I have 3 more sweet potato plants to dig under, that I hope to do before the rain. Madge is going to northwest AR. for a great grandson's birthday party today. I will go to church and then to Ft. Smith to visit mom, and hopefully, if it is still dry I will dig the potatoes. These plants were stuck in behind my okra plants and robbed of a lot of sun, but I an sure I will a few potatoes from them anyway. I removed the okra plants yesterday

I picked and shelled pea seed for next year. These are the seed that George sent me a few years ago. They are the best food plot peas I have ever used, they are great tasting peas also, but a little harder to shell than purple hulls. I am not sure what kind of peas they are, but I am calling then Kentucky Reds.

I still have a lot of cleaning to do in the gardens. I will not rebuild any trellises until next year, I am not sure what my health will be like then. I hope to garden as long as my body will permit it without a lot of pain.

I started at natural grocers this week in produce :) and worked 17 hours for my occasional job packing beef . I am really going to like NG they are a good company with lots of perks. This particular store had a clean out recently so there were only 3 employees left. So most of us are new!!! Fun times trying to figure it all out. They trained me on register yesterday which is not my favorite. But it's all good. They called to pick up extra shift today. Every bit helps for sure.

We have had lots of rain here. Right when they are trying to dry the cotton. I hope they don't have to spray more defoliant. I have kept my ac off for 2 weeks so I don't get defoliated

Larry, I hope you can continue to garden without too much pain. I cannot imagine you without a garden! I do have a lot of older friends who have gardened even up into their late 80s through mid-90s, although of course they cut back and made their gardens smaller over the years. They also often have had help from children, grandchildren or hired hands in order to keep gardening once mobility issues became a problem. One of our neighbors, in his later years, had a lot of back trouble, but you'd see him out there in the garden, sitting in a chair hoeing away at the weeds. I always admired his attitude---that he truly was going to garden for as long as he possibly could.

Kim, I am glad that NG seems like it it going to be a great place to work. That is just such a blessing. Wow, when they cleaned house, they really cleaned house! There must have been something go wrong in that store to call for such wholesale house-cleaning of employees. My guess is that the culture amongst the employees was not a good one and that chose to clean house, keep the best employees and hire new folks with a new attitude and work ethic perhaps. I hope they know how lucky they are that they found and hired you. If they don't know it yet, they soon will.

I bet cotton harvest time is the worst time for you with all the chemicals they use. Ugh. I don't want for you to become defoliated either.

I want to use my cotton plants, dried, for ornamental arrangements but I surely cannot touch them now. After the rain ends Tues or Wed, I'll let them air dry as long as possible and then I'll harvest them. They are so pretty and still in bloom, so I hate to do anything to them yet.

The flooding here is beginning to make itself known, not really so much from local rain (although parts of our county got 6" compared to our relatively measly 2.5") as from runoff pouring into the Red River to our west. When we were out west yesterday morning, river bottom lands in far western Love County already were somewhat underwater and it is expected to get much worse. The current prediction is the Red River @ the Gainesville bridge will crest around 34' on Thursday, but the flooding upstream in our county will peak a day or so earlier as the waters rush downstream. At 34', there is significant flooding of bottom land, but this sort of crest is pretty typical in a flooding year and nowhere near the record crest from a few years back, which I think was around 42'. However, even at 33 or 34' (current projection I think is 33.7'), pecan orchards, bottom land hay pastures, sand mining operations, etc. are affected. For folks like us are who very close to the river but higher than the bottom lands, the biggest effect we get is a big push of wildlife onto our property as the wild things flee the floodwaters. Other roads in our county are flooded too though, with some closed, and others being monitored as flood waters are backing up towards them from the river. The bayous here can only carry so much runoff to the river at one time and once they back up then the floodwaters can begin to cover some county roads and state highways. When we looked at the Red River yesterday, it was at only a little over 10'. It is hard to believe that it will rise and additional 23', more or less, over the next few days.

I became a great,great-aunt (technically, I think I am a great grand-aunt but my family always has called grand-aunts great-aunts, so who I am to try to correct that lifetime habit) when my nephew's stepdaughter (a teenager herself) gave birth to her son on Friday. Gee, I don't feel old enough to be a great great-aunt, but then, at the age of 32, my nephew doesn't feel old enough to be a grandfather either. My sister now is a great-grandmother at the age of 53. This all makes me feel flabbergasted. My sister and I agreed we are too young for this! This sweet baby boy was born 3 months prematurely and is fighting for his life. His odds of survival are less than 50%, so it is a very stressful time for all his family down in Fort Worth.

That's all the news here from our wet, soggy place.

Dawn

Dawn, I do plan on going just as long as I can. I have neighbors that tell me to call any time if I need help, I am proud to say that I am still able to help them more than they help me. I can go grade a driveway, do a little brush hogging, or show them how to repair something, but pride and my hard head won't hardly permit me to ask for help ( my mother in the nursing home is giving me fits because she is the same way)

I did ask Madge to help me dig the last 3 potato plants, which gave us a good harvest even though the ohra blocked a lot of their sun.

I think I should have dug my sweets last week. Lots of rain here and more coming. I may dump my pot out and see what's in there. The garden looks so fresh and clean with all the rain. I went out early this morning and the verbena, basil plus ? Scent was overwhelming in a good way in the air. I will purpose to put smelly plants around my front and back doors always. Does datura have a scent?

I had a great weekend in Atlanta. Very, very much needed. Now I’m hanging out at Love Field for however long. Been here since 2:30, flight was supposed to leave at 6 but because of storms it’s delayed until 7:30. Most flights are delayed some amount of time. Things here came to a screeching halt for a good hour of bad weather.

Dawn sent you a message. Got 3.5 inches yesterday and last night in Leedey but heard there was over 5 inches north of Butler where some of our pastures are.

Hi Jay, I received your message and just replied. It is so good to hear from you. That's an awesome amount of rain for y'all out there. I hope it is soaking in more than it is running off. Of course, if it is running off into stock ponds, then that is great too.

Rebecca, I hope you're not still there now. I haven't looked at the radar lately, but there's been some heavy rainstorms moving north out of Dallas so I suspect you might not be in the air yet. It is no fun being stuck in an airport.

Kim, Datura has at least two scents. The flowers have an incredibly sweet and intoxicating scent. Some varieties have a stronger fragrance than others. There is one variety called "Evening Fragrance" that has a particularly strong scent. The rest of the plant? Ugh. A very unique smell that also has earned daturas the nickname of stink weed. So, if you want to enjoy the lovely scent of the flowers without having to endure the stinkiness of the rest of the plant, put your daturas further back away from a garden path so you don't brush up against the leaves and help them release their stinky smell.

Larry, I do know that you are that way. I've watched you help everyone else for as long as I can remember, and you never ask for help. I do remember when your sweet and lovely granddaughter would help you in the garden--and I bet you didn't ask her to help, I bet she just wanted to hang out with you and learn about gardening from you.

I hope your mom is doing as well as can be expected at this stage of her life. You're a great son and don't you ever forget it.

You and Madge did get a great harvest from those plants. Congrats!

Today was cloudy and mild but the rain went around us, and I'm not complaining. We are incredibly wet. Over the last 60 days, our county in general has received over 200% of our average rainfall for the same period. Some areas have had more than others---we've had less than most in the county and that's a good thing because while we may be soggy with huge mud puddles and all, at least we aren't actually flooded and none of the roads near us are closed by flooding. Tomorrow should be our last big day this week for heavy rainfall. We were in the 80s again today, but only just barely so it is a huge improvement over last week. It finally is going to feel like autumn here, beginning tomorrow, more or less.

