Houzz and I are battling. Something makes the keyboard drop out at each space. Most annoying. I have to type somewhere else and paste to Houzz.

Today, right after I started this one Ron's new phone arrived, so I've been AWOL. Did I mention I found his phone in the bottom of a dishpan of water nearly 24 hours after it went missing? Yeah. He decided the new phone is too fancy, so I spent the entire afternoon texting tracfone support to activate the new phone to my number and transfer my phone to him (this was the tricky part) typing in excruciatingly long numbers for the IME and SIM cards and getting dis connected in the mean time. Then, since his phone is dead I had to come up with a way to transfer stuff to the new phone thinking it was to him. In the end I was able to transfer all my stuff to the new phone via an app and after a few missteps delete the things he won't want. One misstep caused me to link a whole bunch of contacts to one contact. DO NOT EVER DO THIS. It put all the numbers selected under one contact and I lost who the numbers belonged to. I fat fingered one of the numbers and ended up calling my best friend from high school, so we talked for an hour, because, I mean it was fate that I called her, so it must have been time to talk. Hmm, I used Ron's minutes. Wonder how many he has...

All of a sudden the cucumbers are dying. They must not have liked last weeks rain. I have a "little leaf" vine running where it doesn't belong that looks ok, but the rest look sick.

Had the grandsons yesterday. You may have seen the video of the little one shelling peas. He loved it.

That's it for now.

Amy, I'm having the same issue with my keyboard. You're using the phone, right? Glad I'm not the only one having trouble this time.

Ok, looking for recommendations for hori knives. I finally ordered one last year and it broke within 2 months of using it, so now I need a new one. I found one by Barebones that I really liked, but Amazon screwed up my order & now I'm stuck waiting on my refund. And now that one isn't in stock anymore.

A M Leonard. Orange handle. About the same price with shipping as Amazon w/o shipping if I Remember.

Oh, I'm using an a tablet and chrome browser, but it is Android based.

Testing Firefox browser with Houzz. Apparently it is a chrome/Houzz combination problem. What browser are you using Jen? I have no problem with Firefox. I wonder if Houzz has an app. Probably it would lean to the design side and not forums.

No keyboard problem with my iPad and Firefox.

My cucumbers are dying too. They die fast, just collapse. Wonder if I have time to start more.

Looking forward to the cooler front.

My tomatoes are ripening nicely, but are in no hurry to set new fruit, even with daily shaking down. Guess they know something we don’t.

That was not only impressive, Amy, but also hilarious!

Most everything in my garden is sick. Most of the pastures around here have been baled and the grasshoppers came to live in my garden, they seem to be happy, but I am not. The sweet potatoes are doing fine, some of the peppers and roseelle are doing okay. The okra is still producing, but it looks as if it's days are numbered, its getting too tall to pick anyway. It hurts my shoulders to reach up that high.

Still trying to get a place ready for fall planting. I am fighting too many weeds and grass.

I went to town this morning for gas and diesel and saw that Ace hardware had a few fall plants, but they did not look good.

My cucumbers bit the dust too. It's ok, I never had the amounts I thought I would have, and sometimes not even one... but the ones I had tasted much better than the grocery store kind.

I will plant the same ones again next year... just in a new place. :) I am soooo ready for cooler temperatures too.

Plan to do a drive with the Oklahoma Mini Cooper drivers tomorrow... before what ever happens... ;)

Have a GREAT week everyone.

Moni

I think Dawn has grandkids this weekend.

I think Houzz has an app, but I haven't loaded it onto my phone. Or, if I did load it when GW first moved to Houzz, it didn't work (because I remember I did have Houzz on my phone for a while, but don't know if it was an app or if I was accessing the webpage via the phone or what....) and I deleted it. Surely they have had time to debug things by now because Houzz has owned GW for years.

I think it is too late to plant cucumbers because of the shortening daylength and cooler weather. It is most likely that by the time they had begun to flower and produce, the first freeze would be arriving. BUT.....if a person has space and doesn't mind experimenting and maybe getting nothing back in terms of harvest, there's no harm in trying. Most cukes take about 50 days, at best, in optimal conditions, to produce the first fruit, and it takes some varieties 70 days. For most of us, the first freeze is about 60-70 days away. Having said that, one year in the early 2000s, the first freeze didn't hit my county until December 18th and the warm-season garden remained in pretty much full production until then. That was an anomaly though, and not one that has been repeated.

Larry, I expect the plant sickliness is related mostly to too much rain and moisture, and now cool weather is dipping in a little bit. Really, it won't get too cold for us, and I am disappointed. I wanted to feel cold, if even just for a couple of days. I have to stop looking at our specific forecast because every time I look at it, our forecast temperatures are higher than before and our forecast rainfall amount is smaller. Our local TV meteorologist have been all over this and warning us that the cool front was looking less and less likely to bring us a significant change, and the NWS has lagged a little behind them in reaching that same conclusion, maybe by about a half-day.

Yesterday was hot and the weather change was supposed to come today. Well, today is going to be hot again and it looks like the weather change for us is pushing out into the overnight hours or even tomorrow. We will be cooler...for a couple of days....but not significantly cooler. Now I'm not so much in a chili-making or pumpkin muffin-baking mood at all. It still looks and feels like summer out there, and I was really hoping it soon would feel like autumn. Maybe it still will.

