@Nancy Waggoner be careful what you wish for. I've never plated goldenrod because from what I've read, it gives mint a run for its money.

It depends on the goldenrod, solidago canadensis (the big one) is horrible with spreading. Many of the others I simply can't get to grow, let alone spread. They have diverse requirements.

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've never really had much JB damage on anything, though I do see them now that I live in town :( Absolutely no damage of any kind on my oakleafs.

Well I managed the eye exam and the comparison shopping and ordered glasses. I'm also finalizing a 1/4 beef buy deal tonight. However, that means the poor plants sat out on the back porch and didn't get moved yet. The really good news is RAIN...I hope the next two days give us more of this precious stuff.

Nancy

when it freezes the cotton will drop its leaves and the bolls will open. and I will have beautiful cotton for gifts. My sister bought one stem at magnolia for $10. And it wasn’t organic.

watermelon is so tricky. I finally got one orange g lo. It was delicious and the leftover is in the dehydrator. I haven’t been successful but I am going to keep trying. Dawn said too much water makes them lose flavor kinda like tomatoes.

The chickens did not work out as originally planned. She decided to keep them however she doesn’t want the roosters. I will get those raise and harvest for the freezer camp. She thinks there are 6 roosters

next spring fling I may have 1000’s of hyacinth bean vine seeds They have gone mad.

Kim

We got a little rain, not near enough, I will have to water again in a day or two if we don't get any more out of this system.

I need to do more fall clean up and harvest pumpkins soon, most of the Seminole are already gone, you can sure give them away faster than you can grow them. I will have to save a few for seed, but we don't have a lot of room for storage. We are using the two extra bedroom for storage and seed starting areas. My place looks like a redneck village, but its home.

I hope to go to town today and buy potting soil for next spring. I normally would not buy this early, but I have no idea what kind of rush we may have next spring, and my wife often pots stuff up this time of the year before bringing into the house. I think I have all the small pots that I will need for next spring. I always lose pots by giving plants away in the spring, some times the pots find their way back home, but, most often don't.

Larry I just bought a large bag of potting soil last week from TLC. I need to repot a few things before I bring them in and will have some left for next Spring. You are correct-who knows what it will be like then?

I have been helping my husband trim and clean up brush so haven’t gotten the greenhouse cleaned and ready for plants. Told him this morning he was going solo because I’m running out of time and a hard freeze will sneak in. I always clean it up and then set off a fogger inside to get rid of spiders before I move my jungle inside. One year I had to move in unexpectedly so did the fogger afterwards. That works too except sometimes I get lucky and cart in a praying mantis or a little tree frog to winter over.

I put out a flat of pansies for the winter. Put them in tanks out by the road so everyone can enjoy them. Don’t have visitors at the house now so hate to put them out only for me.

I have no pumpkins to pick or sweet potatoes to dig thanks to critters 😏

I still have a yellow squash, a few tomato plants and even some new green beans producing, and my Cubanelle peppers and jalapeños are still producing huge amounts. It’s okay, my body is ready to slow down for awhile. We brought home 5 bags of pellets from Lowe’s yesterday and had the pellet stove going this morning. Next week looks to be cold. We are desperate for rain, not sure if the rye I planted earlier will come back now or not. It sprouted and got about 2” tall but looks ragged now due to drought. We went into Ace couple days ago after saw chain and they had the fall bulbs 75% off. Of course I got several bags - I actually have plenty of bulbs but have a friend who just built a new house and a young niece who built a new flowerbed so will be nice gifts and not too expensive for me. I always love sharing plants and bulbs. 😁

A good point, I'm low on potting soil and I use it throughout the year, I should go buy a 40 lb bag or so if I can find something decent (no one here stocks a good potting soil that I actually like..or I haven't found it yet). I might just mail order some Jungle gold or something else? Anyone have a potting soil suggestion?

It's continued to rain...and while it might be about .5 inch total, we probably need at least 3 inches..but some is better than none.

