December 2017, Week 3 General Garden Talk/Discussion
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
6 years ago
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hazelinok
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoRelated Discussions
Week 3, June 2017, General Garden Talk
Comments (103)Nancy, I used to wonder aloud, even here on this forum, how it was that 10 of our 14.4 acres are heavily wooded and yet we rarely saw a squirrel. It wasn't that I was complaining, but it just seemed odd. I suppose the dogs we had in our early years scared them away. Well, the old dogs don't scare them and this year we have tons of them. I agree they are just rodents with bushy tails. I have been ignoring them in the yard, but if they start getting in the garden, they are going to be in trouble. Long, long ago we raised a baby squirrel using kitten milk replacer and the tiny bottle that comes with it. We never knew what happened to its mother, but had had a vicious thunderstorm and this baby probably fell out of a squirrel nest and she didn't come find it. It was so small that Chris, who was probably 13 or 14 at the time, walked around wearing a pocket t-shirt with the squirrel riding in the pocket. It spent the rest of its time in a hamster cage or being bottle fed. Later on it transitioned to a nut/fruit/seed blend meant for birds. Finally, when it seemed large enough to release, he'd put the squirrel outdoors in the morning for ever-lengthening periods of time (just like hardening off plants, lol), but whenever he went outside to check on it, it would run to him and come back indoors. One day, it didn't come back and we knew it had successfully gone back into the wild. That was a relief. I didn't want to have a pet squirrel in a cage in the house forever. Nowadays, I don't know if anyone in this family would want to get up at night to bottle feed a tree rat. Y'all do seem heavily overpopulated by squirrels this year. If the nut-bearing native trees up there produced as heavily last fall as they did down here, that's the reason why. We had so many acorns from the oak trees that walking in the yard was like trying to walk on marbles or golf balls, depending on the oak variety. We swept and raked up and composted acorns by the thousands all autuman and winter, and those were just from the yard, not the entire woodland. If the hickories, walnuts and pecans produced as heavily in the woodland as the oaks did, I'm surprised we don't have 1 billion squirrels. I'm afraid your battle with the voles and moles (and do you have gophers too?) will be constant, but I'm glad you're seeing fewer of them. I haven't found much vole damage in the garden yet, but they've been in there. Every now and then Pumpkin catches one and brings it out of the garden to play cat-and-mouse with it in the yard (endlessly) and I rarely see a dead vole, so I'm worried he is doing catch-and-release when we gets tired of playing with it. The good thing is that vole populations cycle up and down in roughly 2 to 5 year cycles, so some years will be better, though other years may be worse. Kaida sounds absolutely so precious and it touches my heart so much that she clearly adores you and trusts you and will sit and open her heart up to you and share all her thoughts, dreams, feelings and more. Someones when somebody remarries later on in life, the family is not so accepting of/loving towards the new spouse, but clearly they all have embraced you as their own and that is special too. Kaida herself sounds like she is such a precious gift and I know you surely treasure her in your life. I'm glad you're a sucker for kids. I know you will not regret one moment spent with her this summer and, hey, now you've got two more hands available for weeding! You certainly inherited a fine bunch of folks in the younger generations when you married Garry, so surely your life overflows with many blessings. I know it doesn't make you miss your son and his family back in MN any less, but it is nice to have the new kids, grandkids and great-grandkids geographically closer to you, isn't it? Millie, I didn't know that. What a horrible thing to use around edible plants! I do know that many, many products that once sold and widely used have been banned. When I was a kid, they sprayed DDT as the solution to everything. I always hated that stuff, but we were stupid kids, and when the big tanker truck was driving up and down all our local streets spraying for mosquitoes in the 1960s, we idiot children road our bicycles behind in the mist coming from that truck. It is a wonder we aren't all dead. My dad never used many chemicals, and as he got older, he progressively used them less and less until he was almost to the point of being organic by the time Alzheimer's Disease stole his mind and he gave up gardening because he no longer remembered how to do it. The few chemicals he used, he kept in a chest in the garage and we knew we were not even allowed to open the door to that thing. Our government does a lot of crazy things, and I just try to ignore it and them as much as possible. The tobacco thing is perplexing, but it is what it is--a sign of how dysfunctional our federal govenment has become, not that our state government is any better either. Hazel, If I had to choose between garden time and internet time, the garden would win every time. Since I'm home all day, I usually have time for both. Peppers are prone to sunscald in our climate. The plants can produce more fruit than their foliage can cover. When I see that happening, I try to remember to give them some extra nitrogen and extra water to push more foliar growth. When you first notice sunscalded peppers, if you bring them inside, you can cut out the bad part and use the