The hummingbirds are hot, heavy and hungry today and fighting over the feeders from the minute the sun came up, which is getting later every day. These might have been migrants this morning because they fed heavily for about an hour and then took off and I haven't seen them since. They did eat voraciously.

There's tons of butterflies and bees flitting around and buzzing around, and none of them are acting like they feel the cool weather coming. We probably won't get cool enough for them to be bothered by it. Somebody, somewhere in OK will have lovely, cool, autumn weather (whether they want it or not) but it isn't going to happen down here.

One of our dogs, who usually has a very deep bark, has a pitchy, almost squeaky, high-pitched bark this morning. I don't know why. He doesn't appear to have anything stuck in his throat as I have watched him eat and drink normally, but he suddenly sounds like a little yappy dog. He doesn't act like he feels bad---his activity level and energy are normal, and he's happy and wagging, so he doesn't act like he is sick. I've already Googled and read all the possibilities, and am keeping a close eye on him. We'll take him to the vet if this yippy yappy bark continues for very long.

Have a good day everyone, and enjoy the cool weather when it blows in.

Dawn

I looked up the houzz app, it appears to be geared to home design and finding contractors. You can take a picture of a room and see what different furniture looks like. I thought that was kind of cool. I didn't download it because I am past caring about room design.

I wish I knew if we were really going to get rain. I didn't water last night and I've been eyeing the lantana that is the first to need water. I will probably do pots tonight and hope for the best with the rest. I'm sure the front pots need it. The only trouble with rain is then the grass will grow. I really hate it when Ron wears himself out mowing (and cussing, Larry. Though he replaced the carburetor on that mower and it works much better now.)

Nancy, I was beside myself Sunday trying to get the phone stuff done. It really was astonishing to find the phone in the dishwater. His work buddies made a lot of jokes about him washing his phone.

I'm really annoyed with the cucumbers. We actually got a few this year and Ron waited so long. I can't eat them. I can do pickles, but cukes give me indigestion.

Part of me is over gardening for the year, and part of me wants Collards and kale and lettuce and could this be the year I get Brussels sprouts? Ah well, I have noticed the shorter days.

have a good week everyone.

I think I'm ready for frost...and a rest period of at least a couple of months. No mowing, no watering (hopefully), and no drowning (maybe)?
Then my favorite time of year as things start growing again and it's fleeing spring...if only spring would last longer.

Well I planted (4) 20' rows of beets. I have never planted them in the fall, I think this is my 3rd time to try to grow them. The first time was near 20 years ago, in my old garden, it was much better soil, and I had a great crop. I tried one time here and it was a great flop, so I don't have high hopes. I planted them in my north garden, which is still too wet. I see a lot of small flying bugs, I am thinking fungus gnats.

I am getting an area ready to plant something in my south garden. It is a spot I just worked up this spring and grew butternut and cantaloupe in. I am still trying to kill grass in that area by tilling and then letting the sun dry the roots, and tilling again. I hope to plant that area this week.

This is getting to my favorite time of the year. Thanksgiving is my favorite day. I feel that most of the other holidays are blown out of proportion for the wrong reason. I use to love to go camping, and October was my favorite month to camp.

The front came through quickly. It was hot and humid and then it wasn't. Just like that. HU and I were just finishing up the fall planting and as he was leaving...brrrr! It's chilly enough that I'm worrying about the chicks. I put their momma back with the main flock yesterday. They were peeping and carrying on but finally put themselves upstairs on their roost bar. They did well. I hope they stay warm enough.

Larry, I love this time of year too. It's invigorating to me. It is important for us to rest during the darker time of the year, dbarron. It's the way of the seasons. I'm about ready to rest. It's hard to rest....but it feels good abt the same time.

We do have a pretty strong fall garden right now...and if everything comes up that we planted in the past 3 days, we should be golden. But the fall garden will be easier than the spring/summer garden.

So, yeah, everything is planted--all seeds are sowed. Just waiting on the rain.

Other than that, I put up okra today. And several bags of chopped sweet peppers. Made bone broth/chicken stock as well from a friend's chicken. It's in jars, but will go to the freezer. And just did those little things that need to be done when you have a house and a garden and a harvest.

Amy, I've had a bad cucumber year. The slicers didn't produce much. The Armenian have produced zero! Isn't that odd?! Normally they would have vined all over the place. They're barely contained in a normal year. I wonder it they are in a place that receives too much shade. Then, the West Indian Gherkins! They were slow...and tasted like crap. BUT last night I figured out that they have to be picked very small. THEN, they taste good. JEN, pick them very small.

HU and I planted some fall cukes in the Survivalists Garden. Some of them are taking off. Maybe we'll get some to pickle after all.

Hot bath and a cozy PJs tonight. Yes, I think so.

I love the weather change today. Cool but not cold. Our low was 50. We are getting nice rain, not sure even 1/2” but a few nice puddles around. We planted more rye yesterday for winter pasture so timing is perfect. I have new green beans and a couple of squash coming up for the fall garden.

Larry, I have nobe - not even one sweet potato due to the lovely cute little bunnies that people who don’t have them rave about. About same situation as those who think squirrels are delightful to watch. Lol.