I have a box with some bulbs arriving today according to USPS. I know this is the smaller of my two mail orders, but not quite sure what will be in it (due to the owner's proclivity to send multiple boxes...I told him to try to save on his postage cost, but this is the 2nd box, out of either 2 or 3).

Pretty flowers, dbarron.

Kim! You have chicks! Yay! Oh wait...you didn't get them. But...roosters? For food. That's exciting too.

Can you tell that I'm reading and commenting?

Nancy, I bought an oakleaf hydrangea this year. It looks like crap. Maybe it gets too much sun. I thought they could tolerate a bit more sun compared to other hydrangeas.

Wow. Who is taking your Seminole pumpkins, Larry? Are they eating them or decorating with them? Or both?

I still have 20 from last year and they appear to be doing just fine--not rotting or getting mushy.

Has anyone heard anything from Tim or Chris?

The wedding is over. My FB friends probably saw a couple of pics. Last week was hard. It was mostly due to the guest list and confusion over it. Originally--before C19--we had a larger guest list and back in March, Mason sent out "save the dates". Then in April/May we got the news about the changes to our contract. Mason then sent out a "sorry if you don't get an invitation--this is why" type of message. But, some people thought the "save the date" WAS the invitation. People had to be told and my mom got upset and Mason was upset and I was in the middle of it all. Honestly, I don't care if I get invited to people's weddings. It's their wedding and they'll have the type they want and invite who they want. BUT, not everyone feels that way.

However, it's all over now. Except the mess that is in my house. Décor and stuff.

The wedding day was absolutely perfect. The venue is beautiful and photographs well. Our "Day Of" planner was the best as was the photographer. I can't even describe how amazing they were. Both very young women--barely more than kids--and talented and skilled and personable.

I spent the day at the Airbnb that we used as a bridal suite (because the venue wouldn't allow us to use their bridal suite because of covid) and I've not had a day like that in a long time. Sitting around having breakfast cocktails, getting hair and makeup done. I even painted my nails. However, they're already messed up. I don't remember the last time I had polished nails. I loved my hair. Really loved it. Tried to sleep in it that night so I could wear it the next day. Couldn't and took out the bobby pins--all 49 of them!

It was just so nice. And relaxed--the wedding. And the limited guest list helped with that.

Anyway...

So...the garden. I haven't spent much time in it. Took some pics yesterday for Garden Monday. HU and I chopped peppers for the freezer and blanched and froze pole beans on Sunday night. Thankfully he was able to water a couple of times last week. I'll get out and water tonight.

Later this week, we'll make a couple of batches of salsa. And harvest what we can before the first freeze--peppers, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, shelling beans. We'll also maybe cover some of the fall plants.

Finbar is sick. I took him to the vet this morning and got several meds for him. Today was just spent doing that...and cleaning up the utility room and dog crate area. I'm going to slice okra and freeze it later.

I really need a week at home. It's not going to happen, though, not until Thanksgiving break but I'll be busy with holiday prep then.

Holidays will be weird this year. No Mason staying the night with us. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Her in-laws are very family oriented like we are. They are good people too.

Okay, I'm off.

Jennifer, my neighbor took a lot of the Seminole pumpkins, my grand daughter took quite a few to decorate with. We did not have a lot of them, I only had one vine survive the critters, but that one vine had between 25 and 30 pumpkins. I think we will still have more than Madge wants. I still have over 35 old timey cornfield pumpkins left. I think my neighbor wants quite a few of those. I want him to have all he wants, because he has really been helping me a lot. He is also helping me eat the greens we planted, we will never eat all of our greens. We will give away all we can and till the rest into the soil.

I just got back from checking the wildlife garden, it is very dry. I was surprised to see some puddles in the wet weather creek that runs through the garden. We got a little rain, but very little. It did not even wet the soil surface.

I picked some greens and peppers today, while I was out in the garden I pulled a few weeds. The garden is in better shape than it should be, I have not put much weeding labor in it this year and it should have weeds everywhere. The north garden in in worse shape, it has henbit everywhere, I hate that stuff, but it must love me.

