October Week 1: I still wish it would Pour!
dbarron
2 years ago
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hazelinok
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Garden Pics - week of October 1st
Comments (13)Wow, Sharon - you still have so much going on! I'm really impressed with that big pink Aster - Anneke - that's beautiful. It looks like everyone is having a nice display of fall colours. I was on a little road trip the other day and almost drove in the ditch because I was too busy looking at how the poplar trees were absolutely glowing yellow in the early morning sun. Around home the display isn't quite so nice & many of the trees are already bare. I've hardly taken any photos of my yard this year so I hustled out there the other day (it was such a nice day, anyway) and took some. This Aster novi-belgii Blue Boy was destined to be compost, but I must have left a piece of it behind. When I finally realized it was there, I decided to leave it be. This is the nicest this plant has ever bloomed for me, and now I don't know if it was the season or if it needs to start off with a small piece every year. These grow into very large clumps in no time. This one is also Aster novi-belgii, Winston Churchill. It's growing in way too much shade now that the willow has grown, but still stome blooms to enjoy I am, so far, crazy about Dianthus amurensis Amur Pink Fall colours in the back yard The Wooly Thyme is trying to cover the driveway bricks as well as the hens & chicks. No soil under there, no water, gets stepped on all the time. I keep intending to take cuttings and get this started in other areas of the yard. The various Hens & Chicks colour up this time of year. This is Jovibarba 'small rosette mix' started from seed. That's it for me - for the year, LOL....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 MoreOctober 2019, Week 4
Comments (40)Being stuck inside with a big puppy who cannot run around outside is driving me almost as crazy as it is driving him. He is smart, he is learning all the standard commands like No, Come, Sit, Stay, etc. but he seems determined to engage the cat, Lucky, in a battle of the wills every single day. The lesson he has not yet learned is that her claws are going to win every single time. I am on the verge of losing my sanity here. I need a vacation from the big puppy. He is a bundle of love, but a very energetic bundle. Jennifer, It always is challenging the first time a person processes something new from the garden---new to them---and sometimes the sheer quantity of whatever needs to be processed is quite daunting. I'm glad you're making progress on the Seminoles. You do need a root cellar! I've always wanted one but never have been able to convince Tim that building one would be worthwhile. If our clay wasn't so impossible to dig, maybe we would have one by now. We started digging out a spot for one once and simply gave up---digging that dense red clay is like trying to dig concrete. After decades of trying to raise as much of our food as possible and spending far too much time canning, freezing and dehydrating it, I'm sort of over it and really, really wanting to cut back more and more. I no longer can 600-800 jars a year and I don't miss all those long hours in the kitchen. I don't think my body can physically tolerate being on my feet all day every day in the summer any more either. I'll always can some stuff, but more and more I focus on food that can be root-cellared (or maybe I should just say kept in dry storage since I don't have a root cellar) or frozen. Nothing makes a person appreciate things like onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes and winter squash like the fact that you can harvest them, cure them, and put them in dry storage as needed until you use them. This summer I processed and froze all the excess tomatoes in 8-cup batches for salsa back when we were harvesting tomatoes, telling myself that when the weather cooled down, I'd spend October-November turning them into salsa. So far, I haven't done that. If everyone is going to get salsa for Christmas as planned, I need to get busy canning salsa. After all, October is almost over. I think I'll do a few batches of salsa next week, and I haven't yet decided whether to make apple pie jam, candied jalapenos or Habanero Gold to go in the gift bags as well. I need to decide on that and get it done because it seems like once Halloween arrives, Christmas is here in the blink of an eye. I dread doing all this canning for the holiday gifts. I know I'll enjoy it once I start doing it, but I'm so burned out from doing so much for so many years that I don't absolutely love doing it the way that I once did. I wish I did absolutely adore doing it as I did 10, 15 or 20 (or longer) years ago, but I just don't. There's probably a lesson in here somewhere about pacing one's self better over the years so you don't burn out, but I didn't learn that lesson in time. I wish I had a nickel for every night I stayed up canning and cleaning up until midnight, and then got up at 6 am to go out to the garden, harvest tomatoes, and do it all over again....until midnight again.....and again, and again. I used to feel shocked when my older friends here gave up canning in their 60s or 70s after a lifetime of doing it, but now what I'm thinking is that I'm surprised they didn't retire from canning sooner than they did. I may can a lot more after Tim retires---he'd be here to help lift that heavy canner filled with water and filled jars, for example. On the other hand, I may decide that I completely retire from food processing when he retires from his job, though I really don't think I will. I am not sure he wants to help with the canning, because every time he walks into the kitchen now and I'm canning away like a mad woman, he sort of gets that deer-in-headlights look in his eyes and cannot get out of the kitchen, and the house, quickly enough, like he's afraid I might put him to work in the kitchen. lol I'd like to point out that I never once have asked him to help me can, dehydrate or freeze anything, so I don't know why he gets so twitchy when he thinks it might happen. Nancy, I hope the new faucet works out. I hate plumbing work. Tim can do it, and he does do it, but it always requires at least 3 trips to the store to get all the right parts, as if it is impossible to buy all the right parts the first time. I realize that when you start taking apart old plumbing, sometimes you find a part in there that you didn't expect and have to go get one, but it drives me nuts...partly because it is such a long drive to get to a store that has what we need. I hate having to go out in the rain anywhere for any thing at all. Nobody here can drive in the rain and we have a lot of motor vehicle accidents everywhere when it rains, particularly on I-35. We joke that people here cannot drive in the rain because rain is so rare they lack experience in driving in it. Yesterday, within 5 minutes of the rain starting to fall, we were paged out to an auto accident in town. It boggles my mind how common this is. Jen, I love dogs but couldn't have that many of them underfoot all the time. It would drive me crazy. There is a really nice pet boarding facility north of Marietta and some friends of mine who love animals worked there for quite for a while (several years, I think), and it was a tremendous amount of work. We needed the rain and I'm grateful we received it, and now I'm ready for it to end and be over already. We've got about 2.5" in the rain gauge, with light rain expected to continue falling today and tonight. I'd be happy if no more rain fell, but it still would be very wet, chilly and miserable out there even without any more rain. At least we aren't getting snow like those folks in western OK and northwestern OK. I am not getting one single thing done with this dog in the house. He just has too much energy, and I am too kind-hearted to send him out to play in the rain. I'm going plant shopping tomorrow, come hell or high water, because being stuck indoors is driving me almost as crazy as it is driving the dog. Next week's cold looks discouraging. It looks like summer held on forever, and winter is coming early. I miss the long, pleasant autumns we used to have. Dawn...See MoreSept week 4 "I wish it would rain"
Comments (56)Amy, we have not been too fond of dry peas either, but Madge will cook them from time to time. We have a few pounds of PEPH seeds, and have more fresh peas in the freezer, and still some on the vines that should be dry by now. I would have already cut them down if it were not for the added hot wires we strung over them. I have deer problems, but this year they were worse because of the dry weather. The deer would jump the electric fence to eat the peas. My neighbor and I bought over a mile of electric fence wire to discourage the deer. Moni, does your rain gauge ever freeze? I have bought many, only to forget about them and let them freeze and break. I have had a new one for over a year, it had beveled sides. I bought it thinking that maybe the ice would slide up the sides as it expanded. Madge tells everyone that keep it under my bed to protect it, the truth is, I have no idea where it is. We have not done much today. Madge's older brother died this morning. We did go out to eat, but nothing tasted good. I need to go to the wildlife garden and repair the fence. I doubt that I will pick any peas, because we just had another shower, and I dont want to fool with a bunch of wet peas....See Moredbarron
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