I finally have a few tomatoes and there are green ones growing on the vines now. The cucumbers have almost stopped so yesterday I pulled most of the vines plus all the cowpeas that were .

Some of you have discussed getting a robot vacuum. When I was in a wheelchair and walker for so long my daughter suggested the kids go together and get us one for Christmas because my husband was doing the best he could but all the dust around the edges of the room and where he didn’t notice was driving me nuts. I was plumb ugly about it - didn’t want one, thought they would be stupid and useless. Well she ignored me and they got it. It saved my sanity! it’s a iRobot Roomba, a pet model, which until very recently we never had a pet come inside but we do live on a farm in the country So she thought it would be more suitable- she was correct. If this one quits we will get another one. Our floors are mostly tile or wood laminate with carpet only in the bedrooms. It does a good job, it goes around all the baseboards and under most of the furniture and all of the beds (just watch for electric blanket cords). Also, if something is spilled in the floor it will spread it all over the rest of the room, so careful of that. That said, I definitely recommend one, especially for someone with pets or with limited mobility issues. My old dog just gives it a “ look” to make sure it isn’t coming near him and then mostly ignores it. Not sure a younger dog would be that tolerant, but you can always put them in separate rooms.

I’ve been putting Cubanelle peppers in the freezer- I like them in salads, eggs, anything like spaghetti, soup, stir fry, meat dishes of any kind. They produce

abundantly and are as good frozen as fresh.

The hummingbirds are thick, I am

filling 3 feeders every other day, today they are even more needy, I suppose because of the cold and rain. It’s dove season now and I don’t allow any hunting so we’ve had twice as many doves as usual coming to the cracked corn - guess they are telling their friends it’s a safe place. I‘ve been watching for Monarchs, but so far have not seen any. Hope the rest of you are getting a nice rain if you need it and enjoying the cooler temperatures for a few days. Stay safe friends.

We are getting light rain, I thought that it all was going through west of us, it looks as though it will be just the right amount to wet the soil over my beets. I had planned to plant more stuff yesterday, but we had company. If the ground is not too wet, hopefully I can plant some lettuce and collards today, maybe some turnips also.

Farmgardener, I don't have much problem with rabbits on this side of the highway because there is not as much cover for them, but I lost all my berries, sweet potatoes, collards and most of the pumpkins in the wildlife garden. The only pumpkins that I have that are producing are the old timey cornfield pumpkins, those have a hot wire around them. The giant sunflowers that I had growing behind the wire are gone, thanks to the squirrels. The birds are hitting the brown top millet pretty hard. The pumpkins are pretty much growing wild, and the millet was planted over there a couple of years age, it seems to help keep the bugs down, because I have been letting some of it stay in my north garden also, along with some kind of brassica, which gets worms and bugs on it. The birds seem to think the garden is a buffet.

The wildlife garden is still to wet to do much with. As I get the soil more amended and improve the drainage, the wildlife garden will become more productive.

I don't go to town often, but seems as though there are fewer seeds and plants in the stores. At this time I have many more seeds than I need, but that may not be true this spring, the ones that don't have a stockpile may need to order early. It seems as jars and lids are in short supply also. We don't can much, and Madge has been able to find everything she needs, but when she sees it ' she grabs it. I thing I still have a bunch of my grandmothers jars over at the old house.

It looks like some of Oklahoma cooler air is headed this way, and I am ready for it, but I would like for the rain to stop so I can get a few things planted, and a little clean-up work done.

Anyone grow garlic from bulbs ? My internet search says I should plant in Sept/Oct. Have no idea where to souce bulbs or what variety to grow.

Plant in Oct. Later the further south you are. I use my daughter's birthday Oct 23. Southern Exposure seed Exchange may have garlic left. If nothing else, get organic garlic at the grocery store. Make sure it still has some roots. Imported garlic has the bottoms scraped because of importing rules. The first time I planted garlic I planted grocery store garlic in January. It did fine.

The joy of gardening in a low area.

I have spots ready to plant, but it is too wet.

The wildlife garden will be wetter than this, the north garden.

It does not look like the second picture will load, but you get the idea anyway.

Amy, I figured the Houzz app probably was more about Houzz than GW.

Tim always mows like a maniac right before the rain arrives, which he did again this week. He'd mow every 2 or 3 days if he had time, but he does not. Our yard grows fast after rainfall, and we've had another 1.15" fall this week, so I'm sure he'll be out there mowing again on Saturday. I'll be happy to get rid of all the bermuda grass I can when we redo the landscaping, but he probably won't be happy about that at all. We gave another couple of acres of grassland beyond the yard and wildflower meadow, so he certainly can feed his need to mow without having a backyard lawn to keep up with.

I'm not over the gardening season, but I won't take heroic measures to prolong any part of it either. Whenever the veggies and flowers are done, they're done, and I'll just pull them out and feed them to the compost pile.

We had been fairly mosquito-free lately, perhaps because we had been dry for so long, but suddenly they are back with a vengeance and are biting like crazy. Those skeeters are a good reason to stay indoors. Tim came in from walking the dogs with his arms covered in bites. I don't even understand it because ever since we started taking a B-Complex vitamin, they leave us alone 99.9% of the time. Well, this week's mosquito explosion must not pick up on the B vitamins in our bodies because they are biting like mad.

dbarron, I agree. I live for spring. By this time of the year, I'm tired and need a break, so I'm ready for whatever autumn brings us.

