We had a scuffle between one of our dogs and a client's, our boy was on the losing end. Nothing serious, but he needed extra attention so I skipped church. Skipping church for a dog...but y'all would understand. So we went out and tried to mow (I don't recommend it) and did some cleanup. Whacked down a few spent tomato vines, got rid of the zinnias that had mildew, and harvested what was ready.

Did you know cherry tomatoes can explode with too much rain? I found some that had literally turned themselves inside out. So now I have a big bowl of semi ripe tomatoes, just so they don't split and ruin.

And I noticed some of the peanuts I've been growing have sprouted. I've been waiting all summer to harvest, and the darn things sprout instead. And some cosmos seed germinated in the seedhead. If I thought they'd actually grow I would have left them, but I threw them in the bed. If they take root, great. Otherwise, oh well.

Oh yeah, my marigolds have sent out a ton of aerial roots. It took a minute to figure out what I was looking at, it looked like some mutant alien plant. The entire stem, all the way to the blooms, was covered in what looked like white tentacles. That thing is determined to take over the garden.

I quit the restuarant job. It was so horrible . I worked 5 to 6 hours no sit down break, no food. Most days my blood sugar was so low when I left it was no good. A few times I would say dangerous. I got lost last week ended up on a dirt road west off where I was going. And I got mmy first paycheck. I don't even make minimum wages. They have pay the difference to make it up.

All is well. I have pea shelling job and interview with natural grocers tomorrow. And I can work market on some Saturdays.

Neighbor mowed so now my yard looks terrible. I need to go borrow weed machine again. Garden is on 3rd wave of blooming like crazy. Okra is really doing good. IIf I remember to pick it i get enough every 3 days. Tomatoes are still trying. Porter is doing awesome. I have some good seed from it. Snow white is not making good seed. Not sure why. Unless I just picked too early. Sweet potatoes are beautiful.

I bought a big bag of soil to start moving garden to pots. Now I have to find pots.

My oldest son and his family have it all set up with my sister to go to Branson for Thanksgiving. They are paying for it so I said sure why not. My grands may be coming too so I can enjoy them for 16 hours. We will have to stop near Tulsa I am sure for lunch.....

Kim, I've heard that Natural Grocers is a good company to work for...they like to hire full time and there's benefits. I've considered it myself. You'll have to let me know if my information is accurate.

Sorry about the restaurant job being so horrible.

Jen, totally understand that your pup needed extra attention. I'm sure God understands too.

My SunGolds are splitting--so much rain. Some of them might actually be done. Whatever hornworm got them, got them good. I ignored them, so I'm not upset. There was a weird hornworm on my cardinal vine last night. It was brown instead of green. It sorta freaked me out because it was dark and I was putting them all to bed, as well as, filling water. (If I have to hurry the following morning, I like to have as many things done as possible in advance.) I just left it there.

Peggy is still a unsteady on her feet, but doesn't seem to be in any pain otherwise. I guess I'll keep a crippled chicken. Why not?

Seriously, nothing new in the garden. I'll be scrambling to find something for my Garden Monday FB post. Did y'all notice I skipped Chicken Friday? Oh well. I need a Cat Tuesday or Cat Thursday....

Hoping to clean up my utility room tomorrow. Now that my foot is better and Kane is better, I can help that room back to it's (somewhat) tidy spot. It currently looks like a murder scene.

It is chilly outside. So weird. We are lighting a fire in the fire-pit and I will be enjoying a glass of wine.

Jen, I'm glad your dog was not too badly injured.

Yes, excess moisture can be all bite-sized tomatoes crack, split or explode, but some varieties are worse than others. Unfortunately, a lot of the ones that don't split have a naturally tough skin. I guess it helps prevent cracking but I don't like eating tough-skinned tomatoes, so I only grown the crack-prone ones. The same thing can happen with full-sized tomatoes too, though it isn't always as obvious. I'll do a big tomato harvest right before big rain is expected (if I believe we're actually going to get the big rain that is in the forecast) and harvest everything at breaker stage in an attempt to save the tomatoes from potential cracking. Of course, this doesn't work as well if you're getting rain for days and days and days on end.

It sounds like whatever amount of rain you've had is not doing your plants any favors. Even the aerial roots may be related to the rain---many plants send out those adventitious roots when they are stressed, and it can result from many different kinds of stress, like being too dry or too wet, for example. On some plants (bromeliads, for example), people are thrilled to have new roots to use for plant propagation. With most common garden plants, though, they can just be ignored especially if you cannot change the conditions that caused them to occur. I tend to just ignore them.

Kim, I hope you find a suitable job that is worth doing. It doesn't sound like the restaurant job was working out very well.

The Thanksgiving trip will be fun, I bet!

Jennifer, Any kind of hornworm can appear in a brown form. I've seen brown forms of tomato hornworms, tobacco hornworms and white-lined sphinx hornworms, for example, but not necessarily often. Maybe a couple of times a year. I saw some in Spring but haven't seen any since then.

A chicken that is unsteady on its feet but does not show any apparent leg injury often has a vitamin deficiency. Some people buy baby vitamins (I think it is a specific type....let me see if I can find it by Googling) to give the chicken in case that is the cause. Or, it can be a sign that a disease of some sort is developing. Or, old age even, but Peggy isn't old enough to be considered that old yet. Here's the thread I remembered about someone using PolyVitamins Without Iron for their chicken's balance problem:

Chicken Unsteady on Feet....

Nothing new in my garden, and I don't care. It has been a hard garden year and I'm tired. It is chilly here, so I just stayed indoors and worked on things inside the house.

Tim the insane mowing guy went outside and mowed late yesterday as soon as the girls left with Chris. Apparently it was driving him crazy that almost a whole weekend had gone by without him mowing. He'll be the first to admit he is a very anal Type A person who obsesses over something that he wants to do and hasn't gotten done yet, so I suppose mowing was good for his mental health. Don't tell him I said this, but the lawn looks horrible because he mowed it wet.....all ragged and uneven and pathetic. He's late getting home tonight so it probably will be too dark for him to get a good look at it tonight. Otherwise, he might be out there mowing to even it up in the darkness with a flashlight or something.

