Jen, thanks for starting the thread. Yes, I got nice, and much needed rain the past week. My garden is looking bare also, none of past summer crop is alive. The water co. cut off all out side watering and I was not able to haul enough water from the back side of the place to keep much alive, (what little I kept alive was fall stuff) and the several frost we have had killed all the warm season stuff. Our lowest temp so far was 24 degrees, and it stayed that cold for several hours.

I plan on going out and planting some spinach and mustard in a while. It is really too muddy to plant, but I think I can make it work. I have a 1/2 PVC pipe that I use just scratch a groove, or pole a hole in the mulch and then drop the seed through the pipe. I live in a low area and too often I have to plant when it is too wet.

We have some kale that look like little trees because Ron pulled all the ugly leaves and a collard coming back from the roots.

Yesterday Nancy and Garry, Eileen and Larry and Ron and I had lunch together. Eileen's mom was in town from Singapore so got to meet her. It was a fun time and Nancy fell in love with the Rose district in Broken Arrow.

the grandson went to Hallowzooeen last night. (Halloween at the zoo).

Went to lunch with friends Tuesday. Ron had a heart cath Wednesday. I read the report, and didn't see anything alarming. We are selling our rental house and have to deal with that. And this week something popped up to do with my father's estate (I thought i was done). Keyboard is weird, better go.

Oh, and I didn't get any more rain.

How fun that you all got together, Amy. I saw the pics on FB.

Maybe we'll all get some more rain this coming weekend.

We haven't been that cold yet, Larry. I'm always ready for the garden to rest at this time of year. We still have quite a bit in it, though.

I like the rest, as I've mentioned before. I would really like all the cabbage and broccoli to be finished by Persephone, so I can put it away and be done until spring, with a fresh start. The greens, lettuce and such--I like to keep it going for as long as possible, but there's not much to do with it during the winter, just pull a few leaves for a salad each day. Occasionally water.

Jen, thanks for starting the thread. Do you have plans yet for Garden 2023?

I'm making dessert for a thing tonight. I'm using that big ol' pumpkin that I picked at the end of July. Back in August, I baked it and pureed the flesh. It made a quart of puree, so I have plenty for some pumpkin bread as well.

Once it finishes, I'm going out to look over the garden before leaving to go to that thing.

Fingers crossed that I get home in time to plant a few things tomorrow evening. The lettuce and pansies.

I really haven't done much today. Went to work, went to lunch, came home and rested for about an hour, made dessert--nothing too exciting.

I wish I had time to plan a fun Halloween dinner for tomorrow night. A friend of ours and co-worker to Tom does computerized lights with music on his house every Halloween and Christmas. We may drive over and look at those tomorrow night.

SO thankful to have the day off.

I'm in the process of canning diced tomatoes. First batch is in. It is NOT what I wanted to do today, but it would be a shame to let them waste and I don't want to freeze anymore.

There's actually more out there behind the shop. Not a lot, though. They may go to the chickens. This is it for me.

Our frost was light, but it did kill some things....but not everything that would normally be killed by a frost.

I'm in that situation where I have a flat of pansies but some of the summer flowers still look good. I so much dislike pulling out healthy/pretty flowers.

A chicken got to my goji berry bush. I caught her yesterday afternoon. SO much for goji berries this year. The bush is small and she was able to jump and get them all.

A video from last year popped up in my FB memories. Wow! The hoop house garden looked so good last year. We are certainly behind this year. Not our fault, though.

I really want to take down Halloween decor, but not sure there will be time today. Maybe, though. I'm ready to get the Thanksgiving stuff up. I don't do a lot of decorations--just a few.

Tom and I plated the garlic yesterday evening. We are doing the Inchelium (it's from my harvest this year) and Nootka Rose. New to me. Also, Rick shared a little elephant garlic with me. It's all in now.

What's everyone doing this week.

Kim, I know what you're doing. Hugs!

This is what I will be doing this week. I am trying to get some food plots ready away from the highway. A guy would have to be nuts to fight these garden bandits all summer, then feed them all winter.

I need to work on a spot for grand daughter to plant a few things, she has garlic ordered, to be in Wed. I already have the other things that she wants to plant. Grand daughter took onions home with her Sun. to freeze. It seems slow getting a young person interested in gardening when they are also working on a career, just not enough time.

Larry, it is hard to work outside the home, and keep a garden going. I know this.

BUT, you're planting the (gardening) seed and teaching your girls. They'll be able to fall back on your teachings when and if they HAVE to garden to survive or if they just want to. It's a wonderful thing that you're doing for them.