The cool weather is a nice break. We heat up again this weekend, back to more normal temperatures, but apparently not back to the higher-than-average ones we had been having, and I won't be missing those.

farmgardener, The cooler weather didn't really reach our place until this morning, when we dipped down to 58. That was our first time in the 50s in months, I guess, and it was nice. We stayed mostly cloudy and cool all day with a high of only 70. I think we would have warmed up more if the sun had come out, so I'm glad the sun stayed hidden.

Our son has a robot vacuum and loves it. I just feel like our rowdy young dogs were eat it, and our very old dog, who is increasingly unsteady on her feet, might trip over it. It is hard to see them reach the stage of frailty that she is reaching now. If we had no dogs, I'd probably have one of those robot vacuums though.

We had tons of hummingbirds before the cold arrived, and significantly fewer since then. I'll be watching on the warmer days this weekend to see if there's still a lot around or if they're already moving south. We have been having a lot of butterflies of all kinds, and occasionally a monarch, but not the big migratory numbers yet. Some years they head southwest while still well north of us, so some years we see a lot of migrants and some years we don't.

Larry, It rained lightly, on and off, all day and all night, so everything is too wet now, but it sure beats having it be too dry. At this point, we'll take whatever we can get.

Hopefully you get the cooler air tonight. We got it last night, although the west end of our county had it the night before. It seemed to stall a while before it moved across the rest of the county. We won't stay significantly cooler long, but we'll enjoy it while it lasts.

I haven't seen any fall seeds in stores, but perhaps it is because I haven't had time to look. I'll try to look this weekend and see what I find. I just like keeping track of what is in the stores, even if I don't need it and am not buying it.

Canning supplies are spotty here, but there's still quart jars and, occasionally, pint jars. Extra lids, sold on their own without jars, have been AWOL from the shelves for months. I always stay well-stocked with more than we use in an average year so that I'm not having to run from store to store looking for supplies. Often, Tractor Supply and Atwood's have the jars long after Wal-mart has sold out, though. Some people find them at Ace Hardware, but there's no Ace Hardware stores anywhere near us.

Lynn, If Southern Exposure Seed Exchange is sold out of garlic for this year (which would be typical---it is best to order it in spring for fall delivery to ensure you get it before they sell out), you usually still can find it from some west coast suppliers where it usually is sold and planted later there than here. Here's the website of Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, and beside each variety listing they will tell you if they are sold out, backordered, have it on hand, or arriving by a specific date, so you'll know if it is worth your while to try to order some. I've also bought organic garlic at the grocery store before and planted it.

Peaceful Valley Farm Supply

Dawn

Wow, where is everyone ? out planting fall gardens ? :) I'm ready for that 'cold' front...it's slightly cooler, only 64 or so :) I also would welcome multi-inches of rain.
I got a couple of colchicum in Tuesday and planted them, hoping to see their blooms in a couple of weeks. I'm not quite ready to say fall, but some things are saying that (like hardy cyclamen bursting into bloom). Asters are showing color too. Maybe it is fall?

My day yesterday was wasted. I did sort out a few seeds I wanted to plant, maybe it will be dry enough today to plant them, although I have been assigned the task of babysitting our dog. He is old and insecure and does not want to be away from "Mama", but one of mama's sons is coming down from Stilwell and Madge is going to fixing something special for him to eat. I love for all of her kids to come to visit, they are so nice. I have one out of four that likes to come and visit, the other 3 just dont see eye to eye with me, or us. I dont like it that way, but I can live with it.

I would like to fine some asian greens to plant, I have a few, but would like more. I have a lot more Daikon radish seeds than I thought I had, so I will plant some of them in the south garden as a soil builder. I dont like radishes a lot because they taste too hot, but the are okay in a salad. I hope the weather this fall is not a repeat of last fall, I just could not get the ground ready because it was so wet, and stayed wet most of fall, winter, and spring. The wet fall and spring is one reason I have so many seeds stock piled.

As I look outside it appears to be raining again, I doubt that anything will be planted today either. I hope Dawn has a few extra little boats she can send me, it does not sound like she will be using them. Sorry, Dawn, I really would send you some of this rain if I could.

dbarron, I know nothing about flowers, but they are very pretty, thanks for sharing.

Well Larry, in general, you can't eat them...and the deer would probably eat any of them too :) But they're prettier (to me) than a row of sweet corn. Oh, consider that I also don't like to eat corn.

dbarron, believe it or not, when I was young I grew quite a few flowers, and loved it. I lived in town then and did not grow many vegetables. I have forgotten about all I ever knew about flowers. I also dont grow corn any more because the coons are worse than the deer, plus, I think you get more bang for your buck with something other than corn.

I have been sitting here making tags for vegetable markers. Madge wants

to go to Gentry AR. tomorrow to visit kids, grand kids, and great grand kids, so I need to try to plant a few veggies this afternoon. We also have a kid coming from Stilwell this evening so I need to pick the okra and send home with him. We are to tired to do anything with the okra, plus, we are out of room.

