Ha! The thread showed up! But time to fix dinner.

Ha Ha! I figured it would. I just came here to check and see if it had shown up yet since I knew it had been about 24 hours since I submitted it. I wonder where is was for 22 or 23 hours?

Today, or maybe yesterday, Neil Sperry mentioned on FB that there's another round of army worms destroying bermuda grass lawns in North Central Texas. I haven't seen any here. If they were destroying the bermuda grass lawns permanently, I'd drive down there and beg, borrow or steal a bunch of army worms and turn them loose to eat my bermuda grass. Sadly, the destruction is only temporary---they only eat the leaves, and not the stolons/runners. Too bad. I am sure the army worms are frustrating for people who like to have a nice green carpet of perfectly maintained bermuda grass, but I'm not one of those people. Btk would make quick work of the worms though.

This was the horribly hot day I was dreading---with a high temp of 93 at our house and a max heat index of 100. This was not the autumn-type weather that I'm longing for. Oh well, I think we only have 3 more days of these temps in the 90s and then we drop into the 80s again. Now, if only some rain would show up.....

We are lucky though. Our homes weren't ripped up by a hurricane. We aren't flooding. We aren't sitting in a shelter somewhere in NC or SC while flood waters rise, wondering if we'll be able to start over with a new garden and yard in the Spring or if we'll still be busy getting the house rebuilt and not even be at the landscaping/gardening point again yet. We aren't sitting in our hiding place in Virginia while tornadoes rip through the area. So, while this isn't the weather I was hoping for and dreaming of, it is better weather than everyone in the path of Hurricane Florence and the remains of Florence have been getting. We have much to be grateful for, even if that 100-degree heat index was annoying and had the dogs begging to come back indoors almost the minute they ran outdoors. I think our dogs have spent so much time indoors this summer avoiding the heat that they've forgotten how to hang around outdoors and just be dogs.

I have watched the pets carefully today because the snakes will be out soaking up the sun on this warm and sunny day after a couple of weeks of cooler, cloudier and somewhat rainy weather.

Here's our thread!

Nancy, I fixed our dinner early, but we'll eat it later when we are hungry. It's a roasted cauliflower, kale and almond spaghetti. Tom will probably eat some of it, but he smoked lots of meat over the weekend and will probably mostly eat it instead. Although, he really likes most of my vegetarian meals. If you cook 'em right, they are quite tasty. Last week, I seriously ate hummus and chips/crackers every night. I needed to do something different this week, so made this dish and some tomato soup with our abundance of tomatoes. We are busy. Tom is trying to do low carb (not exactly keto) and it makes dinnertime an issue.

Ethan was out of school today. He had a trombone lesson and went to the fair. I'm a little concerned about the fair at night--it can be a shady place. He's a boy, but still...

Peggy is up and doing well. I removed the highest roost bar which has caused displeasure with the girls. When we have time, we'll make a new set of even lower roost bars. The infant vitamin drops without iron were hard to find. Instead, I picked up some poultry vitamins to add to their water. They were cheaper anyway.

Kane continues to heal. He's really back to normal. They may get walked tonight because my foot is better--not great, but better. I was on it for about 3 hours in the kitchen cooking and cleaning, etc., so am resting it now. I really wanna go on a walk. The dogs desperately need it.

All but one Sungold plant were pulled out this weekend. They were mostly dead. The other tomato plants look near death, but are putting out new leaves and blooms. I may leave them until the freeze depending on...well, depending on if they continue with new growth, I guess. The tomatillos were pulled too. They never really got the attention they deserved. I was actually very neglectful to my plants this year. Luckily, we were blessed with food regardless. The peppers, southern peas, melons, and Armenians continue to do well.

It's odd, but both sage plants are dying. I can't figure it out. They are in different beds.

I look forward to planning a slightly smaller garden for the spring...and planning a larger fall garden for the first time. Oh, I will be in a different place next year at this time. It's gonna be weird for sure.

My cotton crop is doing well. lol I didn't realized that their blossoms started as pink and then turned white. I should have known this. It should be in my blood and genetic memory.

Still thinking on elderberries. There's a spot where the weeds and grass and such were thrown as the pathways were being made. This was from June to about a couple of weeks ago. The pile was slowly shrinking--I did notice that, but wasn't prepared for the compost just under the first layer. Amazing. ANYWAY, So...wondering if this would be a good spot for a couple of elderberry plants. AND I'm wondering if I should start with plants rather than sticks. BUT, this spot is mostly in the sun. I get mixed information regarding elderberries and sun/shade.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm not going to make comments on last week's thread. I'll start fresh. Hope to stay up-to-date better.

Almost Eden had elderberry plants, HJ. Noticed them when I was ordering my coral honeysuckles and fancy new echinaceas. $$$, though, at $14 and some odd cents. I suspect lost of other online sites have them, too. Maybe.

The pasta you fixed sounded yummy. We had glazed smoked pork chaps, mac and cheese, and red cabbage with apples.

Two years ago, my main sage died out in the middle, but the outsides were okay. Then it filled back in last year. Had some dieback this year, too, but not the whole plant. I read that these are short-lived perennials. I started the second one last year, so expect if it is short-lived, I'll plunk one every once in a while. What have you others experienced?

I'm glad Peggy and Kane are better.

Hahaha re Army worms, Dawn! It's going to be kinda hot here this week, too; started on Sunday. Looks like low to mid-90s, and I'm back to watering. Blach.

I need to plant another round of spinach and cilantro. We'll just see how long they can keep going.

Jennifer, It was so good to read and catch up on all your news. When I focus and use my will power, I can eat Keto style or simply more like Atkins or South Beach low carb style and lose weight quickly, but I really have to want to do it because I love baking and eating the things I bake too much. With Tom loving to smoke meat and being so good at it, I can see how he could eat low carb, though it must be hard to sync your meals with his since y'all are eating so differently.

I'm glad Peggy and Kane both are doing well now.

I hope Ethan had a good time at the fair and made it home safely. We used to go to the State Fair of Texas a lot, even after we moved here, but finally just stopped going because the shady neighborhood around it made me uncomfortable in terms of parking and walking to and from the fairgrounds....and you have to get there extra early in the morning to be able to park within the fenced Fair Park parking lots. We've never been to the Oklahoma State Fair....maybe one of these days. It always sneaks up on us in September when we have other activities scheduled---as it has this year again. So, if it is State Fair weather in Oklahoma, shouldn't it be raining?

When you have good garden soil and get your plants off to a good start, you can then neglect the plants quite a bit and still get a good harvest. That's one of the things I love about gardening, since we never know when fire activity here will pull me out of the garden for weeks or even months on end.

There's always a point where I basically abandon the garden because of the snake activity, and only go in there briefly (in leather boots to protect my ankles and legs from snake bites) to harvest, and I still harvest quite a lot from a garden that basically is getting no care by that point. I'd love to be able to be more attentive and do some weeding and such, but it isn't worth the snakebite risk late in the season. Even harvesting can be fairly risky, but I use a 3' garden fence stake to poke around in an area before I harvest so that any snakes present can either strike at the stake and thereby alert me to their presence or they can flee. Or, I can see the snakes and be the one to flee. It does bother me when it starts looking weedy like it does now (I am dying to get in there and pull a bunch of weeds, but there's been too many timber rattler sightings all over the place in our county lately and too many people we know have had close calls....), but that's just an ongoing issue here that I have to accept---weediness results when I am being careful to avoid the snakes.

Sage is very picky. It basically likes perfect drainage and enough moisture but not too much moisture and not too much humidity. It will come back here for me for maybe 3 or 4 years at the most if I have it planted in a nice raised bed that drains very well, but then we'll have a prolonged rainy spell that is just too much for it or a period of high humidity or something that kills it. Really, I don't mind so much when it dies---by the time culinary sage is 3 or 4 years old it is getting pretty woody and has to be cut back pretty hard, so planting new plants every few years doesn't bother me. Rosemary is pretty picky as well but it does a lot better for me here than sage does in terms of longevity.

I'm glad your cotton is doing well. I love the blossoms. I love the plants. I don't think the cotton I have growing in my garden is the same cotton I remember from my childhood. The plants seem shorter now, but I still love driving past a field of them in the summer. To me, the plants have an almost tropical look to them, and the flowers look so dainty and delicate. I remember taller cotton plants from my childhood. Or, maybe they seemed taller because I was shorter? I bet there are still landrace varieties available, perhaps through someone like Native Seed/SEARCH, that are the taller plants. I bet cotton varieties have been bred nowadays to reach a certain specific height to accommodate mechanical picking machines, but I am just assuming that. I have no idea if this breeding for shortness to accommodate mechanical harvesting actually has occurred, but since they've done it with other commodity crops like field corn, I bet it has happened.

I think with elderberries, you may have to experiment a bit to find what works in your specific microclimate and with your annual rainfall. We do not see many elderberry plants growing in the wild here in southern OK where our soil has a very high clay content---perhaps they are found further east in southeastern OK where annual rainfall is higher and the sandier soils drain well. When I have seen elderberry plants in the wild, they seem to prefer moist areas in somewhat sandy soil areas, usually on the edges of woodlands...where I suspect the soil is a nice blend of sand and humus.....and usually in a spot where they are semi-shaded, with maybe morning sun up to a certain point and then afternoon shade. If I was trying to grow them here in my mostly clay soil, I'd have to create the right habitat for them and, even then, with our frequent long summer droughts, I might not be able to keep them alive here. You normally have better rainfall up there than we have down here and droughts that are not as long-lived as ours, so I think your chances of growing them successfully there are better than mine down here.

