons, cosmos, and shasta daisies. Basil and thyme worked, too. I even did a few bluebonnets, so we will see if anything comes up next spring.

HazelJen, 23 and Me has a special running the next couple weeks, buy at least two kits and they're $49 each.

Trees are changing here. It's nice to see. My back decided to lock up on me last weekend, and I've spent the better part of the week (when not at work) going to the chiropractor trying to get it moving again. It's better now, but still really sore. I haven't cleaned up the garden yet because of it, or planted garlic. I'm just going to chop down most things, toss the foliage, and let the roots feed the ground. I should probably go out and look at the garden tomorrow, at least. Haven't been there in a week. Taking a cookie decorating class with a friend in the morning, then Bedlam in the afternoon.

So Rebecca, is this a disc problem or a kind of once in a while back-going-out thing? My back has "gone out," four times over the past 20 years. Immobilized me twice. My kids couldn't even take me to ER twice because I couldn't move. Those two times, I could crawl to the bathtub (and loaded up on ibuprofen),and there I'd be in total freedom, just soaking in warm water. I'm so thankful I haven't had an episode like that again yet. My empathies!!!

Why did I never think I wanted a plain-old gray tiger-striped tabby? Oh I LOVE my plain old tiger-striped tabby kittens. . . but I see big trouble with them in the next several months. . . funny but not funny, like Honey!

I'm glad to hear thyme worked out good, Rebecca; it looked challenging to grow from seed.

This is my kitty, Nancy, Miss Priss. She only answers to "cat". She is enjoying the fact that Honey the Horror is outside. She rarely gets to sit on my lap these days.

When you buy alfalfa, look for moldy bales. The manager at atwoods sold me one for half price. I wonder if they dispose of moldy ones some where and would like them hauled off. Ummm, as an enabler, can I suggest you google the uses of alfalfa "cubes" or meal in the garden? 50 pound bag for less than $10 I think. You can make tea, add it to compost, Incorporate it into soil or just throw it on top of your soil like a thin mulch. And when you rinse your milk jugs out, pour the water in the new bed to feed microorganisms.

Dawn, sadly, Honey has never been a cuddler. She wants a hug first thing in the morning that involves her climbing on you while you "hug" her to prevent bodily harm or side table destruction. She can't find a comfortable position on a lap, so she doesn't stay long. Usually she only wants to stand on me and look out the window behind my chair or watch DH in the kitchen. She was in rare form last night. Trot by me with one of DH's gloves, pull my robe out of the chair, pull the bag of clothespins off the cabinet, sit ON the beagle. I was beside myself.

I had one lady bug on me yesterday after walking the garden. Nothing like others are complaining about.

I told my husband I wanted to stay home with my babies til they were 3. That was before we ever had any. I worked part time at Target as Christmas help, I sold (or tried to sell) makeup, I took some accounting classes, did a temp job at a lumber wholesaler where I entered invoices into a computer that was the size of a big chest freezer (early 80s), sold insurance (very briefly) and when daughter was 18 mos (she was 3rd child) I went back to work full time in an insurance office as secretary. That lasted until 4th was born. I did the numbers. With childcare, gas and clothing to work I would have been netting $25 a week. So I stayed home. I became the queen of coupon clippers and thrift store shoppers. I did not go back to gardening. I was NOT June Cleaver. I am not homeroom mother material. But I usually had half the neighborhood children here. We rarely ate out, sat down at the dining room table every night for dinner and kids had to clean up after. I went back to work when #4 was in kindergarten. The oldest was then 13. His birthday is today. He's 39. WIth four, we limited them to one sport and scouts and church stuff. But somehow, we did baton twirling, gymnastics, baseball, softball, basketball and one year of grade school football. #4 played football in high school. Oh, and daughter went out for football in 8th grade, just to prove she could. Two did drama. I once added up how many parent teacher conferences and back to school nights I had attended. It was shocking. So, H/J, I don't envy you now and I know how exhausted you must be. Hang in there! You really need a break! At least Ethan has seen the "baptism" of the first wreck and it sounds like it was fairly minor. (Sorry he hurt his hand!) I have never known a child that DIDN'T have a wreck early on. My friend's girl side swiped a car in a parking lot the day she got her permit.