Larry I have been dehydrating my okra the last few harvests. I slice, put in bowl with a tiny bit of oil (your choice what kind) then sprinkle salt, garlic powder and tumeric on the sliced okra, toss well, and spread on dehydrator trays. I just let the unit run overnight.

Very yummy crunchy treat.

Just made my second batch.

Moni

I've had a shortage of okra this year. My local farmer's market said the okra they planted didn't do well this year. I believe it due to how weird my plants have performed this year. Like the peppers never growing, timing way off on everything..etc. Love okra ;)

Moni, thanks, that sounds good, now, what kind of dehydrator do you suggest? Dehydrating is something I have wanted to try for a long time.

My mom and grandmother caned a lot when I was young, and I remember the old folks talk about laying stuff out on a screen or on a piece of sheet iron to dry, but they must have not likes it a lot because I don't remember seeing them do it.

Thanks, again, If I cam make that work it will be something else I can get the kids started in. I thing all of you will agree, that it is an act of love to teach the kids, grand kids, and even the great grand kids all that you can.

Larry, my thoughts...teaching is good, but just doing anything together to make memorable moments is great! I do remember my grandmother drying apples on screens on the front porch. I also remember the fried apple pies that would result :)
I have a dehydrator (small model) that I bought for my mother, but when she got too ill to use it, she gave it to me, and I have never used it (as I haven't grown food crops that I don't eat fresh, I've never had enough to do that). Some things are much better though, like the apples would be firm and not so watery in the pies vs fresh apples or canned.
And wow, things are much less perishable and easy to store, I do BUY dehydrated things..one of my favorites is mushrooms. You can keep at room temperature for at least a year and either rehydrate in hot water, throw them into blender and grind to dust for flavoring, or just break into pieces and toss into stew or something.

dbarron, here is a picture of some peppers I was ashamed of, I thought they would die before I could get in the ground. I was so ashamed of them that I did not go e any of these plants away, but, this was the perrers the girls wanted, so I kept babying them along. When the weather warmed, these plants took off. I did not stake them, and they are so loaded that the limbs are bent to the ground. The girls picked them Sunday. It is hard to see the green ones,but there is many there. Maybe I should have fed them,but I have a high mineral count in my soil and seldom feed. They are small, but they are called Orange mini bells, so I guess they should be small.

The girls are sorts health nuts, they fix a low call dip and use these peppers like chips.

Larry, the dehydrator is one my daughter bought a while ago, and their
current models look different. It's a Excalibur. I'll see about adding
some pictures. ;) Here you go. :)

I hope to make some tomato powder out of those tiny bits.... just wish, I had taken a before picture

Moni, thanks, I will check into them.

Madge and I need more "stuff" to pile up. I have a shop that is so full of junk that I cant get in there to work, three old tractors, only two will run, more tools than I can use, but I want a dehydrator also.

I like the pictures.

Larry and Slowpoke are the same? I've forgotten.

dbarron, you asked where everyone was/is. I'm here. My jobs are demanding right now. My "main" job is completely different since Covid19...and managing the change of how to do it all is a lot. It's a creative thing, which can be fun and interesting, but is time consuming. It's recreating everything I've always done.

My second job is exhausting. We had our first case of coronavirus. What a pain in the butt that is. The child was really ill for a day and her fever broke and she's "back to normal" now. But, of course, she can't come back to school for awhile. And people are freaking out and staying away. And...how do we deal with all of this? Yeah. There's no easy answers and it's enough to keep you awake at night. No one cared so much if strep throat or the flu was going around. Ever.

HU and I went to hell tonight and made some habanero jelly.

The fall garden is shaping up and looking good. Hopefully it won't get hot again. I loved today. This was my perfect day. I feel alive. Highs in the 60's, no wind, and overcast. Yes.

<3

Last night I stuck seed in everywhere there was an empty spot. I should have lettuce, carrots, kale, spinach, beets, radishes, and such coming up everywhere.

It was so nice and relaxing. I love working in the garden when it's not hot. I stayed out until dark.

That's my update. I miss all of y'all. I'm still sad we didn't have SF.

I just lost a long post on dehydrators and I'm mad at my tablet again. In short Excalibur Is top of the line. Nesco makes a small round one that is bottom rung but works. I have used both. Sometimes you can find them second hand. Also look at Bass Pro and Atwoods.

6 Brussels sprouts plants went in the ground yesterday. Of the 3 6 packs, the BSs were the most attractive to the cabbage butterflies. Had to search for the troublemakers. Heading out to plant broccoli and kale.

I have the 9 tray Excalibur. It works so good.

most of the time I only do 3 or 4 trays.

I have tomato powder s as well and somewhere I have recipe for making ketchup

Larry, I thought Slowpoke was you...but my brain was foggy last night. Heck, it's been foggy for a couple of months. haha.

I'm glad you have a wonderful companion!

Fresh peaches sound SO good.

What seed did you get planted?

Amy and Kim, I have a cheapy dehydrator. Actually two because a friend gave me one. I haven't used it in a couple of years, but it seemed to work well enough. BUT, I don't know what a good, high quality one can do.

Amy, I may have missed it....but where did you find your brussels?

