Rick, thinks for the update, I love seeing pictures of the things other people are doing. I also love seeing pictures of the cows and the pretty flat land. I have always lived in bumpy land, it makes pretty good pasture, and pretty places to build a house, but it ain't worth a hoot for farming.

I can see your land is dryer than mine. My land does not drain well, plus I live in a valley and get a lot of run-off from other people's land, which may help me in late summer, but it nearly always puts me a little late getting soil ready to plant in the spring.

I plan on going out and harvesting a few turnips and onions in a while. It is getting the time of the year for the turnips to freeze out. The onion tops will be damaged also, so I would like to harvest more onions and cut the bottom off like the ones before and replant them like I did before. My daughter and grand daughter are using more of my crops now ( which is what I want), I am hoping that they will want to start growing food on their own.

It's black loamy soil there, good for farming.

No red dirt and not much clay to speak of.

But it can stay wet a while during too wet spells.

The farmers out around there grow corn , wheat and soybeans.

They used to grow peanuts back when I was younger but the government phased it out.

Rick

Still not much to talk about really.

Just getting ready for all the holiday festivities.

But, really, some changes need to be made. WHY are we buying gifts for each other at work? Trying to come up with 10 reasonably priced gifts that are meaningful is not easy. Guys are harder. Girls usually appreciate a cute holiday hand towel, an ornament, a nice bottle of lotion or hand soap, cute earrings. Still, tho, it's a lot. And all the gatherings where you're required to bring a finger food or side dish or dessert. Finding a recipe, shopping for the ingredients and then making it.

There's gotta be a way to simplify all of this. And I have ideas on that...and will be sharing those with involved people.

And, I'm noting on my 2024 planner to shop for holiday clothing in November. I've purchased zero clothing items this season and really it's too late at this point. Oh well. It's a thing for me because I'm involved in a couple of programs and need to look nice. Side note. "fashion" this year is not for me. The styles are weird. Then add in my feet issues. I currently have no black shoes or boots because it requires a trip to Brown's shoe store and around $200. How I wish I could just pick up some $40 shoes. But, if I want to be able to walk, then I've gotta spend it. Finding clothing that looks good with my brown boots is another factor.

I spent way too long (precious time!) trying on clothing last night at 3 different stores and found nothing.

I'll be caring for our neighbors' animals for a couple of weeks and she gave me some really meaningful gifts. A package of Beulah tea--it's Roots and Refuge new coffee roasting company. They also do tea. I really love tea. And a couple of rustic, handmade knitted gnomes. Absolutely precious.

Things I would like to be doing: making ornaments with the orange slices I dried last week and making candy/baking cookies. Also, reading books and watching Christmas movies. Also, preparing my home for my family. I can't believe Ethan will be here in 9 days. I haven't touched his room since he left in June, other than to put cardboard on the floors and spread out onions/potatoes. But, those have been out since October. The room is very dirty--like dusty dirty. So, needs to be deep cleaned next week before he comes home. I'm going to do that on Tuesday. Open the windows and burn some sage in there. The sage really seems to cleanse the air.

Oh, the garden. Still harvesting lettuce, arugula, spinach, a few herbs, radishes, kale and turnips. The calendula is surprisingly still alive and blooming.

I have a couple of mystery chickens that look a little like Welsummers, but not exactly and I think they are laying small green eggs. They are the most skittish pullets I've ever had. This morning when I went to the shop to feed the shop cats and open the door for them, I heard a noise and it was one of those pullets roosting in the rafters. I absolutely do not want them in the shop. It's a shop not a barn and they poop while roosting. I'm going to have to check each night. I caught one and clipped her wing this morning. I was late to work. Getting stuck by a train didn't help either.

Tonight will be a late work night because of a school program.

That's it from me. Seems like everyone is equally as busy as I am. It's the season.

Well howdy. I was stuck in last weeks thread. It dawned on me that y’all had moved without me. I have to laugh at myself for taking four days to catch on. Sounds like y’all are doing good in the garden and the holidays. Hope you had a great birthday Larry maybe got the piece of cake. Jennifer I understand about shopping and I was just laying here thinking I need new shoes and I hate shopping for shoes. Honestly the best time to shop for winter clothing is in February. Dillards puts all their clothing on clearance deep clearance at that time and I have found literally $200 outfits for only 20 to 40 bucks. I have not yet to do an inventory on my seeds, I never did one last year I was so sick. Hopefully I can get one done soon.

Jennifer, get back on your stump and preach about Christmas, I think we "as people" have really messed Christmas up. We started trying to simplify holidays a few years ago, there just seems to be too much gift buying and cooking. We don't even go to Christmas programs, we don't see well at night and afraid of falling and driving. But one of the smarter things we have done, is cutting way back on cooking. Some of the kids will bring a pot of soup or chili, Madge will make a desert, of course there will be small gifts, but I would like to cut the gifts out also, because they just seem to grow more each year. We tell the kids that we already have everything that we need.

Kim, I did have a nice birthday. My daughter took us out to eat Sunday, then Madge took me out to eat on Wednesday. Madge made a sweet potato pie rather than a cake, which was great.

I have not checked my seed inventory, but I know I have more seeds than I have room to plant. I bought more onion sets when we went to town Wed., I want to have a supply of which I can pick the kind of onions I like best. Amy, I plan on ordering the potato onions you linked, I have not been able to find any at the Co-op's I have been in, they just give me a funny look when I ask if they have any potato onions.

The 150+ sets I bought Wed. will be planted on the light shelf after Christmas because the quality of the sets was pretty low and they need to go in the ground soon.