Have you read the OSU Fact Sheet on growing elderberries? I know they have one because I've read it before. I'll find it and link it here.

Growing Elderberries in Oklahoma

Nancy, I was so hoping that the heat wouldn't come back, but here it is. Oh well, October is coming and it is very rare for our heat to hang on into October so I'm just counting the days. I am not watering. The drought drags on and I am done fighting it with water this year. Our water co-op may be struggling financially since I stopped pouring copious amounts of water on the garden back in early August. Ha!

There's nothing new here today. I saw a dead grasshopper in a bucket of water. I had to fight the urge to fill up a bunch of buckets with water and use them as grasshopper traps. I actually wouldn't mind doing that, but lots of other innocent insects would be attracted to the water too and I don't want for all of them to get into the buckets of water and die. I need to go outside and turn on the water hose and make a couple of smallish puddles for the butterflies, dragonflies, etc. We're back to having awfully dry soil again and no natural rain-filled puddles anywhere.

There's tons of spiders making webs and catching insects. Sometimes I forget how much the spiders proliferate by this late in the season. Ours make lots of webs fairly low so that we can accidentally walk into the webs in the low light of twilight or sunrise. Every year there are spiders that spin webs at night between the garden fence and the barbed wire fence a good 15' away from it. Sometimes they make them high enough that I can walk under them, and they do that by attaching part of the web to the power line that sits high above the barbed wire fence. I think they must work on these most of the night....and then Tim drives through them around 5:15-5:30 a.m. and they have to repair them.

Dawn

Thanks for all your advice and such, Dawn.

Spiders still scare me. Not as much...and I always let them live. But I shiver when I see them. I prefer not to see them.

Jennifer, You're welcome. Regarding spiders, I used to be that way, and I got over it. It took me a long time though. I remember when I was about 27 or 28 years old and was at the home of an acquaintance (Tim's sister's sister-in-law). We were in the kitchen and she slapped a spider with a fly swatter---the spider broke open and tiny baby spiders went scrambling all over the kitchen. For a few minutes there, we had three hysterical women, three small children and a million spiders. It was awful. I've never forgotten that moment. Nowadays, I guess I'd look at all the baby spiders and visualize how many insects they'll eat when they are bigger, or something. And, you know, there's been a lot of water under the bridge since my scared-of-spider days and now I'm scared of things bigger than spiders. lol.

Y'all, If you read my report on last week's thread about our visit to the Fort Worth Zoo for Aurora's birthday, you know I was creeped out by the sight of the two cougars at the Texas Wild exhibit. It was sort of a PTSD moment because of my previous encounters with them here on our property, years ago. I haven't seen a live cougar in person (not counting those of TV, for example) in a long time and thought I was over it. So, ever since the zoo visit, every time I am outside, I am hyper-sensitive to any sound or movement in the woods or tall grasses. I feel.....creepy....like maybe something is out there. I haven't felt this antsy in a while and I was blaming the whole twitchy-nervous thing on an over-active imagination because of the zoo thing. The wild animals (and our dogs also) have been acting really abnormally the last couple of weeks and I was pondering the reasons why, and wondering if it is because of coyotes, though I haven't seen or heard any coyotes around lately.

I went into the garden today for just a moment to water 7 containers. I need to water them better tomorrow, but I didn't have a gun with me, and I just wanted to dump the water from the rain buckets onto the containers and get back indoors. Tomorrow I'll carry a gun and drag a hose out there and give them a proper watering because I think the plants in those containers are likely to die if I don't give them a proper watering. So.....even when I am trying to be careful and stay on top of things, sometimes I forget to carry a gun, which is stupid. Or, maybe it is just stupid to live someplace with so much wildlife that you feel like you have to carry a gun. All the 'old farmers' I met when we moved here had rifles mounted on gun racks in the back window of their pick-ups, but I didn't want to become one of them, if you know what I mean. I'm older and wiser now and know why they all had those guns with them all the time.

Tonight, on FB, a young lady who lives in our local community posted that she has seen a cougar in her back yard twice recently. She does not live all that far away from us. I appreciate that she's warning everyone and I feel for her because it is a most unsettling feeling to have such a large predator on your property. So, the creepy feeling I've been having for a couple of weeks now...well....maybe it exists for a reason. Or maybe I just have the heebie-jeebies from the zoo visit and now her sighting has me all wound up. Regardless, from now on when we let the dogs go outside at night, I guess we'll go with them. Tim is doing that right now with all 4 of our dogs, who are delighted to have Daddy out in the dog yard with them even if they don't understand why he is standing out there in the dark with them. And, believe me, I won't walk out the door without my gun again. Living out in the sticks shouldn't be this.....worrisome nerve-wracking......or nightmare-inducing.

Fortunately, deer season is not all that far away. Archery Season starts Oct 1 and muzzleloader season on Oct 27. Once the hunters are out in great numbers, even if a cougar has been spotted locally, the cougar will become a lot more scarce. Or, at least, that is what usually happens. I'm counting on it happening this time. Otherwise it is going to be a long winter.

I'm thinking that maybe we finally just need to buy a game camera and put it up near the deer-feeding area so that if something is prowling around, at least we'll know for sure. I didn't feel this way last time, because I saw the cougars with my own eyes. Since I haven't seen them around here yet this time, I'm thinking that the game camera might give me a heads-up, so I can avoid running into one at the garden gate, or any place else.

Dawn

No critters here currently, Dawn, other than armadillo--they don't stay long, so okay with them.. And YEAH, do we have the spiders! Every single day, there's a new web that gets us. I go across the deck every couple days, sweeping them down. I always feel a little bit sorry for destroying all their hard work! Thrilled to hear we'll be having a cool down sooner than we thought, and rain. It has been a very interesting year for me. Many bad things, many good things in the gardens.

Hummingbirds aren't as plentiful now. . . I'm happy about that for Garry, bless his heart.

A billion butterflies--small ones--I'm not a butterfly expert so don't know what they are, the billions of small ones, but also more swallowtails.

What a plethora of herbs we have.

And, again, Dawn, I'm not too wary of snakes or cougars or coyotes, but I appreciate your mention, and try to be mindful.

Re the morning glories. Every other flower here hasn't bloomed when it was supposed to (well, not EVERY other) so hey, I expect maybe they will. If they don't, they're outta here. Yeah, can't move away from Tiny for the summer. And yeah, GDW wouldn't survive.

I still have peppers producing. I love peppers, but enough is enough. :)

Well, all in all, although my beds don't measure up to my perfect yard, they are wondrous and we are blessed.

A spider web nearly got me this morning near the back door. It was anchored between a shrub, a tree and the ground. I walked right into it, but stopped and backed out before I broke it. Ugh. Spider web in the face and hair is not my favorite way to start the day.

I noticed a definite drop in hummingbird activity just between Monday and Tuesday. I was refilling the feeders yesterday and didn't have hummingbirds hovering and watching me and waiting for me to hang the feeders back up, which might be a first for this year. I suspect that somehow they know the cold front is coming and are racing southward now to stay ahead of it. I'll miss them once they're gone. It will be a long time (April, normally, though sometimes latest March if it is a hot winter) before we see them again.

It seems like butterfly season is peaking a bit late, but better late than never. I don't know what all the small ones are either, but can ID most of the big ones. We have lots and lots of sulphurs here, and the usual swallowtails of all kinds, queens, monarchs, bordered patch, and many more. I expect the butterflies are enjoying this week's warmth. Their numbers, of course, will fall as the cold sets in, but sometimes I see an occasional butterfly out in winter, especially these last few years which have had relatively little cold weather.

This hasn't been the worst snake year at our house, so I am grateful for that, but they always are around. It is just because of our heavy woodland combined with our proximity to the river I am sure. I feel like if we were not so close to the river, we'd have a lot less wildlife of all kinds.

The cougar thing is very unnerving because of my previous cougar encounters, two of which occurred just outside my garden fence about a decade ago. It was the worst summer/fall of my life and I do not want to go through that ever again. I do not think there is anything that could happen here that would make us pack up, sell this place and move elsewhere, but if there was something....it would be the cougars. Thankfully, they are only sporadic visitors and actual encounters with them up close are very rare.

It has been a weird flowering year. I feel like all the strange weather messed them up. Here we were oddly warm in February and March, then that brief period of cold in April, and then insanely hot in May. So, just getting to May meant that the flowers already had been through a lot of messed up weather that surely does affect what they do and when they do it. Then summer alternated between hot and cooler periods, though overall was very dry, and that has an effect on flowers too. It has been the oddest year. I'm pleased that the garden still is full of flowers, though most of the zinnias and lots of other things have burned up in the drought here. There's still enough other flowers, including my beloved pineapple sage, in bloom to make up for the ones that died. My herbs all are blooming and going to seed now, except for the sage, which just sits there looking like sage. The dominant blooms right now are the night-time bloomers---daturas and four o'clocks. As we go deeper into autumn, they stay open later and later in the mornings until they are in bloom almost 24/7. Morning glories do that too. I should go out and stand in the garden with a notepad for a minute and list everything that still is in bloom despite so little rainfall and no recent irrigation. I bet there's more in bloom in there than I can think of from memory.

Peppers are that way. They do fine all summer long, but then in the autumn they explode. I have cut back the number of pepper plants that I grow to about 25% of what I once grew because I just got tired of dealing with the mega harvests. I never can just pull out the plants and discard them because I was brought up to never take the garden harvest for granted and to not waste it. Even if I decide I am going to yank the plants and compost them, I see my grandfather and dad in my mind expressing their displeasure with this idea and then I don't do it. I can't get them out of my head! So, we end up with peppers galore in the freezer, although of course, that's not a bad thing. I have the whole winter and spring to use them up in cooking.