I wasn't going to grow any this year, but now I'm considering it. This cooler weather has me fired up for some fall gardening. Fingers crossed that it doesn't get hot again.

I've made myself stay indoors this morning. I'm happy to have the back rooms cleaned and smelling nice. This makes me so happy.

Farmgardener, thanks for chiming in about the robot vacuum. I really think I'm going to invest in one. My floor is always so dirty with our lifestyle and pets.

Lynn, I just noticed that the cilantro is popping up in my little herb garden. Look out. Once you have it, it will come back every year once it's cool enough. Not a bad problem at all.

Okay. I'm going to get back to work. Have a good weekend, Friends.

I think we got Brussels sprouts at Worley's greenhouse. No place had Collards like they usually do.

Thanks so much, farmgardener, for the Roomba review! If I can just settle on which model to order, I'll for sure get one. And I liked hearing Chris loves theirs! With pet hair everywhere in this house, I do believe it's TIME. I'll check online reviews for which model we'll decide on. Can't spent the big bucks, though, on an "experiment."

AAGGH. Cilantro! All the cilantro that had sprouted up outside the official bed got mowed down by Garry's weed-eater! I'll have to mark that area off and tell him to stay away.

I had tech issues today. Mine were much easier than YOURS, Amy. The computer people in town did NOT fix the desktop. They assured me they cleaned out all the viruses. They also said the viruses were what was causing my internet to drop. Yeah, whatever. Not. I had let the warranty on the Dell run out after the first year. AND so now I had to re-up it. That ticks me off, at the tune of $9--something a month. At any rate, I had guessed all along, that I needed to update drivers. No, it was viruses, computer people said, Well today the little diagnose box actually said it was likely that my adapter driver needed to be updated. And I found Dell (I don't think I'd logged into Dell since the month after I got the computer 3 years ago, and had a heck of a time getting back to it.) There were four urgent driver updates, so I got the warranty renewed and got the drivers. Took them over an hour to download and open. Computer works like a charm. Duh. And so I also was inside most of today. I finally got out to look around and found an Armenian cucumber that could be used for a club to seriously injure someone. Oops. we missed that one in previous pickings.

I love the pitcher plants. I need to get some sort of deal rigged up for them at the school. Yes, I also buy dried mushrooms, dbarron. And my favorite dried fruit are the apricots. Like candy.

I also got a cheap dehydrator, HJ. It works okay--probably not as well as the higher end ones.

I sort of fell off the radar. With the cool weather and rain, and new Bible study class, it seemed a good time to be reading--so have been catching up a bit on that. This class is a Zoom class, and it works really well for this. We're actually taking the class twice on Wednesdays--once at 11 and once at 6:30. since it occurred to us that the discussions would probably be somewhat different. BUT. I had purchased the wrong book! I was so confused! I had already messed up by missing the first week, and now everyone must have thought I was a total idiot by some of my questions. After the 11 one, I quick went to Amazon and saw that yep, I had the student edition instead of the entire full version. I sent the pastor a note, laughing and told him what I'd done. He said I was the second person to have done it--and he said it was probably HIS fault for saying it didn't matter what edition we got (he didn't know there was a student edition.) So then I had to read like crazy to have it read before the evening one.

We got 1.5" rain, and yes, it WAS cool until today. I didn't like it. Neither did Garry, nor did the hummingbirds and butterflies.

How great, Larry, that not only Madge is wonderful, but that her family is, as well. What a blessing, huh!

I may have to follow your example, HJ, and make habanero jelly. I was just in the garden and there were so many one one plant I gasped. Just LOADED.

SESE WAS totally out of garlic, Dawn--I'm glad you mentioned garlic. I found garlic at Territorial Seeds, so snagged two bags of Inchelium Red (softnecked, Lynn.) I was super glad, because it grew great here last year. Good luck, Lynn, in finding some! I planted mine earlier last year, end of October, and had a great harvest. Even though SESE is sold out, they have GREAT information on growing them. (Under their growing guides. And they also recommend soft neck for most of OK.)

Garry has upped his hummingbird game--now five feeders twice a day. One of the feeders is 12 oz; the rest are all 8 oz. I forget where you are, farmgardener--SW OK? We've had Monarchs here (Wagoner-ish) all month--not tons, but a few. Tons of caterpillars, however, and my milkweed is GONE, as is the school's.

I haven't even been to Lincoln in four days. That means a trip tomorrow. And then a trip to Broken Arrow to find plants for them. And I also will pick up honeyvines for them AND us.

HJ--yep, the summer squash is still going gangbusters; as are the Armenian cukes.

I found this lovely "late boneset" in one of the flower beds this year.

More pics.

Nancy, a friend in Edmond, sent me a photo Monday and asked me to id it. It was also Late Boneset :) Small world..of course when I had 5 acres, it was everywhere and pretty much a weed (though a decent late flowering one).

Watered everything today....because the rain simply wasn't much...story of this late summer.
I've spent the day trying to figure out what I'm going to cook tomorrow...still haven't a clue, nothing sounds good. Maybe I'll figure it out by tomorrow.

I don't USUALLY have trouble thinking of something to fix, but it DOES happen--days that nothing sounds good. Ha, dbarron. When I was figuring out what it was, I DID find sites that called it a weed. It should be fine here.

