October 2020, Week 1
dbarron
3 years ago
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February 2020, Week 1
Comments (56)dbarron, The time is flying by, but I think it is because I'm keeping myself busy with other projects since gardening is a dud so far. Tim and I should put all these long-standing water puddles to use and open a fish hatchery, because we're never going to dry up ever again. We have more rain in our forecast for tonight, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. After that, we are supposed to have a few days with no rain. We'll see if that happens. Our soil is squishy and squishy is not good. The only flowers we have blooming here are wildflowers, but they are early. The little Spring Beauty flowers have been in bloom (at least on the occasional sunny day or sunny portion of a day) for about a week, so they are slightly behind the henbit and about six weeks or so later than the dandelions. Normally the Spring Beauties do not bloom this early, but once we had that 83-degree day last week, all the plants here declared that it is Spring and they are rushing headlong into blooming....probably too early and undoubtedly they will suffer from later cold weather. We walk past a big Burford Holly each time we walk in or out of the mudroom's exterior doorway. I only have to take a few steps south of the door to look at that holly up close, and so I did...and there's tiny flower buds all over the stems. They aren't nearly big enough to bloom yet, but their presence this early is a bit shocking. I want to knock them upside the head and remind them it is only early February, but they probably wouldn't listen. Larry, You have a lot going on in the garden considering how wet it has been. We have winter grass (poa annua) dying now, leaving bare patches where the dormant Bermuda grass is visible, because the poa annua cannot handle all the standing water. I wish the Bermuda grass would do the same, but it won't. Nancy, All the plants are so confused, and it alarms me. Most years when we get the really early blooms combined with the erratic temperatures, we get enough cold later on to freeze back the plants that have bloomed really early. It is different when we have a consistently warm winter....the early bloomers sometimes get away with it, but not in the yo-yo winters. Just in the last week our temperatures have gone from the low 80s here to the low 20s and back up into the low 60s. Most nights have been pretty darn cold, in the 20s, and with frost, so it doesn't matter if you have a lovely 60-degree afternoon as you're still likely to have a 20-something degree morning. It drives me crazy, and I'm guessing the plants don't love it either. I noticed poppy plants popping up in the front wildflower meadow. They must have been in the wildflower seed mix I sowed back in November...or October....or whenever it was. Normally the poppies don't pop up here until late March or early April, so it is odd to see them sprouting in early February. Everything is odd this year. I still have no veggie seeds sown indoors. Maybe Monday. I won't get it done any earlier because the grandkids are here and they are keeping me busy. I'm totally not in the mood to grow veggies this year---I wanted to focus almost 100% on renovating the landscape and just let the front veggie garden be mostly all wildflowers, but the rain is ruining those plans. You cannot rent a sod cutter and cut up remove sod that has saturated soil (and standing water), so we cannot start on that most important part of redoing the landscape and it is making me crazy. I'm wondering if it will stay too wet all Spring to work on the landscape. That really would drive me crazy. I may have to revise my plans and postpone the landscaping (and I am not happy about that prospect) until we dry out this summer, and just plant more veggies than intended in order to keep myself busy and out of trouble. I hate this rainy year already. Larry, I am planting tomatoes and peppers in containers this year, and will fill the bottom half of the containers with old half-rotted wood, chopped/shredded autumn leaves, twigs and compost....hügelkultur style. I'll then fill the top half of the containers with a good soil-less mix. I've been "consulting" with our son on his gardening all week...starting seeds, building raised beds, etc. I even picked up some supplies for him today while I was out grocery shopping because he was at work. It is fun watching him getting heavily into gardening. They have a new worm bin and are really getting into vermicomposting so the girls can learn how that works. He knows more than he thinks he knows because he always helped me with the garden when he was a kid, right up until the time he got his driver's license and decided he had better stuff to do. I think he fears he has forgotten everything he ever knew about gardening, but I can tell that he has not. The apple does not fall far from the tree.... It is late, I am awake and everyone else is asleep, so I'm going to go start next week's thread before I go to bed myself. Dawn...See MoreMay 2020, Week 1