Y'all keep half an eye on Pacific hurricane Sergio. If he holds together and makes landfall where expected, he might send a moisture plume towards OK. That could result in rain yet again, if an approaching front interacts with the moisture plume. We will just have to watch and wait because hurricanes don't always come ashore where expected and, even if Sergio does, the moisture plume might come this way and go right past us if a front doesn't grab it and carry it further down into OK. Meanwhile, Florida and surrounding states are looking at a landfall and widespread weather activity from Hurricane Michael this week. It sure does seem like a lot of rain is falling this autumn....and not just here in OK.

Most of us have had enough rain anyway, right? Except for some parts of far NE OK that remain in drought and keep getting too little rain---I know that area still need rain.

Our soil, being clay soil that has had repeated rounds of heavy rainfall the last month or two, is starting to smell like a swamp. Ugh. It is an awful smell. The garden, with its raised beds, doesn't smell as bad as everything else. Mushrooms and toadstools are popping up everywhere, and the bermuda grass is looking really green, but it isn't really green....it is the green algae or mold growing on the soil surface beneath the grass. (grin) See, our soil has its own green thumb!

The mosquitoes are simply too awful for words. This morning, when the dogs came indoors, one of those gigantic gallinipper mosquitoes flew into the laundry room with them. It was horrifying. It looked to be 4 to 6 times as large as a regular mosquito, and when I smashed it with the flyswatter and picked up its dead body with a paper towel, a lot of blood came out of that little devil. I hate them. We are using so much Deep Woods OFF that we ought to buy stock in the company. These things are common following big tropical downpours, including Tropical Storms and Hurricanes, and whenever/wherever flooding is occurring. They are almost, but not quite, horrible enough to make me start wishing for drought. Just kidding! I'd never wish for drought for fear that I might get my wish.

For anyone/everyone hoping for cold weather because it will end the mosquito season, guess what...it really doesn't. It will knock back their population, but some always survive. I have tons of them in my greenhouse in winter. (sigh) I leave the greenhouse doors open as long as possible each day so predator insects can find them, but it doesn't really seem to help. I think it we could get really cold weather that lasts or heavy snow, then the mosquito population might get knocked down so small that we'd rarely see them, but all I know is that for the last 5 or 6 years, we have had mosquitoes outdoors and in the greenhouse all winter long.

Bees are behaving oddly here, and I think their behavior signals a cold winter is coming, based on what I have observed in the past. More about that tomorrow because this is long enough already, and I'll tell you about our mosquito miracle cure tomorrow.

Dawn

It’s just before 9 and we are getting ready to push back.

Oh goodness. I'm so behind. (In so many ways, but I'm specifically talking about this thread/forum.) I'll backread here in a minute.

Today, was spent catching up on dishes, laundry, putting away crap that's been lying around...as well as washing utensils and such from the contest on Saturday. Also, moved around the dog crates and utility room. The goal is to move the cat dishes and liter box into that room. Juno is afraid of the dogs. ..and when they are in their crates in the utility room, she won't go in. I need her to. So, I've moved her food there first....hoping to coax her in. Then, comes the liter box. I hope sooner than later.

I can tie all of this into gardening because the light shelf was moved too. :D

And I start my garden each year ON that light shelf.

Talk to me about garlic. I like all garlic. It's all yummy to me. What is the easiest to grow here? I must order some asap.

I've felt like we might have a cold winter too, Dawn. (just backread that part) It's probably time. It's been awhile since we've had much snow or cold. We haven't had real snow since moving out here. We bought a sled the first year. Ethan was still somewhat young. The 2 or 3 previous years to moving out here, we had good amounts of snow and he went sledding with friends. We finally buy a sled and it does nothing and now he's mostly grown.

The earliest freeze we've had since living out here was on Halloween. I think it was 2014. I remember my garden was very small (we had moved here the spring before) and I harvested all the basil at midnight on Halloween in a black cloak, as I had just came home from a Halloween party. I made pesto the next day. Now, there's so much basil, it's...whatever. But, back then, I had so little of a garden that it was very important to save that basil.

Kim, so glad you're enjoying your new job! Why did they let everyone go?

Looks like the rain is coming! And I must go to bed. Tomorrow is so full and I'm terrified that I'll forget something important.

Rebecca, I hope your plane finally took off and you made it home.

It is stormy here this morning.

Y'all, you may hear reports of storm damage in Marietta that occurred around 7:45-8:00 a.m. this morning. If you do, I just want you to know that all we have here at our place in the countryside outside Marietta is a few pecan tree limbs down so you don't have to be concerned about me or my garden. (It would not have surprised me if trees came down on the garden during that gust front, but they didn't.)

The gust front hit so fast (I was outside feeding animals when it arrived out of nowhere) that by the time the NWS could issue a warning, the western half of county already had been hit, Hopefully the eastern half of county had time to take shelter from the strong winds. Meanwhile, in town, they have a real mess in one particular section of town right alongside/adjacent to Main Street---power lines down, power poles broken, trees down, roofs reportedly torn off homes, carports picked up and thrown onto shop buildings and other structures, and one home reported to be "on the verge of collapse". Some vehicles damaged because trees fell on them. It sounds crazy busy in town. Cops, firefighters, City of Marietta public works employees, OG&E employees, etc. swarming all over the damaged section of town like busy bees trying to clear power lines and downed trees to ensure public safety.

We knew we had a chance of severe weather today, but didn't expect it so early in the day.

There's a new 0.85" of rain in our rain gauge this morning. About 0.50" fell overnight when storms hit here between 10 pm and 2 am and the other 0.35" fell in 10-15 minutes as the gust front blew through. At this point, the deer, the rabbits and I think we are starting to grow webbed feet and the mosquitoes are the size of B-52s. The garden looks windblown but deliriously happy with the tons of moisture that keeps falling every few days.

The mosquito miracle? Someone on one of the OK Gardening FB pages mentioned at the beginning of the summer that ever since she started taking a B-complex vitamin, mosquitoes did not bother her. I thought that Tim and I would try it to see if it worked for us. It did! At first, I couldn't tell if it made a difference, largely because we were in drought and there were not a lot of mosquitoes. When heavy rain returned in September, we were able to be outside with no mosquito issues. They were buzzing around us, but not touching us. We decided it really was working for us. Last week we ran out of the B-complex vitamins and didn't have any to take for 4 or 5 days. The mosquitoes were all over us all the time and, wow, did we notice that. As soon as we bought another bottle of B-complex vitamins and started taking them again, the mosquitoes immediately began leaving us alone again. So, based on our unscientific research, we believe that taking a B-complex vitamin every day keeps the mosquitoes away from us. I love this. Maybe we won't have to spray with Deep Woods OFF any more.

The thunderstorm has arrived so I am going to hit submit before the next storm arrives and knocks out either our power or the internet. Hopefully all we'll get is rain.

That's fascinating, Dawn, about the B-complex vitamins. I'll have to share that. We don't have many mosquitoes here, so not necessary. That's a little weird to me, that we aren't bothered by them here.

I haven't been paying much attention to the weather forecasts lately. We haven't had a huge amount of rain. 3/4" overnight, and only 1/2" the previous two days. Looks like we're going to get hammered, too, though, today. Tornado warning just expired; severe thunderstorm warnings. We don't have many flowers at this point--the salvia, lantana, datura, lovely moonflower vine. The pineapple sage never DID bloom-- but just NOW is getting ready to., as are the lavender plants I grew from seed. The biggest and healthiest tithonia just bit the dust over night--yep, fell over. If it gets as windy as the weather forecast predicts, it'll no doubt take a lot of flowers down, and it is picking up steam as I write.