Jennifer, I planted some Detroit red beets about 3 days ago, some kind of carrot mix, butter crunch lettuce, red cherry radishes yesterday, I had planned on planting more stuff but we had company come, so I stopped to visit. We went to Gentry today, and my son-in-law wanted to show me his new truck, they have just finished their new home. We went for a ride in the nicest truck I have ever been in, when we got back and were ready to come home, we were standing around the car outside, I had been standing too long and just collapsed and hit my head on the gravel driveway. It was so embarrassing to just collapse in a pile of gray hair and blood, but I am okay, but Madge does not want me going out to plant anything today. I plan on going out in the morning and planting more veggies. I have 4 more markers made out, so I hope to plant 4 more kinds of seeds. I also plan on tossing some collard and daikon radish seeds out on the lawn. I will mow very close and toss out about a table spoon full of each kind of seed and see what will happen.

I think I have lost all the berries and collards that I planted in the wildlife garden due to the deer and early dry weather.

I have not checked on my pumpkins in a few days, but I expect that the tractor is still sitting over there hooked to the electric fence. With the luck I have been having, the tractor probably has 4 flat tires and a dead battery.

dbarron, I have not been out planting a fall garden, but have been enjoying the cool weather while it lasts. Actually, I think it is here to stay. We likely will have days in the 80s and nights in the 60s down here for a while, but they've taken the forecast high temps in the 90s out of our 7-day forecast, so perhaps autumn weather is here to stay. We haven't really been extra cool or cold like some people, but I'm pretending we are, and have had hot cocoa and hot spiced apple cider along with warm apple-cinnamon muffins straight from the oven....as if it were really cold and these warm things were necessary.

We drained the pool today and will take it down tomorrow and take it all apart and pack it away in its big box in the garage to overwinter. There doesn't seem to be enough warm weather left in our forecast to make swimming much of a possibility the next time the girls come over. So, summer is officially over for them, and I think they are ready for it to be over.

Larry, Your peppers look great---there is no reason to be ashamed of them. You have had such horrible weather this year that it is a miracle they look so awesome. Be proud!

We really don't need any more rain. We just drained a ton of water from the big above-ground pool onto our yard, so it is mud city here again.

I used to dehydrate a lot, and I really miss my prior stove which had a convection oven with a built-in Dehydrate mode. I had it running all the time for years and years because it was just so convenient.

Jennifer, I hate that y'all have to deal with Covid-19. Tim deals with it with his employees regularly, but most of them have had a mild to moderate case, and none have had to be hospitalized. Still, by the time you quarantine everyone who had close contact at work with them, it is hard to get your staffing for a shift up to normal levels, so it continues to be disruptive.

I hope and pray nobody here ever gets Covid-19. Our dear friend who has been hospitalized with it, in the ICU down in the DFW metro area on a ventilator for over a week, was steadily improving and everyone was very hopeful. Really, the news we were getting was that he was doing extremely well...as recently as this time yesterday. Suddenly this evening he took a severe turn for the worse, quickly deteriorated and passed away. We received the devastating news less than an hour ago. I have no words and am completely discombobulated by this.

For most people in the USA at the present time, it seems like about 80% who test positive have a mild form, about 15% have a moderate form that may require hospitalization of some sort for at least a few days or may require they recover at home for a few weeks, but about 5% have a more serious case that will require hospitalization, often in the ICU on ventilators, and some of them do not survive, even after a very prolonged battle. The thing that none of us ever can know in advance of getting it is what form of it we will get if we contract it---our friend was strong, healthy, very physically fit, recently and happily retired, loving life and had no underlying conditions that would lead you to expect a poor outcome. We did not expect that he would lose this battle.

I am sad we didn't have the Spring Fling too, but it was absolutely the right decision. Covid-19 was very slow to take off in our county, but is running wild here now, and we have responded personally by shutting ourselves back down a bit more, avoiding going out for meals, avoiding gathering with anyone except our kids/grandkids, etc. I don't know if we can stay safe---our daughter-in-law recently had a patient with issues not generally recognized as Covid-19-related, so no one wore PPE, etc. Twenty-four hours later, that patient began to exhibit symptoms of Covid-19 and then was given a test and tested positive. So, everyone in the hospital who crossed that patient's path for the first 24 hours after they were admitted to a non-Covid-19 floor has been exposed to it and now must watch themselves carefully for symptoms. I've said all along that I think either Tim, Chris or Jana will bring Covid-19 home from work to the rest of us, but there is no way to avoid it really. They have to work. They have to be able to come home. We choose to stay within this small family bubble that includes the six of us because the month we went without even seeing each other in the spring was so horrible. They can be just as careful as they can be, but they still will encounter someone in the course of their workdays who has it and is asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic, and they won't know they've been exposed until after it has occurred. I guess at this point we are relying on faith and medical science to hopefully keep us all safe from it, or at least to help us survive it if we get it.

I am so ready for 2020 to just march on and take all this ugly stuff with it and let us get back to our regular lives, but 2021 could be the same as 2020.