I'm sorry you've been sick Jacob. I always crave cheap chicken cup o soup when I'm sick. Maybe it's the salt I want. I hope you feel better. Have some kombucha when it's over to replace the good microbes in your system.

Rebecca, I hope your back is better, too! I have winter sown about everything you mentioned. I plan to do the perennial flowers mostly this year. I will have a problem keeping Honey away from them. She loves to chew on plastic.

Have a good weekend.

Nancy, I've never understood what they mean by your back 'going out'. Medically, I mean. When mine locks up its the muscles supporting the spine that go into spasm, causing pain with any kind of movement. Maybe that's the same as 'going out'. Anyway, I take pain medication on a daily basis to function, but when stuff like this happens, the chiropractor and muscle relaxants, and sometimes accupuncture, gets it back into working order again. This time it's going to take a few weeks to get it back to normal.

We must not have gotten that cold here. I walked the garden, and brought in 4 blushing tomatoes, a handful of green beans, and a bunch of onions. Tomato plants are still blooming, I have a half dozen baby poblanos set, 3 cucumbers set, and the sugar snaps, spinach, and lettuce are finally coming up. The morning glories, tithonia, gallardia, zinnias, and nicotiana are still blooming.

I had a cookie decorating class with a friend this morning, then German food for lunch, then home to start laundry and the dishwasher. I should be doing other stuff, but I'm watching Bedlam.

Anyone here tried Defiant tomatoes? The new blight resistant hybrid.

I grew defiant last year. It is a red hybrid, it tastes like a red hybrid. I grew it in a bed, where it gave average production. Ironically, it was the first to show disease on the lower leaves. However, nothing killed it, what early blight it had it outgrew. If memory serves it is not a big sprawling plant, more compact.

Rebecca, you must be in that heat island in the middle of the city that the tv weathermen always talk about.

Jacob, That stomach virus sounds wicked and I hope you're feeling back to normal soon. I noticed that a lot of my FB friends with kids in the Marietta schools have had kids (and adults!) home sick with a stomach virus this week, so something must be going around.

Nancy, The red oaks here are native, probably Shumard red oaks, but since they are natives, there's tons of variation in their mature leaf color in a good year---some are a more brilliant red and some are, at best, a dull maroon red. We dug up little tiny oak saplings from our woodland when they were colored up for fall so we'd be able to choose some with the better color. Some years we get brilliant reds, some years a much more dull red, and some years just brownish-yellow leaves with speckles of red. This is turning into one of the better years thanks to recent cold nights. Many, many of the native oaks down here are bur oaks and post oaks, neither of which has memorable color at all, so the red oaks have most of our fall color, but elms, western soapberries and persimmons provide some yellows, golds and gold-orangeish color. We still have far too many trees mostly fully green, which is odd in November. I think it related to the late heat. Speaking of the heat----it hangs on yet again. Forecast high: 83. Current high for day so far: 90. It is baffling that we go so much higher than forecast. Wasps and Asian lady bugs continue swarming like mad.

Rebecca, I hope your back is feeling better. I'm watching Bedlam too. Tim is in his office and pretends he is watching the football game, but he is a compulsive channel changer and mostly he's flipping from channel to channel not really watching anything...which drives me bonkers. We usually watch TV in opposite rooms because I like to tune in to one show and watch it and he likes to change the channel about every 30 seconds. I have to hide the remote if we're watching a show together in the same room.

How nice that everything did not freeze there. We were below freezing for at least 8 hours, so it is the opposite here---almost nothing survived. We do have dandelions sprouting and blooming. Maybe they think, with this heat, that it is Spring. (Not that plants think, but you know what I mean.)

Amy, It sounds like Honey is your own personal little Dennis the Menace. I remember when our dogs were in that destructive stage. I 'think' they all have settled down, but I am not stupid---any of them could backslide and prove me wrong at any time.