I keep looking at the rainfall numbers of the QPF and not believing them. I don't care how many inches of rain that map shows us getting, we still never get more than 1-2". We are supposed to have the 4 year old this weekend because the 9 year old has a scouting activity, and I hope the weather is nice so we can take her to the big castle-like playground at the park in Gainesville. When she was here on Monday, Chris and I were sitting and talking with the TV on The Weather Channel in the background. She looked up, saw a similar huge playground in NC flooded with water up to almost the top of the swing sets and was very concerned about 'the poor park'. I told her the water would go down and go away and the park would be okay, and I had to reassure her that it wasn't our park. She's easy to entertain, but if you give her a choice of what she wants to do, the first choice always is going to be that she wants to go to the park and play on the playground. We took her to Sonic in town one day and she was thrilled to discover it has a playground, so now Sonic is a new favorite place too. How much better can it get than Sonic ice cream plus a playground?

I'd rather be playing in the garden, but until they develop snake-proof fencing, that's just not going to happen at this time of the year. October will be better once the nights finally get a bit colder and the snakes become more scarce.

Only critters I've seen are bugs, mosquitoes, and a lone snake. Baby garden snake I think, he slithered off under a plant before I got a good look. About the size of a giant worm, so as long as Cliff doesn't know it's fine.

Peppers and tomatoes are going crazy in this weather. I had 1 plant split from the weight of all the tomatoes. Hopefully they ripen, I'd hate to lose them. And I'm going to have plenty of peppers to dry or freeze. I've lost my taste for spicy food so I may just dry and grind them to powder.

I don't have time for a long post. My garden is overrun by weeds. We have a lot of tomatoes and peppers. Have seen one okra flower. The firecracker vine put out a few flowers, while strangling the amaranth, but not like the pictures. I am not impressed.

Nancy, paint a picture of morning glories.

Dawn, cougars again? I am convinced you have a sixth sense about wildlife. Be careful.

My daughter was terrified of spiders. Traumatic events as a child. I'm impressed at the tolerance she has developed. She even told me about the one with a zipper web by her trash can. But mama spiders with baby spiders creep her out. Her dog stepped on one outside sending babies running. So she was creeped out about the carcass in side that the dog had played with. She's also having to empty mouse traps by herself. (I don't have to do that!).

Really have to go.

Hugs.

I had to go into the garden to water those containers that only got a dribble of water from the rain buckets yesterday, and they did look better than yesterday, but still too dry. I also had to water the other 15 containers, so I grabbed the hose and ventured into the jungle. While watering all those containers, I found no lions, tigers or bears, and saw no snakes, so I started feeling pretty cocky. Despite the heat, I stayed out there and pulled weeds, mostly from the bed beside the driveway/south garden fence, and deadheaded surviving zinnias, marigolds and Texas hummingbird sage. Then I cut back all the blooming basils pretty hard to keep them going a bit longer. I was out there for two hours and got a lot done in a small area, but the garden is huge and it will take a lot more hours. There's some areas where about the only way I can reclaim the ground at this point is to cut down everything short with the string trimmer, but those are the far areas near the north fence line and woodland so I might just ignore them until after a freeze.

So, I tried to make a mental list of everything that still is blooming and I am sort of amazed at how much survived the drought even after I stopped watering (but there's big holes in the beds where other plants did not survive). Here it is: Four o'clocks, coral honeysuckle, hardy hibiscus, Texas red star hibiscus, verbena bonariensis, Homestead Purple verbena, Laura Bush petunias, Russian sage, double purple datura, white datura, begonias, cotton plants (on their umpteenth round of new blooms), profusion zinnias in lemon yellow, pink and red, regular zinnias from the Antique Red mix that I planted in July to replace onions, Grandpa Ott's morning glories, cypress vines, French marigolds in orange and yellow shades, autumn sage, lantana, mealy cup sage, gomphrena 'Las Vegas Mix', cannas, moss rose (maybe 10% left blooming, rest already has gone to seed), bat-faced cuphea, celosia cristata, grain-type amaranths in red and gold from seed sown in July, nicotiana, and then the various herbs that are blooming, though I tried to deadhead all of them back to keep them from dying prematurely. One watermelon plant is hanging on and trying to bloom. I just should pull it and put it out of its misery. The SunGold tomato plant put into the ground in March continues to bloom and produce fruit, though the plant itself looks pretty bad. Pepper plants still are blooming and producing, and so are the okra plants. The southern peas and lima beans look about done, and I need to harvest all that's left on them. The fall tomato plants aren't doing very well. They have grown and flowered and tried to produce, but the drought and heat have been hard on them and I don't expect much from them. Six tomato plants from the spring planting still are producing a bit, but since we've been so hot and dry, the fruit are thick-skinned and tough and not that great in terms of quality. Still, considering I stopped watering in early August and we've had only one good rainfall since then, I am amazed to see so many plants doing so well. I almost forgot the dianthus. They were there first in the Spring, and I planted Profusion zinnias somewhat close to them. So while the zinnias were big and beautiful, the dianthus plants were sort of hidden beneath them. Now that half the zinnias looked yucky and I pulled them out, the dianthus plants are more visible and they are blooming. They usually bloom almost year round here, though very cold weather sometimes feezes them back pretty hard in the dead of winter.

The garden itself is a weedy, overgrown mess. I'm thinking if I could ignore the fact that I am likely to encounter snakes in there and work out there two hours a day every day cleaning it out, then in a couple of weeks, it might look about half-decent. Hmmm. Food for thought. Early to mid-morning seems to be the best time right now. Lately we're more likely to see snakes in the late afternoon or early evening. I could do it, at least, until I encounter a snake in the garden, and then I'd have to retreat and take a break again. The bed I cleaned out today is the last place I encountered a snake in the garden, and that definitely was on my mind while I was working on it today. I was very careful though, and Lucky was with me, pushing her way ahead of me in that bed as if she was clearing the area of land mines....or snakes. She's a brave little cat, and since she lived in the wild for a while before we adopted her (or she adopted us), she is super-careful. She thinks every water hose is a snake and very nervously checks it out from a distance to reassure herself that it is only a water hose, and not the world's longest snake. Mostly we just removed morning glories, cypress vines and bindweed vines today that were climbing all over everything, and crabgrass that has sprung up everywhere in that bed since I stopped doing routine maintenance in late July or early August. I also took out all the half-dead zinnias and the catnip that had gone to seed. There also was a little foxtail grass, which I normally work hard to keep out of the garden because it is so hard to pull out once it is established. I got all the foxtail grass out of that bed today. At least I feel like I accomplished something.

Amy, It is hard to overcome that whole fear-of-spiders thing. I don't think I really became more accepting of them until I was in my late 30s or early 40s. I still don't like seeing them indoors, but outdoors, they don't bother me as long as they aren't black widows. I haven't seen any black widows in our garage or shed this year, but we have had them at the fire station, and even in one of the fire trucks. Usually they like to hide in the firefighters' boots, so that is where we find them most often.

Firecracker vine did awesome for me one year, although it was up near the house and I had no memory at all of planting it there in that awful clay. It climbed the shrubs and trees, bloomed and was gorgeous. Out in the garden where I planted it on purpose? It did next to nothing.

I think next year I am going to plant black-eyed susan vines on at least on of the garden fences. I haven't grown them in years, largely because I got so tired of them reseeding everywhere, but I have really missed them and feel ready to let 2019 be their year. I always just grew the golden yellow ones and white ones, but nowadays they have them in lots of shades and I want to plant some of each color.

I don't know if it is a sixth sense or just my brain analyzing observations. I have been feeling 'creepy' about the wildlife for a couple of weeks, but it was one of those undefined things where you feel like something is watching you even though you don't know what it is. From experience, I know that this feeling usually means bobcats or cougars are lurking, but I was trying to push it to the back of my mind, telling myself to not even go there.

Signs I was observing that were making me nervous....the chickens haven't had any coyotes stalking them since July. I don't know why. The chickens started putting themselves up in the coop about an hour before dark about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Again, I don't know why. This is not like them because they like to stay out until the last possible moment, so their behavior has had me wondering. The dogs stand in the dog yard and bark at unseen things in the woods, when usually they just bark at our cats or chickens. Earlier this year, it turned out the unseen things were beavers, but the creek dried up to a mere trickle and the beavers moved on.

It is the deer behavior that is most puzzling. We've always had a doe here and there who would bring her fawns here in drought to scarf up whatever cracked corn the doves leave behind, and once that starts happening, I put out extra corn just for the deer and I fill up the old Little Tykes turtle sand box with water to provide them with water once the ponds and creeks dry up. We usually don't get big deer herds except in winter. This year? It is like a deer day care these last couple of months. We'll have anywhere from 2 to 6 or 7 does come and bring all their fawns with them at once, including the couple of does that have twins and the one who has triplets. I've never seen anything like it. It is like a herd of cattle lately---and the huge crowd of them coming together just grows and grows since about mid-August. No bucks are with them. Just women and children, and out eating in the middle of the day quite often, which isn't normal either. That makes me feel like they've banded together into such a large herd for protection and are eating, increasingly, in the daylight hours because something they don't like is roaming at night.

Another odd thing I don't understand? Sometimes the does stand on the edge of the woods and send the fawns to eat alone. Okay, I am assuming they send the fawns while they stand and watch. Maybe they want to see if the fawns are smart enough to find the food, eat it and to flee if I venture outdoors while they are eating. Why would the does do this? Are they pushing their little ones to become more self-sufficient in case something happens to mama? Or, maybe the does see me in the yard and don't want to go to the feeding area yet, but then the fawns misbehave and go anyway before I make it back indoors. Who knows? Sometimes I go outside and sit on the patio furniture at twilight and listen but I hear no coyotes at all. This is odd. Where did they go? We had plenty in mid-summer.