Wow, it's mid-week already. Hard to believe. Well, I got some fall crocus, a spring (supposedly Valentine's Day or earlier) colchicum, and an aril iris to plant when the sun comes up. I believe the ground will be soft enough to break at least. I pulled some silver maple seedlings last night before dark...darn things come up everywhere.

Wish I had a multitude of poblano peppers ;) Maybe next year!

I continue to fight with communicating with people regarding a 1/4 beef for my new freezer. I can't seem to get them to talk to me...is everyone that busy, really ?

I should be writing, we have a Halloween story to discuss (if we get submissions) next Thursday. I have to confess that I haven't written since March though...COVID, maybe?

Kim your talk of cotton reminds me of when I lived in Memphis (actually was in the Mississippi suburbs just southeast of Graceland). The little one was still little and there were good children's clothing outlets in Tuleplo so we went there often, once during the cotton harvest, and the cotton littered the grass in the shoulders of the highway. It looked like snow! Probably the closest thing to snow they ever see down there. I've seen those cotton stems for sale and thought about getting some because they remind me of that memory, but I never have because as you mentioned they're expensive! I bet you could sell some in Facebook Marketplace for a pretty penny if there are any after your gifting is done.

Not a lot to report in the garden. I have most of my houseplants indoors but struggling to find places for them. I have a few plants that I want to repot and try overwintering. Also, need to dump and protect the clay pots so they'll survive another year. Only a couple days to do that because Saturday will be spent harvesting buckets of green tomatoes, sweet potatoes and peppers before the freeze. Looks like rain will be moving in on Sunday, so I'll be covering my fall crops with frost blankets in the rain. That's always NOT fun. But what would be worse is losing them to the shock of going from late summer to hard freeze overnight, so I'll do it.

Dbarron, I know it's a trip, but Perry's in Tulsa might sell you a 1/4 beef. At the same time, you could hit worley's in Owasso for their bagged soil. (They bag their own). It is superior to miracle grow but not as expensive as the fancy varieties. If you do go to Owasso call and make sure he has it bagged up. He's doing a booming business. He carries the more expensive brands if you prefer that.

H/J I'm glad the wedding went well. Sorry there was stress, but there is always stress of some kind. A spa day sounds kind of fun.

Larry, I guess you're out of quarantine and still healthy? I want some pumpkins, but then I think squash bugs and I don't grow them.

I somehow missed Megan's post all together.

I haven't had time to do the Vitamix yet. We tried dehydrating okra as whole pods for snacking. They were awful. Does any one know if they get tough as they get older. These had been in the fridge for a while. I don't know if the pods were bad before dehydrating or if this is the wrong way to do it. Ron thinks we left them too long.

We went to Bartlesville and took my dad to dinner last night. I hate to take him out and expose him to stuff, but he needs the activity so much. His mental status is deteriorating. He's very frail. I dread what's ahead.

Okay, need to go XOXO. Oh, I found my phone.

There's a dude that sells longhorn beef that processes in Tulsa that I may look for next beef from, but I worked out a deal with one this morning for a process date of Nov 5th (when most slaughterhouses say that earliest is Feb).

You know, I don't believe I ever went to Worley's when I lived in Claremore..I wonder why ? I loved going to nurseries.

Amy, my father was all over the place (96) with his caretaker, seemed like every day, while I was huddling at home., I was sure she was trying to kill him, but she was probably just letting him do what he want. I talked to his doctor back a month or two ago, and we agreed he's healthier than more 75 year olds...so what can you say? I know that sometime you just have to get out of house..even though I've only done that (besides groceries) like 5 times since May.

Amy, I am out and running wild, from one garden to the next.

I need to get the gardens cleaned up, but, we are waiting to call the vet. and I would like to take Madge out to eat. Tomorrow will be 14 years for us. After we talk to the vet we can decide when to go out to eat.