Y'all, Chris' house that he is renting in Ardmore almost caught fire and burned down today. Thankfully, he is home today or he would have lost everything, including his tropical birds. A lamp apparently shorted out and sent our sparks or something and caught the sofa on fire. Luckily he was there (and he has a fire extinguisher) and either saw it or heard it and quickly put out the sofa, but now he has a sofa with a small burn spot on one side of it---a black/brown scorched area about the size of an adult's arm running up one side of a beige sofa. I cannot believe that happened to him, and it was a new lamp too. He's counting his blessings that he was at home at the time.

It is too hot and too windy. I feel sorry for anyone playing football out in this heat today.

Dawn

That's interesting about the ladybugs. Weird thing is I haven't seen one near my house this week. Maybe they're in the garden. I haven't been out there much this week.

Amy, you had 4 "Ethans", that's a lot. I'm sure I would not be good with four. I'm always impressed by sister who has 3 and they are stairsteps. I did stay home (sorta) until Ethan was in kindergarten. I like being home, even then. I did little jobs here and there...babysitting friends children for a season, working at a MDO that Ethan could also go to, cleaning houses when Mason was little because she was good and would watch cartoons and color while I worked. Even a part time job at a check printers while my aunt kept Mason. But mostly, I was home.

Ethan did not make CODA. He felt his audition was really good, but he didn't make it even so. He's not too disappointed--just a little. We are happy because 2 of his senior friends made it and they've never made it before. It's good that they finally did their senior year.

I saw the $49 23andme kids, Rebecca, and plan on getting a couple of them. I was able to talk to my uncle today and he said he would do one. However, he will need help because so much is online. My Mom figured hers out alone...and she is the same age as he, but she is pretty good with technology. I also was able to confirm that my Dad did have a pet raccoon that slept with him until it killed some rabbits that they were raising. My Grandfather hit it and it turned mean and ran off. Probably for the best. My Dad loved animals too.

I badly, BADLY need to work in the garden. Maybe next weekend.

I felt crappy all day and yesterday. And chilled. Finally took my temperature and I have a fever. Great. We have several children out with various things including the flu and strep. I took a hot bath (makes everything better) and Nyquil and I'm in bed now. I just need to get through this week and then I can rest. I have so much to do tomorrow. Just get through the next 6 days and rest will be there. I can't wait.

Everyone is like what about your herbs and healthy eating and blah...blah...blah. I can't tell if they're serious or making fun of me. It's because I haven't had time to prepare any herbal things including fire cider. Plus, I've lost weight over they last 2 weeks, so I'm clearly not eating right. I tend to maintain when I eat right. It's not like I don't want to lose a little weight. Who doesn't? But I don't want to lose it because of crappy eating.

I wish I could remember what was planted in a little flower bed in the back garden. It's growing new little plants that smell delicious--the leaves. The mother plant died. I can't figure out what it is. It may be a plant that Nancy brought. Maybe part of the mint family. It's not chamomile or Laura Bush. I just don't know...

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I forced a walk around the block this evening. It was pretty here. Too pretty for November.

I think it's the very
same thing, Rebecca, just different terms. . . I've had mine go out/lock
up just four times over the past 20 years. At any rate, I'm so thankful
that it has so seldom happened, and I feel so sorry for folks who have chronic
back problems.

And many of my plants
here are doing well, too. I'm glad I left all the deck plants in.
Oh I'm laughing--cookie and cake decorating are WAY out of my league! Do
you ever see FB pictures of failed cake decorating? That'd be me.
You rock!

Where is the German
restaurant? I'll have to google and see if there are any near my new
Reasors grocery store.

I'm glad you asked
about Defiant. It reminded me that I forgot to get Early Girl, for some
weird reason.

And yes, you can tell
I have a LOT to learn. I asked GDW if he knew what Bedlam was! You
can all laugh now.

The trees, just to
show I don't know what I'm talking about, are beautiful today, even without red. I DO wish we had a red oak or red Maple, Dawn. Gold's better than plain brown, right?