rest of the pepper. If you don't notice the sunscald until later on, often the fruit will begin rotting inside from the damage. I harvested a laundry basket full of peppers last week and threw away maybe 3 bell peppers that had sunscald so badly that they were unusable, but was able to salvage and use most of several others that were only mildly sunscalded. I'm sorry to hear about the SVBs. It seems to be happening a lot in your part of the state over the last week or two. I keep thinking every morning as I walk down to the garden that today will be the day that I lose my first squash plant to an SVB, but it hasn't happened yet. It will happen any time though. There's some squash bugs and I'm trying to control them, but it is an annoying and time-consuming task. Hand-picking squash bugs and drowning them is effective, but while I'm doing it, there's a little voice inside my head screaming "ain't nobody got time for that". lol. It is true, but I take the time and do it anyway. Right now the temperatures are cool enough that I don't mind spending some morning time on squash bug destruction, but the deeper we get into summer and the hotter the weather gets, I know I will mind doing it and at some point I'll just stop doing it. We just do not have enough good natural pests of squash bugs, leaf-footed bugs, blister beetles or stink bugs, so keeping a garden free of them is virtually impossible. Well, maybe people who use chemical pesticides can do it, but that's not me and I won't go that route. In my newly open spaces, I'm planting fall tomatoes and more southern peas. Always, always southern peas because we like them and because they tolerate heat so well. I've already got too much okra, winter squash, watermelons and melons, so southern peas it will be. Is there anything you want more of but haven't planted yet? If so, that's what I would plant in your newly available garden beds. You could go ahead and plant green beans now for a fall harvest. It is a touch early for them down here, but I've had good luck some years from a late June planting of them. At the worst, they'll start blooming in hot weather and not produce much until the weather cools in late August or early September, but if we get periodic cool and rainy spells, sometimes they will produce all summer long. I hope rain finds y'all soon. It is ridiculous how long your part of the state has gone now without meaningful rainfall. Here's the map that illustrates it pretty well: Consecutive Days Without 0.25" of Rain It is shocking that the month of the year that generally is the rainiest has brought central OK somewhere between nothing and next-to-nothing in terms of inches of rainfall. The end of May wasn't much better, was it? We slipped into Moderate Drought 2 weeks ago, then two good rainfalls brought part of our county back out of it and back to Abnormally Dry last week. Oops. I never did the Drought Monitor post last week, so here's the latest Oklahoma Drought Monitor map: OK Drought Monitor And, for forum members who live outside of OK, here's the US Drought Monitor Map: U S Drought Monitor Map Honestly, as a gardener, by the time that the powers-that-be show us as being Abnormally Dry, we already are so dry that I almost cannot water enough to make a difference so to some extent, it doesn't matter to me what stage we're in each week, because they're all bad and all challenging to the garden plants. However, once we hit Severe Drought I stop watering everything but the perennials because I can't water enough to push production out of annual veggie plants once we are that dry. Even in Moderate Drought, sometimes it feels like the watering is only keeping plants alive, but not really keeping them in production. The good news is that summer is actually here now, and it doesn't last forever, so we can start hoping for an early autumn cooldown and the return of more plentiful moisture. Keeping plants happy in July and early August in OK surely is incredibly challenging even in just a normal run-of-the-mill year, much less in a drought year. Dawn...See MoreNovember 2017 Week 1 General Garden Talk
Comments (68)Kim, I have no words for this situation. Well, I have words, but for the sake of politeness, I won't use them. I promise to only use nice words instead. I. hope. she. enjoys. her. lawn. (I said that through gritted teeth.) Lawns make no sense to me. People spend a lot of money to plant, feed and water a lawn for what purpose? So they can mow it weekly, rake up the grass clippings and have them hauled away to already overflowing landfills? Lawns are monocultures that do not support a diversity of life, yet we Americans cling to them as a vestige of the days when only wealthy landowners could afford the resources to maintain some pristine but largely useless green carpets of lawn. If I had to have a perfect green lawn, I'd just buy and install that stupid fake grass they sell nowadays (CostCo sells one that looks really realistic) and I wouldn't waste time and resources maintaining it. The sad thing is that your garden fed and nourished so many in so many ways, and now that will cease. That is the tragedy of this situation. When I think of you, I think of you and Ryder out there working together in the sun. I think of beautiful flowers and fresh herbs. Fresh apricots. Rain. Sunshine. Yes, even weeds. Tomatoes, potatoes, onions and eggplant. Butterflies, bees and other little creatures. Sunflowers. Borage. I could go on and on. I think of the people at the Farmer's Market buying and delightfully taking home your products and enjoying them. I think of life. I think of how creating the garden, planning it, planting it, maintaining it, sharing it and spending every day out in it fed your soul. As you worked to