July 2019, Week 1
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years ago
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Nancy RW (zone 7)
4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years agoRelated Discussions
March 2019, Week 1, Winter Weather Dragging On in Oklahoma
Comments (59)Nancy, I've thought long and hard about how we're becoming the oldsters. It is what it is, right? I try to tell myself that what this means is that we have experience, we no longer put up with crap, we have (hopefully) gained the wisdom that comes with living for many decades and we now choose to prioritize our activities and how we spend our time based on what matters to us....not on what society says should matter to us. We are the old wise ones, and I'm good with that. I try really hard to not drive the kids crazy by saying "back in our day, we walked to school barefoot in the winter in the snow 2 miles each way and it was uphill both coming and going". lol I'm afraid I still do too much of that at times, but try to do it in a fun, humorous way. When they start telling me old I'm just going to remind them that they just bought a house that is 27 years older than me, so old must be good, great or terrific! I hate when spendy months hit like that, and sometimes it is just unavoidable. I'm glad GDW's truck is all fixed and, you know, it could have been a lot worse than $700. I feel so behind and wish I was spending today out in the garden. Instead, we just delivered a tool to the kids at the house that the kids need for this weekend, so got to see all the progress they made this week since we last were there. They're really getting the painting done. I think they only have 3 rooms left to go and all three are partially painted, and then the trim in most rooms still needs to be painted. We dropped off the tool, grabbed lunch, brought in the tomato plants that had been outdoors for 4 hours (more on that in a minute), let the dogs and cats out to frolic in the wind and sun, and have to leave in about 45 minutes to go to the 9-year-old's 10th birthday party. By the time we get finished there, it will be too late to do any gardening. Maybe tomorrow.... Kim, Be kind to your body and let it heal. I know you're really stuck in a hard place right now---trying to work after the big promotion and having to deal with the residual pain. I hope things get better quickly. Jennifer, We had fun. Ate dinner out, came home, watched the movie Paddington 2, told silly jokes, loved on the dogs and cats (every night they act like they haven't seen Lillie in 100 years instead of just the typical school day hours), etc. She was worn out and went to bed after the movie ended, and was up, dressed and out of here around 7 a.m. to go work on painting her bathroom at the new house. Her best friend came over to help her, and they were having fun when we were there, and getting some painting done as well. I wish I were out buying plants today! I am so jealous! Or, as the 10 year-old would say, "I'm jelly...." I am going to find a way (somehow, somewhere, or else) to buy some plants this weekend. I need to feed my desire to plant shop. Amy, The thunder woke the dogs, the dogs woke us. The dogs decided they had to go out (it wasn't raining yet) and by the time they came in that little storm had run right past us, so they calmed down and went back to sleep quickly. Then, the weather radio went off a little later for a Severe Tstorm thing about the same time the storm arrived with huge crashing thunder and big lightning bolts. We put the young dogs in their safe place (a gigantic dog crate they love to share) and Jersey went into her safe place (our master bathroom), and we settled back down to sleep. The rain was brief. There was no more thunder. I still was awake, so I let the dogs out of their safe places and we all went back to sleep and slept maybe 3 or 4 more hours. Honestly, on nights like that I don't know why we even think we are going to be allowed to sleep, but we go to bed believing it is going to happen. I'm glad your Grandma Suzy's came up. This morning I ventured outdoors to check conditions for hardening off tomatoes so I can stay on schedule. The wind was raging out of the W/SW and the greenhouse doors and vents are on the W and E ends, and must be open to prevent heat build up, so the greenhouse would have been a wind tunnel today with our winds gusting as high as 44 mph. So, I moved the folding tables to the front porch, put the tomato plants there and left them out for 4 hours. It was not ideal. Between the porch roof and the trees, the plants probably got only 2.5 to 3 hours of sun at most before they found themselves shaded again, but the house blocked most of the wind, so they got a little wind movement, and probably more than I think and more than they needed. Still, it was nowhere near the wind movement they'd have been subjected to in the greenhouse or out in the yard. As Tim pointed out, full exposure to today's wind likely would have killed them so I had to choose the lesser of all the evils. Their color is really great---a much deeper, darker green. You really can tell they are getting a lot of sun. It is SPRING here. All the trees are bursting out into blooms and leafing out and everything else. I mean, all the plants are going nuts, like the severe cold was the only thing holding them back and now that it is gone, everything is full speed ahead. The stores have all the plants, but I haven't had time to look at them. I'm not saying we won't have more freezing nights, but rather that Mother Nature is moving on and doing her thing and will pay the consequences, if any. Bees and butterflies are out, moths and mosquitoes, blah, blah, blah. Gotta run to the birthday party because a swim party (indoors!) with a bunch of 9-11 year olds is the only acceptable substitute for a very windy day (wind vicious today!) spent in the garden. Dawn...See MoreJuly 2019, Week 4