I checked the two house gardens this morning and every thing was okay. I must have gone brain dead when I planted so many greens. I like to plant a cover crop, and it has gotten so hard for me to till the grain rye in, I thought I would try greens. I have no idea how that is going to work, but I will say that they are as thick as hair on a dogs back. I still have areas to plant, but only have Austrian winter peas, daikon radish, deer plot seed mix to plant here at home. I am thinking that the deer plat mix will be as hard to till in as the Elbon rye was.

Madge and I talked about going to the gym, but dont like to get out with this c-19. I can tell my legs are getting weaker and thought that I might be able to ride one of the bikes at the gym to build up my legs.( its too painful to walk much) I doubt that will do any good for the pain in my joints and muscles, but it be worth a try.

Amy, first of all, I am glad you found your phone.

I bet, your dad was happy to get out.

I also missed Megan's post... how did we do that?

Larry I should swim, it's the best think for my joints... but I just can't make myself go because there are always 2 people per lane. Most folks swim really hard, which of course means breathe really hard... and I just don't want to be around that.

I am almost finished shelling the beans... Picture will follow.

Moni

The Y in Owasso makes reservations for the pool. You get a lane for half an hour IF you can get in.

Worley's is really convenient for us, and I discovered their potting soil when other places didn't have what I wanted. Sometimes they're higher than other places, but their plants are good and they have lots of dirt and compost options.

Gyms are considered high risk options. The y has moved things around to make it more socially distant. They may require reservations, though we only do the pool, so I don't know.

Before lockdown my dad would go eat in the dining room, he always sat at a table with 4 or 5 ladies. He enjoyed it. It kept him from vegetating completely. He's not doing as well now. He'll be 94 in Jan. He's fallen a couple of times lately and either has vivid dreams or hallucinations that he's talking to someone whose not there, or once he thought my sister drove into the pond. (He can't see the pond from his appartment) . I need to ask my sister if his new Med has those side effects.

Moni, weirdly the post from Megan didn't show up for some hours, I noticed this morning.

Amy I am so glad you got to take your dad out. it’s so important to them. And I am happy you found your phone.

Meghan

i am hoping to have extra cotton. One of our farmers markets is December fifth so I may do that one. If the bolls openby then.

Jennifer

the chicken dilemma. My niece text me and said she was getting rid of all the chickens. 14. I was up half the night designing the coop using all my scraps.

then she text and sorry she shouldn’t have done that do impulsively :/

i asked her what will she do with all the roosters there are six or seven. She said I could have all but one. Yay. Back to coop designing. I am going to make a chicken tunnel that I can move every day with the coop. Fresh grass fresh bugs. Less feed.

it will help me decide if I can do this or not.

in a fb group I had a lady hound me about my cotton. Told me if anyone finds out they will come rip it out. So if I go missing Just know I went the way of my grandad and am hiding from the federales. lol

I tried to discuss and point out I am no where near cotton country. Finally I said Okay.

i dream of walking all y’all’s gardens one day. I like to get ideas from everyone

Kim

It’s also worth noting that there’s an additional Vietnamese cellophane noodle variety called dong riềng that’s made with canna root flour....excerpt from an Asian meatloaf recipe I'm reading. Made me laugh after the canna discussion. https://www.diversivore.com/vietnamese-egg-meatloaf/

I don't understand your cotton problem Kim, because of diseases or crossing or what?

Well Amy, it's good to see more confirmation that I won't be eating toxic canna roots (lol). Thanks!

Kim, you wouldn't see much in my garden. In the summer you would see a lot of bugs.

Amy, I doubt we would go to the Y or gym.

We went to Olive Garden for Anniversary lunch. We have to take out fur baby to the vet tomorrow, so we just celebrated a day early. On the way back from town we stopped at the co-op and I bought some kale seeds and 3 bags of Pro Mix. I should have enough potting soil to get through next spring. I had rather not buy it this far ahead, but I want to make sure I have plenty.

