I worked outside for a short time this afternoon. Got the cherry tomatoes pulled and the cages/trellises put away. Also pulled the butterfly peas and a few peppers. Rick pulled some other peppers too. All I have left is the asparagus, but it's still surprisingly quite green.

There was still more to do, but it will need to wait until spring. Or late winter. Normally I have the beds cleaned out of weeds. And the pots of annual flowers too.

It is what it is.

I got the house plants watered this evening. And put the Christmas sheets on E's bed and his nutcracker collection put out.

And jarred up some turkey broth. Really, I need to just pressure can it in the future instead of freezing it. I've never canned broth before.

I was very happy to not have to work this evening.

It's back to normal tomorrow. It's been a nice break.

That frost we got the other day made my Roselle looks so sad. I had planned on harvesting some leaves but time just kept getting away from me getting ready for these markets. I did a three day market this weekend and it wasn’t as good as I was hoping, but I made a lot of good connections and met some really awesome people. I think I would like to start some kind of a market journal to help me remember everything. Tomorrow I am going to be in Denton and so Tuesday morning will be Roselle day. I will be cutting it all down picking all the calx off, cleaning it all and processing on Wednesday. I need to build a display for my Market out of Cedar fence boards. I found one on the Internet that is easily broke down so I am going to attempt that. Jennifer I am so glad that you got a break, even though it seems like it goes so very quickly.

I pressure canned chicken broth, Jennifer. It's nice to know you have it, and easy to use, but I don't find canning a lot of fun. I had enough frozen that I had a good canner load, but the way I do chicken broth I would probably only get a couple of jars at a time.

I want to can broth. I use so much it really would save me money

I've pressure canned chicken stock before.

The thing I remember about it was that the lids would fluctuate in and out ( the ping sounds) when taking the jars out of the canner to cool down.

Rick

It's really a smart thing to do, Kim. We use broth/stock often, not only meat broths, but veggie too.

I do make it often as well, but always freeze. My issue is forgetting to thaw it, which is fine sometimes because you can put it in the sink with warm water, but it still takes awhile to thaw out.

Amy, a small batch would be fine with me really. I could have done a batch of 4 pints yesterday. My canner is small. It seems like it would be easy enough to do. With a small batch anyways.

When we get a turkey or whole chicken, I really try to use all of it. The bones turn soft, so I smash it all and give it to the chickens. Honestly, it would probably be good for us to eat.....but yuck.

lol

I got home at 5 and barely had time to feed the chickens before they went to roost.

There's black bean, sweet potato enchiladas in the oven now. It's a good way to use garden food for sure. With this recipe, I was able to use our sweet potatoes, black beans, garlic, and jalapenos.

Larry, you doing okay?

Rebecca, is Houzz still being fussy with you?

Jennifer, I am doing fine, old age and health issues are slowing me down, and I have family that has health issues. We are all past 80, so it keeps us busy looking out for one another.

I am also trying to deal with a feral cat issue, and I hate to think of what probably must be done. We have had one fixed, but there is 8 more, and a year from now there may be 50 more. If I could could catch these cats I would wrap them up and give them as Christmas presents, but then I would lose all my friends also.

I really cant complain about my sweet loving wife wanting to feed any hungry stray she sees, she even took in an old stray man that had roamed the highways from the tropic of cancer to the arctic circle, and didn't even have him fixed, and he is as happy as an old cat curled up by the fireplace.

I wish I had learned something about cooking and canning, it sounds like fun. I have done enough cooking to just get by, but I could never do anything fancy.

The roselle is getting picked and cleaned today. Finally. It will be a long process I am sure but so worth it

I got two Roselle monsters, cut down, cut into pieces and Callix’s pulled off or cut off and I am exhausted and freezing. I think tomorrow I will set up my table and stand up so that I’m moving around and not sitting still. Four giant shrubs is all anyone needs in their life unless they want to grow commercially. I am going to make Christmas jam, using cranberries, orange, and some of this Roselle. I think it would be lovely. I think I also put in cinnamon or cloves or something like that.

Here is the trunk/stalk. And a few bowls of goodies. The trunk is bigger around than a golf ball smaller than a tennis ball. Amazing how much it grows in one season

we are getting rain. Hope that encourages my onion seed to sprout

It looks like we may have some rain in the forecast for the next week.

I am having a hard time getting out and doing anything, first of all, I don't feel as well as I want to, I don't like the cold, windy weather, and it seems as tho we have too many irons in the fire.

