Thanks for new thread! I’m hoping the forecast is right about rain and cooler temps. I’ve pruned and pulled out some of the tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and zinnias Replanted green beans, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, and a few zinnias that won’t get tall but will grow and bloom. I have echinacea coming up everywhere, instead of trying to transplant it now I’ve decided to put it in 4” pots and overwinter it till next Spring.

Have a good week friends.

Jennifer thanks for starting a new thread. I was trying to water the sweet potatoes in the south garden this morning when Madge came out and suggested that we go to Olive Garden for lunch. How nice it is to be old enough that you don't have to worry about having enough money to but kids shoes, school clothes, and supplies, and just drop everything and go out to lunch.

It is very dry here, the rain has been missing us every time it came through, maybe not this time. I need to put some water under some of the trees, I am not concerned about the grass, but I don't want to lose the trees. Some of the hillsides around here are starting to turn brown. The fall color may not be much other than brown, but some areas are better off than us. I thing the fall colors north of use will still be good.

As of now, I don't plan on planting anything other than onions, I have plenty of those, and garlic to plant. If we do get some rain I may plant some greens a little later, because I already have too many seeds, and it wont be a big loss if I don't get anything up.

Jen, sorry about your doggie baby. That does make for a very hard week.

You've been very busy, Glenda! I'm also hopeful they are right about the cool down and rain! We are dry here, but not as dry as other years. We have a few cracks in the ground, but there have been years where I could fit my hand completely into the cracks.

Larry, hope you had a great meal at Olive Garden. What do you like to eat there? I sure hope you get rain and a cool down too.

It's HOT in Portland. They currently have our weather. Ethan doesn't have AC, but even when it's hot there, it cools down at night nicely. I suspect many people fled to the coast this weekend. It's a lovely 65 in Pacific City. My daughter has a friend who now lives in the Portland area. Actually two. They took their little ones to an outdoor event and had to leave. She posted a few pictures and commented that their Oregon kids can't handle the 95 degree temperature.

I'm about to head out to look around. See if there's anything to harvest. I saw some nice bell peppers last night. My lettuce and greens seeds are popping up. I might more them to the hoop house tomorrow.

So far the fall potatoes that were planted in the hoop house are no shows. They may be a flop.

After work and lunch, I made baby food pouches for the grandboy. There was pears, apples (from last year) in the freezer and some peaches from this year. One of the honeynut squashes cracked so I brought it in. Cut it up and boiled it--tasty! It was nice to add to the puree. And a store-bought banana. I like the reusable pouches and I enjoy making them to help out my daughter.

Tom was working on his truck yesterday afternoon and slipped and hit his rib on something. It's either broken, cracked, or the cartilage is messed up. He's in some pain. I have a couple of mild health things going on too. We both limped around the neighborhood last night walking our dog. Felt ridiculous. We'll do it again tonight too. lol!

I'm hoping we get enough rain this week, so that it will be too wet to till the garden and plant winter cover.

I started a post and my phone went wonky.

Jennifer, I always eat the same thing at Olive Garden. I love soup and salad, I had just as soon have if as a steak. I also like to go to Subway and get a veggie sub. I had rather have vegetables than meat.

I did not water much today, and tomorrow is not my watering day, so I really need the rain to move in tonight, but I am not holding my breath.

Jennifer, I have gotten two cantaloupe ( which were tasteless ), the critters got all the rest. I have not gotten a melon yet, I picked one day before yesterday because all of the others split after watering. The one I picked a couple of days ago was not ripe enough, but I was afraid it would split also. I just able to keep the pasture garden watered properly.

Well our rain moved from today to Wednesday. I am not happy about that. I was looking forward to the cool down. .

Our rain has moved in also, and I am very happy about that, but at the rate it is raining it will take a week to get enough, but I had rather have it like that than all at once. The cool down is very nice also.

I do not have a Market this coming weekend so I don’t mind if it rains Saturday and Sunday like it’s forecasted now. It was supposed to rain Monday through Friday now it is Wednesday through Sunday. All I can say is it better not miss me I need the rain. The garden needs the rain and Yeah we need the rain. I was going to make herb blends today, but I believe I’m going to go outside and plant all my seeds that I want to get in the ground. I thought of an idea. Instead of tearing out all my Black Eyed Peas plants I am going to just cut them lower and leave them and I’m going to plant my parsley, dill, cilantro, etc. in between And then put in a cabbage row and a broccoli row and maybe the grasshoppers won’t find the little seedlings as easily. And I can put insect netting over the whole thing and the dead plants will keep the netting off of the tiny seedlings.
These seeds are not going to plant themselves, so I better get moving here.