Apparently the cooler weather brought out the skunks. Yesterday we could smell them all over because people in cars hit the skunks and killed them. There were several dead ones in the road within a mile or two of our house, and the buzzards were having a field day which delighted Lillie, who is into the science of how it all works, and upset her little sister, who said "poor skunks". We also have had armadillos galore (or just one really busy one perhaps) plowing up the yard every night. I hope they are enjoying eating whatever it is that they're digging up.

For the last week, we've had one doe bring triplet fawns to eat breakfast and dinner. They're always here when I go out first thing in the morning, waiting for me to put out the cracked corn for the doves so they can steal it, so I just make extra little piles for them. Of course, they are standing in the field waiting, and when they see me, they run and hide. Same thing every day. I wonder why they don't just hide until I've come out and gone back indoors. Then I'd never see them, which probably would make them feel safer. When I put out the deer corn in the evening, they usually are the first to arrive to eat. I am not sure if this doe is the mother of all three (but they do seem to be exactly the same size and look almost identical to one another) or if she adopted a motherless fawn or two to raise along with her own. Either way, they are more skittish than the other deer who 'know' me well by sight and don't run and hide, so I don't think they were coming here all summer in the drought like some others were. I think they are fairly new. It delights the girls to see the deer, especially the fawns.

Rabbits are starting to show up again, and they are young, so I guess whichever cottontails survived the hungry coyotes this summer now are breeding. I've left my garden gate open for three weeks so anything hungry could go in there and eat. As far as I can tell, nobody has gone in there. When I go in there, I don't find any devoured plants.

It has stayed cloudy and much cooler than forecast. Except for the fact that the girls didn't get their swimming pool time this weekend because the weather was too cool, I don't mind it. I'd rather have the weather stay cloudy and cool if the alternative is to go back to sunny and hot or, even worse, sunny, hot and humid. We're still supposed to have hotter weather by the weekend, but so far the clouds do not seem in any hurry to move on and let us warm up again.

I have a pile of mini gourds and mini pumpkins on a platter on the breakfast room table---trying to get myself into an autumn mood. It isn't really working. We need for the leaves to turn colors and start falling so it will feel like fall because it just feels like the cool end of summer so far. Cold wind that requires the wearing of long sleeves would be awesome too. I'd love for it to not only look like Fall but feel like it as well.

Dawn

Dawn, thanks for sharing that link. Peggy is bigger than the other hens. Maybe she does need more nutrients. She is still eating and drinking and moving short distances. And seems happy enough, just can't walk well.

Strep throat. Good times.

Will I be sorry for planting cypress vine? LOL. Is it as bad as the purple morning glories? I saw some friends' house and have never seen it before. It's so pretty! Of course, I have to try it. . . friends sent me home with a few; don't know that they'll grow, though. They

Rebecca, you are too old to have strep throat! Shame on you. Did you catch it early enough so that you're not too sick? I hope so.

Weather is dreamy, but we have done hardly anything today. Mostly just sat here, visiting and watching hummingbird antics. Watered seeds. Picked a bunch of peppers. That's about it. Well, I had to chop up onions, peppers, big mushrooms. We're taking for shish kabobs at a neighborhood gathering, and I'll take salsa and deviled eggs and a shrimp scampi dip. Oh. Okay, so I did a few things in the kitchen. And the salsa and peppers came from the garden, so it's garden talk, right?

Here is my teensy pride and joy. Do you all remember us wining because we couldn't grow cumin? This was the sole surviving seedling,. It got planted as soon as May turned hot and has languished there all these four months! I just laugh really hard every time I check it. It's what maybe 10 inches tall, and a fragile little thing! Not one of my greatest successes! hahahaha

I know I commented on your situation, Kim, but it is not here! Poof--I bet I didn't post it! At any rate, I'm sorry the job turned into a dud. I was hoping for ya. But I know hostesses don't make much, so I am not surprised. Bummer!

PS: I was studying the map of Oklahoma today. I did not know we have Alfalfa County in our state!!!!!

Lol, Nancy, I also have an ear infection. Shouldn’t this make me feel younger? Anyway, I got the antibiotic started within 24 hours of the first symptoms. Hopefully I’ll be fine to head to Fort Worth this weekend.

Jennifer, You're welcome. Hopefully vitamins or something will help Peggy. When a chicken goes down and cannot get up and walk again, that's the end for that bird, so y'all gotta keep her up and walking to save her. As long as she can get up and walk, even if she isn't walking well, then that is a good sign.

Rebecca, Sorry about the strep throat. Hope you recover quickly.

Nancy, They will grow. They will grow somewhere, anywhere and everywhere, whether you want them or not. Cypress vine is a voracious reseeder and spreader, but I don't regret planting it. Mine has reseeded for at least 15 years and I never know where it will come up (well, it mostly comes up everywhere, though not all at the same time). When I originally planted it, I planted the red cypress vine. Then a year or two later I planted the mix, so I sometimes have red ones...or pink....or white. This year? Oddly, every plant I did not weed out has produced white flowers. I sort of miss the red and the pink. Maybe I need to pull out less of them next summer so that some reds remain. I often weed them out until mid-August and then leave them alone and ignore them. They creep and crawl all over everything once autumn rain returns, and then they bloom, adding lots of cheery color, albeit in very small flowers, all over the garden at a time when lots of summer flowers are worn out and either dying or going to seed. If I don't weed them out through mid-August, they take over the garden though. After mid-August, it is too hot to pull them and too snakey and I just don't care. They can have all the space they want in the fall garden. I keep hoping some reds and pinks will show up now, but so far, every time one of them blooms, it is white, which is just so odd.