Comments (36)Jennifer, Yes, Tim's family did come back to visit, several times, and I don't think we ever had weather that hot again during one of their visits, but I also think they were smarter in future years and came in June, having learned our hottest weather tended to be in early August. Yes, the plant available water on that map is very dismal. I'm thinking that some parts of OK are very much in danger of slipping into a flash drought and, if rain doesn't fall, they may end up in drought soon. Oooh, a new Drought Monitor was released yesterday. I wonder what it shows? So, I went and looked to see what it shows....and it shows the part of SW OK I was thinking of is now in D-0, as indicated by the color yellow, and this is not technically a drought stage, but is considered pre-drought. We'll have to watch the map weekly and see what happens with them because some of us have conditions that are not too far behind theirs. Here's this week's Drought Monitor Map: Oklahoma Drought Monitor Map Most purchased soil is inferior quality no matter what the supplier tells you, and it needs a lot of work to turn it into good soil. This is why we don't purchase soil and instead just work to add organic matter to what we have. You know, if you add 8" of organic matter (not all at once because the tiller couldn't work it into the ground all at once) to the soil, you've raised the soil grade 8" and then can build your new edging around it to hold it in place. That's what we did. Yes, it is a slower process, and buying enough organic matter to add 8" at one time is cost-prohibitive, but you're getting better quality stuff. Tim and I decided long ago it was better to spend our money on good quality stuff than to buy crap soil (we already had our own crap soil, after all) and I'm not sorry we did it that way. I know people who have bought what seemed like good soil and brought in all sorts of stuff they didn't want....nut sedge, too many various weeds to count, soilborne diseases and even root knot nematodes. If we were building new beds nowadays, we'd do it hugelkultur style, and wouldn't even have to purchase amendments, but our first couple of years here we bought bags and bags of Black Kow, mushroom compost, Texas greensand, lava sand, dry molasses, soil conditioner (a blend of pine bark fines and humus) and more. Once I got a good-sized compost pile going, we didn't have to buy much, but it took a few years for me to get a huge compost pile operation going that would produce enough compost for a large garden. Friends gave us old spoiled hay, which helped a lot in the early days, and Fred gave us cow manure once, but it did bring in a gazillion weeds, and I never wanted to use local manure again...and have turned down all subsequent offers of it, especially since herbicide carryover became such a huge issue. One thing about soil-building is that it is never ending, since heat eats compost (i.e. makes it break down quickly). Going no-till has reduced how quickly our organic matter breaks down, because we aren't fluffing up the soil with a rototiller and introducing fresh air, which then helps compost break down more quickly. Still, it shocks me how quickly soil reverts back once its organic matter breaks down. I added 4-6" of compost to the front (southeastern) corner of the garden in the winter/spring of 2018 and had gorgeous soil there, after doing the same thing in 2017. Guess how that soil looked at the beginning of this season? Like I'd never added any organic matter to it at all. That is frustrating. There's no way I can add 4-6" of organic matter to every bed every year, so I just do the best I can and hope our heat doesn't eat up the organic matter too quickly. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm trying to replenish soil that was conventionally farmed, so it had nutrients taken out of it without having organic matter given back to it for decades, and that sort of restoration is slow. It is not weird to be thinking of Garden 2020. The best time to plan for next year is this year when things are fresh in our minds. I've been planning for 2020 since at least May. Rebecca, Your plants look like they mostly have Septoria Leaf Spot with maybe just a tiny touch of EB on a couple of leaves. Both have been incredibly common this year thanks to all the moisture and humidity. I do not know why it is not working its way upward the traditional way, but had the same thing on some of my plants this year too. Larry, My pepper plants stalled for a week or two, so I watered them like crazy and they quickly bloomed and set a lot of new peppers. I was relieved that all they apparently needed was more water than they were getting. I'm so pleased to hear that the highway department showed respect for your zinnias. That is just so awesome, isn't it? I really think most people nowadays are trying their best to do the right things to help out the bees, butterflies