Well, we got some much needed rain, not much, no puddles, but damp and misty all day. The dry bare spots in the garden were damp maybe 3" down. I think that Ft. Smith had over .9", I expect that we had less.

Edmond had quite a bit of rain. I switched up my babysitting days, so was in Edmond. We didn't get as much, but we got enough that I didn't have to water.

Larry, we used to eat at Olive Garden often and I always got the soup and salad too. Pasta Fagioli is the one I got usually. I make a vegetarian version of it at home. I also prefer to eat vegetarian, but have added meat into my diet.

And, Larry, I've only had maybe 5 Kajari melons. Zero cantaloupes. The plants didn't make it.

Kim, I like your planting idea.

Yesterday, I was able to fold up Rick's black shade cloths and store them away. I stretched the green shade clothes on the fence and clipped them down. They were really dirty, so was hoping the rain would wash them off. I'll check them tomorrow. In Rick's hoard, we found a giant piece of black plastic and stretched it over the remnants of the woodchip pile. Tom can't really bend well with his rib situation, so I moved pavers to weight it down. The soil under that area should be amazing. Not sure what I'll eventually do with it. I was able to prune back most of the basils but it got dark on me so was unable to fully complete that task.

I took the shade cloth off the hinged hoop where the carrots were planted. They've disappeared. Makes me really sad. We eat a lot of carrots. No idea.

I still haven’t figured out where my beets and carrots will go. Unless I pull up some of my sweet potatoes, but I feel it’s too early for that. I want to have a really good carrot harvest this year and beets. I’m also planting an enormous amount of herbs and we’ll figure out a way to cover them.

Jennifer, Pasta Fagioli is the soup that I almost always get also.

Kim, I have plenty room for carrots, but I am afraid to plant them for fear of not being able to keep then wet enough to come up. I don't want to dig my potatoes either, it has been so dry that I have not got the growth that they need. It will be Oct.16th before the last ones planted will be in the ground 3 mo's.. I normally dig my potatoes around Oct.1. I expect that I will be digging some of them before Oct. 1, I wont be able to dig many at a time, so I need to start early.

I noticed that I have some peppers blooming, but I doubt that they will have time to make.

Oh drat ..... it rained too much for me to till the garden. I'll have to find something else to do. And with rain in the forecast for today and tomorrow, it may be a week or more before I get to till the garden. haha

As of right now, 6 am , have gotten 1.2 " . Got 0.9 yesterday and 0.3 so far today.

What I really like about this weather station, is that as a member of the Weather Underground network, I can see what other stations in my immediate area are recording. They're all about the same within 2 miles of me. That tells me that my station is working properly and its telling me the right amount of rain.

Lynn, I really like your weather reports, I also have looked up info on your weather station. I would love to get a weather station, but I am not sure I have the smarts to operate one. How much does it cost to be part of the Weather Under Ground, and do you think a station would work out here in the middle of nowhere? I have Wifi and live about 25 miles form from Ft. Smith, I am not sure that has anything to do with it?

Jennifer I had one melon on my puny plant the size of a golf ball. It was fully ripe had seeds inside, but I did not save those seeds. Some reason the plant is very stunted. I think it’s this ground and lack of water.

Larry, a weather station would work great where you are. There's no cost to being a member. Weather Underground likes getting the data.

I'm guessing your ISP is a wired service ? Like AT&T or mabye a cable company ? That means you have a modem and a router. You would just need to put the PWS close to your router. Mine is probably 60 foot away. I'm sure my router picks up an area even larger than that.

There is one part I don't totally understand, and that's getting the PWS a web address. But the instructions with mine were clear enough, that if I just followed them, I was OK.

My station was $85. Its a Vevor. That's about as cheap as they get. IDK how long it will last, but when it goes I'll probably step up to an Ambient or LaCrosse, which sell in the $175 to $200 range. Depends upon how long this one lasts, if it goes for years, then I'll just get another cheap Vevor.

Weather Underground has more info on purchasing a station .

Buying Guide

You could use the Wundermap now to find out how many PWS are in your area

Wundermap

About to head off to my part-time job. Thought I would check in because I'll probably be too tired tonight. LOL

At least I won't have to water. Did everyone get some rain?

Didn't garden yesterday at all. But, the winter squash has really perked up and is making more new foliage. I can see it clearly from my window and as I walk by to the chicken yard. I really like having the garden bed close to the house, not that the kitchen garden is far. It's close too, but not in the backyard close. I chose that spot for the kitchen garden because it's to the east of a large tree that gives it shade in the late afternoon. And, at the time we made it, we needed a backyard for Kane.