improve the soil, you were indeed feeding the soil too. The soil fed the plants. The plants helped feed all the little creatures. I believe God looked down on your garden and smiled. It was all so good. There is a synergy in all of that. And, it completely sucks that it all is being destroyed. I am so sorry for that. I grieve for the loss of what you created. I am sorry for all the pain I know this is causing you. Having said all that. I. know. you. We are kindred souls along with all the other gardening freaks here on this forum. Gardening is in your blood. You will create a garden wherever you go and it will be a million times better for the world than any lawn grass. You will flourish wherever you live and grow. You will be happy. You will achieve. You will thrive. So will your garden. Maybe it isn't going to be in the place where you started and which you now are leaving, but it will be good. It will be better than good. It will be great. I guarantee it. You are setting out on a wonderful new adventure, and perhaps it isn't an adventure you were anticipating going on....but you can and will do this, and you will arise above the actions of that foolish young woman who is going to replace your beautiful, bountiful garden with lawn grass. The wise Kelly Clarkson sings "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger, stronger" and she is right. This change in circumstances will not kill you. It will make you stronger. It will make you better. Please don't let it make you ill. You deserve to stay well and healthy. You brain controls your body. Please don't let the distress over the loss of your garden make you ill. Take care of yourself and know, too, that this will pass and you will have your dream---you'll just have it in a different location. So, if you must, then weep for what you are losing, and then move on. Move on to bigger and better things. Life is a journey and it is time for you to journey on to the next place. God is watching over you and I believe you will end up in the place where you were meant to be all along. Now, please focus on your health. We only get one life here on this planet and we are meant to live our lives in a way that is meaningful and contributes to the world. You are doing that. You have done it with your current garden. You will do it in your new job and at your new home. You will do it in your future. Living well and happily is the best revenge. Staying healthy is important so you can begin the next exciting adventure. I learned long ago that I only could control the behavior of one person. Or three people---me, myself and I. I cannot control whatever anyone else does. I only can control my reaction to what they do. So, I live my life according to my beliefs and my own form of an honor code, particularly with regards to our Mother Earth. I cannot prevent anyone else from tearing up or destroying their patch of land. I cannot stop them from dumping chemicals on it. I cannot control how they use it, view it, abuse it, waste it, etc. I can only control me and how I treat the little patch of land where we live. I refuse to let anyone else hurt our little piece of Mother Earth. I love it, I cherish I and I admire how many creatures of all sorts it supports. When I walk on our land, I see life everywhere in gazillions of different forms. I imagine you are much like me. You revere what God's earth, your hard work, the sweat equity and the pain all combine to produce. You will produce a beautiful garden. You will manage a beautiful farm. You will bloom wherever you are planted. Believe it. I do. You will not be embarking on this new journey alone. We'll all be right here with you. Happy Gardening lies ahead. Now, go dig up and save as much as you can, but don't fret over what you cannot find and move. We'll all help you rebuild your friendship garden in your new place---one plant and one batch of seeds at a time. The Spring Fling reigns eternal and there's always tons of new friendship plants waiting to be discovered at every Spring Fling. For you, the new adventure begins and a new friendship garden awaits. Enjoy it. It is such a privilege to get to begin a new garden even though you hate to leave the old one behind. I am excited about what you will create at your new place. Look ahead, not behind! A joyous new life awaits. Dawn...See MoreNovember 2017 Week 4 General Garden Talk
Comments (87)Amy, I think the feeder on Fred's truck was the type that would drop cubes into something. This truck had a hay spike, I think (I should know for sure as I've seen this truck drive by our place a million times), but they weren't doing round bales yesterday. Billy Fred thinks that as they drove through the pasture (the pastures near the Old Home Place looked to have grass maybe thigh high), some bits of grass got hung up underneath the truck between two things, and I think maybe he said transmission and something else, perhaps engine block, but I don't remember....and then the grass first ignited as they drove up the road from one pasture to another, and the burning grass ignited the truck. The round bales in the field belonged to the guy whose land is across the street....but I am sure Fred's ranching insurance or auto insurance would have paid for the loss. By the time we got there, the guy whose hay was in danger was standing in the yard near the house, watching the firefighters extinguish the fire. I am sure he was feeling very relieved that his hay was safe. Our eggs get eaten, used in baked goods for the firefighters (I can use a lot of eggs when we are having fires several times a week) or they get taken to work by Tim to give to folks. We are using tons more eggs since giving up grains and sugar because we eat a lot more protein and healthy