Glad to hear NG is good, Kim. Thx for good wishes re smoking. It has been just fine., really, from Day 1. A few twinges, but overall, GOOD. In fact, hadn't really even thought about it today. Wow

Glad you were able to get away Rebecca! And I trust you're back now, finally? .

Dawn, interesting about the B-complex vitamins. I do not get bothered by mosquitoes, except very rarely, but everybody else in our household gets eaten up every single day. However, I’m the only person in the household that loves and eats sourdough bread (and a lot of it) every single day, which is naturally very high in complex B vitamins as a result of the multi-day fermentation byproducts of the bacteria. Ticks also rarely bother me....We have free range chickens, but even if we are out hiking I don’t get the ticks, or the mosquitoes. I wonder if it’s related.

Browsing through posts I saw cotton mentioned. Our neighbor grows cotton every year, and I happened to harvest some from his plants and got seed. Very nice. May grow it next year! This is the neighbor that gives me loads of 30 y/o rotted wood chips. I’m hoping to get another load to dump on the garden for winter here soon. Extremely nice guy, couldn’t say enough. Always ready to help.

Jennifer, was it you who mentioned garlic? I think so. I plant mine in the ground anywhere from 5-8” apart. I only amend with compost beforehand, planning to fertilize later in the season. My soil mineral content is quite balanced, I presume, because of the rocks. Looks as if we may have a frost this weekend, so I may be planting next week or a little later. I plan to plant it 6” apart in raised rows 24” apart in the top garden. I’ll plop tomatoes pepper in between them next May. Something tells me we will have a cold spring again, maybe colder, so I have a feeling I’ll be able to get away with it. I plant in raised ridges to avoid drowning and compaction. I plan to plant around 120ish softneck Inchelium Red from this year’s harvest, and probably 15-20 elephant garlic bought off a lady locally.

I have built some cold frames from scrap wood around our property for raising seedlings next spring. Now, they are not pretty, but they’ll get the job done. I will need to be covering my lettuce soon, which will hopefully begin harvest in just a couple weeks. It’s been slower to grow this year with as overcast of an autumn it has been.

In regards to winter forecasts, I have a feeling it’ll start out fairly mild, but get pretty cold come January/February and have a long lasting cold spring. Leaves are beginning to fall here. Starting tomorrow highs will be mostly in the low 60’s and lower, lows around the low 40’s, few times down to mid 30’s in my 15 day forecast. Pretty typical for this time of year. It’s been unusually warm as of recent. Leaves should get pretty soon, but after all this warmth I’m not sure if they’ll put on much of a show this year; it’s just been too cloudy for the temps to drop much at night!

An old timer family friend used to swear by Bcomplex. He was an avid fisherman and always outside, but rarely got bit. I take Vit B and still get swarmed. I've been getting the shots when our office has the nurses come for flu shots, so maybe I just need a bigger dose

Downspout or possible tornado a couple miles from my house. My husband sent a text complaining that we really shouldn't have trained our dogs to run outside and bark when the alarms go off. Saturday's project: start training them to go in the bathroom when they hear the sirens.

Nancy, I didn't really expect the B-complex vitamin to make a difference. I just thought we'd try it, see that it didn't work, and shrug it off as another one of those folk remedy things that doesn't work. So, instead it worked. lol. I don't know how or why it worked, but am glad it does.

All our wind damage, as far as I know, was only from straight-line winds, but within a short while, the same squall line, which was very elongated and ran through OK and TX throughout the morning hours, produced tornadoes in some parts of OK. The ones I read about all seemed to be EF-1s, but they did flip cars.

There is still a lot of trouble here in spotty areas---no power, no internet, no cell phones, etc. but as far as I know, our area is 100% fine in those areas.

Our pineapple sage continues to bloom. As poorly as the soil drains in the area where I planted it this year, I'm amazed it still is alive. It looks good but, alas, there are no hummingbirds remaining to enjoy it. Oh well, I am glad they fled south ahead of the cold front.

Jacob, It could be related. Scientists have long believed there is a genetic component to why mosquitoes go after some people much more than others. Now I am wondering if the answer is even simpler---maybe it is a nutritional issue.

Cotton is a gorgeous plant. I love the flowers. It also has proved to tolerate drought really well. I was nervous about planting it here because cotton root rot exists in our soil (this place was once part of a cotton farm decades ago) and I had to fight it really hard our first few years here, but the cotton has done fine. Perhaps I've amended the soil well enough over two decades that cotton root rot never will rear its ugly head again---because it can affect thousands of species of plants and not just my handful of cotton plants.

I was wondering how close your first frost is because even as far south as I am, we are going to be in the low 40s at night by Mon or Tues or so, which I figured meant you were going to be even colder. I'm sort of ready to feel cold and enjoy not being hot, but I hope the plants don't freeze just yet. If we get freezing weather next week (which I don't think will happen), that would be about 5 weeks early for us. We've been persistently cloudy for a long time, except last Friday was sunny and hot. Tomorrow the sunshine is supposed to return, but without the heat. I'm happy about that.

Y'all remember I mentioned Hurricane Sergio in the Pacific headed for a landfall on the Baja peninsula? Well, it currently has dropped to Tropical Storm strength but still is bringing the rain. Our local TV met says this coming weekend will be 'ruined' by rain from Sergio's remnants. Great, because you know, we need for more rain to fall while we already are flooding. So, watch your forecast and if you're getting rain over the weekend, you can thank or blame Sergio (whichever is appropriate in your specific case). After such a long, hot horrible summer, I cannot believe we find ourselves being drenched week after week after week. If 2018 wants us to understand that this autumn is different from last autumn, well okay, we get the message...Autumn 2017 was hot and dry and Autumn 2018 was not. I wonder how long the moisture will last? It will be time to start planting in January, and you know, January is not all that far away now.

Here's a map showing the rainfall from the last 30 days in inches:

Thirty Day Rainfall

This map shows it as a departure (either plus or minus) from normal rainfall for the same 30 days. You can see that most areas have had plenty of rain, but not all:

30 Day Rainfall As A Departure From Average

I think if I had gone back 60 days, the departure map might look better for much of NE OK.

Did anyone here feel the earthquake today? We didn't. We are much too far south. Only in OK can we have flooding rainfall, straight-line wind storm damage, tornadoes and also an earthquake all on the same day. Say what you will, but OK is never boring. Oh, and gardeners in the OK panhandle may have a frost or freeze tonight. It already is in the upper 30s and lower 40s there right now as I keep this.

As part of my cleaning up the clutter binge, I threw out a lot of 2018 seed catalogs, but kept a couple of favorites. I really don't need to order many seeds because I have so many seeds in the seed box so throwing away the catalogs was not as hard as you'd think. Also, while cleaning out drawers, cabinets, closets, etc. I keep finding packets of seeds everywhere. I don't know why I bought them and then didn't put them in the seed box. Hmmm. All of them are still new enough that they ought to be viable, and I think it is safe to say I won't find any more seed packets hiding anywhere.

I have four Christmas amaryllis bulbs from last year that are dormant. I think it is about time to water them and bring them back to life in the hope they'll bloom this year. It isn't a lot of gardening, but forcing bulbs inside in winter gives me something to do that is a little gardening anyhow.