and pollinators. I've noticed our highway guys delay mowing as long as possible to let as many flowers live as long as possible and set seed before they mow. Poppies reseed very well, but in the pastures where there is a lot of competition, the amount of reseeding drops each year. I suspect we could plow up the front pasture and a billion poppy seeds would sprout because they are lying there under layers of thatch, but we've never tried it. I just overseed with poppies every few years to ensure we keep the poppies going. In the garden they reseed just fine, despite my heavy mulch. Jacob, The insurance premiums for young adult males are ridiculous, aren't they? Our son always has been a careful driver. He had one minor accident as a teenager...slid off a gravel driveway and hit a tree. He and Tim fixed the car themselves (it was just minor stuff) because it was cheaper than going through the insurance company and having them raise his rates. Later on, he had a major accident on his way to work, but he was in his late 20s then and it didn't make his insurance premiums rise nearly as much as it would have if he'd been 25 or younger. Enjoy the camping trip. Our weather still is slightly cooler than normal, but the temperatures are rising daily and the heat really cranks up next week, and we'll end next week with high temperatures near 100, as usual. I need to get out there and work in the garden while it still is cool, but am having a hard time getting motivated. I noticed today that the ground near our house is cracking, which is something we try really hard to avoid, though we ignore the cracking soil everywhere else. So, I have the sprinkler on, watering the lawn (including the bermuda grass I wish would die) and guess that is what I'll do today...water the lawn on all 4 sides of the house, and also run the soaker hoses that are set up around the house's foundation. Our next-door neighbor's house in Fort Worth suffered from severe damage when her soil cracked badly when she was in a rehab center undergoing rehabilitation after her stroke, and we learned a lesson from that. She had to have extensive foundation work with new concrete piers poured, etc., had to have her wood floor lifted, repaired and nailed back down (her hot water heater pipe busted when the house shifted and tons of hot water poured onto her hardwood floors, warping them), had to have cracks in the walls fixed and everything repainted, etc. We figured that whatever money we spend to keep our clay soil from shifting too much around the house is worth it to avoid having that sort of thing happen to us. A couple of things were happening in the garden yesterday. Let's see if I can remember them. The white cosmos that I planted when I took out tomato plants started blooming for the first time yesterday. The pink, rose and mauve cosmos had begun blooming a couple of weeks ago. The garden is chock full of frogs. I've been leaving the northern edge, where I once had tomato plants and now have zinnias, unweeded for them so they can hide more from the snakes that inevitably show up to feed on them. Hummingbirds are simply everywhere. When our hummingbird population suddenly spikes like this, I'm never sure if it is occurring because the babies all have left the nests, or if hummingbirds from further north already are migrating, or if we are just seeing so many because all our trumpet creeper vines are blooming---we have them in at least six different places and they are hummingbird magnets. We always see a huge spike in hummingbird visitors in late July and early August, so what we are seeing is typical. Unfortunately, the purple martins apparently are gone. That, too, is typical, as they first desert the Martin houses in early July when the heat cranks up, but remain around at least a couple of weeks, living in the trees, and we'll still hear them and see them until....suddenly, we don't. Well, we haven't seen or heard them since last weekend, so I think they've gone south. They must leave so early for a good reason. There's still tons and tons of assassin bugs in the garden, and I'm seeing fewer and fewer pests each day. It is good to watch the system work. One thing that has been driving me nuts is the oleander aphids on the yellow butterfly weeds in the perennial border. No matter how often I hose them off the plants with a sharp stream of water, they're back the next day. At first the ladybugs came after them, but then the ladybugs disappeared so apparently the flavor of the oleander aphids (remember, they are eating milkweeds, so they would taste bad) doesn't really appeal to them. So, I did some research. I wanted to avoid using a chemical pesticide. So, technically, I did. Honestly, though, I did use a chemical, just not a garden chemical---Windex. After reading that Chip Taylor had experimented with using it to kill oleander aphids and it didn't harm his milkweed and his caterpillars (you don't spray the Windex if any caterpillars are on the plants, obviously) that fed on those plants later on seemed fine.....well, I thought, why not give it a try. I just sprayed the Windex directly on the oleander aphids, soaking them well, around 8 p.m. one evening. Then I watched the plant for damage for a couple of days. There was no sign at all of any damage to the plant, but the next morning after I sprayed, all those orange oleander aphids were black and dead. I suspect that a person