Nothing really new to talk about. My neighbor/friend shared okra with me so I was able to fry up a big batch that we ate yesterday and the Monday. There was enough to pickle some too. Just a jar. We don't need tons of it. If she offers again (for me to come pick), I'll make another jar. Fried pickled okra is really good.

I really like how all the gardening neighbors share our produce. Sometimes one of us has a flop (like my okra) and people jump in to share. We share plants too.

I want to walk the newly sprouted lettuce and greens to the hoop house, but am being lazy. Maybe I should jump up and do that before leaving. It's cool enough for them and the pansies too. Plus I didn't look in the hoop house yesterday. My spider, Camilla, keeps moving on me and I'm scared I'm going to walk into her. I found another orb in the native garden. I named her Edie.

We have not got a lot of rain, my guess is maybe an inch in the past 2 days, it was not near enough, but sure helps out for now. We went to the clinic yesterday, and stopped on the way home to do a little shopping and to try an new cafe in Hackett, AR.

I have not done anything in the garden, I dont think I even checked it yesterday. but I am sure the garden loved the rain. The temp shows that it dropped to 60 last night, but up to 65 now at 9:15.

We plan to go to Greenwood and have lunch with some of the ladies from my senior class. There may be one other male there besides me, many of the ladies are widows now. I am happy that they have taken Madge in just like she was one of the class.

I may try to get a spot ready for some fall stuff, but I am not expecting the dry spell to be over.

I went out to check the north and south gardens, the rain has made them look happier, but they are showing stress from the rough gardening year.

The sweet potatoes are showing stress from the heat, dry weather, and getting time to harvest.

Something has been digging in both the north, and south garden. At least I can see that I may have a few sweet potatoes. It looks as though the rain has softened the soil, and the armadillos wanted to dig for food. This is in the north garden, which is older, and maybe the soil is a little better, but I am still a month away from digging my potatoes. The last of the potatoes are more than 6 weeks away from being in the ground 90 days, but by that time they will be in almost full time shade. All of that being said, I have no idea how many more growing days I have left. I think our first frost was mid Sept. last year, it is normally around the end of Oct. I like to dig my potatoes about a month before frost because I don't have a good curing area.

Anyway, I will just have to play it by ear, depending on the weather forecast.

Edit, I mis-spoke about the frost being in Sept. last year, I checked back on garden web, and I was digging sweet potatoes in Oct., but one year not long back we had a much earlier frost than normal, it may have been in Oct., maybe mid Oct.. Anyway I normally set first week of Oct as the approx digging date, so I have 2 weeks to cure potatoes, then move them into the house before we start having freezing weather.

The hummingbird migration is on. I've got at least three buzzing around the backyard, fighting over the feeders. They spend a lot of energy chasing each other. Probalby last another week or two and they'll be gone to Mexico or Central America.

I've found they like zennia. They've been feeding on it pretty steady. I'd always read that they wanted plants with horn shaped flowers. We put up several baskets of dipladenia back in the spring. But they use the zennia more.

We've gotten a little over 1.5 inches of rain, and that may be all we get. I saw some predictions last week saying 4 to 5 inches for the week. There's not much in the Weather Underground 10 day but the Mesonet has a chance of storms tomorrow.

Mesonet

10 Day Forecast

Larry, IDK if you're south or north of Ft Smith , but both Underground and Mesonet can be dialed in pretty close. Here's the Mesonet from the Sallisaw station. And Weather Underground for Ft Smith

Sallisaw Mesonet

10 Day Forecast for Ft Smith

Lynn, thanks. I am about 20 miles south of ft smith. My temp most often tracks with Poteau, Oklahoma temps. At this time I am reading about 2 degrees cooler than Ft. smith, but most of the time this summer I have been running a little warmer than Ft. smith. I expect that all the asphalt and concrete will make Ft. Smith a little warmer than what it is out here in the country.

We got some rain today. I love this kind of weather. I just went to PT this morning, and did some laundry. Had my infusion yesterday, then stuck some beet seeds in one of the beds, so the rain can get them going. I’ll probably start a few indoors as backup.

Also, more green bean seeds. I’ve had a heck of a time getting fall bush beans started in August. Soaked the beans and the bed before I planted. My seed beans were fairly old, so I’m sure thats a lot of it. That and the heat. So, I just grabbed the last couple packs I had and stuck them everywhere I had room. So, I may have a green bean jungle in a few weeks.