Dawn

I think your experience with Vit. B, Dawn, had to be very much like my "come-to-Jesus" experience with cigs. LOLOLOL Like--a MIRACLE! LOL I loved it. Now, I have my own experiences with mosquitos and right up front I'll say I don't know squat about Vitamin B or many of the minor vitamins! Hahaha!! Again, a Bible metaphor. I don't know squat about many of the minor books, oh never mind. Just hit my funny bone. '

Nancy, For me, Vitamin B's ability to repel mosquitoes might be almost as much of a miracle as your cigarette experience, but your experience quitting is much more impressive.

We awakened to cool temperatures this morning (55 at our house, 52 at our Mesonet station) and coyotes howling just outside the house. I suspect these particular coyotes were driven up out of the river bottom lands west of our back property line by the rising flood waters. I've been expecting them. Maybe I wasn't expecting them to be sitting outside the house howling, but I knew they'd be here on our property. We've been coyote-free for a while and haven't lost a chicken in a couple of months, so I'm not happy that they are back. I stayed out with the dogs in the dog yard this morning because the coyotes were too close, and after we came back indoors, our dogs continued howling at the coyotes from inside the house. It was quite a concert. The dogs, cats and chickens will have to be extra careful outdoors for the next couple of weeks---more like they would need to be in Jan and Feb when hungry coyotes are out hunting in the middle of the day. At least at that point the woodland plants have lost their leaves and our domestic animals can see the coyotes, which isn't true now, so coyotes will be able to creep closer to the animals under cover of the woodland trees and understory plants. I'm not sure how long it will take the Red River to recede from the bottom lands after it crests, but I hope it happens quickly.

I'm putting on my mud boots and getting ready to go out to feed the deer and the chickens. We still have horrific amounts of mud and standing water everywhere. I don't know when I'll venture into the garden again. It slopes but has standing water in it because the wooden boards of the raised beds sort of serve as dams (unintentionally) to hold large puddles in the pathways after heavy rainfall.

We're expecting sunshine this morning and temperatures in maybe the 60s today and 40s tonight. Cool! This will be our coolest weather since early May or late April I think. Tomorrow morning it might be a hot cocoa day since I don't drink coffee.

The elms and persimmons continue to turn beautiful shades of yellow and gold (elms) and golden-orange (persimmons). Their foliage should be about to peak. I love autumn.

Dawn

Wow. It was chilly this morning...and wet still. Brrrr. Caring for the animals wasn't exactly pleasant this morning. Mostly because of the mud.

Nancy, I'm not sure I've said it in words, but congrats on your freedom from smoking. That must feel like an amazing accomplishment. So happy for you.

Jacob, thanks for chiming in on my garlic inquiry. Garlic is supposed to be one of those no brainer things to plant, but I've not had the best results, probably for a variety of reasons. I get confused on hardneck vs softneck and what is best for central Oklahoma. At some point I'll study up on it. We use a LOT of garlic while cooking and I, of course, would prefer to use my own homegrown.

Long day ahead...here we go!

It is a pretty day though! Currently 63 degrees in the early afternoon and the dewpoint is low, so we don't have that excrutiatingly high humidity crap we've had for so long. I love this weather.

I agree animal care in the mornings is yucky, but I wear rubber work/chore boots, so as long as my feet are warm and dry, I can handle the rest. I just have to watch out for any predators that might be out, but while I heard coyotes this morning, I didn't see them.

Softneck garlic tends to produce more cloves per bulb and is more tolerant of warmer winter weather. Hardneck garlic generally produces smaller bulbs (at least in our climate) and does best with a longer period of cold weather. It depends on the specific variety of hardneck because some varieties seem to need more vernalization than others, so when you order seed garlic, search for the ones labeled for the southern part of the USA. You might find hardneck garlic doesn't produce as well following mild winters, but produces fine following a cold winter. Softneck tends to produce well either way.

I generally grow both types. It isn't like we have to choose one or the other.

The NWS investigators were in town today to evaluate Marietta's storm damage that initially was thought to be caused by straight-line winds. They have ruled it an EF-1 tornado. Whew! When the wind came roaring in and I ran for the house, I never would have guessed Marietta was being hit by a tornado at about the same time. Everything here was straight...no twisting, no swirlies, etc. but we are several miles from town.

After being stuck in their chicken coop all day yesterday, the chickens are happy outside today in the sun, although the yard still looks like a lake. Our saturated ground just cannot absorb any more moisture, so the water likely will sit atop the ground for a few days at least.

Brrr. My feet are still cold. In the art room. And a cool 60 outside. It'd be great for working, but I'm studying today/reading, and too cold for that outside! I am thinking we may get an early freeze. I do not WANT! I always feel like I haven't done a thing if I spend a day reading. That's a carryover from childhood, I think, when my mother actually would get mad at me for reading! LOL She'd say, you need to get your nose out of that book and DO something! Sheesh, Mom.

Thank you, HJ. It feels MOST amazing, that's for SURE! But I cannot take credit for it. But I'm absolutely thrilled to be free from it!!! It's SO exciting!

I am anxious to be done with this week so I can get out there and work on beds and mulch and so forth!

Dawn, I wish I could be outdoors during the daytime. As it is, I'm only home early in the morning and late at night. I can't enjoy the in between hours. Someday....

Thanks for the help on garlic. My success with it has been less than.

Nancy, you can take some credit for it. A lot of people are prayed for, but they aren't ready for the life changing experience yet...and some never are. You, however, made yourself ready. SO, you get credit too.

I'm basically having a crappy day because of so many reasons. Some people just don't care about things that are set up to help a group of people, but something, like a child that is the wrong age for a certain activity is sent to that activity and...it's not fair to anyone.. But this person is consumeristic and only cares about themselves and getting an hour at Starbucks without kids...even though it ruins it for everyone especially the children it was set up for. And does anyone know the laws on an 18 year old dating a 15 or 16 year old? Is it against the law?

And I just want to go to my garden tomorrow but can't.

HJ. . . laws differ from state to state. . . . this is what I found.

The Oklahoma Age of Consent is 16 years old. In the United States, the age of consent is the minimum age at which an individual is considered legally old enough to consent to participation in sexual activity. Individuals aged 15 or younger in Oklahoma are not legally able to consent to sexual activity, and such activity may result in prosecution for statutory rape.

Oklahoma statutory rape law is violated when a person has consensual sexual intercourse with an individual under age 16. A close in age exemption allows minors over age 14 to consent to a partner younger than 18.

Me, I'm all about the "depends on the individual," but the above is what I found.

I had much more judgmentalism about the parent who wanted his or her Starbucks!

HJ, I am a kinda Pollyanna person. I am rarely down. I am rarely in a bad mood. Though trying to herd 3 independent cats for dinner, plus a dog who's trying, but ineffectively, to help herd them, can make me explode some nights while I'm also trying to finish up dinner for US! LOLOL I failed badly tonight, and Exploded with expletives. Poor GDW thought our lives were going down in flames.

Now isn't that just THE most ridiculous thing!! I could be exploding over injustice throughout the world, people I don't agree with on politics, people who are total flakes (I'm not real patient with flakes. . . what I mean by flakes are. . . am having trouble here. Have you all every been with folks who just bored the holy bejesus out of you? Who talked constantly and said nothing? )(Gosh, hope I didn't just describe ME!!! LOL.) But here I am, finally totally losing it over 3 independent kitties and one trying-to-be-helpful dog. And trying to get dinner served for GDW and me. Okay. Thank you all! Thank you for helping me regain a proper perspective! Love ya all!!

Finally, HJ, nope, can't take any credit. Will PM you. But to ME, it was as miraculous as if I'd been Mary Magdalene and seen the stone rolled away. It was THAT impossible for me to quit smoking.