Comments (72)No frost or freeze damage here because we only dropped to 46 degrees, 3 degrees above our forecast low of 43. I think our Mesonet station dropped to 41 though, which is so bizarre. It is at a slightly lower elevation than our place, but not much. Tim's sisters in PA were expecting snow yesterday (and not happy about it). May weather has been so goofy so far. Larry, That looks great! So your soil finally is drying out some? The weather at our house did a total 180 and we are getting exactly the opposite weather the last month from what we had previously, so we are veering towards dryness and not flooding, but I am just thrilled we no longer are water. Rebecca, Of all the things to break in the car! I've dropped zip ties like that before, and just hate it, but otherwise I love them for attaching cages and trellises to fence poles and stakes. They are just so handy in the garden. Kim, I am sorry, but we aren't entertaining visitors at this time. We are still socially distancing as much as we possibly can, and not just for our own safety. Our very dear to us next-door neighbor just was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and starts very aggressive chemo soon. Because we are medical first responders with the VFD, we are trying to stay distanced from everyone so we can respond to his house safely (for his sake) if he needs quick medical assistance. We couldn't go, in all good conscience, if we'd been out and about seeing people and might have been exposed. We could get to him a good ten minutes before an ambulance coming from Thackerville or Marietta could get here if he needs anything. I'd hate for a call to go out that he needs help and for us to feel like we couldn't respond to help him because we might have been exposed to Covid-19, so we're just going to stay locked down as much as possible for as long as possible. I hope you have a fun trip and also stay safe. Jennifer, It is very stressful when a friend suffers a major loss. Fifteen years ago this month, Tim's best friend died of cancer on my birthday. When the phone rang at our house around 4 a.m., I knew it was his wife and I knew that he was gone. One of the reasons we had moved here was to live closer to them. We immediately threw on our clothes and rushed over there to sit with her and their children in their home until the guys from the funeral home could come to pick up his body (it took them a couple of hours to get there). I'll never forget that. It was an extremely distressing time and yet felt extremely comforting to be right by their side. We already had been at their side as much as possible since his stage 4 cancer diagnosis around Easter, and then we were with them a lot that week and for a period of time thereafter. You feel their grief so deeply even as you are dealing with grief of your own, and you're trying so hard to help them in every way that you can. That is what friends do. I hope you have a calmer, less stressful week this week because you deserve that. Larry, Our son and his wife have been the same way, but finally are easing up some now. I think it finally sank into their brain that Tim could bring it home any day from work, though I hope he doesn't, just as either of them could bring it home from the fire station or hospital on any given day too. The risk from seeing them doesn't seem worse to me than the risk of seeing Tim here in our own home, but for a long time they worried that they would infect us. So, we see each other about once every couple of weeks now, which is better than not seeing each other at all. Everyone still sits further apart, etc., isn't so huggy and all, and everyone worries because the case numbers still are going up in the D-FW metro where Tim and Chris work, and in fact, Dallas and Fort Worth keep reporting new record numbers of cases several days a week, and even our little quiet area is seeing more and more cases. I think we're all doing our best to stay safe. Meanwhile, I have relatives in the DFW metro out running around all over the place, sort of like the virus is just magically gone, and I think that is a mistake, but they're making their own decisions and we are making ours. I'll be perfectly happy if we don't venture down there until a family wedding in August. Maybe by then the case loads of virus patients will be much lower. I am relaxing enough to go to at least 1 store every weekend. It is so good to be out even if only for an hour, but we are very careful still to go only early in the day while the stores are still very quiet, and we try really hard to maintain proper social distancing and to not talk with anyone if we can help it. A lot of people here are still wearing masks so I think that shows they are trying to be cautious. It is a beautiful day today but my allergies are simply awful today so I'm indoors now trying to avoid all the pollen that apparently is in the air. Dawn...See MoreAugust 2020, Week 5-September 2020, Week 1
Comments (63)Yay for the violets, Nancy! And...you still have summer squash? The bugs killed ours long ago. Even the C. Moschata. I am pooped. So tired. We shopped today and I don't have to tell anyone that shopping is very unpleasant right now. However, Dillards allows you to try on clothes and I found a dress. It's not exactly the bohemian/fairy princess dress that I wanted. But it fits nicely and its a forest green color...and it's Robin Hoodish (not really), so I bought it. Paid more than what I wanted to pay, but it's done. DONE! Came home around 3 and sliced, breaded and froze okra. Then figured out how to use my pressure canner as a water bath canner and pickled some okra. On my own. The lids sealed so hopefully we're good. My house is getting to the point that I am very unhappy. I know a clean house isn't the most important thing in the world....but I enjoy a clean home. It just feels nice to me. However, a clean house isn't anywhere in my near future. I am hoping the robot vacuums are cheap this Christmas. That will at least help. We are celebrating Mason's BD tomorrow and that will be fun. It's at a very good restaurant that I haven't been to