I do have pink rain lilies in the latest round of blooming from them out in the pasture. Last time they were white. Mother Nature is amazing.

Rebecca, The ear infection and strep throat do sort of put you back in a younger age group? lol

I hope you get to go down to Ft. Worth this weekend. We're going down there on Friday, but just for the day.

Nothing new in the garden here. Cloudy, cool, weeds and morning glories/cypress vines taking over, and I don't care. I'm in snake avoidance mode. Tim saw rodents in the garage so put out rat poison in there. This is not all that unusual after rainfall/cooler weather arrives at this time of the year. It is better that he saw them before I did because I'd just burn down the garage (well, not really, but I'd want to) trying to kill them. They ate all the rat poison he put out in 2 days so he put out more. This means we have to keep an eye on the pets and make sure they don't find a dead rodent if it escapes the garage before dying.

There's tons and tons of deer coming here to feed. Is it because of the drought? I suppose so. Spring was good to the does though, as there's a huge number of fawns---so many that it is rare to see a doe with only one fawn. Lots of twins and at least one set of triplets locally (ha, by locally, I mean on our property). A friend who hunts (their property where they hunt sits just west of our back property line, between us and the river) says he isn't seeing many bucks, but they have noticed the huge 'crop' of fawns this summer. I told Tim to tell him we do have bucks, but they are mostly only coming to feed after dark, so not as easy to spot...and, we must have some good bucks because somebody fathered all these little fawns. The granddaughters love it---they see "Bambi" every time they are here, and we get into a discussion initiated by them about how sad it is that Bambi's mother dies in the movie after being shot by a hunter. Something (perhaps coyotes) is disturbing the deer as they were coming to eat yesterday throughout the day, instead of at sunrise and around sunset. After sunset there were none. When they begin to prefer broad daylight to darkness it is because something is making the darkness too dangerous for open movement. The few remaining cottontails also now prefer eating in broad daylight to darkness.

We had brief periods of sunshine yesterday, but remained mostly cloudy throughout much of the day until late afternoon. I miss the sunshine but love the cooler temperatures. We did warm up more yesterday than the preceding days, so the warming trend is occurring, but the sunshine is mostly staying in hiding. The tropical disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico continues sending us tons of clouds and some are accompanied by a sort of foggy mist, though it never lasts too long. This really is the best September weather we have had in a long time and I'm not complaining---cool, cloudy and misty beats being hot, dry, sunny and having highs in the upper 90s through the end of September, which is what we've mostly had in recent years.

Maybe the developing Modoki El Nino is responsible for this weather. Meanwhile, I remain glued to The Weather Channel and Weather Underground, keeping an eye on all the tropical storms, especially Florence. I'm glad we are too far from the coast to have to worry about such things affecting us (notwithstanding what Erin and Hermine brought to OK once upon a time) and our gardens.

Dawn

I read the threads every day, y'all, just haven't had much to say.

My big news is that my son is back in the states. He's not home yet, but he's out of harms way.

My parents moved to an assisted living center Monday. My mother decided this was going to happen and in less than 3 weeks they were doing it. Neither Ron, nor I felt great that day, but there was no homicide, so that was good. There's a lot of walking involved there. My folks will either get stronger or need wheel chairs.

I don't feel much like working in the garden. I managed to let half the seeds I started get too dry. I don't like using lights, and I don't like them in the bedroom. I forget about them. Must get a new plan.

Looks like a couple of okra plants might produce. We've gotten ONE slicing cucumber and ONE pickling. WTH? Peppers are doing great. A few tomatoes are producing. I need to go pick southern peas. I've been waiting for it to dry out.

We only got an inch of rain during that last go round. Much of it missed us all together.

Hugs to you all.

I guess we're all in a kind of slump right now. . .. LOL. I certainly am. I'm so glad your son is back, Amy! And will be anxious to hear about how your folks adjust. I've not been doing much in the yard. My newly-seeded dill, cilantro, spinach is doing great.

I mowed the yard today, Garry weed-whipped. I had to take 3-4 breaks. He did, too. I am already fearing our next years. Gets harder and harder. But such is life. Then I spent a good two hours tearing out little elm trees and Bermuda in the back "Bermuda" bed. Tough work but keeps us going and outta the bars. LOL

I'm excited to see Amy and Eileen on Saturday.

Dawn, so thankful that you're in my life, keeping me going with it all. Got cilantro, dill, something else (lol) springing up in the veggie beds. Just planted my coral honeysuckle and exotic echinaceas. But otherwise am pretty much done, except for easy weeding. Hugs to you all, like Amy said.

I dont have much going on. My okra is nearing the end of production, getting too tall to pick anyway. My sweet potato vines are going everywhere, I cut them back when they get out into the lawn. My jalapenos are doing very well, Most of my tomatoes are still producing very poorly. My wildlife garden has a wildlife mix coming up along with some grain rye, radishes, and turnips. If we dont get some rain the wildlife garden will be very poor, but I think most of the seed will germinate if we "ever" get rain.

I'm around. Just...busy and weird. Things feel weird. Soon enough we'll be at holiday time and planning our 2019 garden. That will be exciting.

HJ, NO! I am so enjoying our lazy days right now. I want them to last until Jan. 1! (I don't do holidays, so no pressure there. :) lol. Not much planning for my 2019 garden since I grew all the flowers and herbs this year. Keeping the veggies simple--to the ones we eat the most. After all, we're only two people, and we don't eat much. I guess my biggest 2019 garden work will be growing seedlings of every sort for my friends who'd like to have them. And I can grow a ton of them on my brother's grow cart and love doing it.) My greens, dill, cilantro are growing quickly; new flowers are sprouting. Yes, we had some disappointments, mostly due to the sudden switch from cold to hot in May. And due to a glut of greedy monstrous bad bugs. But for the past month and still, the beds look great. And good beds with little weeding, save for the back Bermuda bed (I'm about 2/3 through it now) and the front shop bed that also has plenty of Bermuda. I planted my coral honeysuckle, and two new colorful echinacea. More lettuce, spinach. And yet we've been fishing at least twice a week--making up for May, June and July, which were just TOO hot.