fats than we once did. Most of the grain-free recipes for tortillas, bread, muffins, pancakes, etc. have a lot of eggs in them---the flaxseed muffins I make every week, for example, have 5 large eggs per batch of 12 muffins. Some of our chickens are molting, some have molted and are done, etc but we aren't getting many eggs now because daylength is too short and I don't like artificially forcing egg production by keeping a light on in the chicken coop all night. While we have quite a lot of chickens, many of them are useless roosters because we are too soft-hearted to execute all the roosters hatched out by our hens. I guarantee you that if we let a broody hen set on eggs, 10 out of 12 that hatch will be roosters every time. Why? Why? Why? Every time we lose a chicken to a coyote (haven't lost any in the last 2 months, but before that we were losing them quite regularly if they were stupid enough to wander off into the woods, well away from the flock), I secretly hope it was a male. We also don't kill chickens when they get too old to lay and be productive, so we are in effect running a retirement home for geriatric chickens. While it is not very cost-effective to feed so many non-laying poultry, they do seem to keep the snake population down and each one of them eats its weight in grasshoppers, so at least they are useful for something. I think Fred took the burning of the truck very, very well. You know, by the time you are 95 years old and have been farming/ranching your entire life, there's not much that can happen to you now that hasn't already happened in the past. I am sure he had insurance because he's just that way. There's no shortage of trucks at his place---when we took him home there were 4 or 5 late model trucks lined up in front of the house, and one was a really nice flatbed that only needs to have a feeder added to it and he'll be back out there feeding his cattle again. I teased him about having more trucks than people at his house. He's a wheeler-dealer who's always buying vehicles, tractors, mowers, etc. for well-below value and then either keeping them or flipping them for a profit. He's just good at stuff like that. I was just mostly worried about him and Billy Fred---both have bad backs and mobility issues (even though I think Billy Fred is exactly my age, he seems to have inherited Fred's bad back genes)---afraid they'd inhaled smoke or gotten burned or whatever but they seemed fine. For the last 3 or 4 years, I've had a creeping feeling of fire disaster related to Fred---I cannot tell you how many times I've told Tim that I was worried about Fred's house catching fire at night and him not being able to get out of it---like a premonition. I don't know why I had that feeling, and I feel pretty confident he no longer sleeps in an upstairs bedroom but has instead moved to a downstairs one. Still, I've just had that feeling. Maybe this truck fire is the thing my premonition was leading me towards. Does that sound crazy? If so, then I am crazy. I did hear about Owasso winning state and thought that was cool! Yellow Cat's death hit me extra hard---perhaps because he had such a hard life as a feral cat roaming the countryside and I know how much he appreciated finally having a family, a climate-controlled home and steady meals that he enjoyed. I spoiled him all that I could these last few years as I saw his once ginger-colored hair turning snow white. I could see him aging, and could see his health failing, but stayed in denial for so long because I couldn't bear the thought of letting him go. When his health had deteriorated to the point that he wasn't going into the garden any more, I cut him catmint and/or catnip and brought it to him daily. He was such a garden cat when he was young and healthy. These last few weeks, I knew the end was coming soon and tried to make sure he had lots of time outside on pretty, sunny days and lots of loving when he was inside. He was purring up until shortly before his death, as I held him and talked to him and promised to see him again at the Rainbow Bridge. I agree with you that there's not much worth getting dressed up for any more. If I am going to put on pantyhose, heels and makeup, it is going to be for something at a church, a funeral home or a big family gathering. I don't hardly wear heels much either, preferring low heels or flats. I'm beyond thinking that heels are worth wearing to anything. Nancy, We went through this same thing with dogs several years back---we had 8 dogs, the oldest of which was about 18 or 19 years old when she died. Then, it seemed like we lost a dog a year (or even more often than one per year) for a while until we went from 8 dogs down to two. Then Ace and Princess showed up and we were back up to 4 dogs again. That's the down side to having a bunch of dogs or cats live forever and forever and forever---once one of them finally dies, it seems like the others just fall like dominoes. We've certainly had what with the old cats these last few months. Pumpkin seems the most upset over Yellow Cat--he came to me this morning from the direction of Yellow Cat's grave and had the oddest little expression on his face. I think he knows exactly where YC is and that he is dead. He even seemed sad, which is odd, because the only thing he liked to do with Yellow Cat was to hiss and growl and try to challenge Yellow Cat to a duel. YC dealt with it by ignoring him, a la' W. C. Fields "go away kid, you bother me...." Sometimes I wonder what the animals know---when it is practical, we will let the other animals see and sniff the deceased animal before we bury it because it helps them understand and accept that animal's death, but yesterday we got paged out to a fire while burying Yellow Cat so just