Somehow I got stuck in last weeks thread lol. But I am here now finally. This hospital room is great but apparently no WiFi and barely a connection. Broncosopy on Friday.

Today. It’s a gloomy day here. I hope the sun comes out later. Either way I am still stuck inside.

I'm inside at work, but can see that it is gloomy here too, Kim.

Still haven't planted the pansies--maybe Saturday afternoon depending on the weather. Other than a few of the lettuces, everything else is in.

Next week there will be no time to work outdoors after work. It will be dark by 5:30 or so. We still have quite a bit of garden clean up to do. Tomato and peppers cages need to be stored away.

So, has anyone grown fairytale eggplant? We purchased some from Looney Farms at the farmers market on Saturday. I cooked them last night with olive oil, green onions, garlic and sesame seed. They are quite tasty.

It's on my list for next year.

I am so tired. I feel better after getting the pacemaker, so I work longer and wear myself out more.

I picked up more seed and fertilizer a while ago to put in more food plots and use for cover crop for my gardens. I had to pick up more corn and range cubes for the deer also.

I am going start working on equipment now, It will take me most of the winter to get every patched up, with the kind of junk I have, it is nearly a full time job to keep it repaired. I seldom get anything new, it's worn out before I get it.

I'm sorry you're so tired, Larry. It's impressive that you have the ability to repair all of your equipment.

Speaking of....Rick was out here this evening looking at his truck. The one that was in an accident. It's in our shop. He's going to repair it.

I watered the hoop house and collected a few more tomatoes. They look pretty nice, but I'm not bringing anymore inside. I sent a few with Rick and gave the less nice ones to the chickens.

I was sad to use the very last of the garden potatoes tonight.

The pumpkin that was harvested a couple of months ago--the jack o lantern type of pumpkin. I was able to use some to make pumpkin bread tonight. First bread of the season! The boys in the house are circling around--can't wait to eat it. It's cooling now. The recipe made two loaves.

So far I've been able to get two recipes out of that pumpkin. Still have a quart plus left. It was a big one.

Hope everyone else is doing okay. I'm going to come back with a picture of that pumpkin if I can find one.

Thats it in the bottom corner of the picture. Ignore the messy kitchen.

Jennifer, I just patch things, I never have the money to fix anything properly. It sounds like Rick is going to do the hard repair. If Rick is going to do body work, he is the talented one. I tried to straighten and paint a car one time, it looked better after I got through with it than it did when I started, but it never won a beauty contest.

Neighbor and I planted all but one of our food plots today, and ran out of seeds. I will get more seed tomorrow and hope we can get the last one seeded before we get rain.

That’s a good looking pumpkin

We got our trailer back finally; Cliff's buddy found it initially & did some work to get it usable, but a couple of the metal pieces that hold the tires on the rim (i'm sure there's a technical term for them) broke so he replaced the rims & did some more work to it. He brought it back last night , so the plan this weekend is to finish putting wood chips down on the circle bed in front, dump rocks to fill in the trenches the dogs have dug, then maybe start working to clean up under the trees. At some point we'll try taking down the barn so I can work on putting my garden in there. I also need to empty some of my tubs so I can plant garlic & possibly something else. I know it's probably too late, but why not try. I'm also trying to figure out where to put some fruit trees. what an irony, I have 4 acres to play with but still have the issue of where to plant.

But in good news, our butthead neighbors are moving. We came back from vacation to a "For Sale" sign in their yard. This is the couple who doesn't like the dogs, wife was spraying them with the water hose & the husband informed me that we needed their permission to run our business. Sorry dude, but I didn't see your name on my mortgage. Not sure if it's better to have them next door knowing we'll have issues, or having some new family in that may be worse.

Jen that is good news. Anyone that looks at the property can be informed of your doggy daycare. Hopefully you get a sweet couple that loves dogs and gardening

Jen, do you like sweet potatoes? George is looking for people to keep his collection alive. He can't keep up with it. I buy slips from him, but I'm to old to do much. You're the youngest among us? You and Jennifer. Anyway here's his sweet potato group.

https://sweetpotatonetwork.boards.net/thread/94/2022-harvest?page=1#post-417

Are you feeling better Kim?

I'm glad the pacemaker is helping, Larry.

Why in the world would your neighbor spray the dogs, Jen?

Speaking of dogs. I have one, maybe two that are doing their business in the house. 2 sizes of turds. And I'm beginning to think too much pee for the little dog. Ron is threatening to take the beagle back. We put out a puppy pad, and sprayed if with "go here" and sprayed the kitchen mat with a "don't go here" spray. They make deposits all around the puppy pad, never on it. Ron keeps stepping in it. Anyone have surefire training methods?