Every time I mow I have tons of grass clippings for my kinda "chop and drop" way. I dump the clippings whenever the mower gets full. Ditto with all the many plants I take out. And I have a lot of half-rotted straw to spread and still tons of wood chips. I'm SUPER-enjoying this past 5-6 weeks! I'm feeling pretty cavalier..............hahaha the "pride before the fall"! I have been able to slow down with work on the beds. I told GDW this 4 years ago when I worked my tail off working on all these beds, and 3 years ago when we built our raised veggie beds and worked our tails off., "Sweetie, it'll get easier." GDW is amazed that it's so easy this year. The only major work I have this fall is moving many many plants to a more appropriate place. And there's a lot of 'em! Got major rearranging to do. I kinda like the Bermuda weeding. . . don't have to spend more than a couple hours out there every second day or so, and keep retracing previously weeded areas to catch new growing ones I missed the first time. I swear it's a kind of zen thing, and oh so rewarding.

Larry, we don't have much going on, either. And I'm tickled pink. But unlike you, we've gotten enough rain to keep everything very green and growing. I'm harvesting herbs, peppers, peppers, peppers. We took about 2 dozen to a neighborhood get-together few nights ago. Our talented cook charred them all (and another neighbor took even more than we did), and they were the star of the show. Charred peppers turned spicy and sweet. I've harvested so many peppers that now I'm just chucking not-up-to-par ones left and right. Love peppers. Loved the tomato experiment. Love the garlic, onions, potatoes. I love sweet potatoes, tried to convert Garry, no go. So, sigh. Cucumbers, intended to plant a couple last of July, missed it. All good, we don't eat that many and have enough pickles to last the rest of my life.

Now, if I could just figure out how to get out of mowing the lawn, and to get Garry out of weed-whipping, we'd have it made. ROTFL. Blessings to you all.

Amy, I am so glad your son is back home and out of harm's way, and so grateful for his service to our country. I know you must be feeling very relieved to have back on US soil again.

Your parents made a decision and then made it happen so quickly. Good for them. I hope they will adjust well. I know older folks whose health improved after they moved into assisted living centers. They seemed to thrive being around a lot more people and also seemed to enjoy the scheduled activities, so maybe your folks either will walk more, or they'll learn to race around in their wheelchairs, right? Oh, and it is good that no homicides occurred.

It's been an odd gardening year---I think there's been too much rain and clouds at some times for some folks' gardens (not in mine down here in drought land, but for much of OK). You know that pollinators tend to be less active in cooler, cloudier weather so that may be the issue recently. Oddly, we have a lot of honey bees visiting the cracked corn that I put out for the mourning doves, even though there's tons and tons of flowers in the garden. While the honey bees flock to the cracked corn in winter to feed on the corn dust, it is odd to see them doing it during the growing season with plentiful flowers in bloom. I don't understand it, but then, I'm just grateful to have a nice bee population around even if I don't understand why they do the things they do sometimes.

Nancy, We need to mow and also need to drag out the string trimmer and do that task as well. We are starting out today cool, dark from low-hanging clouds and with a 50% chance of rain, so this might not be the day to get it done. If it doesn't rain, maybe the grass will be dry enough this afternoon.

I planted nothing for fall and have no regrets really, as the drought drags on at our house. On the latest U. S. Drought Monitor Map. about 90% of our county is out of drought, but our portion of the county.....literally from our neighborhood southward to the Red River.....remains in drought. This isn't surprising to me because our part of the county has consistently, month in and month out, received less rain than the rest of the county so it is exactly what I expected to see on the Monitor this week. We may look green from recent rainfall, but it wasn't enough rain to put much moisture down deeper in the ground----when I look at the places our little armadillo buddy plows up every night, he is hitting dry soil just an inch or so beneath the surface of the ground. Some wildflowers are trying to make a comeback. They remain small and stunted, and often about 20% of their usual size, but are blooming tiny flowers, which is better than there being no flowers at all.

Larry, Hang in there. Rain has to return sooner or later, hopefully during this growing season. I'm tired of drought too, but also hoping the drought doesn't end with a flood. Our weather seems to swing from one extreme to the other anymore---why can't we just get nice moderate rainfall instead of always getting too little or too much at one time?

Jennifer, I feel weird too. I ought to be out in the garden doing things. I want to be out in the garden doing things. The weather is fairly ideal to be out there doing things. Historically, though, this is a bad time for snakes, especially venomous ones, here, so I am steering clear of the garden. I'd rather not encounter another single copperhead or rattlesnake this year......but I suspect I still will, despite my best efforts to avoid them. If the weather would get just a bit cooler at night, snakes would be less of a worry in the garden (but more of a worry on paved and gravel surfaces as they try to soak up heat), but instead, we have a warming trend here for the next week.

I'll be happier when it is colder (oddly) so I can just focus on the holidays and planning for next year's garden. I hate this odd, in-between period when the weather is right for gardening, but the snake situation is not.

Nancy, The only way I have found to get out of mowing is to convert more lawn space to garden space, or to plant so many trees and shrubs that they shade out the lawn and you can replace it with lower-maintenance ground covers that don't require as much sun.

I'm enjoying the lazy, non-gardening days too, to some extent, but always feel like I ought to be out there doing something. I would be if I didn't live in such a snake-infested area. I've been toying with the idea of putting on my leather boots and going out there and doing stuff anyway, but don't think I'm quite brave enough yet. Now, if it was 10 degrees cooler at night, I could do it, but it isn't, so that's that.