had to hurry and get it done so we could leave. It is hard for me to believe that Shady is our last old cat left. I really thought Yellow Cat and Emmitt both would outlive him, but they didn't. (sigh) I did notice today that Shady took over Yellow Cat's favorite porch spot and was sleeping there in the sunshine. Maybe he's waited a long time for that spot to become his spot. Shady was bitten by a copperhead when he was a couple of years old. He survived, but was very sick---the bite was in his groin area. He actually got the raised copper-colored rash that they say "can" happen, but which we've never seen with any other animal of ours. The spot where he had the rash didn't stay copper-colored forever, but after the rash eventually faded, hair never grew there again, so when he sprawls on his back sleeping, you see the white scar still, after all these years. It amazes me because the vet really didn't think he'd live, and now he has outlived all his siblings, his parents, and even cats a few years younger them him. He had a twin brother named Slim, who was very skinny his whole life and who died several years ago. Shady was a big bruiser---like a big offensive lineman on a football team---but was gentle and didn't throw his weight around. Slim and Shady were identical, except one was thin and one was big and hefty. As Shady has aged, he's gotten skinnier and skinnier, and now I find myself accidentally calling him Slim more and more because he looks so much like Slim now---then I hastily add Shady, calling him Slim Shady, which is the Emimem song they were named after when they were born---we were running out of names for a litter of almost identical black cats, and had named their sister Emimem because she was the spitting image of their dad, Emmitt, so then from Emimem to Slim Shady wasn't much of a stretch. (And now y'all know what sort of music Chris was listening to in 2000.) Yellow Cat once was very sick similar to what Titan had this past summer, and we thought we'd lose him then. We had to keep him caged up and medicated and worked so hard to keep him eating/drinking and alive. The vet kept him in the clinic on an IV for several days before we even could bring him home and take care of him here at the house. He was still about half-feral when all that happened, but by the time he was well, he was my little shadow cat who followed me everywhere I went. He also thought he owned the house (prior to that, he preferred the yard, the garage, the chicken coops---anything but the house) after that. So, I feel like he had another good 7 or 8 years after that round of illness, and he appreciated every day. He was just a happy, purring machine all the time. When Tim joined the VFD, which was way back in 2002, I believe, I never, ever, in my wildest imagination knew how it could/would take over our lives at times. We can have very long periods of relative quiet where he runs on a ton of medical calls and smallish fires and it doesn't really involve me at all. But then, let drought roll around as it has this fall, and let everything dry out after we freeze, and suddenly it takes completely over our lives. You just do whatever you have to do. Our worst years have been 2005-2006, when we had horrific drought and wildfires from roughly October 2004 through probably January of 2007, when we would have fires almost daily and sometimes, at its worst, up to 5 fires in one day, and then 2011 when we had incredible summer drought and had multiple fires daily (or sometimes one big wildfire that lasted for multiple days) from June through August, with lesser periods of fires for months before and after the summer. Really, then, we had recurring drought in 2012, 2013 and 2014, but nothing like the summer of 2011. As a gardener, the hardest part for me is that the winter wildfire season's peak tends to coincide with spring planting season, so I'm constantly trying to put transplants or seeds in the ground and having to drop everything to run to a fire. On April 9, 2009, I couldn't even get all my seedlings moved indoors into the sunroom (which was still a screened-in porch then, but it had half-walls that protected the plants from the wind) before I had to rush off to a fire just after lunch, and I lost most of my plants to the wind that day. We had a 15,000 acre wildfire that kept us away from home for about 12 to 14 hours, and when I got home and wearily carried in the seedlings, most were windburned beyond saving---our wind had gusted as high as 53 mph that day. We built the greenhouse soon thereafter so that the plants could get sunlight as I prepared to plant them in the ground but wouldn't have to be out in the wind if I had to run off to a fire. One year, in 2012, I was trying desperately to get fall transplants in the ground. I was so far behind and finally had just decided I was going to do it period. I was not going to leave no matter what was on fire. And I didn't. When our VFD became the 9th department paged out to a wildfire at the eastern end of the county, I called Tim and told him I wasn't going---I had to get those plants in the ground that day or else it wouldn't be worth planting them and that was that. He was fine with that. Our local county emergency management director was not okay with that---he kept calling me and calling me and calling me and I kept telling him I was busy and couldn't leave and he'd have to find someone else to bring drinks and food to the firefighters. I pointed out to him that 8 other VFDs were paged out before us, and surely one of them had a fire rehab person bringing drinks. It was like my words were going in one ear and out the other, and I finally quit answering my phone because he wouldn't stop calling. That's probably the only time he ever