could mix a little ammonia (or, perhaps, rubbing alcohol) with water in a bottle and get the same results, and I might try that if more oleander aphids show up. After hosing them off the plants daily for weeks, I was tired of dealing with them. That is my garden experiment for the summer and I'm happy it worked. I honestly thought that in this heat, the Windex might damage the plants, but if it had, I just would have pruned away the damaged parts. I didn't even hose off the plants....I wanted those dead aphid bodies lying there on the plants as a warning to any other oleander aphids. I also saw and cut in half another milkweed bug, and killed all its babies too. The only other pests doing visible damage in the garden are grasshoppers (tons of them, unfortunately), spider mites (typical) and stink bugs, so it isn't the worst pest year ever. Oh, there still might be a few unwanted army worms and similar caterpillars around, but the wasps are carrying them away, which I enjoy seeing. Have a good day everyone. Dawn...See MoreJuly 2019, Week 5
Comments (26)Nancy, Thank you. You know, when Jesse was first diagnosed with cancer, we were deeply concerned---when you are starting out at Stage 4, there is not necessarily a lot of hope. Still, we hoped treatment would have help him live as long as possible. When it became apparent that nothing would ease his intense physical pain, then instead we began to pray for God to end his suffering. So, why does it hurt so much that God answered our prayers? Oh, I know there is no real good answer for that....but we all remain shell-shocked by his loss. I think we all just thought he was invincible and would live forever. So, this morning when I went outside to put out the cracked corn for the doves and the sunflower seeds for the cardinals, there was a herd of 7 deer waiting for me---and I was out an hour earlier than usual. The deer acted irritated. What is their problem? There ought to be plenty for them to eat out in the wild. So, the biggest buck (I've dubbed him Kyle's deer, because our friend Kyle hunts west of our house on land inherited by his grandparents, Jesse and Joyce, and he always gets a big buck that has been feeding at our place in summer and autumn) decided he wanted to engage with me in warfare this morning. He came right at me, lowering his head/antlers and tossing them into the air and waggling his head a little playfully. I yelled No at him and told him to retreat. We had a barbed wire fence and about 20' between us. Instead, he came right up to the barbed wire as if he were going to jump it, putting him about 10' from me (I had the pickup between us though), and I retreated to the garage, with the cracked corn and sunflower seeds still in my bucket. I went to a different area and fed the mourning doves and cardinals (they watch me and follow wherever I go with their breakfast) and told the deer I don't mind them stealing some of the bird food, but I'm not going to put up with aggressive behavior. When the deer start thinking the bird-feeding area is their territory, I stop feeding the wild birds there. From this point forward, I'll feed close to the house instead of close to the compost pile until the deer get the message and back off. They probably still will creep up close to the house and steal bird seed, but not while the dogs are out in the dog yard, as they are now, close to the bird seed. The garden is simply full of butterflies today, and those dreaded oleander aphids are back in the garden on the butterfly weed this morning...but there are lady bugs there eating them. Let's hope the lady bugs can stay on top of them. We started out our day here with fog, condensation on the windows and 99% humidity. I cannot help thinking that our temperature and heat index will be much worse today than yesterday, because the rain-cooled air yesterday really did give us surprisingly pleasant weather for so late in July. Our max heat index was only 100 yesterday, and I do not think we hit that until late afternoon after the clouds broke up. With the fog and clouds this morning, we started out cool but humid and now that the clouds are breaking up and melting away, I expect it will be smart to spend the rest of today indoors. Jennifer, Chick management is really time-consuming, and I'm just glad those days are behind us. We used to have so very many chickens and I miss having that many, but I don't miss all the work associated with it. The five we have now are the perfect number. I would assume that, yes, your neighbors are watering their fields for the sake of maintaining forage for their livestock. There is a place a few miles south of us that does the same for their goats and horses. I guess it is a matter of whether the livestock owner wants to feed their animals on green pasture this time of year by spending the money for irrigation or if they want to spend the money on hay or bagged feed instead. Also, depending on the lay of the land and how common grass fires or wildfires are when it gets dry, it can pay off to keep at least one field well-watered and green to reduce the fire danger. Yes, green fields will burn, but they are slower to ignite, so it buys time for firefighters to get there and get a fire out, or for livestock owners to get home and move their animals to a place safer from a nearby fire. Don't let the wilting of plants in hot weather get to you. Just remind yourself that they are transpiring