I still have not potted my sweet potatoes roots, I also found more garlic to plant, maybe I can get that done before I have to leave for doctor appointment in Fayetteville, that is an 82 mile trip one way, and there is always too much traffic. Madge and I both are becoming more uneasy with our driving. My daughter says that she will take use any time we need her, but we hate to ask her to take off work to take us to the doctor.

We have been having car problems also. We took the car to the shop yesterday, but they could not get the part in, so we are going to drive it to Fayetteville today, then take it back to the shop tomorrow. We need a better car, but we are too old to be wasting money on something like that, we may not be driving long anyway.

I have not checked to see if I have all the seeds I want, but I have at least 10 times as many seeds as I can use, so I need to be happy just planting what I have. It is so easy to hoard stuff till you just run out of room.

It is very easy to hoard stuff isn’t it Larry? Somewhere in the last two years, I learned to let it go. I started dragging stuff to the donation center and to the dumpster and to the burn pile and just let it go because I couldn’t manage what I had I couldn’t take care of what I had and I just wanted a simpler life. I have been in pursuit of peace and simplicity for a long time and it seem like the stuff I had was standing in the way. Now there are times I miss some thing that I got rid of like especially clothing. I’ll think why did I ever get rid of that? That was my favorite Fill in the blank. But it is what it is and I can’t get it back. today I’m making Christmas jelly. I don’t know if I already said that, but it smells so good in here. I use cranberries, plum, cinnamon clove, allspice, ginger, and orange zest and orange juice. Makes a really pretty little jam.

Jars. That's what I tend to hoard.

I feel like a do a pretty good job with not saving too much stuff, but then I'll discover something else that needs to be cleaned out. I'm not as good as I think I am.

Currently I can't find a box of Christmas picture frames that I purchased over the years when the kids were little. They have their Santa pics, etc. in them. Surely I didn't throw those out. I searched everywhere for them. I think I did give them away. Not the pictures (but those are somewhere, tho), because suddenly I have a vague memory of donating them last year. I was going to display them this year even tho they don't "match" my simple decor. I even have/had one of me sitting on Santa's lap at about age 3.

I need to find where I stored the pictures and then maybe make some sort of collage frame.

All that to say, that there are very few times that I miss something I gave away, but there have been a handful of times that I do.

Your Christmas jam sounds delightful, Kim. Those roselle plants get huge. They're hard to pull out of the ground. Almost like a tree trunk. I only had two this year. A few years ago, I had 5. It was a lot.

Last I looked at the weather, the rain is supposed to miss us.

I'm going to try to leave work in about a half hour. I've not gotten home before dark since Sunday and I have no idea what the garden looks like. I have walked Josi around it....but at 10 pm ish. Without a flashlight. But, I like to look at the lights in my house through my windows. Who cares if I step in a hole, or trip over something or run into a critter, right? I'm admiring the cozy view from outside looking in.

I've left the house before dark each morning too until today. I saw the that hoop house door was closed as I was driving past. I don't remember closing it, but it got warm today and the sun was out yesterday and Monday so it's possible the cabbages are cooked. If I personally don't close it, I don't remember to open it in the morning. I often don't close it. I'm not sure it makes a big difference.

Anyway, I need to do a couple of things outside, so my goal is to be home by 4. It takes 30 minutes to get home.

That gives me about an hour.

Welll... ever think that a skunk might get into the hoop house on some cold night?

What if it did and lit off a stink bomb.

You'd be wishing I had closed the hoop house door.

F*O*G horn....pew! ( ...and not a church pew).

Rick

I got that hour outside and the garden looks like you would think a garden would look in December.

The cabbages weren't fried. We ate one with dinner last night. I cooked it very simply with salt, pepper and a bit of celery seed and touch of ACV.

Rick, I wasn't complaining about you or anyone. It's just how my mind works. I check my mental notes first thing in the morning....who needs what, what needs to be done for what, what did I do last night that needs attention this morning. Stuff like that. After I take care of all of that, I take care of myself--getting dressed and ready for the day. Tea made.

(My normal morning routine. Turn on lights, feed Josi, feed Diana and Finbar (sometimes let Finbar inside if he's out), Feed the turtle, put water in the cat fountain, walk Josi around the yard to do her business, bring her in, make sure she has water in her bowl, open the shop and feed Juno and Sturgeon. Check their waters, Fill the chicken feeders, open coop door, deal with a couple of hens who are scared of the others (special feeding areas), scoop the droppings board, check chicken waterers, open hoop house if needed, sometimes grab a few things for my lunch salad from the garden. All in my PJs and finally come inside to make some tea. And realize I didn't take time to tinkle before all of that. Happens every morning! Lol Start Roomba. Do the things that might be leftover on that mental list)

I'm not too worried about a skunk in the hoop house. I suppose it could happen. I'm more concerned that they like to dig under the shop. Usually in the late spring and early summer, tho. I leave the hoop house opened wide all summer long for ventilation. Seems like they usually like to burrow, but in a pinch they might would use a structure like a hoop house, although it probably wouldn't be dark enough for them since they sleep during the day. They could probably tear through the plastic on the door if they so wanted.