We drove down to the Ft. Worth Zoo yesterday with our son and his family---to celebrate the 4-year-old's birthday (she happily announced "I'm the birthday girl" many times to anyone who would listen). It was a perfect day. Lillie was out of school so we were able to make it a weekday trip and there were a lot less people at the zoo than on a weekend day. When we took the girls to the zoo back in May, we only made it through 2/3s of the zoo because we all got hot and tired in that unseasonably hot weather that May brought us. This time, we went through 100% of the zoo. This might have been a mistake.

After lunch (again, as last time, at the Crocodile Cafe' so you can watch the fish, turtles and crocodiles through the glass wall while you eat), we headed for the Texas Wild section at the most remote end of the zoo. We had not been to that end of the zoo since Chris was about 9 or 10 years old....so it has been almost a quarter-century and it has changed tremendously, mostly in a good way. I think.

They have exhibits designed to feature each type of terrain found in Texas, from the coastal areas (that part was so cool--it felt like we were at the beach) to the woods, the prairies, the forests, the desert, etc., and populated with the animals that would inhabit those areas. All this is built around a huge pioneer type city with storefronts and shops (some are actual stores or restaurants and some are just false fronts) that you pass through at one point or another. So, I laughed my way through most of the prairie/grassland part because we were looking at the same types of animals we have here on our property in southern OK---coyotes, white-tailed deer, ring-tailed cats, and....cougars. Two of them. Nice, fairly plump (at least compared to the ones I've see here), big old cougars, just lying there in the shade, staring at us. I did not need to see them, but there they were. I kept telling the girls "we have those at home.....", but I didn't say that when we saw the cougars. First of all, the cougars are rare here, and I haven't seen one in quite a while, and secondly, I didn't want to frighten them. Otherwise, the Texas exhibit was great. There's even an indoor bat cave (disguised behind one of the false store fronts) with bats flying around (behind glass) so the girls got to see bats in a good replica of their natural habitat. And, because God has a sense of humor, everybody's favorite place was the Museum of Living Art, which is a fancy name for herpetarium. Well, everybody except me. We spent ages and ages in there looking at all the snakes from around the world, and lizards, geckos, monitors, frogs, etc. Everyone loved it. Except me. I felt tortured, but kept my mouth shut. The zoo was great, but I could have skipped the cougar habitat and the snake building and still had just as much fun. lol.

It is supposed to rain today, so we're going shopping, and not our usual method of just hurrying up to get it done and get back home, indoors out of the heat. Nope. We are going to take our time, eat lunch out, etc. There's no need to rush home because, assuming it rains, it will be too wet to mow, and if it doesn't rain, we can mow tomorrow afternoon anyway. I might pick up a couple of pumpkins to put in the house somewhere---it still is too hot and sunny here to have them outdoors, and I can't have pumpkins outdoors for long, anyway, before coons and possums start chewing on them, so there's that. Maybe I'll buy some fake pumpkins for the front porch. I do like to decorate for the seasons, so I'll drag out the autumn decorations and replace the summertime stuff with them sometime this weekend. Maybe I'll pick up one large pot of mums to place by the back door for a little seasonal color.

We still have tons of grasshoppers everywhere, including some relatively young ones that obviously have hatched out in the last 2-4 weeks. This is a bit odd, but it has been an odd year. Usually the grasshopper population is about gone by now. They are pretty much the only yard and garden pest I'm seeing around right now. There's tons of spiders making webs everywhere, but they are good guys, so I'm happy to see them and I hope they are catching and eating lots of grasshoppers.

Have a nice Saturday everyone. I kind of feel like we all can breathe a sigh of relief and relax a bit now---we made it through the long hot summer and the busiest part of the gardening season and now we can kick back and take it easy.

Dawn

By the way, still waiting to see a blue morning glory!! What the!! lol

That blue morning glory is torturing you, Nancy. Are your Heavenly Blue plants in full sun or mostly full sun? I'm trying to trouble shoot the reason it isn't blooming now, because I know that some years I have gotten blooms from Heavenly Blue MGs in early August but other years not until Sept or even early October. The only difference I can figure out? The year they bloomed in August, they were in unimproved clay soil right along the garden's eastern fence line. Since then the soil has had only very modest improvement there along the fence, so it likely still is pretty poor soil, which makes it great for MG blooms. That particular year, they bloomed so heavily that they literally stopped traffic when they were in full bloom, and it was a bit surprising because their soil was so poor there. In general, MGs bloom better if grown in poor soil. When the Heavenly Blues bloomed later, they were in better soil, although since they were also growing on the southern fence, it wasn't great soil---I cannot improve the soil directly adjacent to the fence very much or it becomes very soft and fluffy which enables critters to dig under the garden fence. Oh, and the southern fence line where they bloom later gets slightly less sunlight than the eastern fenceline so that might matter a little.

Morning Glories are photoperiodic (though some are not nearly as much so as others from what I can tell from growing them here) so they tend to not bloom much until after daylength begins shortening after we've had the longest day of the year. With some, the blooming can start pretty soon after daylength begins to shorten (Early Call is pretty early like that, and so is Milky Way and Flying Saucers) but others can take a lot longer. I also see lots of inconsistencies even within one specific named variety from year to year, or even from one plant to another of the same variety in the same year. I do not know why.

If your morning glories are in a place where shade cuts short their daylength too much, that might interfere with their ability to bloom. Also, since they thrive in poor soil, they may not bloom well if you're growing them in good soil. They'll grow like mad in good soil (and with great moisture) but they'll often bloom better in poor soil and fairly low moisture (not so low that they wilt every day). I don't fertilize MGs at all (I really don't fertilize many things, preferring to enrich the soil and let it feed the plants) because I do think feeding them seems to give a person too much foliage and not enough blooms. So, if you've fertilized them, that might be keeping the focused on foliage.

Those are my best guesses. I've gotten really nice blooms, earlier than those from Heavenly Blue, from Blue Star and from one of the blue Japanese ones that I think was Kikyozaki. All the striped blue ones (Venice Blue, DeCapo Light Blue, etc.) have bloomed earlier for me than Clark's Heavenly Blue. I don't know if our latitude has anything to do with how early or late any of them blue other than as it relates to daylength.