It is sort of a game to try to spot the wildlife. Once I was helping a friend hunt down an escaped cow and we were traipsing through our woodland and others, looking for her. Several times either he or I spotted either deer or coyotes that we must have surprised---they were frozen in place and trying to blend in with the wilderness until we moved on. I don't know why they didn't hear us coming and flee before we got too close to them---we were not trying to be quiet. Once we weren't looking directly at them, then they'd made a break for it and take off. We found the escaped cow, but largely just by following everyones' fence lines until we found a place a cow could have gotten through. Then, we went through that place and found the cow. I was surprised how much wildlife we spotted while searching for the cow though.

Another odd thing this year, and it might be because of the drought, but we have had almost no coons, very few possums and very few armadillos. We used to see them in droves, but lately it is one possum here or one armadillo there. Maybe something is feeding on them because they just aren't around much any more.

I enjoyed my time in the garden today, but it was hot and humid, and I was glad to get back indoors again. Mid-September just shouldn't feel this hot. Oh, and I saw not one single hummingbird today. It is like somebody flipped a switch on Monday that said they all had to head south on Tuesday and they did. I'll leave the feeders up a while for stragglers who are late to migrate, but I think our main hummingbird season just ended abruptly.

That is so interesting, Dawn, about your wildlife observations. Something is out there. How many chickens do you have? Have you lost anymore since bringing them indoors during the severe heat several weeks ago? I remember you saying something about these are the smart ones that don't roam into the woods.

I haven't seen much wildlife other than birds and toads, of course. We still have plenty of toads. Oh, and mice. They've made their way back into the shed side of the coop. Or they did. I haven't seen them since Peggy was housed there to rest her legs/feet. Maybe she ate them. Gross. I've seen her eat a smallish snake. Gross again. Oh, I did smell a skunk early this morning. And I've heard coyotes.

My hens were on a roll last month. We were having 10 Egg Days. Now, we're down to 4 to 6 eggs per/day. Shorter days, I guess. No one is molting yet. Ethan is off the eggs for awhile. Probably because I've forced him to eat them every day for breakfast since my first flock started laying three years ago. :) He'll be back. haha.

Thirteen hens and 2 pullets (?) or one pullet and one lil roo?

It's good to see some of y'all check in. I suppose we're all pretty busy right now with various things. And, unless you've planted a fall garden, everything is winding down. Our average first freeze is November 5 (I think). About 7 more weeks. I love my garden so much, but I'm ready to put it all to bed and start fresh in the spring with smaller amounts of plants. I still feel like I'm trying to figure out how much produce our family requires. And, honestly, some of the stuff is grown just for me. I'm the only one who eats fresh tomatoes, so why have 24 + plants? Although, at some point I would like to can.

Does anyone grow dwarf varieties of fruit trees? I would like to add more fruit trees, but don't want full size ones. Sadly the columnar apples did not produce this year...probably because of the April frosts. They've put on height though. One of them is as tall as me now. I really want blueberries too. I buy them every week. They will require special soil, right? Acidic soil. I had a couple of spots picked for elderberries...maybe they can go there instead because the location is too sunny. Maybe I can start dumping acidic soil amendments there. Thinking as I type...

Have any of you thought of Garden 2019? If so, what are your plans?

I still have tomatoes setting fruit, when it’s cool enough to do so. Most of them are Early Girls, but the 2 Heidi and one Porter are hanging on too. And a Big Beef that sat and did nothing, trying to die, all summer, until it grew like crazy all August. Now it’s 6 feet tall and leaning against the neighbors fence, with about a dozen fruit on it. I’ll yank the peppers soon as it’s cool enough. Stupid freeloaders. Still have zinnias and tithonia blooming. Zebrinas never did anything, and I think I killed my firecracker plant. I think some things will come back with some cooler weather. Finally got some steroids, so I should get to feeling better soon. I’ve got work to do.

Jennifer, We still have the same number of chickens as a few weeks ago. I figure these survivors are the smart ones because they've outlasted the big coyote outbreak and many hungry hawks. They have become very wary and have chosen one spot...bordered by the dog yard on two sides and the house on a third side....and stay in that spot for a large portion of the day. I suppose it feels closed in and secluded and safe. The fourth side is partially closed in by the tornado shelter, which has a large trumpet creeper vine covering most all of it, except the doorway. I do not think a cougar, coyote or bobcat would come this close to the house so they probably are safe there. I hope.

Skunks were out in abundance one day when it was sort of misty and cool. We could smell them....and all we saw were dead ones lying in the road, so having them out that day may have worked a bit in our neighborhood in terms of skunk population control. No one here is complaining.

I get tired of eggs sometimes too.

Is your little roo crowing? That is not always a sign though. We have had some female chickens who seemed to take on very masculine characteristics and begin crowing, usually when we didn't have a rooster because ours had died. It is interesting to see it happen, and they do try to take over leadership of the flock....at least until we get a new rooster.

I've been trying to downsize/right size my garden for several years so I don't have to put up so much food via canning, dehydrating and freezing. I still don't have the amounts exactly right, but I'm getting better. I love that it frees up more space for more flowers too. I'll probably always grow too many tomatoes, but I have cut back a huge amount on how many of them I grow too---I could cut back more, but I like having tomatoes to eat in all shapes, sizes, colors and flavors. When I try to cut back to fewer tomato varieties, I just can't do it. At least not yet. It is so funny, you know. I worked for at least 15 years to get the garden soil enriched well enough and my growing techniques tweaked just so in order to get the highest possible harvests from the space available. Then, when I got to that point, I began working to reduce the amount harvested. (grin) My grandmother would say to watch out for what I wished for, and she'd be right. I asked for an abundant harvest, and then it became too abundant. I'm okay with downsizing. I may downsize the edible part of the garden next year even more. It is okay. Our gardens should be planned to suit us and our needs and wants, and for the last few years, the overly high production of my garden began to feel like a chore to be dealt with instead of a pleasure to harvest, preserve and eat. I am happier this year with so much less produce to deal with.

I did miss having pickling cukes to pickle this year, so they will return in Garden 2019 but that's about the extent of my planning for next year so far.

Dwarf fruit trees are fine and do well here. I've grown standard, semi-dwarf and dwarf, and I prefer the dwarf and semi-dwarf. Blueberries require absolutely perfect drainage and a very acidic pH. Even though I could build them a raised bed with near-perfect drainage and the pH they need, I won't even attempt them here where I live because our water is so high in pH that I'd have to treat it every day before watering them, and in the summer I'd probably have to water them every day. Then, you have to fight the birds for every berry. Yes, blueberries can be grown here but make sure your soil is tested in order to get it to the perfect pH before you plant them, and have a good watering plan in place for the summer months. Your soil and water pH up there probably are not as alkaline as mine is down here. They will have a lot of the same late freeze issues as stone fruit trees. Scott used to grow a lot of blueberries. I am not sure if he still does. Maybe he'll see this and reply.

At this time of the year, I'm always ready to let the garden go. I am hot, tired, tired of being hot and tired, tired of the drought, tired of the snakes...and there's always too many venomous snakes out around here in late summer and early autumn. Then, as the first freeze approaches, I get almost in a panic like "what? no! not yet---it is too soon!" I end up laughing at myself. I am glad the holiday season distracts me, and then, by the time all the big holidays are over, it is time to make sure I have all my seeds on hand and am getting ready to start seeds indoors by early February. No matter how I feel in September, by January, I'm all set to go again.

You know, at THIS moment, I have no desire to order ANY seeds! Amy's a seed master. I know Jen is, too. Not me! You KNOW I ordered about every flower there was to order last year, and have every veggie/herb seed on hand that I'd need, Didn't get some planted. I've been doing intensive garden figuring. Here's the plan for this next year. Pretty much nothing, other than weeding out that dad-blamed Bermuda and adding lots of mulch. I am too old and too lazy to work hard growing difficult-to-grow things now. Maybe just one-two experiments. Okay.. So I am adapting to OK gardening going into my 5th year. Eileen got me all interested in Asian cooking, so I'm going to grow lots of greens. And like I said before, my tomatoes, peppers, garlic, leeks and potatoes. And a couple cucumbers. And am loving the many herbs out there.

Thanks, Dawn, for the "what-is-doing-well" list. Here's what's doing well here: Unbelievably, got hydrangeas that are still blooming, after their brutal introduction to hot summer, immediately after freeze. They are monsters. The zinnias have gone absolutely bonkers. I never really appreciated them before in my life, but they are amazing this year. I haven't even dead-headed much, and they are going crazy right now. The lantana. Mixed feelings. It's positively obnoxious. Black and Bloom salvia--thank you, DAWN. The coleus, who refused to do anything in June and July, are beautiful now. Tithonia, likewise. And what the heck, the cannas in the far back bed without enough sun, are finally blooming. The pineapple sage that you love, Dawn, hasn't bloomed yet. Close but nope. The hollyhock zebrinas keep doing fabulously, cept the deer encroached and bit several back. But new ones are growing like crazy. Same with nicotiana. The moonflower vine is enchanting and spreading, and OH, that SCENT! Gaillardia still blooming, LOVE the verbena bonariensis, echinacea. Just planted two new varieties of the echinacea. Celosia! Wow! Marigolds, of course. Laura Bush petunias. We DO have blueberries (because of my ignorance. Shoulda done blackberries instead. But my blueberry bushes are enormous now, starting into their 3rd year. I DID build a special bed for them and loaded it with acid. They are looking GREAT! They only get about 3 hours of sun.)