really just infuriated me. I remember asking him what part of "volunteer" he didn't understand, because on that specific day I was NOT a volunteer who was going to a fire, I was a woman making a last-ditch, late effort to get a fall garden planted in the midst of tremendous drought. I did, by the way, have a marvelous fall/winter garden that year and we were still harvesting from it in April....and I had to yank out overwintered plants to replace them with new Spring plants. On one other day, probably in 2013 or 2014, I was behind on getting tomato plants in the ground and told Tim one morning that I absolutely, positively was not going to any fires that day. I was going to start planting in the morning, and was going to plant, weed, water, mulch, etc. and wasn't leaving my garden for any reason. I was so determined to do this that I did not take my fire radio or phone out to the garden. So, guess what happened? I looked up from my garden at some point, and the ranch across the street had a fast-moving wildfire. They had been burning a brush pile and the wind kicked up and the fire got away from them. I could see our neighbors and their hired hand running around with a tractor and hand tools, but the fire was moving faster than they were. So, I had to run to the house (no phone, no radio, remember?), get Tim and Chris on their way to the fire station, with Tim using the radio to tell Dispatch to page out 3 VFDs and then using his cell phone to call the neighbors and say "we're on our way", etc. Then, I came back out of the house with my radio and cell phone in my hand, but couldn't decide what to do. I finally decided to run across the road and open the ranch gate and stand there directing the trucks where to turn into the property. So, the firefighters came, got that fire put out, I checked on our neighbors and made sure they were okay and eventually headed home to the garden. Tim headed inside to take a shower because he worked 3 to midnight back then and needed to quickly leave for work. I returned to planting the garden. For me, the important thing was that we kept the fire from jumping the ranch road and hitting their gigantic barn/indoor riding arena. As luck would have it, after Tim left for work, I looked up about an hour later, and there was fire running across that field again. The firefighters had put out the wildfire burning through the pasture, but not the huge pile of burning trees (not enough water available to put out that brush pile), and somehow the fire had escaped from the brushpile and was burning across the field just east of where it had burned previously. This time I had my phone and radio and could call everyone, and then I ran across the road with a shovel or rake or whatever and helped Chris fight that fire by hand after he got there with the brush truck. It seems like I got there in time to open gates for him, and then as he drove across the field to hit the fire head on and stop its forward movement, I followed on foot and worked the fire flank with hand tools, as the owners also were doing. So, I learned an important lesson about never, ever saying I am absolutely, positively not going to a fire on any given day, because the last time I tried it, I had to fight fire by hand twice just across the street from my garden. There's no way anyone involved with a VFD can ignore a fire across the street from their own house---I never would do that to our neighbors. I don't think I've had that much trouble getting the garden planted since then, though I know I have had to postpone planting a few times because I cannot be away at fires and home planting the garden at the same time---it just doesn't work. : ) We've been very lucky and had 3 wet years in a row and so our winter fire season has only lasted maybe a month or two, usually in Jan-Feb or Feb-Mar, so having it start up pretty strong in November is very discouraging. It is a long, long time until we'll green up enough out in the fields to drop the wildfire danger. We now are at the point that anything will start a fire---several wrecks have started fires recently, as have chains being dragged by a truck, or pieces of a rubber tire coming off a semi truck on the interstate, or a spark from a welder or whatever. Once it is like this, there basically is no justice, no peace, and no rest for the weary, so to speak. However, even though there were several fires today, none of them were in our fire district or involved us, so we got to stay home and get stuff done at home. Both tomorrow and Monday are expected to be much worse in terms of fire danger. Our Keetch Byram Drought Index numbers really are climbing now and we are in severe drought, so our county commissioners ought to be considering implementing a county-wide burn ban. However, they are elected officials and all the farmers and ranchers tend to give them hell over passing burn bans because it interferes with their ability to burn off crop stubble or do prescribed burning to burn brush out of pastures, so getting a burn ban passed here is like pulling teeth because the elected officials don't want to irritate potential voters, The firefighters aren't picky. They get lots of coldcut sandwiches when the weather is hot, but in the winter I like to make them stuff that's easy to eat by hand and quick, so often it is sausage balls, Sweet Bacon Chicken Wraps, cinnamon rolls, muffins, or breakfast burritoes (and coffee) if it is an overnight/early morning fire (and coffee of course). If we have time, Fran and I have been known to make Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas, taco soup, chicken tortilla soup, meat loaf, casseroles, chili, stew, etc. Much depends on how much advance warning we have, what food we have on hand, and