Whatever you do, don't go looking at rare morning glory varieties in unusual colors....like yellow.....because you'll just drive yourself bonkers wanting to grow them all, and not all of them like our climate. Been there, done that. (grin)

If it is any consolation, I didn't get the weather I was hoping for today. It did not rain here, though there were times it looked like it might. It was 90 degrees with a heat index of 99. Arrgh. Who wants to feel 99 degrees in mid-September? We only got paged out to one fire today, so it wasn't an awful day in that regard. We were fairly lazy---did our shopping early, ate lunch out, came home, lazed around the house not doing much for the rest of the day. It was wonderful. We'll probably make up for it tomorrow though because yard work remains to be done.

I bought a jumbo pumpkin at Sam's Club to set on the breakfast room counter. It is big and cheerful and adds a slight touch of autumn to our decor. I added a few Jack-Be-Little pumpkins to the platter of mini-pumpkins on the breakfast room table. So, at least our house looks a little like we're transitioning to fall. I didn't buy any mums in a pot to set outside by the back door because all the ones I found were in full bloom already, so will fade quickly, and most were very dry with wilted foliage on top of that. I'm holding out for good-looking, quality mums.

Tim made it outdoors before I did this morning, so he got to feed the deer, and the doe and triplets were waiting for him. That's the first time he's gotten to see them up close. Usually, he sees them as he drives up the driveway in the evening returning from work and, of course, when they see the car coming up the driveway they scatter and run so he mostly just sees them fleeing. He does agree with me that the three fawns look identical to one another so seem more like siblings than like maybe a pair of siblings with an 'adopted' fawn that the doe maybe picked up along the way after its mother died. I know that does can have triplets, but we almost never see them here so this makes our whole summer feel special.

We still have a lot of hummingbirds, and every day we're seeing more and more monarchs. It would be early for them to be migrating, so I'm inclined to think they are just massing a bit and feeding well before they begin their migration in a few more weeks. Usually, in the years when the monarch migration comes through here (some years it veers SW well north of us and largely misses us), it happens around the first week of October.

If any of y'all start seeing the monarchs migrating, please let the rest of us know. It is one of my favorite autumn activities---just watching them fly through the area.

Our hummingbirds are getting bigger and fatter and more plentiful! Sheesh. Poor Garry is the hummingbird guy and fulfills his responsibilities well. But now he's doing two batches a day. SO funny watching the circus right in front of us on the deck.

Dawn, the morning glories are in bad soil, so that's a plus. LOL But they only get like 3-4 hours of sun. Fertilize? hahahaha way too lazy for that. No doubt the lack of sunlight. But it's so weird and funny to me. IF they ever bloom, I'll take pictures. So confounding. I grew them in Minneapolis from June-September. BEAUTIFUL and plentiful, and we even had really hot stuff from July-August 15 or so. All's good, it's just so fascinating. I'm sad I can't have them all summer. . . but IF they show up, I'll be happy.

AND I am kinda DONE with ipomeia, generally. Bugs just are too bad and apparently the ipomeia are bad bug magnets. The exceptions are the moonflower vines and the heavenly blue ones, if they ever bloom. And that's not because the bad bugs don't get them, it's because they survive the attacks and grow vociferously. The rest of that family, nope. Well except now the cypress vines. I don't think bad bugs will be interested in their foliage.

I got to see Amy and Eileen and their great hubbies today. We traded gardening goods and had a fun lunch. Rebecca. . . . sorry you weren't there! lol

We have round 3 of swallowtail cats now. I am SO glad the fennel has come back in force. Cuz those little guys are eating them like crazy, but not as fast as the fennel is growing. They haven't touched the parsley. We've seen VERY few monarchs.

Same with grasshoppers--we have monster ones, but right now the plants are outgrowing them.

I'm happy with my cilantro, dill, spinach, lettuce and mustard greens in the raised beds. They're growing good. And nasturtiums in other beds. I'll be waiting to see how our fall goes, as to whether they'll survive. And my lone little puny cumin is going good! LOL

Tiny Dude is the currently shining star in our family, but Tom and Jerry and Titan are the heroes. They put up with his antics and humor him. He's a spoiled brat with them. And with us, I guess.

For those of you who don't know

My 30 year old niece was killed in a car accident . Her 7 year old little girl is amazingly unharmed and her fiance is in critical condition. He has a multitude of broken bones. But thankfully no internal injuries.

They hydroplane and as they regained traction heading towards the guard rail the fiance turned the car to avoid hitting it with passenger side. They flipped. Although everything was done quickly there was no saving my sweet girl. The miracle is my great nieces carseat and area were completely unscathed. The carseat next to her in 5 pieces. Everything else in the car was tore up or crushed.

Thank you all for your sweet thoughts.

Nancy, I wish you had this one. I dont know if it is heavenly blue, but it is unwanted.

This picture was taken a day or two ago and the flowers were wilted, but looked good a while ago when I went over to sow the final 75# of seeds.

Nancy, Oh. Hmmm. Three to four hours might not be enough sun to get blooms. I don't think I've ever grown any (on purpose) that only got 3-4 hours of sun. I may have had some volunteers at the west end of the garden in only 5-6 hours of summer sun (sunrise until maybe noon or 1 p.m.) and they might have bloomed---I know some years there are some at that end, but I don't pay much attention to them.

Hummingbirds are so funny. Tim and I were putting up a new front porch light today and it took longer than it should, so of course the little hummers were fluttering around nervously because they felt we were too close to their feeders for too long of a time. They made it clear they couldn't wait for us to leave and get out of their space. They must be transients because the local ones that stay here all summer just zoom right by us to go to their feeders. I need to refill our feeders tomorrow. The feeders haven't had as much action as usual lately, but that's because we have a lot (maybe 12-15 different ones) of trumpet creepers on our property in bloom right now, and the birds prefer the real nectar to the feeder nectar if they can get it.