Nancy, I still think you were open to it. I do believe in miracles, of course, I do. Many, many years ago I was very sick with an eating disorder. I'm still amazed at my recovery when most people with that disorder never really get over it. A miracle for sure, but I was open to it.

Thanks for the info. In today's world, our kids have to be very careful. Standards are different now. People are ready to crucify others without many facts or information. Can you imagine my great, great grandparents in today's world? My GGGrandma was 14 when she married my GGGrandpa who was 32. All accounts of her were that she was a well loved woman who was loving and delightful and they had 9 children who lived past early childhood. There's not much about him. He just worked hard to provide.

And, now, it's not only the boys who have to be concerned. I know many young ladies who are seniors and 18 who are dating younger teens (both boys and girls) who are 16 or younger.

Anyway, this day has just been so much. All the social media crap that usually rolls off of me, is just an added irritation. I actually had to unfollow people today.

I am so looking forward to December and planning my 2019 garden. Probably will do a salad bed with a hinged hoop. Eight tomato plants, 10 peppers...maybe I'll do zucchini again. Maybe not this year. I want a huge herb garden. And green beans. Lots of onions. Later in the early summer/late spring, I'll plant southern peas and melons and cucumbers--Armenian for sure. I'll probably tuck some peas in during the early spring too. Of course, there's the asparagus and strawberries...but they take care of themselves. THEN, a fall garden. What will that be like? What will my life be like a year from now. It's weird to think about for sure.

What's everyone else planning for next year? Anything out of your norm?

Look what came in the mail today.

Nancy, congratulations on quitting smoking!! It is a great accomplishment, and what a blessing that the good Lord helped you through it. We really do have a great Lord don’t we?

Been cold today! Almost cold enough for a frost last night, not quite. 50’s this afternoon. Removed tomatoes, etc.

Jennifer, a 14 year old girl marrying a 32 year old man. Wow! You’re right, that would not go over well today. I do feel that love is played around with far too much anymore. Personally I feel that the “romantic” kind of love is sacred, of course part of my Biblical beliefs. It’s seen as candy anymore, a toy to play with. Kind of sad really. And you’re right, kids my age do have to be careful. Social media is a pain in the rear, a reason I don’t like it much.

Dawn, I had never known that in relation to hardneck vs. softneck. I’d knew hardneck was generally hardier than softneck in cold weather....but that was it. Thanks!

I guess I’m one of those that enjoys animal care, and other work in the colder mornings. What I do? Get a hot cup of tea, or two, and head out. Usually it warms me up fine, and after I’m working for a bit I’m already getting hot anyways. Of course, mornings like this are primarily limited to weekends in winter due to school.

Dinner time. You all have a good evening.

Jacob, How I feel about animal care depends on how much wind is blowing. It can be really cold, but if the wind isn't blowing and if my feet are warm and dry inside my boots, I don't mind it. If the wind is blowing like crazy and my face is freezing, I mind it a lot. The other day when I had to run indoors to get out of the approaching squall line, which did pop up an F-1 tornado in town about 3 or 4 minutes after I made in indoors......that wind scared me. It wasn't a cold wind, though. It just came out of the S/SW literally out of nowhere---I had looked at the radar before going outdoors and I could tell the squall line was moving quickly on the radar, but had no idea how quickly it was moving until it was here.

I also mind the cold less when it is brand new---it is, after all, the cold weather I longed for throughout the long, hot, drought-filled summer. After we've been cold for a few weeks, I'm kinda over it.

I used to spend all day every day in the winter clearing underbrush by hand, slowly and laboriously, in our 10 acres of woods. After the feral hogs and cougars started showing up, I felt it was too dangerous to be out in the woods in winter. (sigh) I sort of miss slaving away in the woods, but I haven't done it in years now. The cold didn't bother me when I was doing that work either, but maybe the density of the woodland blocked a lot of the wind.

Jennifer, The age thing is tricky. I wouldn't want to be the young man or his parents if the relationship ends badly, if sex was involved while she is below the age of consent, and if the young woman wants to seek revenge because the relationship ends badly. Then it becomes he said, she said, and the court probably will side with the young woman and send the young man to jail. This is scary to think about.

You know, dating with that age difference is not against the law, but if sex is involved, then legal issues could arise. So, the young man (or, in any other case...whoever is older) needs to be extremely careful. The young woman's parents could press charges against the young man even if the young lady didn't want them to---she'd have no say in the matter because she is too young to consent.

Times are different now and have been for a long time. Never mind that it worked out fine for your grandparents and all that, and I'm sure they weren't the only ones. If a 32 year old man tried to marry a 14 year old girl nowadays, they'd end up in court and he'd probably end up in jail. I don't know what the answer is....why can't young folks find someone close to them in age (at least while they are minors) because it just keeps life simpler. My dad was 30 when he and my mom got married, and she was 20. That was in the early 1950s. Would even that 10 year age difference be tolerated nowadays or would people think he was a bad guy for falling in love with a 20 year old? They were married 52 years at the time he passed away so it worked out for them.

As for the Starbucks incident, what is wrong with her? I've noticed there are plenty of parents like that nowadays though---more interested in Starbucks and a smart phone in their hand than in their own children.

I'm sorry today was so stressful and, you know, sometimes people do need to be blocked on social media, so I hope you feel no guilt about that.

My Dixondale catalog came today, and I was happy to see it. Receiving it makes me feel like planting time is just around the corner, and I haven't even made any decisions about what I will or won't grow next year.

It was so cold here this morning that I turned on the heater for a little while just to take the chill out of the air. We never got really warm---only 66 degrees at our house, but 66 in the sunshine with low wind felt pretty good.

Nancy, You can give God all the credit, but you played a role in it too---you had to surrender your will to smoke, if you know what I mean. So, give yourself credit for that.

I truly am dreading the weekend rain. We are so wet now that you can sink into the clay up to your ankles if you choose to walk through any of the puddles still sitting on the ground. I carefully work my way around them....they look like they are water sitting on top of reddish-brown pudding. Imagine what 3-4" of rain over the next few days will do to that mess. Heaven help anyone who gets a vehicle stuck in that clay muck.

The NAM weather model shows us getting less rain. I like that. The Euro model shows us getting more. I don't like that. Our local TV met is going with the numbers on the Euro because it has been right most of the time in the last couple of months. Darn it. I want for the NAM to be right, or for all the rain to miss us this time. Too much in a short time is just too much. We'll get whatever we get though, and will just have to grin and bear it.

At our house, we're headed down to around 40 degrees a couple of nights next week. For us, that is really cold for October. I imagine some of you further north will come close to a freeze or frost. It seems too early for that too.

Why don't we ever get the weather we want when we want it?

Dawn

I am about to head to bed, but for some reason felt like I needed to chime in on the animal care thing. I really don't mind animal care in the colder weather either. I just don't like the mud...or the dogs not having a dry place to be. And...you're right, Dawn, the wind makes a difference too.

We had a night off...sorta. It's a long story, but I picked up a young pregnant woman who was walking down the street with all of her belongings and ended up taking her to a hotel (she's supposed to go to rehab tomorrow and I hope she goes...I just left her at the hotel)...that sorta cut into my night off, but I did have an hour at the fire pit and the coolness of the night. So lovely. I like this weather and I like rain, but I would be happy for it not to rain for another week or so. Okay...bath and bed now. More to say but it can wait until tomorrow.