Like I said before, I need to try and stay away from most ipomoea. Whatever bad bug is getting them, they are relentless.

Frankly, if I never plant another flower, my yard will be full of them. I am freaking out about the malabar spinach. What a great edible!!

We're getting kinda old. I am opting for less work and what will grow. I do recall Dawn's saying this--not the old part, but the "what will grow part."

I think we have it pretty easy here compared to what many of you have. We DO have a ton of shade, and that is something to understand and work out We DO have rocky land, and THAT has been a challenge. We have the constant deer problem; last year, voles. This year tremendous damage by bad bugs.

I THINK my answer to this year's gardening was that I grew SO many different things on my big grow cart and then planted them, that combined with my previous 3 years' plantings, the sheer numbers of the things I planted overwhelmed the adversaries.

I've been fairly obsessed the past few weeks about how I can paint with not only Tom and Jerry, but now Tiny.. I've worried and have been nervous. These are oil paints. Worried not only about the cats jumping onto my large palette of paints, but also them getting into the toxic mixing liquids. Decided it'll be okay and so that's what I'LL be doing until it's time to order seeds, about the middle of December. Already got my garlic ordered.

Oh my gosh, I have so many peppers out there still! I love my peppers!

Love and blessings to you all!!!

Dawn, yes ABSOLUTELY you should have a game camera! I love ours - not only do you know what’s coming in at the back of the property where you can’t watch but you also get the most interesting and delightful pictures. It’s a good investment and our first one lasted almost 15 years before it started having issues. I put ours out and just change the sd card about every 5-10 days or move it to a different location. I also consider it a good security device- we can see if someone is slipping in the back way to the ponds or hunting.

We still have lots of peppers, some new green beans blooming and 1 squash left out of 6 new ones planted for fall garden. My Spring squash lasted all summer but the bugs got these almost as soon as they started producing. Still getting a little okra- my husband wanted to go ahead and pull it out but wouldn’t let him, it was so late before it produced that I want it left even if only get a few pods to drop in soup. Our tomatoes are blooming again but doubt they will make. Maybe enough for a mess of chowchow. I haven’t seen any hummingbirds in about 3 days but butterflies everywhere- all varieties. We went to Stillwater yesterday after feed and went by Bustani gardens - if you haven’t been there it’s a nice side trip if you are in the area. They had butterflies on all the blooming plants. I love seeing the plants they have blooming now so can decide if need to purchase some next year - although all my beds are overflowing already . In anticipation of rain I planted a few more greens and more clover, even if they wash away they’ll come up somewhere . We have an abundance of mosquitoes and ticks. I swear the mosquities are the size of little buzzards and just as relentless. Looking forward to cooler temps.

Nancy, Trust me, I've probably mentioned the old part too. (grin) If I have not, I should have. I wish I had the energy now that I had when I was 40 or 45 years old and still spent all day every day in the garden. I just cannot do that any more, even though I'd love to. Well, I could do it for one day, and then it would take me a week to recover, so what's the point? Oh and the snap, crackle and pop of one's ankles and knees when you stand up in the garden from a crouching or kneeling position. Who needs that?

We have a ton of shade on our property---at least 10 of the 14 acres are wooded, but we built the house up on the highest point of land, which was grassland that had only one tree---an old post oak that has been declining steadily ever since that wet year in 2015 when we got about 200% of our annual rainfall. The post oak probably is coming down this winter if we can find the time to cut it down. It is probably 75% dead already and it would be better for us to take it down at the time of our choosing than to have it come down in a wind storm. I don't grow much of anything in the limited shade around the house, produced by the 20+ trees we planted to eventually shade the yard and house, though, because it isn't fenced and wildlife creeps, crawls and slithers through it 24/7. Everything I planted in our early years got devoured by huge hordes of deer, so all I have now is trees, shrubs and groundcovers that deer don't/won't eat. I wish I had your kind of shade safely fenced to keep all the wild things out and, if I did, I'd have huge beds of shade-loving plants. No worries though. At the rate that the trees from the woodland are encroaching on the northern and western edges of the front garden, it is going to be a shady garden before I know it, whether I like it or not.

You're brave to try painting with cats around. Hopefully Tiny Dude will learn that no means no and that go or get down means to vamoose and leave you and your painting supplies alone. We have had some mellow cats that you can do craft projects and things around and they won't bother you, and then we have Pumpkin---who thinks everything is all about him and tries to get in the middle of it all. Still, even Pumpkin has learned to respect boundaries somewhat.

farmgardener, I've wanted a game camera for ages and it is just one of those things we've never quite gotten around to doing. We're going to get one this weekend and put it up though.

I think I might kind of have my own answer to some of my own questions. This morning, when I put out the hen scratch and the cracked corn for the doves, no deer were waiting. No deer were there and ran off when they saw me coming. No deer were standing in the pasture watching me put out the food. No deer came to eat as soon as I headed into the house. No deer have been out there eating at any point when I've walked out the back door and looked west to see if they are there. They've been coming every day, without fail, since about mid-July which is when everything really began drying up from the drought. So, having none at all is peculiar. Usually, when a big weather front accompanied by rain is coming, we have more deer visiting more often as if they are trying to eat all they can before the rain sets in. Not having any deer today likely means a predator came through last night and this morning and either scared them or left enough of a scent that the scent is scaring them. We'll see if the deer come back to feed this evening. Usually they come early and often on the last day or two before a major front rolls in with rain or snow, as if they know they need to eat a lot now so they won't be out searching for food in heavy rainfall. Not having any today is just so peculiar.

I do have hummingbirds today, though, after not seeing any since Monday.

I have walked within touching distance of bobcats back there at the deer feeding are before I realized they were there. How they were stupid enough to let me get that close is something I don't understand, but from my point of view, it wasn't good to see that little tail and realize a bobcat was right there within reach. It was there pretty often too. I always wondered if it lost its mother too young and didn't learn to avoid humans, or if its natural instincts just weren't working. Odd things happen here with wildlife all the time. We had a skunk climb up onto our porch once, get on the porch rail and fall off of it into an empty trash can. Of course, he was trapped and couldn't climb out. Luckily it was a wheeled can that had an attached lid, so when we saw the skunk, we slammed the lid shut, wheeled the can off to the woods, laid the trash can down on its slide, and flipped open the top of the can so it could leave. We'll see if they come this afternoon or evening. The cougar that has been spotted in our neighborhood was only a couple of miles from us, so I remain very uneasy. With the huge deer population we're seeing this year, I even understand why the cougars would be here, but still don't want them here. Hopefully it is just that one and it will move on quickly since they do cover a lot of territory.

I suppose our chickens are keeping the ticks in check as we've hardly had any at all this summer, but the mosquitoes are just awful. I forget how long it has been since we had that hard rain here. Maybe 2 or 2.5 weeks or so? We had no mosquitoes before then because it had been hot and dry forever. We have tons of them now. Several counties just to our immediate south in Texas had mosquitoes caught in traps that tested positive for West Nile virus within the last few days, so people are getting a bit antsy now. I guess the last thing we need now is more rain and more mosquitoes, but I suspect we're about to get them.

There's nothing new to report from here, other than the missing deer. It is hot and the heat index again is worse than the temperature (but not as bad here as in some places in OK). I cleaned house today. There's something very defiant and rebellious about mopping all your floors and being proud of how clean and shiny they look even as the NWS is issuing a Flood Watch for your area. (grin) Bring on the mud and the rain, and I'll just mop up the paw prints and footprints again and again and again.

I want to believe the heavy rain will fall here like they say it will. I possibly could believe, but then every other time this year when the forecast has said Heavy Rain and we've had high chances of getting rain, and when the NWS issued Flood Watches in advance....what we've gotten instead has been rain all around us on every side while we sit in a dry slot and watch the ground crack and the grasses burn up and turn brown. So, I'm having a hard time believing. I'm going to go ahead and plan outdoor fun for the four year-old granddaughter for the weekend because she prefers to play outdoors and because I want for us to have fun outside together. Then, if the rain actually does come, we'll revert to Plan B and do something else indoors. I am doing this because I know that if I do plan for rain, it absolutely will not fall.

Most of the high school football games down here have been moved to Thursday, so clearly most people do believe---or they believe just enough to move those games and get them over with just in case.

The forecast daytime highs and lows for the next few days, starting tomorrow, look so nice. This week we've still been running about 10 degrees above normal both day and night, so to be able to have some temperatures that feel more like mid-September than mid-August is going to be so nice. Tomorrow is forecast to have an average Sept temperature, and then Sat is forecast to have a below-average temperature. If the forecast is right, we'll be about 20 degrees cooler on Saturday than today. That will be awesome.

Remember that the sort of moisture we're supposed to get this week will be tropical moisture, which differs somewhat from regular rainfall. The main difference is that tropical moisture can dump huge amounts of rain in relatively short periods of time....so, turn around, don't drown and all that.

Anyone who is expecting a ton of rain and hasn't harvested sweet potatoes yet might want to go ahead and get those taters dug up out of the ground. Excess moisture can cause a lot of cracking and splitting, especially when the sweet potatoes are close to their mature size already.

Would I be jinxing our rainfall if I dig the rain boots out of the closet and stick them in the mudroom? What if I get my raincoat out of the bedroom closet and hang it on a hook in the mudroom? I don't want to jinx our rainfall, but I do want to be prepared if it does rain.