I put in more sunflower seeds, too, to replace the ones the squirrels keep biting the flowers off. I’m sure theyre looking for seeds in the flowers, even though I plant sterile varieties. There was also a gorgeous looking cucumber still on the vine, with teeth marks in it.

HJ, my melons did nothing this year as well. I even hand pollenated the cantaloupe. The watermelon didn’t ever get big enough to flower. I don’t know what the problem was there. I’m also only getting one okra pod every few days from the 4 remaining plants. I thought with 6 plants I’d be ok, but the yard guy mowed over one plant and it never came back, and the squirrels decapitated another. But 4 should still give us what I need to pickle. Theyre in full sun and I have the lowest branches trimmed up. I didn’t water much. I didn’t think I needed to fertilize. But, HJ, I usually just keep a jar of brine in the fridge and add new pods to it as I get them. I don’t process them.

Larry, I planted my slips about the same time in June as you did. I don’t see anything peeking up from the soil yet, but the greens look healthy. They’re descendants of your potatoes.

Peppers are weird. I know they like to be planted close together, so I put 2 bell pepper plants together in one feed tub, and they have produced like crazy. The other 2 I stuck in a corner of the largest raised bed, but still close together, and they’ve never even bloomed. The jalapenos and Nadapenos don’t seem to care, but the bells are divas.

I guess this weekend I start ripping out stuff. This was not a good year for my tomatoes. I think all the spring rain got the fungal disease going early, and that just made them too weak to come back when I cut them back for fall. So, its time for some of them to go completely. I also think the two Super Sweet 100 I had that went down hard with something almost immediately in May, and acted like a vector. I guess I’m going to need a new super disease resistant cherry tomato.

I’m getting better at growing lettuce indoors, and its been nice being able to have fresh lettuce all summer. I just replanted with new seed.

Jennifer, I’m not sure if I like my garden that close to my front door, but it is what it is. A few years ago I fell off the porch and landed on some rocks and plastic. I don’t even know what. And I decided what I needed was a softer landing, so I planted my Mullen on one side And my herb and flower garden straight out the door. So if I trip stumble or fall, I’m gonna have something soft to land on hopefully. I found out why I’ve been so sick lately. My blood test they did on July 23 was just reviewed by the doctor a day ago and she noticed I have low Sodium. That did not show up in my patient portal. So I had no clue that my sodium was running low and although I had other symptoms, it just never clicked. That’s what it was. I could pinpoint the exact market where it started because I drank six bottles of water that day and have had problems ever since. Some days worse than others. But now I know what’s going on. I am going to be taking Celtic sea salt with my water and for a short time I need to limit my fluid intake. I am still gonna be drinking the body armor, but it does not have any salt in it. It does have potassium and magnesium. So I got my garden cleared out mostly and I am going out in a little bit to plant the one section. There is one super healthy Black Eyed Peas plant standing I didn’t have the heart to cut it down. The rest of them I cut down in addition to my tomato plants that were out there. I took out my marigolds that looked pitiful and several zinnias. I now have a big huge open space to get some seeds in. And if all goes well tomorrow, it is gonna rain and these seeds should pop right up. It rained really nice yesterday probably a quarter to half inch. Some of my pots that have a nice canopy don’t get any rain when it is a light rain like that. The rest of the ground enjoyed it.

Rebecca, I expect that you will have sweet potatoes. I planted my first plants late April, then kept planting off and on till July 16. I expect my April, May, and June plants to produce. The plants I planted 7-1, 7-14, and 7-16 wont produce as well as I would like for them to produce, but I am expecting over 100 pounds of potatoes to store. On a normal year I would expect over 400 pounds, but nothing has done well for me this year. I am blaming most of my problems on the very spring, and the very hot dry summer months.

My okra looks good, other than being too thick. I was expecting okra by now, but it seems as though a bud will form, then just sit there.

Yor can see my tomatoes are toast. I expect to clean them out and stick some walking, and hunching onion in under the trellises. I may plant some garlic in the same way, leaving a gap to plant a pepper or tomato about every 3 or 4 feet, I tried that with some onions and garlic this past year, and it seemed to work. By planting the onions and garlic that way, it seems as though I can harvest them before the tomatoes get large enough to shade them out, saving a little space in my garden.

I have another row of okra that was plant about 2 weeks after this okra, but it sucks, it seemed to never get ahead of the heat, and the hot dry soil baked it.

My peppers have not done well either. I did not start any bells, but I bought 6 plants, which produced 2 peppers. The sweet peppers are blooming again, but I think the fungal disease have beat them back so much they will not produce.