water out more quickly than they can take it in due to the heat and that transpiration process is essential for plant survival....don't we humans all continue to breathe and sweat out in the heat? Of course we do. Just let the plants do what they do and don't worry. It is only worrisome if they are not recovering from the wilting in the cool overnight hours. I don't worry about wilted plants in the daylight hours or the early evening hours. I might worry if they weren't beginning to bounce back by dusk, and would be worried if they still were wilted in the early morning. Hailey, Over the years, I have used several different kinds of drip irrigation systems. It is really complicated in our sloping front garden, which slopes downhill so strongly from south to north and also downhill from west to east that I have to use pressure-compensating emitters. I like to set up shut-off valves on different raised beds, so I can exclude any given bed from irrigation if it doesn't need it just by turning the knob on the valve. It is much easier to set up drip irrigation in the more level back garden or in the landscaping around the house. Go to the website of Dripworks and read their blogs and FAQs and you can learn how to set up driplines that will serve you best. I don't know if they still do it, but it used to be that they would help you design your system too. You can start with one of their drip irrigation kits if you see one that you think will fit your needs, and it is easy to add on more lines and emitters to any of the kits if you need to cover more space. My biggest issue with drip irrigation is that in the back garden, once the voles discovered there was water in those lines, they started chewing them in dry months, which means lots of repairs have to be made constantly. So, I'm less in love with drip irrigation than I used to be----but it does work great if you don't have voles. Soaker hoses work well also, but don't hold up for nearly as long to the sun's UV rays. You do need to lift, dry out and store your drip irrigation system each autumn so there's no water left in the lines to crack the lines and emitters in freezing weather. Beneficial insects are not purely good guys for sure, but they're still the best helpers we have. I absolutely refuse to release praying mantids. There is no logic in it. If you put out an egg case and dozens (or hundreds), guess how many you end up with within a very few short months? One. You end up with one, because they eat each other and, in the end, only the one survives because he or she outlasted all the others. They also eat other beneficial insects, butterflies and hummingbirds. Now, I won't kill a praying mantis if I see it, but I'm never really happy to see them either, and I won't buy them and release them here on purpose. It took me only one time to learn not to do that. Blister beetles are another perfect example. If you have a handful around, and if they aren't clustering on one plant and eating it to death, then they are beneficial because they eat grasshopper eggs. But, if you have hundreds or even thousands of them, then there is nothing beneficial about their presence at all. Lady bugs? Don't we love the lady bugs? Sure we do, but they'll eat butterfly eggs and probably very small, newly hatched butterfly larvae, so.....shrug....what's a gardener to do? How about wasps? When I see a wasp carrying away an armyworm from the garden, I am happy, but I also know that same wasp doesn't discriminate---it will prey on the butterfly caterpillars for whom we plant host plants. I just try to provide an ecosystem where they all can thrive, but we have to remember that everybody in the garden eats something and also gets eaten by something, so there's that. A fall trip to Bustani sounds lovely, but I'm not sure one will be in the works for us this fall. It depends on the degree of ongoing drought probably. I definitely want to make that trip next Spring because I'm going to redo our landscaping around the house, and plan to drag Jana and Chris along so they can see Bustani for themselves. Rebecca, I think funerals help a great deal with closure. My strongest feeling after my aunt's and Jesse's funerals yesterday was just a sense of relief---that feeling that we had celebrated their lives and said good-bye to them, and offered comfort to their families. I do understand that some people don't want a funeral service for themselves, though, and we have to respect their wishes, but it is harder to feel a sense of closure in cases like that. Hailey, That's a black blister beetle. I kill them if they are devouring plants...in my garden they will eat cucumber plants right down to the ground, but if there's just a few and they aren't concentrating on one specific type of plant, I try to ignore them. They eat tons of grasshopper eggs, so usually are beneficial in that sense. I usually see a lot of blister beetles either in the same year that there's a bad grasshopper outbreak, or in the following year. If they clustering are on your tomato plants in any appreciable number (I'll ignore them if I see only 1 or 2 per plant), then they need to die. I cut them in half with scissors and get about 75% of them on the first try. It sometimes takes a few days of snipping with the scissors to get them all. Farmgardener, That's exactly how I deadhead my coneflowers, and I never get volunteers. I think the birds eat all the seedheads, or