I hope to get set up to have plenty winter squash, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins by next spring. I want to grow more produce that is easy to store. I am growing a lot of turnips now, and trying to grow beets and carrots.

Amy

apparently in states that grow cotton they regulate carefully because of boll weevils.

haha, boll weevils ............ that was my Dad's nickname.

My Grandad grew cotton on his farm, about 8 miles north of Seminole, Ok during the 1930's . There were 5 boys and 4 girls in the family, and they all worked in the fields, from sun up to sun down , all summer. My Dad fell asleep in the cotton field and a boll weevil crawled into his ear, and from then on, that's what he was called .... Boll Weevil .

I remember my dad talking about working in the cotton fields, the whole family worked the fields. I can remember my saying " we are in tall cotton now" when anything would start going good. I am sure the phrase came from the cotton fields, because I can remember him saying how hard the work was when you were picking short cotton. I picked cotton one day and decided I could find an easier way to make a dollar. Hauling hay was much easier than picking cotton.

When Kim mentioned cotton yesterday, I though about Roy Clark. and, Johnny Cash both sang the song "I never picked cotton". I felt about the same way about picking cotton.

I have a friend... not telling where... because of the cotton... and the option for problems.... anyhow, she was trying to get different varieties and found out, she better quit inquriing.

Amy I know about the Y in Owasso. One of my friends used to live in Owasso, and she still drives up there to swim. It's just a bit far, since I live in OKC.

My pool, had been at the new senior center. I don't like their swim option at the moment.

Here are the beans, I finally finished shelling:

and have you ever seen Castor Beans THAT big?

Course this is apples and oranges, but yes, I've seen castor bean trees in CA. I've also seen ten footers in SOME years (not every for sure) here in Arkansas. The max size I would get would vary tremendously from year to year....probably climate influenced.

That one is probably the nicest shaped I've ever seen though.

saw it on Ann Arbor in OKC. I had never seen one that branched out. Mine are always tall.

Y'all talking about cotton.

My great grandparents and great uncle Jim grew cotton for awhile when I was little. Maybe longer than awhile. I remember picking it for "fun" while visiting once. It was only fun for a couple of minutes. haha.

This was near Gotebo, OK.

"Cotton on the roadside. Cotton in the ditch. We all picked the cotton but we never got rich."

I'm going to head out in a few minutes. I worked until 9pm last night and am SO happy to go home and be outside for awhile. We--HU and I--are going to pick the beans and stuff and possibly make salsa. I'm super tired and a bit grumpy..so we'll see how much we get done.

Madge wanted to go to the wildlife garden to get 3 or 4 pumpkins for decorations. Here is 6 of the 4 she picked out, there are 4 more not in the picture. I am not sure how she did in math, but we don't count the same. The way I was taught to count, I would say "Jill picked 10 pumpkins", not 3 or 4.

Jennifer they still don’t get rich. They just work and pay the bank.

Larry those are good looking pumpkins

Thanks, Kim, for the amount of time I put into them, the pumpkins did great. They more of less grew wild. While down checking them this evening, my neighbor and I pick more of them. I want his family to have all of them they want, we picked another 6 of them for his household. We then came back to my house to pick some radishes for his family, in doing so I discovered that the deer had gotten into my lettuce last light, pretty well wiping them out. I had taken down the electric fence to work the garden for fall planting and had not strung the wire back up. Feeding the critters is like a welfare program, it is easy to start, but hard to stop. I cant really blame them for eating the small bed of lettuce and leaving all the stuff I planted for them, I like the lettuce better also.

Larry those deer are relentless. They took out my red okra leaves. Ate some of my baby butternut squash and got the sweet potato vines. There are five young ones running around.

At the risk of being offensive to some, just remember the deer could be regarded as a food investment. They're very tasty as steak, jerky, chili, etc :) I myself don't hunt, but I do miss having deer from my father each year, which last was about ten years ago I'd say. As to those that may object, just remember that game reports say deer overpopulation has resulted in lots of forest destruction (they eat everything to the ground and the forest undergrowth is non-existent). It's actually beneficial to cull the herd or some deer pandemic will come along and do it for us.