I'm glad y'all had a good gathering of the clan today.

Tiny Dude is worth his weight in gold, isn't he? He's just a ball of cuteness. Somebody has to be the spoiled brat, right? In our family, it always is the youngest cat---which is Pumpkin---and everyone else just puts up with the brat's nonsense.

Kim, I am so sorry about your niece. This is just such a horrific tragedy. It grieves me to think that her daughter lost her precious mother---we never expect to lose a loved one at such a young age. I know it could have been much worse---y'all could have lost all three of them, and that just would have compounded the grief. I'm holding you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.

Larry, It is a pretty flower, even if unwanted. That's one of my complaints with Morning Glories---they don't stay where they belong and then they pop up all over the place every year forever and forever.

Well, y'all, it is a new week and I've been asleep at the wheel. I didn't start the new weekly thread yet. I guess I'll go and do that now.

Dawn

Hi. I'll wait and talk on the new thread. Didn't see it up yet.

Kim, I'm so so sorry about your niece. How very tragic. It's hard to know what to say. I'm just so sorry.

Hahaha, Dawn, just looked for the new thread. Maybe you just zonked out? Either that or you tried to start it twice or three times and got nothing.

Tiny Dude, yes, IS the new spoiled brat. I told Amy and Ron on Saturday that he was the "Sasquatch" of our family. That's true to some degree. Tom was too, though. Tom was VERY naughty. Tiny isn't quite as naughty, but he is more diabolical, more manipulative, and knows he's adorable, so can get away with anything, with any one of the rest of us. I've decided to teach him how to shake hands. We'll see how that goes. That's just an experiment, and we'll go from there. We took him to the vet a couple weeks ago for his surgeries and I turned him loose on the way back, and he was fine on my lap. I do believe he'll enjoy road travels and will try him out on those; Jerry will show himself occasionally; Tiny thinks everyone is very interesting and worth knowing.

My first long-lived cat, Kitty, died at almost 23, loved road trips, but although was fine with people, didn't allow anyone to touch her, other than me. She loved the outdoors and chased dogs out of the yard. She played tag with my son and loved him, but didn't very often let him pet her. Frankly, she was my best friend for her 22 years, and often during that lonely time, my only friend at many times. I think of Audrey and Rebecca. And Kitty was an immaculately beautiful tuxedo kitty.

Daff was strictly a one-person cat (a road rescue when she was a stunted 5-month old kitty full of worms and fleas, feral. . . someone found her and dropped her off at a quilt shop in Iowa, and I happened to be there with a good friend on that day, spotted her and my heart melted--hated bringing her home to my then 18-year old Kitty, who didn't deserve it, but brought her anyway. Kitty made her first four years pretty miserable; I protected her and tried to keep her out of the way of Kitty. When Kitty died, Daff grew wings. She loved the outdoors after having spent most of her life indoors in MN, but stayed close to the deck; had only been a one-person cat, she quickly grew to love Garry; hated road travels and seeing people other than Garry and me. I think Tiny will enjoy the road travels, too. Tom's the cat that no one knows is here if they visit, and I think taking him to the vet would be a terrible idea. I talked with them last week because he's supposed to have shots, and asked if they had a tranquilizer. They do, and I'll give it to him before we take him in. I have loved all these cats, and love them greatly, and each one is so very different and unique, like snowflakes.

And Dawn, I am sad to say with your report on Heavenly Blue Morning Glories, perhaps GDW and I will have to separate. How can I live here without the Heavenly Blue morning glories. i may have to move up to Mpls for the summers.

Kim, I am devastated for your family tragedy. I cannot even wrap my mind around this. Words fail me right now., except praying with all my might.

Jennifer and Nancy, Well, I started the new week's thread right after I said that I would, submitted it, and it disappeared. The last time this happened, it showed up after about 24 hours (why? I wonder?) and only after I typed a whole new replacement thread. So, then we had two for that week, though everyone mostly kept posting on the second one. This time, I thought I'd wait and see if it shows up today before I type a replacement one. Let's just keep chatting here for the rest of today to see if it pops up. These weird glitches are driving me crazy. I hate spending all the time to type something only to have it disappear for a half-day up to two days before it reappears.

Jennifer, I hope your foot is healing and that Peggy is doing better.

Nancy, Wait a minute, woman! I think you're better off just staying in Oklahoma and learning to live without Heavenly Blue MGs than to move back to Minneapolis for the summers which would separate you from GDW. Who would get custody of Tiny Dude? Would he live in OK most of the year and then travel to Minneapolis with you for the summers? Would he be able to sleep at night if he was missing Garry? Would he need counseling to help him adjust to the changes in his young life? Poor kitty. His world would be torn apart, all because of Heavenly Blue MGs. lol. While I think Heavenly Blue MGs are delightful flowers while in bloom, I could live without them.

Kitty lived such a long and wonderful life. I think we are fortunate indeed when we have an animal companion who is able to be a part of our lives for so very long. Tuxedo cats are the best---our beloved Emmitt Smith was a tuxedo cat, and he really was Emmitt Smith II, replacing a previous Emmitt Smith we had when we lived in Ft Worth, who also was a tuxedo cat. I just love how tuxedo cats always look like they are dressed up in their formal best with someplace to go---even if they are only going out to the garden to sleep in their favorite sunny or shady place, or maybe to chase butterflies. Daff sounds like she was so special and so happy to be rescued and loved. I know that you must miss her. Perhaps she is Tiny Dude's guardian angel. We have had cats like Tom before who do experience great anxiety over many things---I think it is just their nature and we do have to work with them so they can relax a bit and become a bit more comfortable. Mostly I just leave them alone and let them be, though it can be a trial to get such a cat to the vet, or to get them to allow someone else to feed the if we are out of town or whatever. I agree that each cat is unique and special like snowflakes. Well, snowflakes with claws.