Dawn

Jennifer, now I don’t know how your son could be sick of eggs. Breakfast is my favorite meal, and heck, I eat 3 eggs a day, and I have for years now....sometimes I have 3 more for lunch, sometimes every meal has eggs. Love, love, love eggs so much. Haha, it‘s a good thing I have chickens, otherwise I probably wouldn’t be able to eat as many as I’d like....How do you like to cook yours? I like them quite raw, but won’t eat them that way if I am using storebought eggs for some reason. My omelettes are usually very runny in the middle, because I like them that way. I like a little raw whites with fried eggs, and I like a softer boiled egg, and creamy scrambled eggs just barely cooked enough. I trust that our chicken eggs are safe primarily because the birds are raised well and seem very healthy. My family thinks I’m crazy for liking eggs this way!

I‘m getting a fair bit of shade in my garden, and I’m doubtful as to whether certain crops will give me a harvest, like my Brussel sprouts and carrots. Cabbages all have beautiful heads forming though, and I’m very excited for that. Lettuces all doing well, soon to plant in ground. Some lettuce will be ready to harvest in a few weeks. I still have yet to plant my overwintering spinach and need to do that ASAP. Tomatoes have been coming in by the dozens, but are slowing down and may be pulled soon.

Deer have found their way back in and I need to figure out another way to keep them out. I‘m thinking of investing in a game camera myself to watch for these animals, being as much a problem as they are. I have a fence around my back garden around 6’ tall with black poultry netting, and it seems to keep deer out. I may try that in the front garden. Fishing line isn’t working for me anymore.

I‘ve been a little discouraged with my garden and just haven’t been doing a whole lot other than harvesting tomatoes. I’m focusing more on next year. I’m going to finish building my cold frames and start planning. I’m working on digging my garden over with my new fork, and I’m attempting to remove rocks everywhere, including paths, to a depth of 12-15”. It’s a lot of work, but will be really, really nice when I’m done, until more work their way up. It’s a constant battle!

Trees are really beginning to change here already, especially on the local lakes and rivers. They’re obviously not close to peak, but just at that stage where they begin to turn and gain some color. Lots of leaves are actually falling green in our yard, and I have lots in my mowings when adding the grass to the compost pile. Temperatures were nice most the month but the highs have been hovering in the low 90’s the last few days. This weekend we have a cold front coming, the next 15 day forecast shows highs in the 60’s-70’s with lows in the 40’s-50’s, mostly. Average first frost date is Oct. 10 here; I’m interested to see when it’ll come this year. Last year we had our first real light frost on Oct. 15.

I may not do a whole lot for fall gardens in the future other than our leafy greens and cabbages. The shade just holds plants back too much, not worth my time. If we get some trees removed though, that may change things.

I’m feeding the deer with corn now to keep them happy and to keep them around for hunting season. Beef is so expensive anymore; what a way to give us some meat? They are very healthy; they’ve been getting plenty of veggies! I did run out of corn, but they’re managing on what’s left in my garden at the moment. I don’t mind since the shade is keeping things from growing a whole lot. My main focus for the rest of the year will be to figure a way to keep them OUT. My garden is test bait at this point, because I don’t want them showing up next spring!! Hahaha. I WILL win.

As for next year’s plans, I am finding more and more that I prefer rows to beds, so I’m not going to form permenant beds as I’d planned. I like the freedom to grow certain crops in beds, if it suits me, and other crops in rows (as with corn or tomatoes). In this way, my no dig experiments have proven to not be the best for me. I would like to grow melons next year, and some sweet corn. And more potatoes!

Y’all have a good day. I’m ready for some cooler weather.

Speaking of eggs, it's what's for dinner tonight--bacon, eggs and pancakes. We love it, but it is SO BAD, and I usually am worthless afterward. I fixed big chef salads for last night just so I wouldn't feel guilty about having no veggies tonight. haha--thinking ahead, ya know, We both like soft boiled eggs, barely set scrambled eggs, and OE. Tonight's will be OE.

Jacob, you're not the only one who as said they were a bit discouraged by their gardens this year! I think more have said that than not, actually. I'm sorry you're having deer problems. It'll be great to thin the numbers a bit this fall for you! Beef IS expensive, and not only that, we're getting tired of the tough wet-aged meat all the grocery stores seem to be selling.

The absent deer today, Dawn, is so unusual. You surely are right, I'd think.

It will be very interesting to see what the weather brings tomorrow and the next day! I'm betting on you getting more rain than we'll get, Dawn! LOL I really am. I'm ill prepared for a heavy rain, though did get one big bed weeded this morning. The lawn's at that stage where it doesn't REALLY need mowing, but kinda raggy cuz part of it does. So if we really do get all this moisture, it will really need mowing by Monday! But I am figuring we'll be fishing that day.

I have paints out on the table, but. I've been searching through photographs all day, not being able to decide where to start. Yep, spent pretty much the whole afternoon just looking. Sheesh. That's how it usually goes when I haven't painted for a while. I laughed at your suggestion, Amy, about painting morning glories, and by gosh, maybe I will! Be nice to have one to look at for a model, though. I don't think Tiny can jump as high as the table yet, Dawn. I'm telling myself it will all be fine.

Nancy, nothing better than a stack of pancakes with eggs and bacon, maple syrup...

We get our meat from a local butcher shop normally; Ivan’s is the name. There’s a clear difference between their meat and regular old store-bought meat, but it’s expensive!

We HAVE to find a good butcher shop, Jacob! Have to!

Quick note. We finally found Tiny's original home! Our next-door neighbors! He was over visiting us this evening. He's a great guy about 8 yrs younger than I am. We last got together with him around the first of July. At that time his wife was sick and so was Garry. We had drinks and snacks and got caught up. We don't get to visit him often because he's still working five days a week in Tahlequah. I had to introduce him to the newest member of our family, and he laughed. I felt HORRIBLE, because he'd have to take me to court to get Tiny back. LOLOL I told him I had posted Tiny's picture to FB and all my neighbors are FB friends, so I assumed they'd see it. And I said we asked the vet, and Wagoner Area Rescue. I admitted we didn't go door-to-door, because we assumed if someone near us had lost him, they'd be out knocking or putting up flyers, and also because he was so adorable, I just couldn't make myself do it.

BUT. He said he got him for his little 5-yr old granddaughter, and also to be an outdoor tomcat to chase down critters. Since then, his granddaughter's situation has changed and they'll only be able to have her down once in a while. I think Tiny ended up in a better place, what do you think! LOLOL And he was great about it, and glad to see the little cat has a good home.

Sheesh. :)

Settled on a painting subject. Aspen trees. As I was browsing through photos of aspen trees online today, realized I could do aspen trees 50 thousand different ways, in various seasons, and all the way from way out abstract, to realism, from close up to far away. Yes, I think this will be a fun obsession. YAY! I had no idea where I'd go or what I'd settle on--nothing was out of the question. Could have been people, could have been skyscrapers, gardening, animals. . . the mind is a funny thing.

Jacob, I'm sorry your fall garden has been a disappointment. Perhaps you do just have too much shade and too little sunshine at this time of the year? That is so unfortunate. The folks I know here who have great fall gardens do have them in full sun. In the years I plant new stuff for fall, I try to keep it at the sunnier east end of the garden because the west gets too shady too early.

We have quite a few trees changing color here just this week, but it isn't autumn type foliage---it is drought-parched trees turning yellow and brown and even dropping green leaves. Hopefully rain will actually fall over the next few days and will stop the trees from shedding leaves to survive. Our trees normally don't change colors too much until Oct-Nov and often, if the weather stays warm, they just stay green until the first freeze hits in November, and then the leaves turn brown overnight and fall. Southern OK is not famous for its autumn foliage, and for a good reason.

Cooler weather is coming! I hope today was our last day this year to have temperatures in the 90s and heat index values in the upper 90s (at least the HI stayed below 100). I wouldn't mind a cold north wind either. Of course, that may not happen for a while.

My front garden does have both raised beds and also grade level space for rows---I like the flexibility of having both. Really, with our dense red clay, the raised beds are essential for some crops in rainy years. It doesn't matter as much in drought years, but it is hard to guess in the winter if we're going to have a drought year, a rainy year, or maybe just an average year.

Nancy, Eating healthy is all about balance, right? So I think it is cool to plan ahead and do a big veggie meal if the next night's big meal is going to be more protein and carbs....you know, it all evens out over time.

The deer thing bothers me because of all the babies. I hope the fawns had adequate meals today, wherever they were, and I suspect whatever predator made them uncomfortable probably was just a bobcat or coyote or whatever---largely because I don't want to think that a cougar is here. I checked the hard-packed, cracking clay and found no pawprints of any type. I checked the barbed wire fence for tufts of fur. Found nothing. Maybe the deer will be back tomorrow. In the meantime, since they weren't here to eat their cracked corn, the cottontails and coons should eat well tonight, or maybe the deer come after dark this time.

Since we have had less rain than almost everyone in OK this year (except maybe Robert over there in eastern OK), I'd be okay with getting the most rain this weekend. Or, at least, lots of it. The chances of that really happening? I don't know. All I know is the drought has to break sooner or later, so why not now?

Our county's Asst Emergency Mgmt Director has been sending out weather notifications to us to remember to wear our safety vests if out closing down flooded roadways or working accidents, reminding everyone to put out lots of early warning lights, etc. Just typical stuff. He gets the special NWS teleconference type weather briefings for Emergency Mgmt personnel, so it appears he really believes it will rain. As a bonus, he added "floaties" to our list of equipment we'll need if the forecast verifies and we get all that rain. It was worth a good giggle or two. We do have life jackets to wear while conducting water rescues---I hope they haven't been in the storage closet so long that they've gotten dry rot. While everyone else is optimistically expecting flooding rain, I'm being Debbie Downer and just hoping some rain of some sort falls.