I think that you can plan on putting your sweet potatoes in the bank. The fellow that gave me my plants said that they were Covington, and they have not failed me yet. This looks like it may be my worst sweet potato year, but I still expect to get more than I can use.........That may be counting your chickens before they hatch, but it is what I am expecting.

We finally got a nice rain, We have had quite a bit of run-off, so it should help the ponds also. We have been having quire a bit of slow rain also, so the watering should go deep.

I hope we dont get too much. This time of the year a get concerned about my potatoes splitting, or rotting, but I don't have much concern right now,just happy for the rain.

Jennifer, I’m not sure if I like my garden that close to my front door, but it is what it is. A few years ago I fell off the porch and landed on some rocks and plastic. I don’t even know what. And I decided what I needed was a softer landing, so I planted my Mullen on one side And my herb and flower garden straight out the door. So if I trip stumble or fall, I’m gonna have something soft to land on hopefully. I found out why I’ve been so sick lately. My blood test they did on July 23 was just reviewed by the doctor a day ago and she noticed I have low Sodium. That did not show up in my patient portal. So I had no clue that my sodium was running low and although I had other symptoms, it just never clicked. That’s what it was. I could pinpoint the exact market where it started because I drank six bottles of water that day and have had problems ever since. Some days worse than others. But now I know what’s going on. I am going to be taking Celtic sea salt with my water and for a short time I need to limit my fluid intake. I am still gonna be drinking the body armor, but it does not have any salt in it. It does have potassium and magnesium. So I got my garden cleared out mostly and I am going out in a little bit to plant the one section. There is one super healthy Black Eyed Peas plant standing I didn’t have the heart to cut it down. The rest of them I cut down in addition to my tomato plants that were out there. I took out my marigolds that looked pitiful and several zinnias. I now have a big huge open space to get some seeds in. And if all goes well tomorrow, it is gonna rain and these seeds should pop right up. It rained really nice yesterday probably a quarter to half inch. Some of my pots that have a nice canopy. Don’t get any rain when it is a light rain like that.

It rained hard at work this morning. So, Lynn probably got a good rain too.

No idea if we got rain at home, but I think we did.

Larry, glad you got some too.

Kim, in my ideal world, the kitchen garden would be my backyard. Production type of crops would be a little further from the house. For me, it's easy to check on stuff when it's right out the backdoor and easier to grab ingredients for lunch or recipes. But, I'm always in a hurry to get everything done, so that's probably why. There's very little downtime.

Also, I like the aesthetic of a true kitchen garden surrounding the house.

My kitchen garden is overgrown right now, but I really love it. I spent about 30 minutes removing flowers from the basil plants. They are all over the garden from volunteering. It's funny how people are convinced that basil deters pests. Not in my garden. ALL the "bad" pests are hanging out on them right now. LOL

Maybe in some places, but not my house.

I'm trying to avoid so many volunteers next year. Although, they are the healthiest plants.

The volunteer plant that looks like a red habanero, only it's slightly larger than the red variety, isn't hot at all. I wonder if its parents were an orange hab and a Anaheim, which were planted next to the habs last year. But, it has that certain smell that hot peppers have when biting into it.

I think baby boy might have given me his cold. I came home from work and strained the elderberry oxymel and found the pickled garlic from last year. Normally I fight things off pretty easily, but honestly, I'm worn slick. And there's a rash that I have--a large rash--that I've been fighting, so I'm assuming my immune system is down a little. But, it will be fine. The garlic and oxymel will do the trick for me.

I'm excited about next year's garden even tho it is being scaled back. I will like the challenge of trying to fit everything in that I want to grow in the amounts that are useful. And managing the growing season--pulling plants and planting different ones according to the season. Really looking forward to it.

Kim, a while back we started using Celtic salt and Real Salt.

I'm always craving it. But, my blood work is good. The only things that are off are the creatinine is very slightly low and my LDL is slightly high. But, it's likely I have the soft buoyant kind of LDL because my triglycerides are very low.

And my blood pressure is low. I love salt and crave it. I feel bad that you have to limit your fluid intake. I love to drink lots of fluids. It would be hard to not. I'm so sorry that you have to do that.

Rebecca, I'm interested in your indoor lettuce operation.

I'm going to got to bed early, I think. Night, Friends.

I forgot to mention that some of the oak trees around here are slightly beginning to change color. Does it seem early?

My tests today did not go as well as I would have liked, but no surprises. We discussed surgery, but I have too many things that cant be fixed, and no need of adding recovering from surgery to the list.