Anyway...no biggie. Even if the cabbages had dried up, it's not that big of a deal.

Jennifer that is a long morning chore list.

It is, Kim, but I don't mind it.

However, it's why I'll often tell my co-workers upon my arrival that I feel like I've put in a full day's work already.

But, it's also why I'm staying strong about not taking in anymore animals. I'll slowly downsize as these ones cross the rainbow bridge.

I would like a milk cow, but simply don't have the time for it. Or time to make yogurt, butter, etc. Both things we use a lot of.

Jennifer, you may reach the point to where Madge and I are now, we are just not able to care for pets. We had to put our little Yorky down a couple of years ago, and at the time decided that we would never get another pet because it would probably out live us, and not have any one to love it like we did, plus, Vets are expensive. Now we have cats everywhere. We were able to catch one and had her fixed, now we can't find her. We don't want that cat, or the others, but it is hard to get rid of cats, especially ones you cant catch.

A milk cow would be nice, but for us it is easier just to but the dairy products.

I found more garlic that I need to plant, it has been outside through several freezes, but I think it may grow ok, but I sure don't need it.

Madge got a message, and recipe from a grand daughter that was here Thanksgiving, about how she made a dish from the produce that she picked while here. I feel good hearing from the kids that use our produce. I love to grow veggies, but hate it when no one wants them.

My garlic looks like it needs nitrogen and water, I also should get soil for a soil test, but I have some time because things are not going to grow a lot this time of the year anyway.

Larry, I remember your sweet little yorkie. You shared pictures. He was a cutie.

I'm still able to physically care for the animals. For me, it's time.

And, you're right, it is expensive. Vet costs have gone up a lot over the past few years. And as the pet ages, it needs extra care often too. We spent $1000 on Josi the dog during the summer. I'm grateful her issues happened in the summer so I had a bit more time to do her special care.

Things I left off my morning routine is caring for Finbar's ear each morning. He has some type of drainage that is ongoing. He's been to the vet twice for ear flushes and medicine. I clean it out each morning and evening. I do think it's getting better. I think.

Also, because at least one cat sleeps on our bed, I use a lint roller on our bed each morning. Just another task because of the pets.

I don't mind any of it, but it is time consuming.

That must be such a great feeling having your granddaughter share a recipe that uses your garden produce. Even when I cook a dish for my daughter (I often take a meal that I made the night before on Tuesdays when I babysit), I like to point out the ingredients that are homegrown.

Yes, a milk cow would be so wonderful to have. But, I can't even imagine trying to squeeze in time for it. Maybe if I didn't work away from home. I've thought about asking a couple of neighbors if they would want to share a milk cow--share the work, share the milk. But, probably not. It's just easier and cheaper to buy our butter and yogurt. I do buy the expensive stuff, but it's still cheaper than a cow and its care.

I'm sorry about your cat issues. I have a friend and co-worker (the one whose house will be taken by the turnpike) who has had a very similar issue. She does her best to capture them and take them to be spayed/neutered. The amount of personal money she's put into it it ridiculous. She's done this for dozens of cats and kittens. People dump their cats...and dogs out there. She has a big heart for animals and would like to make a sanctuary for cats. But, even she is getting weary of it.

And now I must go on a search for the "better" manger that is stored in a closet somewhere in this massive building. And then get over to the school.

I found about 70 garlic cloves that I think will grow. I have been sitting here sorting the garlic and shelling out okra seeds. I have still not planted the purple sweet potatoes, I did dig out the heat mat to sit them on. It is too early to start messing with sweet potatoes, but I gave away all of my purple potatoes ( not planning to grow them again, but grand daughter said that they would some ).

Larry, you’re a good grandpa. Some of the stuff I grow and work hard at is specifically for grandkids. Today I built some display shelves for my farmers market. I’m going to do to this weekend three next weekend and one the next weekend. Kind of proud of them they look really cute to me. They will definitely work better than what I have been doing, and I built them sturdy enough so that I can load unload without them falling apart. I would have used some glue if I would’ve had it, but I think the nails will suffice. Still waiting on onions to come up. Salandro is growing well and I still have dill sage rosemary, carrots, cabbages broccoli Rob all doing very well

Kim, they look good. I tried to teach my kids and grand kids how to build and repair things.