Tim came in from taking Jet outside a few minutes ago and announced it was drizzling. Without even looking out the window, I said "misting". He said "drizzling". So, I walked out there, stood about 30 seconds, felt two tiny drops of mist, and said "misting" and walked back indoors, with him walking behind me echoing "misting". I have no idea why he thought he felt drizzle.

We mowed as much of the front yard as we could late today, and I used the string trimmer to neatly edge the area outside the south and east garden fence line, and to edge around the driveway, the gates, the tinhorn and the mailbox. Tim even cut the side yard just outside the mudroom where he had just mowed on Sat or Sun. He wanted the grass extra short in case we get the flooding rainfall and cannot mow for a couple of weeks. That is what I call positive thinking. He'll be in Las Vegas next week for a police conference, and he doesn't like leaving any of his usual chores undone while he's gone. I told him I could mow next week, but I think he is hoping we'll be under water...the yard, not the house, of course.

I think Tiny did end up in a better place, and honestly, if the neighbor really wanted to look for him, he could have gone knocking door to door and didn't. So, since possession is 9/10s of the law, Tiny ought to be yours forever.

I think painting aspen trees sounds cool.

I get the four year old around noon tomorrow. This saves her from having to go with Chris all the way down to Dallas to take one of his very pampered tropical birds to the bird vet. The bird is having hormone issues and producing a whole lot of eggs and it is wearing her down. Her abdominal area stays so swollen that at one point that did tests for cancer (and found nothing). On the last vet visit, they gave her a hormone shot to shut down the egg production and it had zero effect on her. I'm not sure what they'll try to do differently tomorrow. Since that trip to the Dallas vet and back home again ends up taking 5-6 hours, depending on how you hit traffic and all, I'm betting Aurora and I will have more fun here than she'd have riding down and back in the truck with Chris. I never mind having her arrive a few hours earlier than expected. Four is such an adorable age, and she is growing and changing so quickly that it is mind-boggling. In fact, it is that same sort of mind-boggling growth you see in your garden when the sunlight, temperatures and moisture hit some sort of perfect point simultaneously and the garden plants seem like they quadruple in size seemingly overnight.

I am hoping the cooler temperatures that accompany the rainfall (if and when we get any rain) will make the nights cool down into the 60s next week. If that happens, I'd be able to work in the garden weeding and deadheading on those cool autumn mornings, with little fear of encountering a snake until the sun gets higher in the sky and warms things up quite a bit.

The chickens were nervous all day. They stood anxiously in their chosen safe space and hardly moved all day. I wish they could tell me what is bothering them. I walked all over the yard and peered into the adjacent woodland and didn't see or hear anything. I'm thinking of leaving the chickens in their coop for the next couple of days just to keep them dry and safe. They wouldn't like it, but I don't care. If we get heavy rain or night time rain, the usual night time predators will be out hunting for prey in the day time. So, confining the chickens for 2 or 3 days might be best for them in terms of safety.

When I have looked at the radar the last few times, there's scattered storms coming our way from Texas, but then they all seem to evaporate into thin air near us, while areas to our west and east (outside our county, so not necessarily real close) have storms over them on the radar. I hope this is not a bad omen.

The rainfall amounts on the QPF look really good. Of course, it is too late to help much in my garden, but the trees and shrubs really need a good soaking rain. I take the QPF with a grain of salt as it often projects much larger amounts of rainfall than we eventually get. Every now and then we get much more than it says, but not very often. Once, it predicted 3-5" of rain, and we got almost 13" in one 24-hour period. That was a wonderful day except for the flooding. We were in drought at that point in time and that rain smashed our drought to smithereens.

Dawn

Dawn, you mentioned ticks. Our dogs haven't had fleas or ticks this year so far. Weird. It's nice to not spend money on expensive flea stuff.

Jacob, Ethan has always been a very picky eater. I used to "judge" people with picky kids because my first two ate anything that I offered to them. As soon as Ethan was one and on "real" food, he became picky. It wasn't a "I just want candy and cookies and not my dinner" picky. He is picky about candy and cookies too! haha. He didn't like the normal things that kids usually like. He ate about 10 different items until about age 7. Luckily, he would eat green beans, apples, grapes, and bananas. Part of it is a texture thing.

HOWEVER, he did tell me that once marching season is over, he will probably want eggs again. Right now, he doesn't want anything for breakfast. He has to be on the field by 7am and we are a 30 minute drive to his school. It's still dark when he leaves. I send a bag of organic peanut butter crackers and a bottle of water with him.

I am like you. I love eggs. I crave eggs. I'm trying to keep my weight down, so I've given up eating breakfast every morning. I make a protein shake 5 days a week and indulge in a nice egg breakfast on Saturday. (I was doing both for awhile, but that involved a lot of calories and the protein shake has my daily protein needs as well as calcium--something I need at my age particularly being a vegetarian.) I like them scrambled, fried, boiled, or anyway really. AND like you, I'm not afraid to eat them a little undercooked when they come from my own backyard.

Where did your neighbor get Tiny? I think it's obvious that you are the better cat parents. I'm glad you don't have to go to court to keep him. haha.

Aspen tree! Great idea.

I think I'll deal with peppers this afternoon. I'm going to look up a bunch of different pepper recipes specific to some of these, like the aji dulce and poblanos. I left a bunch of Ashe county pimentos out there to riipen, as they are SO much tastier that way..And I only picked a couple of the many jalapenos cuz I am NOT ready to deal with them today. My Jupiter bells fizzled and died last month--strange, as everyone else is happy. But the Charleston bells and Marconi are producing nicely. Like the Gamba very much. What's in the pic is from top left: Aji Dulce, second row is Poblanos, Marconi, Charleston, Ashe County pimentos; then a couple jalapenos on the bottom, the Gamba and pepperoncinis. The poblanos didn't get very big, but I'm excited to have them. The aji dulces remind me of cherry tomatoes--they're about as prolific!

HJ, I didn't think to ask Tom where he got Tiny. He just said someone gave Tiny to him. I'll ask him Sunday. I was feeling guilty this morning and thought I should take Tiny over to them,. But if he really were to be an "outdoor" cat, he'd be back here anyway. Tom and Jerry and he spent the entire morning together frolicking in the back yard and playing tag and attack. Tiny also climbed 15 feet up one of the oaks, and was perched on a little limb. Same limb Jerry got stranded on last week. haha Jerry got down because he slipped on it and reached for the tree, so placed him in the proper position to climb down. Tiny fretted and stewed, and I was down cheering him on. He finally got positioned right, too, and came down. Silly cats.

I hope you get a drought-smashing rain this weekend, Dawn! It's just kind of messing around here for now. Very light off and on. It feels like a kinda "lull before the storm"; maybe all we'll get is the lull,.

Have any of you ever made the popular Mississippi roast, that calls for pepperoncinis? Oops. I guess I DO have to use pickled pepperoncinis for it. So maybe I'll pickle up a few jars, because I've been wanting to try that roast for a long time.

We started into town for groceries, drove 3 miles and it was pouring, so turned around and came back. It's not raining as hard here. Yet.

It must be pouring somewhere in Love County because we are under a Flash Flood Advisory thru 4 p.m. The less than 1/10th of an inch we've received at our house so far likely will not lead to any flash flooding. It all looks good on the radar, but so far we just aren't getting any of the heavy bands of rain.

By contrast, poor Johnston County (Tishomingo) has had pouring rain all day and flash flooding all day---up to almost 10" of rain at one of their mesonet stations and perhaps more rain (as indicated by color-coded radar-indicated rainfall amounts) in some other areas. That's just too much at once, and the rain in southern OK is expected to continue for another 24 hours or so. I'd be thrilled to receive 1/3rd the amount of rain that Tish is getting. They have had and continue to have every flood warning you can have...Flash Flood Warning, Flood Warning, Flood Advisory, etc. I imagine things are pretty dicey there right now.

Jennifer, My younger brother always was a picky eater too---he didn't like and wouldn't eat any sweets, but he loved eggs, milk and meat. Clearly he's a protein guy. I can't say I blame Ethan--he has to get up and get to marching practice so early that maybe his body just isn't ready for a full meal that early.

Nancy, That is exactly what I was thinking about Tiny---that if you take him back to them 'by force' and leave him there, and if they let him outside, he's just going to come back to y'all again anyway, so why put him through that stress?

Based on our forecast, we ought to get drought-busting rain this weekend. The question remains: will we? It has rained all day and we have less than 0.10" in the rain gauge. (sigh) A thunder storm rolled in and I thought that would be our heavy rain, and then it rolled right on through and was gone in less than 5 minutes, so nope, not our turn at big rain yet. I cannot help thinking Johnston County and Tishomingo our getting "our" rain plus theirs, and it is more than they need. I feel bad for them.

Based on how the radar looks, all of OK should be getting rain of some sort, so I am trying to just be patient. I cleaned house all day until Aurora got here and now we are watching Paw Patrol together, playing with Lucky (the cat) and playing with slime (her, not me).

One lone doe came to eat this morning as soon as I put out the food. Then about an hour later a doe came with 2 fawns. Then, right before it started raining around noon, the whole herd drifted in, so it was sort of back to normal today but with weird timing. There also was one lone hummingbird, just like last night.

That's about all from here, where we are watching the skies and waiting for more rain. Hopefully it will come. Probably it will come in droves later, will knock out our TV reception, internet and cell service and then we'll be whining about too much rain. I'd be okay with that though, as it would be better than no rain.