I have been told that I should not drink more than 2 liters of water a day, it is hard to get by on that amount of water, especially in the summer time, and most of the time I drink more water than that.

I went to the Indian clinic today. Most of the time I go through Poteau, I have to stop at the Farmers Co-op, I think that this is the first time I did not feel like stopping and shooting the bull with the guys in there.

My garden ( what there is left of it) looks pretty good, but I did not feel like planting anything.

Jennifer, I have some suprise peppers also. I mixed sweet, pimentos, bananas, and hot peppers last year, thinking that they would not cross, now I am not sure.

Hope that bad news doesn't last long, Larry.

H/J .... my bermuda lawn has slowed down. But that's due to reduction of daylight hours.

And I got 0.70 inch of rain. Everything is soaked.

Lynn, I have been dealing with these issues for a long time, its the same thing we al face sooner or later. When its all said, I feel pretty good, just not able todo much. I am ready to go get beautified now, I have to do that about every 4 to 6 weeks. Madge has to go every week, plus, it takes a lot longer make her beautiful, I must really have it!

I am enjoying this cool down. We had a decent rain yesterday. I got a few seeds planted but mostly worked on dried herbs in the house. It took all day to get seed heads, clean and herbs off the stem and put it into jars. I had bags and containers all over my teeny tiny house. It was getting overwhelming. They are all done except for Rosemary and I have a few long noodle beans and a plate of tomato seeds drying.

Larry I’m sorry your report was not good yesterday. It’s so hard just to slow down and I know as long as I’m able I will do some type of gardening, even if I have to make it a few mineral tubs around the patio. My husband and kids know that is my therapy and what gets me through. Hard as it us, sometimes we just have to accept our limitations and make the best of it. Don’t stop, just cut back and slow down. Raise what YOU need and use, stop trying to feed everyone who really doesn’t need or appreciate the work and expense it takes. This is not just my advice to you Larry, its telling myself too. I find myself raising food then trying to find someone who will

”allow” me to pick it and give to them. That’s bad when you stop and think about it.

Jennifer I wish we could share and divide- my tryglicerides have been high for 30-40 years, even when I was a young fit thin woman. This year they are higher than ever before, in the dangerous range. Our bodies don’t always respond like we want even if we eat healthy and try to stay in reasonable shape. Life is not fair, what else can I say?

Gardenwise, this cool rainy weather has been amazing. We got almost 3” one night and day then an additional 1.25”. Our ponds are full and the pastures could be cut again except we have no place to store it - will just let it stockpile for winter. We sold a few steers this week for an unbelievable price, and took one over to be processed. I don’t know how people can afford to buy all their food from stores. Hopefully with the cooler weather the hens will start laying again. I’m ready for the weather to stay cool and for mowing and outdoor work to slow down. Larry, I’m hoping my little tank of sweet potatoes have enough for a few winter meals.

Larry I'm very sorry to hear your tests weren't very good it does suck to get old.

I was amused by the the mineral tub comment. I'm here and I met a lady from Vinita. she had fallen. she lived alone on a farm. She had had a grandson pass, she fell she had some other crisis that had happened and yesterday there was a big flood around Vinita and I've wondered since then if it affected her place. she was trying to explain to me about the tubs they used with the cattle and how her garden was all those kind of tubs and I said mineral tubs? and she lit up and it was like someone who knows me. We are not alone.

this is really difficult with the Google Voice keyboard so I'm going to say goodbye now.

Thanks, Amy, Getting old is not for sissies, It really does seem to suck at times, but I will also say that I enjoy life more now than ever. Madge and I talk often about how glad we are that we were born at the time we were. We both feel that we would not want to be raising a family at this time. We feel that we have lived in the best of times, times were hard from time to time, but everything went okay. We feel that the world has just left us behind. It seems as though everything is so expensive, and world is on the edge of turmoil. It is really nice to know that we don't have much to worry about other than, have I taken my medicine, where is my phone, and have I watered the garden yet. The younger folks will have to worry about all the other crap going on in the world, we give, we cant fix it.

I went out and checked my sweet potatoes this after noon ( that is about all I have to do), and the last ones planted (7-16) have the ground swelling a little under them, so at least I will have some harvest this fall, those I expect to harvest mid Oct.

If I am able to garden any next year, Mineral tubs may be all I can do, but I still have 11 of them,and I should be able to grow a little in them.