in a long time. Then grocery shopping and then maybe starting more lettuce seed. In between all of those things is animal care. Lots of animal care. There's always one of them doing something they shouldn't be doing or somewhere they shouldn't be hanging out. One of the fat buff orpingtons has figured out how to get out of the chicken yard. And she isn't swift. She is dumb--beautiful but dumb and wanders over by the dogs. So, I'm constantly leaving whatever task I'm working on to catch her or entice her back to the yard. And everyone is always hungry all the time. The 3 young pullets mingled with the main flock today. It went very well. Having a good rooster helps with that. They're roosting in their own coop, though. It will be a gradual thing as always. Momma Blossom will be tired of her chicks soon and those two chicks will need to move to the pullet coop at that time. Although, at least one of those chicks is a cockerel. Tom may or may not start doing meat birds and these two could be the start of it. They won't be THE meat birds, but they might be the parents of. I've named the one I think is a girl. Her name is Gwendolyn, which is sorta funny because Gwendolyn (actually related to Jennifer/Guinevere.) means white ...and Gwendolyn is a dark cornish. I'm simply rambling now....See MoreOctober 2020, Week 2
Comments (76)Hi all. I haven't done anything in the gardens here this past week. Oops. When I saw the mention of garlic, I thought, "AHH. I need to get the garlic in," followed by the realization I have nowhere to put it. So out I went. I got the stray peppers and the monster watermelon plant out of that bed. Then decided to tidy up by removing squash plants and a few tomato plants. Got some watering done for container plants. Picked a few aji dulce peppers and Chile peppers, a few lingering tomatoes. I marveled at all the skipper butterflies on the salvia in the raised flower bed. There's not much left out there for the pollinators--the two enormous lantana, cosmos, the salvia. . . some variety of zinnia no one's all that a thrilled about. Glenda. . . I made a note of your real name! And made a note of Vit. D3 to look up. Yep, I water bath can tomatoes. Speaking of green tomatoes, Amy, dbarron. I do like fried green tomatoes. (And I do like tomatoes that are really really tasty --to me, that'd be juicy and on the sweet side.). But three years ago, I made a bunch of "green tomato mincemeat." I think it's delicious, but I'm the only one who will eat it. (It was water bath canned, also.). I guess I'll break open a jar and see if it's still tasty. We DO need rain. SAYS 80% chance tomorrow. The lake is down 3 feet now, so there will be no more fishing unless it comes up a foot. Larry, I love all the room you have to play with! It made me think of a big blank canvas just waiting to be brought to life. I'm not big on greens, either. But I love butter crunch lettuce and spinach. I have Malabar out in one of the beds, and not crazy about it either. I pulled all the kale and look forward to having some more. It is SO windy today, running 20-25 mph. Not a good day to water, but the containers desperately needed it. Kind of sad here today. Missing Dawn, of course. And they're having the annual chili cook-off at the marina today. We wouldn't dream of attending a big crowded event right now. But sad about the whole big darned pandemic deal. We did drive by and there were an insanely CRAZY number of people there. Or maybe jumble some of those words a bit. So in honor of chili cook-off day, we're having the good grocery store pizza tonight. I have no idea why that would work, but somehow it does. I am so sorry you had another bout of vertigo, Amy--are you better today? dbarron--I think you surprised us all with your pronouncement about cannas being edible. Well I have a big ole patch of them out back and may just jump into action tomorrow, just to say we did it. Googled them a little while ago. Three months ago, we contemplated getting 1/4-1/2 beef. We called our meat shop and he advised us to wait 3 or 4 months. There was a sort of panic buying at that time. Since then, we've decided if we do buy a bunch, we'll just go with one of their various "bundles." Jen, I am sorry about your "girl." WHAT do you think it was? So sad! But I perfectly get jumping right in with another one--he's a cutie. We did the same thing when my little Daffy cat died 3 years ago--she'd been with me 15 years. Garry cried, I did not. But it was very sad. I had told him a few days earlier, "You know, living out here, we really do need a cat." He agreed. So the day after Daffy died, Garry asked me if I wanted to go see if the vet had any kittens. I was astounded, but we went. And after thinking about it, went back the next day to pick up Tom and Jerry. YES--a new one right away DOES keep one busy and diverted. HJ. So today's the big day. Hope it all goes beautifully! Wednesday was a long long fishing day. Good, though. Thursday I worked hard at Lincoln with a new helper, a great 16-yr old young man. It was fun. John and helper and I pulled out all the sweet potatoes. Then because John and Suzanne had other stuff to do, helper and I picked all the okra, peppers, tomatoes. Then we began tearing out bad or dead-looking plants. Just generally kind of tidying up in places. And finally we sowed lots of frostweed and more milkweed. So a good productive day. So that's where we've been the past few days....See Morehazelinok
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3 years agoRebecca (7a)
3 years agohazelinok
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