I have a bag of alfalfa meal, Amy, that I got two years ago for compost. . . That stuff IS expensive! Wish I'd thought of pellets THEN! But now I don't need nutrition, need bulk! And one bale of alfalfa hay really does go a long way. All these beds are alfalfa except two spots, about 5x6 feet. . . I stupidly decided to use the 1/2 bale of straw I had left). We think the beds are good-to-go. . . unless, as I said, we get ambitious and add some more leaves. We have our mixed soil (raised bed mix, peat, compost) on top of newspaper/cardboard, which is over a layer of straw. Oh, and then the alfalfa hay between the soil and leaves. The straw's on the bottom, underneath the cardboard. Ha! Then on top of the soil are the leaves. Garry didn't hear me say I didn't want to add leaves to the far right bed until after I put in the garlic--but they'll be easy to move, so no biggy.

Miss Priss is very attractive! She has quite a bit of brown? Here are the two new hooligans. Out of 8 pictures I took, this is the only one that wasn't blurred. They were moving too fast in the rest. They have a bit of brown, but not much.

I had a blast reading up on winter sowing last night--a blast! I went to Trudi's FAQs, as well as the main site where I saw all of YOU! I'm pumped! Will be doing perennials (particulary those pesky ones who want a little warm, then a little cold, then a little warm. . . haha! And all the rest who want their winters. So I shouldn't have to be putting any in the fridge!) And some of the herbs. Then, we'll see about annuals, Maybe if the cart's too full and if I can scrape up enough containers, I'll start in on annuals.

I'm so glad Chris dodged a bullet with his sofa! MY gosh! Too ironic! Amazing. And amazing luck! Whew.

HJ--it's not lemon balm, is it? AND, I am SO bummed that you're sick!! This is NOT the weekend for it. Please feel better, and take care of yourself! You were posting as I was writing.

And, HJ--what is CODA? (Now you can all laugh again!) We had Allstate in Wyoming, where kids from all around had tapes made of their auditions; then those were sent in and selections were made by a committee of music instructors around the state. I was Allstate junior and senior years, first chair, both years. I know I'm bragging (please forgive me), but I did adore the French horn and was very good at it. In fact, had scholarships offered me from Greeley CO, Casper College in Wyoming, and Northwestern in Illinois. My band instructor was in charge of the selection committee my senior year (stacked deck? LOL) and gave me my choice of being first chair symphony, or band. I took band, because there's a lot more actual playing time in band! Hahaha! I still have my horn (a lot of my friends got cars for graduation; I got my horn--about the same price!). I've thought about gifting it to someone, since none of my grandkids happened upon the horn. Anyone have a beloved kid or grandkid who plays horn? Oddly, my two best friends over a long lifetime, both played bassoon. One was from my hometown, the other from Gillette, 60 miles away. And yeah, both of them were weird! LOL Thinking of you tonight.

PS: I am pouting tonight. GDW told me early today, I should turn back the clocks so we'd be more prepared. I said, "NO!!! NO!!! NOT gonna do it. I will not accept it!! Let's just leave our clocks the way they ARE!" He laughed and said I could do that. . . but it might cause complications with family and church stuff. . . being dragged into it kicking and screaming! I will be pouting for the next six months. But because, although I have a great memory, it is very short, plus I seem incapable of holding a grudge. I don't WANT to not hold a grudge about this, but suppose I'll forget to. Sigh.

Nancy, I don't think it was lemon balm. I would not have picked up lemon balm on purpose because I already have it. HOWEVER, did you bring lemon verbena? Maybe it's that.

CODA is a state band. Ethan did score well enough that he was chosen to audition for All State. I believe 18 kids from his school scored well enough to audition for ALL State, so that's good. They work hard.

I love hearing stories about band experiences. AND I love pictures of everyone's cats.

I'm at work now and need to set up some stuff. I have to make an announcement at church today, so wish me luck that I don't start coughing my head off. I think my fever broke last night. It was only 99.9 this morning.

Good day, Everyone.