We had some flood warnings out, but the ones I notices were north of us, but we did get a pretty good rain. I went over to try to check the water table, it seemed a little low, but okay for this tine of the year. I did not check the pond level, we have not had enough run-off to bring the pond up much, but all and all everything seems ok, but everything sure runs down when you are unable to care for it. I have signed the place over to my daughter, but I doubt that any of them will be wanting cut brush of repair barn roofs.

I am glad you can handle the voice control. My computer, of phone will say " say a command" from time to time, I tell it to "shut up", but it doesn't hear any better that I do.

Larry I am sorry you got that news from the drs. I never did care for drs. Seems like they always had bad news. I was very thankful for my pulmonary Dr and my surgeon but regular drs mostly annoy me. I know they think they are doing what’s best for me and maybe they are. My daddy always said I was a little stubborn. And my grandma she did not believe in doctors or medication or any kind of injections. She saw a chiropractor for her first 95 years. In the gardening world I got some seeds planted Black Eyed Peas parsley dill. I wanted to get cilantro planted and I forgot. My seat box that is all packages of seeds that are planted in the early summer while it got all mixed up and the seed packages opened up and just dumped out in the bottom of that box. I don’t know if I wanna try to make sense of it or just plant the whole thing. Jennifer, I have a vision of a back door opening into a potagè garden. Similar to the homesteading family herb garden. She did a video with Dr. Patrick Jones updating her garden what she liked and what she made a mistake on it was a good video. I don’t have any markets tomorrow, so guess where I’m going to the farmers market in Fort Worth. I’ve been wanting to go down there and I have an opportunity so might as well. If I ever get moved over that direction, then I will have an idea of the different markets over there. Looking forward to having the day off and doing something different.

Thanks, Kim, but the news was not anything new, I have been dealing with these issues a long time, and with a little luck I might go a lot longer. On the bright side, I will be 82 in Dec., and a Dr. said that I would not live through the night over 81 years ago, and I have past other expected dates, I am not complaining. I have a good rapport with all my doctors, I feel that they are doing all they can for me. The Dr. I saw today, I have his cell phone number, even though he is leaving in Sept., he said to call him any time I needed him, not a lot of doctors would do that.

I have the itch to plant something, but there is also 101 other things that I should be doing that are much more important.

Jennifer, I’m not sure if I like my garden that close to my front door, but it is what it is. A few years ago I fell off the porch and landed on some rocks and plastic. I don’t even know what. And I decided what I needed was a softer landing, so I planted my Mullen on one side And my herb and flower garden straight out the door. So if I trip stumble or fall, I’m gonna have something soft to land on hopefully. I found out why I’ve been so sick lately. My blood test they did on July 23 was just reviewed by the doctor a day ago and she noticed I have low Sodium. That did not show up in my patient portal. So I had no clue that my sodium was running low and although I had other symptoms, it just never clicked. That’s what it was. I could pinpoint the exact market where it started because I drank six bottles of water that day and have had problems ever since. Some days worse than others. But now I know what’s going on. I am going to be taking Celtic sea salt with my water and for a short time I need to limit my fluid intake. I am still gonna be drinking the body armor, but it does not have any salt in it. It does have potassium and magnesium. So I got my garden cleared out mostly and I am going out in a little bit to plant the one section. There is one super healthy Black Eyed Peas plant standing I didn’t have the heart to cut it down. The rest of them I cut down in addition to my tomato plants that were out there. I took out my marigolds that looked pitiful and several zinnias. I now have a big huge open space to get some seeds in. And if all goes well tomorrow, it is gonna rain and these seeds should pop right up. It rained really nice yesterday probably a quarter to half inch. Some of my pots that have a nice canopy. Don’t get any rain when it is a light rain like that.

Larry, Glenda has good advice about just cutting back. Still garden, but grow what you'll eat and what you enjoy looking at.

Glenda, I have a neighbor who offers her produce when she's finished with it--in fact, she plants things in the fall even if she's done preserving for the year. She does it for others. The catch is....she's not going to pick/harvest it for people. If they want it, they have to come get it. It sorta "weeds out" people who really appreciate it (me) and those who will take the produce if it's harvested, cleaned and delivered to them. I'm not growing fall beans, other than a few limas. SO, I will gladly pick green beans from her once she offers them up.

Kim, I need to watch Homesteading Family. I haven't done that yet.

Amy, hope you're healing well!

I had another accident at the house where I've been working part-time. This time, I smashed 3 fingers in the garage door. It was horrible. I was alone and the pain made it where I couldn't think clearly on how to get the fingers out. Anyway, 3 of them are bruised under the nails. But, they're not throbbing today so the worst is behind me, I think.