Jennifer, As Nancy's research pointed out, the dating of a younger teen and older teen isn't against the law, but if sex occurred, then the older one could be prosecuted. Anyone who thinks this doesn't happen is being extremely naive. I have read of older teenaged boys being prosecuted for exactly this 'crime' right here in OK, and I know it happens in Texas because my family is going through this right now. I'm biting my tongue to avoid saying too much about that. I'll say what I can without revealing so much personal data that it violates anyone's privacy.

Let's say that that 14 or 15 year old girl, who isn't allowed to date guys who are significantly older than her, is sneaking around and seeing an 18 or 19 year old guy without her parents having any idea this is going on. Now, let's suppose she gets pregnant by this guy who is 4 years or older than her. How does it end? (sigh) She gave birth one week ago to a baby boy born 3 months prematurely who has survival odds of less than 50% and is in the Neonatal ICU fighting for his life. The young man? Being the older one and the one held legally culpable, he is being prosecuted and his court date was this past Monday. I haven't called anyone and asked how the court case is going. The DA is seeking 10 years in prison for him. Ten years seems like a huge price to pay. So, as a parent, I would be worried about my son dating a significantly younger girl. A 2 year age difference generally is considered okay, and 3 or more is not. That seems silly to me, because I think it depends on the maturity of both the young folks, but laws aren't written that way. Anyhow, my family is involved in this mess and I watch from a distance, try to love and support everyone and just hope everyone remembers that, in the end, a baby is a blessing. My family will love this baby and help his mother raise him, but it has been extremely stressful for all of them. I am sure it has been just as stressful for the young man's family---and this is why parents of young men have to be careful and talk to them about being involved with a significantly younger girl. There can be lifelong ramifications although I think, in most cases, the kids date, they break up, and life goes on. No one wants for their kid to be one of the cases that ends as badly as I described above.

It is yucky, cold, cloudy and raining here today. We've already received more rain today than the NWS said we would, so I suspect that sets the tone for an equally yucky week. I would have appreciated this rain a lot more in June, July or August than I'm appreciating it now...for sure!

The QPF has us in the 4-5" rain category for the next 7 days, and the last thing we need is more rain. Our yard is flooding. The river is flooding. Lake Texoma is flooding. The thought of a lot more runoff gives me a headache. My tomatoes probably are done. They have had so much rain the last few weeks that it is amazing the fruit is hanging in there still.

Have a good day,

Dawn

Bought a bunch of plants at Lowes yesterday. None are going in the ground till after Mon, as Mon night low is currently predicted to be 33! Warmer nights after that, which might allow plants to get established. Chickens are laying again. Of course the dogs got in the pen yesterday, so may have stressed them out of laying again. No casualties.

A family friend has a stepmother that's 4 years older than her. Dad remarried when she was in her 20s, but it always seemed odd that they would be so close in age.

Thing with comparing today's generation with those of your great great grandparents is people grew up a lot faster then. You were an adult at 14, and it was common for males to take on the responsibility of running the farm at an early age. Now we prolong childhood to mid 20s (he/she's still in college. They're not an adult!) Age of consent laws are arbitrary and so much more should go into determining whether someone is mature enough to make those sorts of decisions. But I understand the government has to do something and using age as a cutoff is most expedient.

Amy, I am glad there were no casualties. Y'all are going to be too cold for mid-October! We're currently forecast to hit 39, so I think that patchy frost is not out of the realm of possibility here. I don't care. Let it all freeze before the never-ending rain drowns it all anyhow.

Jen, Wow, wouldn't that seem weird? I've heard of families like that where Dad sometimes brings home a new stepmom that's even younger than the kids, though obviously that sort of thing tends to happen later in life.

Yes, life was so different back then and young folks grew up working hard from an early age, which also prepared them to marry young and have children young. May dad's childhood ended early---at the age of 8 he quit school to spend his days picking cotton from sunrise to sunset for $1 a day, which was money that helped support his family. All his siblings did the same---it was a matter of survival vs. starvation in the 1920s and 1930s. My brother's father in law and mother in law got married in their teens, had 4 children in rapid succession, and made it work....for well over 50 years, till death do they part, and all that. I wonder how many modern-day marriages between two 14 or 15 year olds would last more than half a century? For that matter, the law would not tolerate children quitting school at the age of 8 to work a minimum of 12-hours a day. It sounds crazy to even discuss it now, but it was common for rural kids back then.

We cannot solve all the problems of the world here, but it helps to talk about them---especially in the off-season when there's not a whole lot of gardening to even talk about.

So, the weather continues to be dismal. Another inch of rain so far today and much more expected. It is so gray and gloomy that all the dogs and cats are very frustrated and depressed. They hate being stuck indoors, but also don't like being outdoors wading around in standing water. At this point, our whole yard is standing water. The garden? All the plants still in bloom and standing tall are beginning to lean over, sag, lie on the ground, etc. I think the plants, whether annual, biennial or perennial really just cannot take much more rain at this point after starving for rain most of the year.

Bambi came to visit today. Our two little dogs that like to sit in Tim's office and watch the woodland out the bay window like hawks started having a big,hysterical hissy fit of barking, but without the shrillness or growling sounds they make when it is a coyote. So I figured a squirrel was gathering nuts or maybe an armadillo was out. Nope. It was a little out-of-season fawn. By out-of-season, I mean it still had its spots and was very young and small for this time of the year. It was alone on the edge of the woods, staring at the windows from whence all the barking sounds were coming. Poor lonely little fawn. I hope its mom is around. I think maybe it was trying to sneak into the front yard to look for hen scratch to eat, but there wasn't any. I left the chickens in their coop and fed them in there today. So, of course, I put on the boots and raincoat and ran out to the garage for corn and hen scratch for the fawn. When I came back to the front of the house, it was gone, but I put the food near the place where it had been standing and I feel pretty confident it will come back tonight, at least, and eat it.

The squirrels have moved from the front yard to the back yard and now are destroying all the acorns on the bur oak tree that shades our side yard--doing exactly what they did to a similar oak tree in the front. They remove the acorn caps, break through the shells, take a bite and toss the rest of the acorn on the ground. All. day. long. The ground beneath the tree now looks mulched with all the acorn trash they have generated. I wonder if they'll move to the red oaks near the side porch next? In all the years we've lived here (since 1999), the squirrels never have done this before. In a good acorn year, I just rake up all the extra nuts off the ground and toss them on the compost pile because there's always too many acorns....or not enough squirrels. They are wasting food, and it seems stupid to me. Why not wait for the nuts to mature and fall naturally, and then collect them and store them for fall? Why not collect and bury them? Why do this nonsensical stripping of the oak trees early, taking a bite out of each and tossing it? I just don't get it. They're even out in the rain doing it. My preference would be to stay in my squirrel home, wherever it is, and stay dry and warm, if I were a squirrel. If I wanted to collect and save acorns to plant for new trees, I'd be really irritated with the squirrels but we have plenty of trees as it is.

When I checked this afternoon, everything in the garden that is still alive looks miserable...wet, hunched over, shivering and begging for a glimpse of the sunlight. Oh wait, maybe that is me.

Another sign that a bad winter is coming? We hardly have birds left. Usually we have a lot that overwinter here....tons of cardinals, blue jays, Carolina chickadees, finches, etc. etc. etc. Well they were here, but most all of them have disappeared in the last month. I don't know if they migrated further south, but suspect they have. So few birds remain that I've stopped putting out black oil sunflower seeds because there's no one left to eat it. We still do have some doves coming and eating cracked corn, but not as many as usual.