I bought 100 treated fence boards years ago, the kids and grand kids have used many of them on building projects.

Thanks Larry. These boards I salvaged from a friend. Then I built a raised bed in Lubbock. Took that apart and brought them with me. I have built a couple beds, used some on my walk in my house and now these. My great nephew said they look like little doll couches

We got rained out

Is it really Monday? I found my tag for the big red tomatoes. Cherokee purple. I wondered when I cut them open it was such a familiar color and smell

I started so many peppers and tomatoes this year that I could not keep up with them. I started some Cherokee Purple, but I don't remember if I planted any in the garden.

I still have not cleaned up my gardens.

Yes, Kim, its Monday, but it won't be for much longer. Time sure flies when you are having fun.

I had a great day. After a rough weekend doing two markets with bad sales I needed a day in the sun. I raked leaves, weed whacked and cleaned up my car. I also cut down the other two roselle. The garden has changed so fast. My onion seed has not come up. Three good rains should have had them popping right up but nothing so far.

According to Tom Clothiers chart it can take 13-31 days

The only onion seeds that I have started outside was in warmer weather than I am having. I think those seeds were Lisbon bunching onions, they are about as easy to grow as the walking onions. I would like to have some Spanish onion seeds to plant inside, I tried that one time and it worked out fine. Onions may be one of the plants that would really do will with winter sow.

Larry I thought about you today. Gophers are going crazy here for some reason, I put out traps and caught 3 already! Have you tried your new traps yet?

Hi Everyone. Just checking in. I read all the posts, but haven't been commenting. I think my last two posts from 4 or so days ago aren't showing up. It happens from time to time. Even tho I can see them. Not sure this one will show either.

Super busy with the season. All good tho.

It's just annoying when I take the time to make a post and no one can see it. LOL.

No one has time for that right now, right?

I haven’t seen you on here in days and days and days. I was beginning to wonder. I was actually going to private message you later Jennifer.

I'm good, Kim. Just busy like everyone else.

I don't mind spending a bit taking time to make posts, but when they don't show up, it's annoying and a waste of time, so I just stop posting for awhile.

I posted 4 and 5 days ago.

I hope you're doing well.

I am well Jennifer thank you. I would get so frustrated with that.

December 2024 is a perfect time to reflect on life's journey—tending to your garden mirrors nurturing dreams and wishes, while life's events shape your thoughts.

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As you all know, I enjoy growing sweet potatoes, and have pretty good luck with the Covington sweet potato, but I would like to try a white variety also. I have lost my contact info for George, but some of you may know of a variety I can order slips for. I would like to grow a productive, long keeper. I want to try to find a variety that can pretty well replace the Irish potato. I just don't seem to do well with Irish potatoes here, my thinking is that the soil stays too wet, too long, and by the time it dries out it is getting too hop for Irish potatoes to do well.

Thank you for your help.

Larry

Here's a few links:

https://www.amazon.com/Potato-Planting-Outdoors-Plants-Cuttings/dp/B0CX8T2XH3?th=1

Here's one called "O'Henry":

https://www.ufseeds.com/product/ohenry-sweet-potato-slips---100-potato-slips/SPOH-100+Slips.html?srsltid=AfmBOoroqEgZE8DBK-RF7L77HggwS0bqDcJaEdTAxEy29vJF9S3XT7o4J3Q&gQT=1

Here's a "White Yam" sweet potato:

https://www.parkseed.com/products/white-yam-sweet-potato-slips-43751-pk-25?srsltid=AfmBOopUqou7ypMXJnW6mGZw2Xt5QEFMgYt2wNnedWV9gYRAXGg2DZ8I3vY&gPromoCode=REFRESH20&gQT=1

Don't know anything about these but looks like that " O'Henry " might be what you're looking for.

Rick

I used to order sweet potato slips from a place up north. I got a variety called Nancy Hall. It was very prolific

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Kim, Rick, thanks for you input. So far I have 5 from Sand Hill that I want research farther. I was surprised at how many that said "unavailable for 2025". I still plan on planting a good supply of Covington.

Larry, there is always a lot that says unavailable for 2025. They handle so many varieties that crop failure is inevitable or they have just enough to perpetuate that variety.

Kim, I expected that, I also noted that because of voles there happened to be a crop failure. I was not happy about the crop failure, but I did feel a little better knowing that the voles and gophers were not just singling me out.

I may have waited too long to save any of my purple potatoes, but I wont lose a lot of sleep over that.

Larry, check your Facebook messages, I sent you George's contact info.

Thanks, Amy, George sent me his info some time back, but like everything else I misplaced it.