Dawn

Raining off and on, really poured early this morning! I’ve been strapped with stuff to keep up with the past couple of weeks, and all my free time has been spent working outside. Kind of okay with a couple of rainy days to stay inside, maybe catch up on some gardening books I got at the library a few weeks ago and have yet to have time to read, at all!

Jennifer, I can see why your son would not want to eat breakfast with getting up as early, as Dawn said. I’m not a morning person. I got up early most the summer to get things done outside, but now I have a lot of trouble getting up before 7 because it’s dark!

Hopefully you get some rain Dawn!

Jacob, I am glad you got some rain and also that you are getting some rest. You worked so very hard all summer----enjoy being able to take a break from that for a while now.

We did get rain. I haven't been outside to the check the rain gauge this morning because it still is raining, but we had 3.55" by bedtime last night, and sporadic light rain fell overnight. The heavier rain bands shifted south and east in the evening hours and the DFW metro, and areas between us and them, took a big hit with flooding and such. I feel bad for them, but also relieved that the 5-10" that fell there overnight didn't fall here.

I'm the same way, sleep-wise. I think my body responds extra strongly to morning light (being named Dawn, I guess that is appropriate). I'll pop out of bed an hour before sunrise in the Spring and Summer and be raring to get outdoors at first light, but then as sunrise comes later and later in late summer and autumn, my body doesn't want to get out of bed even once the sun is up. Maybe we just wear ourselves out in the summer and really need more rest by the time that daylength is dropping in late summer and early autumn.

Oh, and today is the first day of autumn. Yippee! Our high temperature today is supposed to be in the 60s. With the way the heat has held on, we've had trouble even making it down into the 60s at night, so having a high in the 60s is going to be a real treat. It probably won't last. I'm sure that high temps in the 80s (and hopefully not the 90s) will be back in a few days, but we should be done with having heat index numbers in the 100s now.

I'll come back later with an update on how much more rain fell overnight, but now I need to head downstairs and start thinking about making breakfast for the two granddaughters. They aren't awake yet, so the house is still quiet for perhaps a few more minutes.

Dawn

I lost my earlier post on the other computer. I was bemoaning the fact that my jalapenos aren't as hot now as they were a couple weeks ago. And was so surprised to see that the cooler temps and watering makes them less hot. Who knew. Not me, obviously. Even the red ones aren't as hot as they were (but hot enough.)

I am not an early morning person and never have been. It's a marvel I managed to get up at 6 or 6:30 for work for many years.

We haven't had any rain today since I got up, but it has remained overcast and remarkably cool, 68-70.

Well, I may not have to think about the morning glories, as deer have made two raids on the mound in the past two nights. I have cages around it, but they found the few holes where cages weren't. Apparently they REALLY REALLY wanted a bite of morning glory. I had evil words and thoughts going through my head.

I've been looking through recipes for different or fancy ways to do ham and cheese sandwiches. Kind of a fun trip, it was! Any of you have any special ways you like them?

Any of you bring this to SF? Like the rest, I've lost the tag. About an inch long, turns orange when ripe, and spicy.

Nancy, It is just a sad fact of life that heat + lack of moisture give our hot peppers better flavor, and cooler temperatures and excessive moisture do just the opposite. There's not a lot we can do about it. I am careful to choose peppers that are higher on the Scoville Heat Unit scale for just this reason. While this sometimes means that hot peppers harvested in July and August in hot, dry years can be almost unbearably hot, it also means that those harvested in cooler, wetter months still have a lot of heat since I chose hotter varieties to begin with. I'll even tailor my variety choices to the year's expected weather (to the extent that you can know at seed-starting time what sort of summer to expect). If I expect really hot, dry summer, I may choose jalapenos with a lower SHU and do the opposite if I expect a cooler, wetter summer. It helps somewhat.

Deer are just that way. They want what they want when they want it.

You can jazz up ham and cheese sandwiches by spreading a thin layer of Habanero Gold Jelly on them! Of course, this only works if you happen to have Habanero Gold Jelly handy.

Jen, Whatever your pepper is, I don't recognize it and it didn't come from me. Could it possibly me one of the ornamental pepper varieties?

It stayed cool, cloudy and mostly rainy---just a slow, even rain that fell all day long until 4 or 5 pm---all day long and the high temperature here only made it up to 66 degrees. It felt like autumn after feeling like summer for far too long. We ended up with 5.8" of rain, so certainly cannot complain about the rain missing us this time. I think the last time we had 5.8" of rain from one rain event, even a multi-day rain event, likely was back in February. It is nice to see all the moisture, but I'm sure the mud and the puddles will get old quickly, and the mosquito explosion will not be welcome at all. We usually have mosquitoes all winter here, so it isn't like we even can count on cold weather to knock back the population completely. I dread the mosquito part of the equation.

We'll see if this large amount of rainfall heals up all the cracks in the ground from this summer's drought. I think it will and hope I'm right about that.

My garden is a lake as the timbers from each raised bed sort of serve as mini-dams that hold water when there is plentiful rainfall. A lake is probably preferable to a desert after the summer we just had.

One lone hummingbird was spotted visiting the feeders in the rain, and then seen visiting the trumpet creeper flowers after the rain stopped. This is the third day in a row to spot only one hummingbird. I don't know if it is the same one, staying here and refueling before flying further south, or if I'm seeing various single ones. So far the last few days, all the hummingbirds I've seen have been ruby-throated ones. The main crowd left a few days ago.

The deer returned in force to feed tonight and were pretty hungry. I hope they enjoyed their dinner. At least I didn't have to drag out the water hose to fill up their waterer for them because the rain took care of it---it was, in fact, overflowing. They might not even drink from the waterer now that all the creeks and ponds have water in them again, but it is there if they need it.

I'm thinking if an unwanted large predator is lurking, we'll know it soon enough because it likely will leave tracks in the mud if it comes anywhere near the house, garden, outbuildings or the deer feeding area.

Vultures have been circling our woodland and Tim thinks this means some predator has killed and possibly cached its prey back there. I pointed out anything could have happened---just some wild thing could have died of natural causes---and we'd still have vultures circling. Neither of us is willing to venture into the snake-infested woods to see if we can find whatever it is that is attracting the vultures. If this was November and we'd had colder nights, venturing into the woods wouldn't be so risky, but we've been too warm recently and the snakes are still very active.

Dawn

I'm pretty sure it's an ornamental. I've gone through my notes and can't find anything similar, posted to a few garden groups, no luck. My last ditch effort was to see if maybe one of y'all recognized it.

Hahaha, Dawn, you're funny--crazy as it must seem, I do NOT have that staple, Habanero Gold jelly, around right now! I must say, it sounds yummy. Congratulations on your rain! Thrilled for you.

The fact that the deer are all back would cause me to think you were right, that there was a predator nearby. That plus the vultures.

Yes, our hummingbirds have taken flight, too, for the most part, just since Thursday. Today we saw four. Garry's got mixed feelings. He was tired of fixing food for them once or twice a day, but we'll miss them.

And today, we caught Tiny, TWICE, up batting one of the feeders around. He got scolded by Garry the first time and taken off, he got scolded by ME the second time, and got put down very rudely. Haha. I wasn't as nice. Figures. Isn't that just like a Mom. Good, probably, that the hummingbirds are leaving! We're in trouble--now he CAN jump; a new skill just picked up. He's now outgrowing his tininess. But adorable. He and Jerry seem to pal around more outdoors, but he and Tom like to snuggle together and give each other baths, on the couch by my feet if I'm lying down.

I know I brought ornamental peppers to the SF; but I think I only brought Explosive Ember, Medusa, and Pretty in Purple. I also have Medusa. And I'm 90% positive Explosive Ember (which your plant resembles) begins with purple peppers, not green.) I'm wondering if anyone else brought ornamentals to the SF. Or I'm wondering if yours is shaded so much, maybe the peppers could start green? I don't know.

Guess what else hasn't bloomed in my yard--the pineapple sage! It's enormous. But though wants to bloom, hasn't. Again, probably not quite enough sun. Grrr.

And speaking of ticks as you mentioned them, Dawn and HJ, was just thinking how I've escaped them by spraying down, for about at least two months. And so what did I pluck off near my armpit tonight? A deer tick. Well, I didn't spray down today, because I didn't do yard work. But I was out there 2-3 times looking at stuff, leaning down to pull and occasional weed.

My spindly little cumin is valiantly trying, and if it only had another couple months, would be good. As it is, there are a few little seeds on it. So. Cumin, not a total fail. haha. Night, all!

Last I checked, we only made it up to around 60 yesterday. Rainy almost all day. 10 day forecast shows no days above 80 any longer, mostly 60’s and 70’s, but it also shows a lot of rain. Because of the overcast nights the temp will likely not be dropping too much.

My cabbages and lettuces are all loving this weather. I’m amazed at my lettuce. It’s another new Batavian variety I tried (like Rouge Grenobloise), entitled “Sierra.” I planted it in August, and pretty much gave it no water and allowed the weeds to grow up knee high around it. It’s alive, and growing really, really well. I believe we’ll be harvesting lettuce in just a few weeks. All of my winter lettuces in their tubs are a little behind- I think they need some fertilizer so I will try to give them some today. Most lettuces are very, very picky for me, but those of the Batavian strain just seem to want to grow, especially Rouge Grenobloise. I really can not say enough about it.

We have a tree in our yard that is already at foliage peak....what the heck?! It’s Sept. The lake is showing the most color right now. Is it due to the hot, dry summer we had? They began turning in late July.

Squirrels are so busy. They get up on our house roof to get acorns, and wake me up every morning banging around up there.