The same old same old plants remain in bloom: four o'clocks, autumn sage, a few Laura Bush petunias, marigolds, the very last of the zinnias (and I think this weekend's rain will finish them off), mealy cup sage, lantanas, amaranths and celosias, cosmos, hardy hibiscus (the early week cold spell will knock off the remaining flowers and leaves, I think), a few daturas, begonias, periwinkles, morning glories and cypress vines and dianthus. Oh, and the bat-faced cupheas and Texas hummingbird sage. The coleus and cotton plants remain in bloom. It has been almost a week since we saw our last hummingbird. I'll leave the feeders up a few more days in case there are any late migrants coming through, but I really think our hummingbird season here has ended. And, naturally, it ended one week before our hummingbird vine finally began to bloom. We shouldn't have a freeze here early next week unless the cold really comes a lot further south than expected, but we will be cold enough to probably put a halt to more of the flowering plants. They won't necessarily die when they get really cold, but it often just stunts and stalls their growth and they begin to slowly fade away.

It is boot weather. Jacket weather. Perhaps coat weather very soon. Chili weather. Catalog and garden planning weather. I'm so not ready for all the lovely green to turn brown and go away, but I feel it coming.

Is there anyone here who doesn't think a bad winter is coming?

I'm hoping late winter planting of onions and such won't be delayed by excess cold and moisture in the Jan-Feb time frame.

Dawn

Clearing out the gardening.

My daughter said this would get about head high. I am wondering, to what. It comes up new each year.

Dawn, maybe I'm just a little bitter, but I think Bambi would make a fine stew!!!!!!!! lol

Larry, that's a HUGE plant!! Looks like sorghum ?

Jacob, I am not sure what it is. I told my daughter that I would like to have some stuff that looked like variegated bamboo. she told me her friend had what she thought I was talking about, and brought me two clumps of it. I planted it in the garden and the next spring (this past spring) I gave away one clump. I expect my soil is better than her friends soil because my plants have gotten much larger than her friends plants. By searching online I found Giant Variegated Reedgrass. That seems to be what I have.

I have to dig the giant grass out with a tractor. My neighbor wanted a start of it so I took a nice size clump up to her. The rest I will plant somewhere out of the way.

As many of you know, Mom passed away peacefully this morning. She made it to 97--a long good run, Mom, RIP. Please don't feel the need to comment, friends. Just passing on what's happening. Of course we'll miss her but it's all good. She was a lucky lucky woman.

I'm trying to get arrangements made for a small memorial service for her in our hometown of Buffalo WY, through our church there. We had most of her end-of-life issues taken care of, thanks to the Medicaid nonsense and paperwork, so I'm thankful for that. That is such an important thing we can do for our kids--especially all of you getting up in years, like GDW and me.

And of course, we can all slow down and remember the things that are important in life. Loving our neighbors and never taking our families and friends for granted.

If all goes well, we will go to Buffalo at the end of this month. As always have the critters to worry about. My sister told me I need to bring Tiny with us. LOL. Hmmm, I'll have to see how he likes traveling. Maybe a few practice runs.

What IS it, Larry? WOW!

And Dawn, I'm kind of on Jacob's side regarding Bambi. LOL

Also, don't know about a BAD winter, but looks like an EARLY one. DRAT. I sure have a lot of stuff to get done. We're supposed to have a beautiful pleasant fall! It's cold and wet and gloomy out there. Even the cats didn't stay out long. It is definitely not working-in-the-yard weather!

The hummingbirds finally skeedaddled just about 5 days ago. Smart, hummingbirds!

Larry, That is a beautiful and awesomely tall example of variegated reed grass! Maybe yours is going to get head high to the Jolly Green Giant?

Jacob, If I didn't have the 8' tall deer fence all around both garden plots, the deer and I would not be friends. I think Bambi lost her mother, perhaps to a hunter. We have tons and tons of fawns this year---it seems that most does had at least twins this year and one that comes regularly has triplets. I love seeing them. If only the fawns could stay little, cute and adorable forever. People who hunt the property due west of us (it is the buffer that sits between us and the river, so they get a ton of wildlife) are getting pretty large bucks every year....say they sit on their property and wait for the bucks to come off our property. I rarely see the bucks because they feed at night, but I know they are there because every now and then late at night when we are out late, we spot them as we are arriving home.

I tried for the first 8 or 10 years to have nice landscaping around the house/yard, which my husband stubbornly refuses to fence off with an 8' fence. The deer ate every single thing I planted, so I finally gave up. Now we just have trees, shrubs, trumpet creeper vines (because apparently the deer don't eat those), grass and some four o'clocks. Everything else? Hostas, hydrangeas, roses, perennial salvias, any annual flowers I planted for color, day lilies, etc......all deer chow. They even would eat the tough, prickly leaves of the hollies in drought periods, but finally the hollies are so big and old and tough that they don't bother those any more. If I ever convince Tim to surround our house and yard with a big ugly fence to keep the deer out, I will plant everything I've ever wanted around the house. I think his desire to not have a fence is much stronger than my longing for one. Where he grew up in Pennsylvania surrounded by woodland, nobody had fences so you could look out and feel like you owned hundreds of acres of forest as all the back yards and farms just sort of flowed together. So, he remains anti-fencing based on fond childhood memories from the 1960s and 1970s.....even though, if you go back there to his childhood neighborhood now, everybody has fencing and the farms and woodlands mostly are housing subdivisions with lots of fencing. I still think that someday I'll at least have a fenced back yard I can landscape. We'll see!

Nancy, I am so sorry about your mom's passing. I know I don't "have to" comment, but I want to. Tim and I send you and your family our deepest and most sincere condolences. What an incredible, long life she lived, and you did everything you could to move her to the place that was best for her to live out her final stage of her life. You were a great daughter and I suspect it is because you were reared by an amazing mom.

When y'all do travel to Buffalo in a few weeks, I wish you a safe journey. I do think Tiny Dude needs to travel with you so he can enchant and delight your friends and family who see his photos on Facebook and undoubtedly want to meet him in real life. Many cats travel well in a cat crate. Do they microchip cats like they do dogs? If they do, I'd get him microchipped in case he escapes from the vehicle, or at least get him a collar with a tag so you could put your cell phone number on the tag. Being close to the interstate where wrecks are frequent, we get lots of requests to watch for/search for pets that escape from a vehicle (not necessarily a wrecked vehicle---pets can bolt from a broken down vehicle when someone gets out to check and see why the engine is acting up or to change a tire or just when their owners stop at a gas station or fast food place). Sometimes you can find the pet, even weeks later, but it is hard by then to figure out which traveler passing through was searching for that pet if they aren't tagged.

In my meager 20 years of living here, an early winter almost always equates to a bad winter. Or, for snow-starved southern OK, a really good winter. But, we don't get the ice storms that folks further north get in bad winters so what a lot of you might view as a bad winter, I might think of as a delightfully cold and snowy winter....if we get snow. If we don't get snow, then who cares? All winter without snow means is that we are cold and wet. I don't like being cold and wet, but I love snow. Not that I've had much snow to love. Our county does sometimes get the ice storms that bring down trees and power lines, but so far, that sort of weather never has come as far south as our house---it has made it down to maybe 3 or 4 miles north of us though. The bad thing is that if we get cold enough for ice and snow, then we get cold enough to lose Zone 8 plants that I planted here in order to see if they would survive here. They will survive here for a few years until we get an extra cold winter and snow. So, I sort of hope for snow, and sort of don't. I rarely plant Zone 8 plants here any more, although I planted a couple this past year.....which pretty much guarantees a cold winter is coming so it can wipe them out.