Yesterday the dogs were going berserk at the fence. Ron went out front to investigate. He left the door open, so I see numerous little dogs, a little bigger than shitzus, but fluffy like that running like lunatics front yard, street, up by our fence. There were FIVE. And a toddler who probably let them out. The guy across the street picked up the child and a couple of women tried to catch the dogs. Ever heard the expression hearding cats? Yeah those dogs wanted to run.

Got my flu shot yesterday. They wouldn't give me a covid booster without an appointment. Ron shut the car door and it hit my knee, then I jammed my finger. Bah humbug.

I'm just rambling. Maybe I will get some rain?

Have a good weekend.

My rye is coming up in the garden, along with garlic, turnips and onions.

This is the night shift, they are just waiting for the rye to get a little taller. I am sure they will keep everything trimmed this winter.

Jen, I am glad things are looking with the neighbors, I hope the new neighbors are nice.

Amy, it is time for you to get to feeling better.

Kim, I hope you are getting better also.

I have been out brush hogging this morning, we also finished the 6 th food plot. They are small, but should help feed the wildlife this winter. I am cleaning is some areas with the brush hog to help make the place look better, but still leaving some heavy rag weed patches for small bird to hide in. I also have some privet hedge and cedar for small bird shelter.

Short version: They don't like the dogs because they bark at them, and we didn't ask them for permission before opening our business because they think they're in charge of our property.

Longer version, scroll on by if you're not interested.

We moved in just over a year ago on early occupancy, closed Dec 1, so we kept dog sitting to a minimum until after the property was legally ours. Around Jan, Animal Control came by because a "concerned neighbor" reported that we had 11 dogs one day & 4 the next, so they were "concerned" about the missing dogs & believed we were breeders selling dogs. I explained to animal control that we did dog sitting & he replied "ok, that makes sense. Have a nice day." we assumed it was the mail carrier since all the dogs run to the fence when she stops, so she'd be the most likely one to be counting dogs.

But a month or so later I ran into the couple outside so I introduced myself. Her first words to me were "We noticed all the dogs, do you sell them or something?" Didn't think about it at the time, but she just admitted they called animal control. I explained we do dog sitting, so some days we just have our 4 & other times we'll have a houseful. Didn't seem like that big of a deal, they seemed nice enough.

Early summer, I caught the wife spraying the dogs with the hose. By the time I figured out what was going on, she had gone inside. & since they have this big fancy gate on their driveway, I didn't feel like storming across their yard & up to their front door was the smart thing to do. Next morning I saw the husband outside & went out to ask him what was going on. He informed me that they moved to the country for the peace & quiet, didn't like listening to our dogs barking "all the time", & that we needed his permission to run a business on our property. Cliff came out about that time &, well, my Jersey boy husband let the neighbor know he wasn't going to fall for his bunk.

Turns out their property is a piece that was portioned off of ours, & when they bought it the lot was too narrow for the size of house they wanted to build. Shawnee has some ordinance that houses have to be so far apart. So in order to build, they had to get all the neighbors' permission. I guess in his mind that means we should have his permission to do our dog sitting. So I've contacted Animal Control, who said to contact Code Enforcement, who said to contact City Planning. All three have said the same thing. We're in a rural area and while there isn't anything specifically allowing in home boarding, there isn't anything prohibiting it either. So now we're waiting to see what our next steps should be, just so next time butthead neighbor says something I can tell him to go pound rocks.

Cliff wants to make selling their home difficult so they have to take a hit financially. Which I get, they are threatening our business. I'm torn between wanting them to leave ASAP and hoping they don't because the next owner could be even worse.

What a pain, Jen.

We are so fortunate out here. Most of our neighbors love dogs and have dogs (most more than one). Everyone's dogs bark like idiots when there's a squirrel or someone walking by. It's what dogs do.

There was a woman who lived across the street from us when we first moved in. She was sickly. Her husband was a sweetheart. But, I guess Josi's barking bothered her. They didn't have AC for awhile and she kept the windows open. Anyway, we got a bark collar for Josi (didn't shock her, just "beeped" her) and that helped a lot. Josi would lose her mind when another elderly neighbor would buzz around the neighborhood on a motorized cart. The woman passed away a few years ago.

Seriously though, everyone's dogs bark out here. It's not like you (or we) are living in a regular neighborhood with houses close together.