Last Friday, I twisted my ankle/foot on the basement stairs and last Wednesday cut my finger on a box knife. The kind of cut that won't stop bleeding. I didn't have anything to clean it with or a bandaid. My backpack has those things in it now. I couldn't even look around for a wild herb like yarrow to stop the bleed because it's doubtful Nichols Hills allows wildflowers/weeds to grow anywhere. I didn't see any and looked around.

The woman who lived in this house must be haunting me there! lol

I didn't throw her herbs away, tho. She had an apothecary set up mostly ordered from Mountain Rose. I saw it the first day I was there, but someone threw it all out. She probably had yarrow.

I'm about to walk around the garden. I didn't even get a chance to peek at it yesterday. It took me an hour and 15 to get from Nichols Hills to Norman. Probably Labor Day traffic. Then, we had to do our grocery shopping (and get Rick's mail and take the recycling in). It was dark by the time we got home.

It really does feel like autumn. It's a strange summer and end of August. I'm not complaining, tho.

Jennifer, I though of you this morning when I told Madge that I need to mow the lawn, and I went out to find the mower occupied. This sorry thing likes it here, and he thinks the chair on the porch, my mower, and RTV belong to him. We don't need an animal, but it is hard to get rid of this one. It is hard to get rid of an animal when your wife feeds them.

I hope to plant a few seeds, mow the lawn (over the lateral lines mostly), and burn some trash. That will just about use up all my steps for the day.

Please don't be upset with all of my pictures, but I like to post pictures on Saturday. One reason is that garden web is about the only site that I use and can check on the things that I have been doing.

My garden has been pretty much a flop all year, but my peppers are trying to make a come-back. Here it is Aug 30 2025 and my diseased peppers are starting to look better.

Habanero

Jalapeno

These are nowhere near the best I have grown, but the plants have recovered more than I had expected, and are at least going to produce some thing., and may next Aug. I can look back and compare production. I certainly hope it is better.

Not pictured are Serrano peppers, they did not do great, but this is a first year for me to grow this pepper, and from what I see now it is sure a keeper. We had some beans for lunch today with a Serrano in them, and it gave them a great flavor.

My sweet peppers are still a flop, if they get better I will try to make a picture of them also.

I hope everyone's garden is doing better than mine.

Jennifer please be more careful. Those injuries sound horrible. Larry that is a gorgeous cat. I am not a cat person but that one is so beautiful. Also if my garden looked half as good as yours I’d be over moon. Sweet potatoes, Thai roselle from Jennifer, citrus, gomphrena

I like seeing y'all's pictures.

Larry, I am a cat person and think all cats are beautiful, but that one is exceptional.

I'm fine, Kim. But, you're right. I need to be careful. I get very clumsy when I'm tired, which I am always tired nowadays. Luckily the fingers are ever so much better.

This morning, I weeded a little. It's a mess out there. But pretty too. I also transplanted chamomile and borage. There's dozens of chamomile plants coming up everywhere. I'm going to attempt to contain them in one area going forward.

I think my old lavender plant gave up the ghost. She's been with me for maybe 8 years. Struggling a little more each year. I think she finally realized that I have a healthy new plant next to her to carry on. And two in the herb spiral. She's like, "peace out. You have replacements now. I'm done.".

Kim, I have watched Homesteading Family. A long time ago. Recently, I think, she did a video with the Honeystead, which I do watch regularly.

Jennifer another few channel I really enjoy Scandish Home, 1$ house Tia Weston, Huw Richards

Jennifer, that cat is too lazy to breathe, and he was next to the ugliest one in the liter. There were 2 really pretty female kittens in the liter that I had to terminate, the 3 males I was able to give away, but that one came back. There is no animal control around here other than a busy highway, but that cat is too lazy to walk out to the hwy.

Kim, I am sorta like Madge, she says that she just cant cook anymore, and I say that I just cant grow anything anymore. It seem as tho old people just lose their touch along with their sense of taste and smell.

Kim, I think all of y'all's gardens look nice. My sweet potatoes are the ony thing that I even stand to 1/2 of a harvest from. It is a good thing that I planted so many of them, because the produce per plant will be lower this year. There will be a lot of waste because of small potatoes, I wish that I had some live stock to feed the small potatoes to. I may try to take my scrap over to the zoo, they may have something to eat it. I have turned my scrap back into the soil in the past, if I still have the middle buster hooked up to the tractor I may try that.

Larry I love my garden but I usually only take pictures of the good stuff. If you watch my videos you will see the mess