my mulch is so thick the that the seeds never find soil. Or, and this is a really good possibility, the red harvester ants may feed all the seeds and carry them off---I see them carrying stuff out of the garden all day long. Thanks. I agree with you that as we get older, the losses pile on more and more quickly. Only my mom and one aunt remain from their generation in our family, and that is sort of hard to think about. What we are going through is nothing new---everyone goes through the same, but between friends and family, we just seem to have a lot of that happening this year within a fairly short time frame. We'll get through it. It is, after all, such a blessing to have such wonderful. much-loved people in your lives that you suffer such grief at their loss. Megan, Thank you. Two in one day was a lot and I did nothing but collapse on the couch when we got home. Except for feeding animals and watering the garden, I'm not doing anything today either. I know I need to rest and decompress. Well, I already did a load of laundry, but you know how that is....laundry, like death and taxes, is inevitable, and I hate to let it pile up. I need to go read what our state climatologist, Gary McManus, said about the impending flash drought. Isn't he brilliant? I love his writing. I know he must be highly educated to hold his career position, but I love the humor he exhibits in the Mesonet ticker and in his FB posts. He makes the climate and weather so easy to understand, and sometimes with our climate and weather, if we didn't laugh, we'd cry. I think he uses humor to get our attention so then he can feed us the facts we need to know. I'm gearing up, too, to start cool-season seeds. I really cannot put anything in the ground, in terms of cool-season plants, until at least October and sometimes not until November if the hot weather holds on, but I want to have plants ready when the timing is right. The last few years, we have had temperatures hang on, even into the 100s and upper 90s, through the end of September, so I cannot get into too much of a hurry. The grow cart looks fine if it meets your needs. My first one wasn't too much larger than that---it had three shelves I think. All of mine have been homemade--plastic assemble-it-yourself shelving from Lowe's or Home Depot, with shop lights suspended from shelves by chains that we can raise or lower. No matter what size you get, it won't be big enough. I learned that from experience. As much as I love gardening, I no longer try to keep crops going all winter. I used to, but it was inevitable that when I was really busy with Christmas or winter fire season or whatever, I'd have kale, mustard, spinach, turnips, etc. demanding to be harvested and it just made it all so stressful since I have zero control over when wildfires break out in winter. Or, I'd be gone to a wildfire all day, or for several days in a row, and then not at home in the evening to put row covers over the plants if a particularly bitter cold night is expected, and that was stressful too. Nowadays I'm just happy to keep a few simple things going all winter in the flower border inside the garden---pansies, dianthus, stock, ornamantal cabbage and ornamental kale, etc. If I plant them too early, the pests devour the cabbage and kale, so there's no point in getting into too much of a hurry. I think that Lowe's and HD here get their transplants of those things in the store in serious numbers in late Sept or early Oct, and they don't keep them long because the live plants get in the way of Christmas merchandise, so it is easier to grow my own and have them ready at the time best for me. Of course, we never know when an early autumn freeze will come, but in recent years those have been very few and far between. Have a good rest of the day y'all. Since it is hot and I promised myself a lazy day today, I'm going to make a list of things to plant in next year's cutting garden, which will be the change of pace from growing an edible garden that I've been craving. Am I worried that in January or February, I'll panic because I'm not planting all the usual veggies? Of course I am, but I really want to do something different. I just realized that I get to be REALLY lazy today. I don't have to cook dinner because tonight is our quarterly VFD Fire Board meeting and Tim goes straight from work to that meeting, eating fast food on the way because there's no time to stop at home and have a real meal. I feel really, really bad for Tim and all our fire board members. Jesse has been (always and forever, I think, since the VFD was founded in 2002) the Fire Board Chairman, so tonight, of necessity, they will need to decide whether a current fire board member will step up and become the chairman, or if they want to recruit a new community member to fill that role. I think that is a hard thing to do just one day after his funeral. I'm going to be content today to sit here with my notebook and gardening catalogs and make lists of things I want to grow for the fall cool season and for next year's cutting garden. There's so many options available since I'm not having to save space for veggies. I think I'm going to make the back garden a wildflower/pollinator garden too. When I say I'm taking a break from edibles, I really mean it, except for tomatoes and peppers in container right next to the back door. Dawn...See MoreOctober 2019, Week 1