I haven't seen a hummingbird since a week ago Thursday, but left the feeders up in case any were going to ride down on the big cold fronts. I haven't seen any, but will leave the feeders up until Monday or Tuesday, just in case, and then take them down.

We ended up with the oldest granddaughter coming to stay with us for the weekend after her plans to spend the weekend with her dad fell through at the absolute last minute. We are always excited to have her come visit for a weekend, even if it wasn't planned. So, we ate dinner out with her, her mom and Chris last night, and then they headed home to get sleep before the busy work weekend with long shifts scheduled at work. We went to Wal-mart after dinner and bought everything we needed to stay home indoors and out of the rain today. We're going to carve pumpkins, which she has been dying to do....but I wanted to wait for cooler weather so the heat wouldn't ruin the Jack-o-lanterns. I think the heat isn't an issue any more. We're going to decorate Halloween Jack-o-lantern cookies (pre-baked and sold with a decorating kit). She has a long list of Halloween crafts she wants to make, including the Halloween version of a gingerbread house (we'll see about that one), so we'll work out way through that list as much as we can. I awakened at six and saw on the radar that the rain was almost here so rushed to get the dogs outdoors ahead of the rain's arrival. Whew! That was close but we made it.

We're supposed to have rain all morning. How deeply into the afternoon the rain lasts is the unknown. I wish it would blow through faster, but it might be a long, rainy day here. We're ready for it and aren't planning on going out in it.

I have some amaranth in the garden with huge flowering seed heads I'd hoped to have harvested and drying by now, but the relentless rain has kept me from cutting them. I keep hoping for a warm, sunny, windy day without rain so they can dry out some and then I'll cut them. I think if I cut them while they are so wet, they'll just mildew and look awful. I want the flower heads for autumn flower arrangements, but the rain may ruin that idea. When I planted the amaranth seeds in July, I wasn't expecting record rainfall in September and October.

Have a lovely Saturday everyone. I hope those of you that the rain keeps missing will get some of this moisture plume left over from Sergio. The unfortunate thing is that it seems largely to be traveling over areas that already have had too much rain recently, so flash flooding and flooding likely will occur in those areas. The Red River is up and running fast and looked ugly last night, so this rain will just make that worse. I am thinking the winter wheat crop here likely is ruined. Too, too much rain even for seeds to sprout and grow, so it is more likely that if the seeds sprout, then the young plants rot. That's so unfortunate, but that is how life goes here on the southern plains.

Dawn

Nancy I’m sorry about your Mom. My Dad passed 2 years ago and my Mom in May. She had a stroke several years ago so although she still lived at home until the last couple of months we were in and out several times a day. It’s a hard adjustment when they are gone. Just treasure your good memories and let the other ones go. Prayers for peace for you.

Dawn you are scaring me about the birds. I hadn’t paid attention to the feeders, between the guineas and doves the cracked corn was gone every day, but when I started watching I realized the squirrels were eating most of the black oil seeds - very few birds. Still have abundance of grasshoppers and crickets. Expecting a light freeze next week so will start carrying in plants and pull the okra out while ground is soft. Have a nice big mess of green beans to pick and the peppers are still loaded. My impatiens and begonias are still gorgeous- I even have a hydrangea that is loaded with blooms just ready to open. At least our pastures are tall and green and the ponds are all overflowing. Bought a few bags of pellets for the pellet stove - have already had it on couple of mornings.

Thank you, friends. Farmgardener, I don't know your name.

BRRRRR. 53 degrees? Rainy rainy rainy. It's been drizzling/raining lightly for two solid days. The kids in Minneapolis said they had four days of the same stuff a few days ago. (Only colder than here, of course.) 53????? I put on one of my winter coats to go out and was not too warm with it on! Just not RIGHT.

Same with hydrangeas here, Farmgardener. Mind blowing that they're producing blooms! Our forecast says temps to 38/39. I'm gonna trust that rather than a possible light frost. :)

It's pepper time! That is what I've been doing all day...dealing with peppers. Not very fall-ish, though. Freezing, pickling, dehydrating....and there is still a pile of peppers on my island, and quite a few smaller ones left in the garden.

I've been trying to provide healthy snacks at our contest--fruit, baby carrots, and such. We have a large bag of apples left over. They are getting soft, so I'll probably make apple cake this afternoon, which is more fall like. I sent home another bag of leftover apples with a band mom. She brought me a jar of apple butter. Oh my. I've never had it before. It is delightful. I mixed a spoon into my yogurt for lunch. I normally buy plain yogurt and add a spoon of honey, but this apple butter is a nice treat for sure. What do y'all eat with apple butter?

We are getting a break from the rain, so I should walk the dogs now. Then maybe a short nap before peppers again.

I turned it on, Becca! It's set at 73!! I HATE being cold!! LOLOL

*sigh*. It’s on. But, set at 66. I realized I needed it warmer in here to bake bread tomorrow. At 62, it would take forever to rise. That and Audrey was cold.

Farmgardener, I am sorry about you losing your mom, especially having it come only a couple of years after losing your dad. My dad died in 2004 and I still think about him daily and miss him as much as ever. My mom is 89 and in poor health for many years---we all are amazed she still is here. She was 10 years younger than dad but we still never thought she'd outlive him by so many years. I agree, having the birds take off and leave in September/early October instead of sticking around all winter scares the crap out of me because it is so rare. I kept trying to pretend it wasn't happening and that my mind was playing tricks on me, but....I knew they had gone and had done so very early. We usually have tons of birds all winter. I do not like this at all. It makes me think winter will be pretty bad.

We've had the heat on a bit in the mornings to take the chill off the house, but I think tonight it will come on a bit more often and will run for longer periods as the cold front roars through here. I'm so not ready for us to have to use the heating system---but it is what it is. It doesn't really bother me in financial terms---because it seems like here in OK we're either running the AC or the Heat most of the time---we don't get much of mild weather in between the two extremes. Really, it is the psychological thing that running the heater makes me think we are close (too close!) to winter conditions. I still prefer this weather to the hot summer/no rain weather that we had.

I'm not having to do garden protection because our forecast low is only 42.

Nancy, It is not right, but this is what we're getting so I guess we have to deal with it. Remember that forecast lows are for the standard 1.5 meters above ground where official temperatures are measured. Down at the ground level, especially under certain specific conditions, you can end up with freeze or frost damage even if your thermometer shows above-freezing weather at 5' above the ground. I learned this the hard way....over and over again until it finally got through my thick skull! It is hard for me to explain why it took me so long to understand the difference between temperatures at thermometer level (5' above ground at our house to match how they measure at Mesonet stations) and at the ground level but I finally got it.

Jennifer,

You can spread apple butter (or apple jelly or apple pie jam) on anything you like to spread with jelly. I particularly love to put homemade apple pie jam on apple-cinnamon muffins or even just on toast.

It is raining now. It rained yesterday. Our county is starting to flood more and more badly and some roads and bridges out west and up north are closed because they are under water. The heavy rain forecast over the next few days worries me. I desperately want for the forecast rainfall to disappear and go away before our whole county gets shut down by flooded roads.

Rebecca, I'm glad you turned on the heat. It is time. Above all else, Audrey needs to stay warm because a cold kitty is not a happy kitty.

I have been messing with the thermostat each time the heat comes on. I've had it between 67 and 72. Right now it is set on 70 and the house feels pretty good.

I guess I should go start this week's thread now. It somehow just occurred to me that today is the start of a new week. Oops.

See y'all on the new thread in a bit.

Dawn