how much we cook in advance. If we are going to have a Red Flag Fire Warning and we know the day before, we often cook in advance because any day that there's a Red Flag Fire Warning, we're likely to have fires. For snacks, we always carry prepackaged snacks, which we usually buy at Sam's Club or CostCo---a blend of sweets and proteins (we have lots of firefighters who are diabetic or pre-diabetic and have to watch their carbs), so we've always got several kinds of cookies (Nutter Butters are a special favorite of the firefighters), packages of nuts, Sweet and Salty trail mix, etc. I often make (as I did today) a copycat version of the Doubletree Hotel's Chocolate Chip cookies---today I made the standard version with chocolate chips and walnuts, but also a separate batch with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. These cookies are big, like the cookies you buy at mall cookie shops, so are the perfect size for a firefighter to wolf down (with a bottle of Gatorade or water) while he's refilling his brush truck water tanks at a tanker truck. I have been making things daily and freezing them if we don't use them for a fire that day, so just about have filled up the available freezer space now. It will pay off later. I do not mind, ever, ever, ever, going to the fires except when it interferes with planting time day after day, but my efforts to put the garden first do not exactly pay off, so I tend to just drop everything and go to the fires instead. Tim went outside intending to mow a lot today (as a method of slowing down fire with very short grass) and I never heard the mower start up. I was cleaning grout haze off the mudroom floor, so I wasn't really paying attention to what he was doing. I still have no idea what he did for a couple of hours, but when I finished the floor and went out, he had the dead lawnmower on the charger because he wasn't able to ever get it started---and nothing got mowed. I guess if the battery isn't charged up by tomorrow, we'll go buy a new battery for the mower. Butterflies were out all over the place today (our high was 79 degrees so it was nice weather for them) but I still have no idea what they're eating because nothing is in bloom. I won't say it felt hot outdoors, but it did not feel like December. Of course, in a couple more days it will feel very much like December and we'll be wishing to have that 79 degrees back again. I need to find time tomorrow to go into the garden and see if any zinnias are sprouting or anything. If they aren't, it is because the rainfall has been MIA for the last couple of months, but it wouldn't surprise me if they are---we've certainly been warm enough. There's pink evening primrose plants sprouted all over the place down by the road---and I mean those plants are 2-5" tall. If we weren't expecting freezing weather in a few days, I'd expect to see the pink evening primrose plants blooming soon. Dawn...See MoreDecember 2017, Week 1, General Garden Talk/Discussion
Comments (96)I'm so far behind I cannot catch up. Yesterday was a fire department day all day long, and I fear that much of today will be the same. I'm not complaining, as our participation in the VFD is a choice we make and all the firefighters in all the FDs are our brothers and sisters. We may be 14 separate departments in this county, technically speaking, but we also consider our selves one big family---one big department---the Love County Fire Department. I never knew I'd be part of such a huge family of people who would, literally, walk through fire for one another. Yesterday was our Christmas parade in town. How did it go? I have no idea. At two minutes until parade time, our VFD and two others got paged out to a grass fire slightly east of Marietta. Two of our firefighters grabbed their bunker gear, jumped out of the engine, and raced to our station in someone's personal vehicle to pick up a brush truck and respond to the fire. The rest of us were going to follow as soon as we got through with the parade, which start to finish, only travels a few blocks through town and takes about 5 minutes. Since we were near the start of the parade lineup, we knew we'd whizz through town quickly and be on our way. And we were. Our truck seemed to please the children---tons of lights and a loudspeaker playing a song they loved and danced to as we passed them. That's all that matters to us---that the kids were happy. As we were making the short trek down Main Street, our pagers went off again because the grass fire was igniting a home, RV and there were other structures (like sheds, etc.) in danger. As soon as we could turn off the parade route, we stopped, removed a couple of large decorations that couldn't handle the fast response to a structure fire, and removed our decorated firefighter (so wrapped up in lights, he couldn't move) who had been setting on the firetrucks large front bumper throughout the parade. We unwrapped him, got him into the truck and took off. I did have to laugh at myself---once we knew we needed to leave to go to a fire, we still were trapped in the parade lineup---with side streets blocked by crowds of people there was nothing to do but follow the route to its end so we could leave. I found myself waving faster and faster at the crowd, as if the faster waving would someone make the parade vehicles move more quickly so we could go to the fire. I am here to tell you that waving faster and faster and faster didn't speed up anything. Amy, I am hoping for the best for your dad. I know all of you must be exhausted and no one more than him---it is so hard to rest in a hospital (that's ironic, isn't it?) with all the lights, the people in and out all the time, etc. There's no place like home and I hope he gets to return