I need to go plant shopping tomorrow and hope I can convince Tim that we should. We could mask up and shop early at outdoor garden centers like we did in late May and in June. It isn't that there is any specific plant we need so much as I just need to be around plants that aren't glaring at me and begging to be weeded and deadheaded. I've heard that Lowe's and Home Depot already are putting out Christmas merchandise---I hope that is not true. I'm certainly in an autumn frame of mind, maybe even a Halloween frame of mind, but am not even ready to see Christmas stuff on store shelves. It is too early for that. The merchandise at our garden center at the local Wal-mart is being scrunched into ever smaller spaces, packed in like sardines as they empty adjacent shelves, so I expect the Christmas merchandise will begin appearing on those shelves any day now.

Dawn

Dawn, how goes the yard remodel? It should be dry enough (except for the pool draining), right? Good luck on getting Tim to take you shopping, be careful/safe.

We were very wet even without Tim draining the pool, but I'm ready to get rid of the bermuda grass as soon as the ground dries enough. We had another 1.15" of rain a couple of days ago, added to the previous 4 or so inches, so we are at the muddy-mess-and-fire-ants-popping-up-out-of-the-ground stage again...or still. Now we begin the delicate dance of watching the ground carefully to see if we can get it dry enough to rent a sod cutter without waiting so long that the clay is too hard and dry to use a sod cutter. lol. This climate does not make it easy, nor does our soil. Now that the weather is cooler, we have about a half dozen trees to remove, and a lot of shrubs to remove, and I hope that we can start that next weekend. However, we are supposed to host the youngest granddaughter's birthday party (family only due to Covid-19) at our house next weekend, so we'll see if any time remains for bermuda grass removal and tree cutting. This winter is "supposed to" be warmer and drier, thanks to La Nina, so we ought to be able to work on the landscape all fall and winter, at least when we don't have the girls here, so we'll see. Other than wishing I had the ground ready right now so I could transplant the plants in nursery beds to the garden, I am not too concerned. If the rain continues. the plants will continue to grow in the nursery beds and in their large containers in the garden, and I won't be able to transplant them until late winter/early spring. As always, we are at the mercy of the rainfall. I'm itching to get started but this past week was filled with medical-related stuff and family stuff and I didn't get a lick of real work done.

Tim actually drained the pool two or three weeks earlier than usual because I wanted to get the flooding of the yard done early so it could dry up so we could start working on the landscape now instead of in October after the pool was drained, taken down and put away. We have the wood to build the backyard deck and hope to start that before the end of September. We've been buying up the scarce (and increasingly expensive) pressure treated lumber all summer because it has been almost impossible to find, so now that the weather is nicer, we have enough to get most of the planned deck built and I remain hopeful we'll find more pressure treated lumber over the course of the winter and will have the whole deck, the raised beds and the fencing work done before Spring arrives. The larger issue with pressure treated lumber now is the west coast fires, especially the ones hitting in the Pacific Northwest where timber is harvested and timber is cut and, I assume, pressure treated. If the wildfires halt the processing of lumber, we may not be able to find more pressure-treated wood. Time will tell. Right now Tim is crazy-busy at work so cannot take off time to work on a project at home, but he has a week of vacation scheduled for later this fall. If all else fails and we don't have the deck built by the time his week of vacation rolls around, that is the week we'll build it. If we have the deck built before then, then we'll work on removing bermuda grass, improving the soil and building raised beds. If it rains during his week of scheduled vacation, I'll be a most unhappy camper.

September-October are an iffy month here because you encounter snakes a lot more as they are out in the milder temperatures. They are easier to spot than summer snakes though as they tend to stick more to paved areas and gravel driveways trying to soak up the increasingly rare heat. I'm hoping the snakes stay out of our yard and away from us. I saw a huge timber rattler yesterday (not in our yard) and do not want to see another one this fall.

The rain has brought an abundance of blooms (mostly heleniums, and they are blooming while very short and low to the ground but they are blooming in massive amounts) a bit early, but at least if the monarchs are migrating early, we'll have something in bloom for them. I'm not seeing many monarchs yet but we normally don't see the main movement of migrating butterflies until the first week of October here. The hummingbird traffic has dropped about 90% here, sadly, over the last few days and I think a lot of them rode the big cold front south as it came through a few days ago.

Oddly, even though it should be, by the calendar, early enough still to use a pre-emergent herbicide in yards, I have noticed since we cooled off that some cool-season weeds, most notably curly dock, are sprouting everywhere already. I think the early cooldown has caused that. There's also a lot of lambs quarters and catnip plants sprouting.

Tim is out walking the dogs and after he gets back, I think we will go out and engage in retail therapy or plant therapy. I still remain in utter disbelief that our friend lost his battle with Covid-19 last night and cannot bear to even think about it. I need to get out of this house and go somewhere, anywhere, and try to act like today is a normal day. It is not a normal day. Our community's heart is broken in half.

Dawn

I am so sorry Dawn

Dawn, I am sorry for the loss of your friend.

It is very wet here also. This morning when I was pulling weeds in the south garden, I noticed a lot of what looked like mosquitoes, I think to be fungus gnats flying all around my feet and up to my knees. I cant see them well but I think if they would have been mosquitoes I would have noticed them biting me. I hope they are not bad enough to damage the roots on the newly planted seeds. The armadillos have already tilled the garden well, that may have helped stirred up the gnats. I dont think the gnats bit, but seeing them makes me itch.