Comments (31)Good morning, y'all. I think the beginning of the cool-down is here, although we will feel it more at night than during the day. I'm not complaining though, because it is progress towards cooler weather. We awakened to a crisp, cool 63 degrees this morning and that's nice. We are supposed to stay in the 80s today, and the dewpoints are much lower so I doubt the heat indices even will hit the 90s. I feel better because this is a sign that summer (I hope) weather finally is done with us. Y'all watch next Thursday's/Friday's forecast because the models are bringing us temperatures at night in the 40s down here, so some of y'all be get ever cooler than that. The surest sign that the cold fronts are rolling through southern OK and finally mean business? Yesterday, the hummingbirds still were here, but were eating and leaving, and not even hanging around at all. I refilled the feeders in mid-afternoon, and they've barely been touched since then. I knew as I refilled them that it might be for the last time. I haven't seen a single hummingbird this morning either. Usually, I leave the feeders up for 7-10 days after seeing the last hummingbird, so I'm sure I would refill them with fresh nectar again sometime next week, but the hummingbirds may not be here to enjoy it. There's still tons of butterflies though. Jennifer, It is the hardest thing to see your childhood home sold, especially if it was your childhood home for your entire life. I think it wouldn't be so hard if we'd moved around a few times, but we didn't. Until we grew up and left home, it was the only place we'd lived for our whole lives. We all tried to mentally and emotionally prepare for it, but signing the papers to close the deal still was pretty sad for us 4 kids. And, I use the term kids lightly as we're all grandparents, and one of us (my little sis) is a great-grandparent. Still, it also is a good feeling to know another family will live their lives there, make their memories and hopefully be as happy as we were. The house is on a corner lot, across from a nice little neighborhood park with 2 baseball fields and a playground, so it is a great place for kids to grow up. As the old folks of my parents' ages (my mom was the last one on our street and one of the last in the immediate neighborhood) have died or gone into nursing homes, all the 1940s era homes have sold to younger folks who've invested a lot of money in remodeling the houses and redoing the yards and the whole neighborhood has become revitalized and that's a great thing to see. I think I probably never will drive past that house again though even when we are down there visiting nearby family. I kinda want to remember it the way it was when we lived there. Once your parents and your home are gone, then that area doesn't feel like home any more, I guess. I don't necessarily think we needed a 4th dog, but somebody had dumped this one and he was glued to the spot where they left him....for several days. We were afraid a car would hit him as he was right beside the road, so we enticed him up to the house with food and attention. Now, I guess he'll be ours unless the vet finds a microchip tomorrow and we learn he is lost, not dumped. He bears all the earmarks of a dumped dog though. We're going to name him Jesse, after our dear friend who passed away this summer. He's a young, big dog who likely will be a huge dog someday and our two younger dogs, Ace and Princess, are not happy about having a new brother. Jersey is okay with him as long as he doesn't jump on her---she is old and frail---and I am sure Ace and Princess will get used to Jesse. I reminded them that they, too, were stray puppies without a home when we took them in back in November 2014 and our dogs we had then, Jet, Jersey and Duke, accepted them and came to love them and that they should do the same for Jesse. I'm not sure Tim and I are ready to expend the endless energy needed to train a puppy, but we will find a way to do it. I only had to take him outside once during the night, and then Tim took him out early this morning when he got up to go to work, so at least the puppy seems capable of sleeping most of the night without having to go out...and he hasn't 'gone' on the floor once, so maybe at some point, someone had him indoors and he already has been trained in that regard. He's all clumsy puppy though....with big paws and a vigorously wagging tail, so I'm sure we're in for a lot of adventures. Is it idiotic for a person who is attempting to redo the entire landscape to take in a puppy who probably will be a digger and will be somewhat of an impediment to doing new landscaping? Probably, but our yard and garden have survived digging, destructive dogs before and shall again. Dropping the pounds is so hard, isn't it? I feel like all I've done is gain weight all spring and summer, perhaps stress eating from all the illnesses and death. I'm working to lose those pounds now, but they are a lot harder to lose than they were to gain, and I think the holiday baking will make it even harder. Being older makes it harder still, but I"m pretty determined to stick with it. I'm glad Tom is smoking meat for the band. It makes life feel more normal doesn't it, even though Ethan no longer is in high school. And, since Ethan's GF still is in high school and in the band, why shouldn't y'all be there? I know it will feel different, but I bet it still will feel good to be there. Larry, I'm so glad Madge is