home as soon as possible. Nancy, You have a seed problem! I know a seedaholic when I see one because I am one, though I am attempting to reform myself. I totally understand about Make-A-Wish not being for everyone and certainly respect your son's viewpoint. There are many different ways to deal with cancer, as I know myself, and I think every family has to do what is best for them and particularly what is best for the person most affected by the cancer---the person who has the cancer itself. I know that Russell accomplished his mission in life, and at such a young age! He certainly was a handsome lad. I have had HJ in my thoughts this week as well, as I know the anniversary of her son's death was this week and I cannot imagine how hard that must be to endure. Saturday usually is our big shopping day---we make a list and try to make the circuit of the usual places and gather all the supplies. Sometimes it is complicated---getting two baskets at Sam's, for example, with one filled with fire supplies and one with stuff for us at home, and then paying separately to keep the money and receipts separate. Tim is so bad when he has a shopping cart in front of him and a fire supply shopping list. I fill the basket with food and drinks we need to take care of the firefighters. Tim then thinks of odds and ends they need---fuel cans, a box of red shop rags, bungee cords, zipties, fuel additives, extra pairs of leather work gloves, new chains for the chain saw, etc. etc. etc. and before you know it, the VFD shopping cart has 39 items in it, though our list only had 20 items on it. He's as bad about impulse shopping for the VFD as I am about impulse shopping for the garden. (grin) I think he forgets about that nagging little list of odds and ends that they need until he is in a store shopping, and then he 'needs' everything he sees. Unfortunately yesterday was all about fire dept activity from start to finish so today is going to be our shopping day. I'm so tired from yesterday that I wish we could just sit around at home and do nothing, but we can't. I just hope we make the shopping/errand run, get everything done and get back before any fires break out. Yesterday wasn't to awful in our county until very late in the day, but the adjacent county (Carter County, also under a burn ban) had a lot of fires. Tis the season for that, unfortunately. For items only available from fire supply companies or whatever, there's a constant stream of vehicle parts, supplies, etc. arriving in various ways---often in our mailbox or as a package left on the porch. It is a logistics nightmare trying to keep old, often-used fire trucks running on a wing and a prayer, but thankfully our VFD has several incredibly accomplished mechanics (it is their career and their hobby as well) and welders. Sometimes the UPS guy or the FedEX guy cracks me up---he'll say "this is a big heavy package, be careful...." and I'll reply "yep, it's a radiator for our fire engine". (grin) Kim, It is your home for as long as you're there, so make it what you want it to be. I feel like my soul always needs lots of flowers and ornamental plants in order to be happy, no matter how much I also enjoy growing the edibles. There's nothing wrong with that! Bloom where you are planted, girl! I rejoice over every bloom I see on any given day, even the tiniest little wildflower blooms that often appear randomly in winter on nice days. For those of you wondering if your garden needs to be watered, In winter, depending on the soil moisture level in your area, you may have to water, but not as often as in summer because the temperatures are cooler and not as much moisture is evaporating from the soil nor is it transpiring from dormant plants like it does during the growing season. One thing you can do is look at the attached map. Keep in mind it reflects conditions at your local Mesonet stations, so soil moisture levels at your place may be different. Anyhow, if the number on the attached map is less than 0.50, your plants probably need to be watered. Amy, I think you mentioned asparagus? Mine is well-established and I don't water it in winter ever for any reason. I just don't think it needs it. Asparagus is bulletproof---it won't die and you cannot kill it. If your plants are less than 3 years old, you might want to water them---but not too much at once and not constantly. Maybe once a month in a dry winter. One-Day Plant Available Water (Updates each morning) Gotta go. I'll try to check in on the new Week 2 Thread tonight. Dawn...See MoreAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoRebecca (7a)
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoluvncannin
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
6 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agojlhart76
6 years agoluvncannin
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
6 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
6 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
6 years agoRebecca (7a)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoRebecca (7a)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoEileen S
6 years agoluvncannin
6 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agojlhart76
6 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
6 years agoRebecca (7a)
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
6 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
6 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
6 years agoluvncannin
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
6 years agoRebecca (7a)
6 years agohazelinok
6 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
6 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
6 years ago
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