I might be offensive now too... but the fat lady is singing here. Yikes, I am not happy about it.

I much prefer to sweat a little, than to be cold.

Moni

Hee hee, and I would say the other way...I hate sweating (makes me break out). I can always add on more clothes, can't take more than 0 clothes off.

dbarron, my neighbor says we will eat venison this year. He says that they even bed down in his yard. I use to love to hunt deer, but I am not able anymore. I like having the wild life garden, but when one type of wildlife increases there is a very good chance other types increase. I like the increase of butterflies and bees, but I also notice an increase in all types of birds, which I like. The extra deer, squirrels, rabbits, ground hogs, coons, skunks, and even bear I have to learn to live with. We had all these critters around before I started the wildlife garden. My first goal was to have a project to work on that brings me joy, and building up the land for a pretty building site for my kids or grand kids seemed like a worth while idea.

This pandemic has me trying to produce more food, not that I cant produce enough in my house gardens, they produce more than I can use, but there may be a case where someone else needs food. My neighbor gets out more than I do, and he says he is taking greens to the older folks that want them. We are planning on even a larger food growing area next year. We live on a busy highway and he has mentioned putting up a sigh for free vegetables, I am thinking that taking it to a food bank may be a better idea. What ever is left will be bio-mass for me to add to the soil.

Yep, Larry, I love my garden, but more than that I do try to provide a habitat for the smaller animals. I am glad to support tree frogs, toads, salamanders (probably not..but maybe), snakes, lizards, as well as insects.

I like the birds, but most mammals don't need to apply (though they benefit from it). I don't think we have a shortage of city rabbit, city squirrels, etc, in fact like the deer, they're nuisances. Though like the deer also cute. Hard to hate, till they get really really hard on your plantings.

I have venison in crock pot right now. The deer and garden are on my kids place so I have no say about this.

Well, I lost a post. There was not in it anyway. I was telling about going over to the wildlife garden to get my tractor this morning, and some of the pumpkins were missing. I expect my neighbor got them because I told him several times to be sure to get all he wanted. I had driven my tractor to the wildlife garden yesterday and it got almost dark before we were finished. He brought me home in his side by side because the tractor does not have lights, that work. He later called and said that he turned the fence back on. I expect that he went back to the pumpkin patch to turn on the fence and got another load of pumpkins, his side by side wont hold a lot of pumpkins anyway.

Kim, I think that the best chili and BBQ I have eaten was made with venison. I am not a big meat eater, but I like chili and BBQ. I also like soup and stew with a little meat in it, but mostly I am a veggie guy.

Anyone know??? Will a tomato plant be viable/can I keep it going once it makes roots and I plant it (indoors)?

I made a BIG mistake back in April, or maybe even May.... I lost track of which plant was which.

I planted both.

One gave me 3 tomatoes... the other a WHOLE bunch. I don't know, which to start in February... sooooo today, when I picked the last tomatoes I cut a few stems off, thinking I will let them root, and see if they will be worth it to plant in the spring next year.

Then I found this stow away on my basil I brought in:

of course, I have no idea what it is...

and this was all I harvested today:

The tomatoes in the white tub came from the mystery plant. The BIG tomatoes are the Mortgage Lifter variety, the okra has some extra big pods... they were missed by Barbara when she harvested okra while I was gone at the beginning of the month

except for the peppers that were already hanging in the garage....

I am hoping the coolness in the garage is best for my tomatoes... cause that is where they are now.

At first, I was sorry I hadn't done all this yesterday... but in the end... I got to do it (including ripping out the mater and okra plants) without sweating... guess that is worth something too. :)

Moni

1) Tomatos aren't annuals, so yes, you can. You will need a warm and bright place though. Also, (and this is grounds for a holy war), I find cuttings to be/do best if you root in soil not water. Water roots are different physiologically than soil roots and they have to grow new ones to deal with soil.
2) I think it might (don't hold me to this) be the nymph of a marmorated stink bug.