feeling better. Our deer are starting to disappear and be a lot less visible now. They must feel deer season approaching. When I have planted wildlife plot seed mixes for them, I did notice they didn't seem to like the brassicas as much as the legumes. Our older flowers are looking worn out and tired, and probably showing the effects of shortening day length now. The ones that still look the best are the cosmos, roselle hibiscus and candletrees that I planted in June and July. All three tend to be late-bloomers here and love the autumn weather, so they should look pretty good for a while yet. Now, if we hit the 40s late next week like they say we will, probably on Friday night, then all 3 won't care for that cold night, but I'm just not going to worry about that now. It if happens, it happens. I don't see any harm in asking if you can have all the leftover plants so they won't be wasted. dbarron, Your 59 degrees has me green with envy, but we should be in the 50s on Monday morning and Tuesday morning with highs only in the 70s. I'm dreaming of making some kind of yummy muffins to have for breakfast with hot cocoa or hot tea (I'm not a coffee person) and maybe making chili or stew for dinner. Or tomato-basil soup from frozen tomatoes. Any more, it seems like summer lasts throughout all of September and it hasn't always been that way, so I guess I just need to adjust. I'm ready to wear autumn clothing too. There's a part of me that hates to see summer weather end because the grandkids love to play in the pool. We are thinking that with a high temperature tomorrow around 87-88 degrees, we may have the last day in the pool with them. Of course, it depends on how much the water cools off tonight, and then it also depends on the rain in tomorrow's forecast and all that. For the sake of our two little mermaids who would stay in the pool 24/7 if allowed, I hope tomorrow is a pool day. If it is, it will be the last one. Last year, our last day in the pool was October 4th---they had a Friday off from school and were in the pool for as many hours that day as they could manage because we all knew it would be the last pool day of the season. If tomorrow ends up being too cool to play in the pool, we might take them down to Dallas to the Dallas Arboretum for Autumn at the Arboretum, which features an incredible pumpkin festival, including a village of buildings made of pumpkins and gourds, and with around 90,000 pumpkins, winter squash and gourds on display and over 150,000 seasonal flowers on display. Now that I've mentioned it, I should link it, in case anybody here is going to be in the Dallas area during Autumn at the Arboretum. As a gardener, Autumn at the Arboretum is incredibly delightful and it runs through Halloween. Or, maybe I'm just a big kid at heart and would love it even if I wasn't a gardener. Autumn at the Arboretum: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Jennifer, The heater? The heater? Oooh, I am completely emerald green with envy. I am looking forward to our first day that we need heat in any shape, form or fashion----I don't care if it is the heater in the car, the heater in the house or just roasting marshmallows at night around the fire pit. I simply want for it to be cool enough to need heat! Our TV met last night more or less said that the temperatures in the 90s should be over for all of us in southern OK now, and that the cold nights will come quickly over the next 7-10 days and will stay. I hope he's right. I've had all the heat I can take. After the hottest September ever recorded in the Texoma region, I'm ready for something that feels more like normal autumn weather. The air feels much drier today, and that's a wonderful thing. The elms and persimmons still are the only trees showing autumn color. I'm not expecting autumn leaf color to be great down here this year. Probably most trees will hang on to their green leaves forever, and then they'll turn brown and fall off overnight. We have to have long, mild, cool autumn weather to get great leaf color and that sort of weather has eluded us this year. I need to go clean house. I need to put one more coat of red paint on the doors, and guess I'll do that first. Then I need to get out the Halloween decorations and add them to the autumn decor that already is in place. I want the house to be decorated for Halloween before the girls arrive this evening. I hope you all have a wonderful day and a terrific autumn weekend. Dawn...See Moredbarron
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoluvncannin
4 years agoMegan Huntley
4 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
4 years agohazelinok
4 years agofarmgardener
4 years agohazelinok
4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years agoRebecca (7a)
4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years agoMegan Huntley
4 years agohazelinok
4 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
4 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
4 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
4 years agohazelinok
4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years agoAmyinOwasso/zone 6b
4 years agoNancy RW (zone 7)
4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years agohazelinok
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoRebecca (7a)
4 years agoslowpoke_gardener
4 years agoOkiedawn OK Zone 7
4 years ago
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