Maybe when the new people move in, take them some cookies and if they have a dog, mention that you do dog sitting and if they ever need your services, you could give them a deal. Or something. Take them some garden produce. Just try to be sweet and maybe they'll be more accepting. That's if they have a problem in the first place. They may not.

Amy, I would feel scared about caring for George's sweet potatoes. What if I messed it all up. I wouldn't mind helping, though. I just wouldn't want to screw it up.

Wow. The cold front came through around noon, I think. I had the kids in the gym eating lunch and playing. We didn't get much rain though. Such a disappointment.

When I came back to the main building to work in the office, I noticed a homeless man lying on a bench in one of our alcoves. Not a problem except the kids are picked up at the door near that alcove. I felt bad about asking him to move to the other alcove. I did give him a leftover pizza that the kids didn't eat....and I know it's cold out. It's just hard to know what to do. Parents often don't feel comfortable with the homeless people hanging out near their children. I understand. Many of them are mentally ill.

We do have a quite a community around us. There's a wooded area and they have a camp set up. Maybe this guy was forced out or something. Or maybe he is just passing through. There is a weird hierarchy among them. IF they would just not leave their garbage around it would help so much. People wouldn't be as bothered. We have a dumpster at the back of the property. Just put your trash in it. We have a food pantry that is outside the building that they can access. It would just be nice if they wouldn't leave wrappers everywhere. Oh well.

It's hard to know what to do. I'm glad they are mostly respectful and don't come around the building until the children leave for the day.

We'll be in Broken Bow next week at this time. I'm so looking forward to getting away for a few days. We are staying in the same cabin as last year. I like the forest behind the cabin and the little lake.

There's a beautyberry in the forest that I saw last year. If I can find it again, I would like to take a cutting. Anyone know how to do that? Is it too late/wrong time of year?

Enjoy Broken Bow, HJ. That's where we stayed, one of those cabins. Beautifully furnished, complete with hot tub. Great to get away for a few days to just do nothing. Oh, & if you need a restaurant recommendation, we ate out at Steven's Gap (think that was the name). Good hamburgers, but I was more impressed by the service. One waitress, already had a group of 14 & several other tables when we showed up, then another group of 14 & a group of 6 showed up right after us. And the one waitress managed to keep up with everyone & got our food out incredibly fast.

Tornado in Idabel heading toward Broken Bow.

Larry , might want to to see what's heading your way.

Rick

I have been thinking about Dawn, she nearly always let me know when bad weather was headed my way. We are getting all kinda of tornado warnings on TV and phone.

I am leaving hospital tomorrow they say!!!!!!!!!! Lots of antibiotics. We have had a nearby active shooter today and tornado watch which was way more excitement than I wanted. I am thankful it rained and I had someone taking care of my animals. I have learned so much this week.

Jen, we like Steven's Gap a lot. We normally eat breakfast there. It's good food, not expensive with great waitresses.

We like to go every fall. Especially when the folk festival is happening, which it is next weekend. The past two years the folk festival was cancelled because of Covid.

Our cabin isn't one of the fancier ones, although it is cute. It's the forest behind it that has my heart.

All of the cabins in BB have hot tubs. We miss our hot tub. The house we moved from was quite large and had a large deck and hot tub. We loved it especially in cold weather. Don't get me wrong, as much as I loved our last house, I'm so happy we moved to this little house with property and a much smaller mortgage.

We also like Grateful Head Pizza.

There is some kind of vampire thing going on next weekend too. LOL

Kim, that is a lot of excitement!

Jennifer, George is afraid he's lost one of his collection himself. Only takes a drought or a heard of cattle to cause crop failure. He likes to spread seed and sweets to several people for that reason. I grow his slips, but who knows how long I'll be gardening.

Glad you weren't in broken bow last night.

I hope everyone is OK after storms. We got a little rain, but we were mostly in a donut hole.

We got lucky last night, the rough weather went around us. We did get a good rain, but it seemed to split and have the tornado north and south of us, I have not heard of any bad damage around here.

I am sort of in the same boat as Amy on the sweet potatoes, in that my gardening days are numbered. I am growing one sweet potato from George. The Red Wine Velvet is a very good tasting sweet potato, I have to learn more about growing and curing it. The purple sweet potato I got from George did not taste as good at the RWV, but grew very well. I have to learn more about sweet potatoes, each one seems to do better under different conditions. For me, this was a bad year for growing anything, but I did get a pretty good sweet potato, onion, garlic, and okra harvest.

My grand daughter has taken the purple sweet potato under her wing to see what she can do with it. I get ground ready and encourage her to grow thing over here. Grand daughter is planing to build over here some day, she has picked out the best building site on the place.