I did not do well at trying to keep tomatoes or peppers alive through the winter. It cost too much for heat and light. I was not able to keep the plants healthy. I think it can be done easily enough, but for me it was not worth it.

Larry, I keep meaning to tell you that zinnia seed you sent to me has finally bloomed. And I’m thrilled that most are yellow. Of course, they won’t make it much longer but I’m soaking up their beauty while I can.

Brought in an overflowing 5 gallon bucket of green tomatoes today. Sent a couple gallons to mom, and have the rest sealed up in boxes to ripen. I’ll toss a sheet over the herbs tomorrow. Lettuce and spinach tubs will be fine.

RIP garden 2020.

Next year the fall tomatoes go in in June. Just needed a couple more weeks and I’d have had red tomatoes.

Taking off my gardener hat and putting on my bakers hat now.

I picked the last of my tomatoes & peppers & got 3 pints of green relish. The only tomato plant to produce was a stray volunteer that I left growing outside the actual bed. Everything else was an epic failure. So in total, my 2020 harvest included:

1 pint dilly beans

1 pint dilly peas

4 pints cowboy candy

2 dozen onions

About a dozen sandwich bags of tomatoes

2020 gardening sucks!

It was certainly odd, and yes, my harvests also were minuscule. I shall try again next year...and hope for better luck.

The salmon colored zinnia’s bottom right corner is my favorite of al. all

a giant bumblebee is probably very sad today because it was his favorite too

Kim, the flowers are pretty.

Jennifer, I am glad the zinnia bloomed. Mine also bloomed very well. The ones in the wildlife garden did not do as well because they were planted in poor soil. The area I had them planted had most of the top soil removed to fill in low spots in the wildlife garden. Daikon radishes, forage collars, rye grass and Austrian winter peas are planted there now, I am trying to rebuild the soil. Even in the poor soil the zinnias did well till it got so dry. I dont have water in the wild life garden, I have to haul water over there, and I did not have time to haul water for flowers. When I get the soil built up I will need less water.

2020 has not been a great year for me either. Although, I still had more crop than I needed. With this covid thing we have been dealing with it was harder for me to give produce away. My daughter and grand daughter came over about every other Sunday and took a lot of produce home with them, I think they gave a lot away, which I was happy about because Madge and I try to stay in, but we got exposed to covid anyway. We are still discussing what to do about Thanksgiving. We normally have a bunch of people here, but about half afraid to this year.

I want to start prepping for next spring very early, because this election may not cure all of our problems, it just might give us some new ones. I think this country has problems that no political election can cure.

HU and I picked most of the summer garden...well, all that we're going to pick anyways. Our gardening year was pretty good, really. There were fails, of course, and things that could have been better but over all it was good.

I didn't get the ornamental beds made that I had hoped to. But, that can wait until next year.

I consider the year a success. I'm sorry for those of you who had a bad year. :(

Rebecca, I'm ready to put on another hat too. I'm hoping that we'll have all the produce canned or put in the freezer within a week or so. I'm ready to clear off my counters and scrub down my kitchen and get ready to bake bread and perhaps even rest a little.

Actually, I will need to rest or bad things will happen. I can feel it in my body. My feet are flared up something awful tonight. It is so annoying.

The fall things are looking good and that is a nice feeling. We'll see if the brassicas actually produce food.

I have an outdoor event on Wednesday. Ugh! It's usually a fun event but standing in the cold rain isn't something I'm looking forward to at all.

Finbar is better. I'm trying to make him an indoor only cat. He's feeling so much better that he's throwing a fit to go outside.

We saw a bobcat while walking the dogs tonight.

Sleeping would be nice. Just sleeping for an week or so. Yes.

Ok, for grins, let's let someone else besides me, start the new week thread. It's a cold one and should be relatively wet for me. I finally felt comfortable planting out my pot jungle into the ground, expecting that 'sky water' will continue.