Nancy, Gold is better than plain brown. Honestly, anything is better than plain brown. Around Thursday or so I noticed green leaves falling from some trees---they didn't even turn brown first. I think our trees are confused. Why wouldn't they be? Every week they are exposed to lows in the 30s and highs in the 90s. How they even know what season we are in at this point is beyond me. Currently it is 90 degrees at our Mesonet station and 89 at our house. There's reports of haziness and smoke in the air, but none of us are spotting any plumes of smoke, so I think that, as the rumored cold front moves across the state, it may be pushing smoke, fog, haze, smog, dust or whatever ahead of it. There was a 1,700 acre wildfire in the county west of us yesterday and it looked like smoke was hanging over the river this morning, so maybe it is that.

Our gold foliage peaked around Thursday or Friday and is going to a dull golden brown today. I believe the hard freeze we had a few days ago has really impacted the tree foliage. Further south in Texas where the freeze didn't happen or at least was not as prolonged as it was here, they have better foliage color than we do right now. At least 3 or 4 of the red oaks in the yeard near our house have some red, and our big red oak near the road, which is my favorite tree, is beginning to show some red. It probably will peak next week though it is hard to tell in this weather.

We turned back the clocks at bedtime last night so at least we'd be in sync with the rest of the area when we woke up today. It didn't matter what time the clock was showing---I woke up at the same time I do every single day, even if the clock showed it was an hour earlier. My body clock gets pretty firmly set on a time and doesn't really care what the clock says. It takes me at least a month to adjust to a time change and then before you know it, we're springing forward or falling back all over again.

Jennifer, I'm glad you feel a little better today and hope you didn't cough your way through making the announcement at church.

Hot and windy, hot and windy, hot and windy. It feels more like earliest September than early November.

Chris sent me a text about a half-hour ago---a shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, near San Antonio, TX. Word is several people were shot, including children, before police arrived and took out the shooter. He said he had heard 15 people were down, but I haven't seen any firm number on any media yet, and often early report are erroneous. It just seems to me like the world has gone mad---it is sad when people are not safe in church. And, in a state like Texas with open carry, it is unfortunate someone in that church wasn't armed because perhaps they could have stopped the shooter. It seems wrong to carry a gun to church, but we cannot kid ourselves---these shootings can happen anywhere any more.

I'd like to be working in the garden, but all the swarms are still out there---Asian lady bugs, wasps, bees, yellow jackets....so I'm indoors. Oh, and the fire ants and harvester ants all are out and scurrying around. I guess maybe they are busy storing up provisions for winter.

Dawn

Mseonet says we reached 78, it is now 60. I would say the front came through. Trees were quite pretty today.

Amy, you saved me from a lot of discomfort. Today was supposed to be warm, so we took off at 2 for our last fishing day. It was 85 but 15 mph wind. That's fine. We no sooner got out on the lake when the wind picked up, and it began cooling off; a really bumpy ride down to where we usually fish. Then I saw your post above, and we agreed whatever front hit you was about to hit us, too, so we cried uncle and headed back; thankful the ride back wasn't as bumpy, and we got loaded up and out of there--the truck said 59 degrees. Now it's 55! Had I not seen your post, I might have been thinking maybe the wind would die down and the sun might come back out!! So thank you!

You're welcome. We had been to the grocery store, and it was hot when I came home. Opened the screen on the front storm door. In an hour it was cool and I had to close the door because the breeze from the north was really cold. Funny thing is, I brought the dog in this morning and thought ugh, it's sultry. Looked at the temp. It said 107. Obviously the sensor is in the sun at that time of day.

The news from TX is devastating.

The front finally came through here last evening, but only after we'd topped out at 91. Once again, just like last week, I'm hoping maybe we've seen our last high temperature in the 90s for this year.

The trees were pretty here yesterday in full sun, but they look a lot more dull beneath cloudy skies. We are cold today and it feels good. I'm completely over the heat, but I'm sure I'll get over the cold weather pretty quickly too.

I'm watering the soil around the house's foundation today. With our rain deficit being so large and the prospects for meaningful rainfall being low, it probably is time to start watering that soil regularly so that the clay doesn't shift and crack the foundation.

The invasion of Asian lady bugs is driving me crazy. Every time a dog, cat or human goes in or out an exterior door, the lady bugs fly in. I have a lot of them to round up and vacuum up today.