Tim went outside and mowed the yard late yesterday. Nobody (meaning me, I guess) went outside and helped him by using the string trimmer to cut down the tall grass and weeds that the mower couldn't reach. I really should have done that, but I was tired and took a nap instead. A couple of days ago a friend of ours posted a photo of a timber rattler that she and her 4 year old son almost stepped on when leaving a friend's house. It was scary how close that snake was to them, and reminded me that this is the time of the year that we really need to be careful here. Having that snake photo in my mind might have played a role in my choosing a nap instead of helping with the yard work. I did go out later and fill up the Mr. Turtle sandbox that we use to provide water for the deer. Then I made a big puddle that Augustus would have been proud to wade in, so that the birds and bunnies would have a source of drinking water and bathing water. It is so dry again, although at least it still looks nice and green. It is just that the ponds and creeks remain low, since that 1.5" of rainfall we got a couple of weeks ago is long gone, the mud is gone, the soil is dry again......(sigh). I'd love to have more rain again sometime soon but that doesn't seem real likely as our year-long dry pattern seems to be continuing.

We're getting mixed signals from the El Nino that is supposed to be developing for Winter 2018 and that is starting to concern me. I was counting on a rainy winter to leave the garden soil in better shape for next Spring and now I'm not so sure we'll get the El Nino or the plentiful rain it normally brings us here. On the other hand, as much as we need rain, I sure don't want to get half a year's worth in 2-4 days like some parts of North Carolina have received over the weekend from Hurricane Florence. The flooding there is so horrendous, and I cannot even imagine what it must be like to be there surrounded by rapidly rising water. I think I'd rather have a hot, dry, half-dead garden than a flooded one.

We're supposed to be back in the 90s beginning today, though we already did hit the 90s on Friday or Saturday, or maybe both, so it isn't like the 90s have been totally gone. I think we're losing more of our cloud cover now, if yesterday is an indication of what this week will be like, and we'll be back to our usual warm and sunny September conditions. I'll be glad when we make it to October, which usually is when our real cool-down occurs here. Actually, last year the long run of temps in the 90s finally broke about 5 or 6 days before the end of September so we began to cool down a bit earlier. I also feel like I'm not adjusting to the shortening daylength very well. It keeps catching me by surprise that sunrise is occurring later and later while sunset is occurring earlier. I don't know why---it happens every year. I suppose that I'm not quite as ready to let go of the sunshine as the heat.

Some people are even more ready for autumn weather than I am. When we were out shopping and running errands on Saturday (high temp maxed out at 90 and heat index at 99 so it isn't like it was a cool, mild day), I saw a young lady in probably her 20s who was wearing black leggings, black boots and a black-and-red buffalo plaid checked shirt that had long sleeves and looked like it was made of flannel. She must have been in the mood for autumn weather (I can relate) and chose to dress for the weather she wanted instead of the actual weather we had. We were down in Denton and I was thinking that maybe she was a college student who was new to the area and was used to having autumn actually feel like autumn. I bet she was feeling pretty warm in that outfit. Sadly we cannot force the cooler weather to show up here until it is good and ready. I love boot weather and flannel shirt weather but that sort of weather isn't here yet. I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival.

The only thing new in our yard and garden appears to be a bunch of mushrooms or toadstools that popped up after the rain, and now they're already drying up in the heat. I'm starting to see a few hints of wild goldenrod blooming here and there, though I haven't seen any on our property. We have some---but it is apparently too drought-stunted to bloom. The ones I am seeing in bloom on property near us are not tall like they normally would be, but at least they are blooming.

I noticed last night that the loud drone of locusts, crickets and grasshoppers is greatly reduced over what it was 2 or 3 weeks ago. The quieter evening was nice, but mosquitoes are out in force here now.

Have a great day everyone.

Dawn

I was wondering where the new thread went.

Still sick. Finished the antibiotic. Trying to get in for a steroid shot. We were supposed to be in Texas, but instead I crawled in bed at 7 on Friday, and stayed there until Sunday afternoon. This is ridiculous.

Persimmon seeds showing lots of spoons up here. I’d settle for a real fall. I hate snow. But seriously, all this heat can go away. I’m sick of it.

Tomatoes are still growing. I’m fixing to yank the peppers. 8 plants and I’ve gotten 3 small peppers. Silly. Except Nancy’s pepper, it’s gone like gangbusters, but I can’t find enough stuff to do with them. I have to accept that I don’t like cooked peppers, and grow accordingly. Beans and peas are in a holding pattern with the heat. Lettuce and spinach never really came up. Will try again after I weed. Cukes are toast.

This whole sickness is making me feel like I am having a week long (and counting) hot flash.

Rebecca, I'm sorry the sickness stuck around and you didn't get to go to Fort Worth. I hope you're feeling better soon.

Any hot flashes are miserable.....a week-long hot flash would be unbearable! You have my sympathy.

I hope the spoon-shaped persimmon seeds are right. I'd love to have a winter that actually feels like a winter for more than 2 days. The last two years we have had about that much really cold winter weather---a day or two. I have a new coat and new boots that are 2 years old and have barely been worn at all. I'd like to get a chance to wear them this year.

I didn't think our persimmon tree here next to the house had any fruit on it, but I just ran out to check and see and there are no fruit, so we can't predict the weather here. I am not sure about the persimmons in the woods. Maybe next time Tim is mowing next to the woods I can get him to grab me some persimmons to check if those trees down there have any. Right now the grass down there by the edge of the woods is about shin high so it would be too risky to walk through it.

I'm tired of the heat too and it seems like it just won't go away. At this point, if someone said an early freeze was coming, I'd jump for joy and then run out to the garden to bring in a couple of bouquets of flowers and the last harvest of peppers and I'd rejoice that real cold weather was on its way. Of course, it isn't going to happen. We never get an early freeze when we want one.

Dawn