On Friday, they forecasted five days of rain this week and they have dropped all but one day. I feel like I’m from Missouri. The show me state. If I don’t actually see it, I’m not really gonna believe it. I did not go to work and water this weekend so we’ll see what the Garden looks like when I get in on Monday I have been busy trying to feel better. A 3 Hour drive and the heat does not sound like something. I wanted to mess with this weekend. The boss should be back in on Monday so I’m gonna talk to him about buying plants. I will still start some stuff from seed, but I need something that is going to get me ahead of the game at work. As soon as it cools off at home, my plan is to get a big tarp or swimming pool and start dumping my containers that are not growing anything and salvaging the soil. Lots of grass and weeds have overtaken my containers, even my green stocks so that is the only way I can think to get all of those roots and junk out of the soil. That is all I have for now. Just trying to survive over here until this heat breaks.

No rain at our house either, and still hot humid and muggy. Kim, I’m with you and Jennifer too - I wish they would stop promising what obviously isn’t coming. Jennifer, Concrete is cracking here too. I’m not even attempting to replant the garden now - just no interest and don’t want to push the well. I did add a light on a timer for my chickens tonight . Maybe I won’t lose egg production - it’s way down already. I’ve been freezing eggs for the winter.

We are not doing any gardening here. Madge and I are still messing with the wildlife. I have been putting corn in the pasture and wildlife garden. About every time we go to the wildlife garden we see squirrels. A neighbor tore up a spot for me to make a food plot, but I want to work on it some more, it is too dry to plant now anyway, but we are in better shape water wise. We got around 2 inches of rain about 2 weeks ago, and some of the grass is starting to come back. There is a very poor acorn crop this year, and the young deer seem smaller this year. We saw 7 or 8 deer when we went out to toss corn. I don't want to make the deer depend on the corn, but I do want to keep them strong enough to forage. The lack of rain is going to make for a tough year for the wildlife also.

I may plant some turnips for the wildlife also. I have not had a lot of luck getting the wildlife to eat the turnip greens in the past, but they may not be a picky this year.

Looks like it rained at work before I got here. There were a couple of puddles.

Kim, what type of plants are you going to buy for work? I'm always so interested in those things.

When is the average first frost at your work?

Glenda, my egg production is way down. But my girls are old. And I'm down to 15 hens. One looked off and had a messy rear, so I cleaned her up and she has mites, which I treated her for. I didn't see any mites on the other chickens but it's probably time to treat everyone again. And it's time to deep clean the coop. Finding time to do that is another thing.

I have been putting back eggs and using the oldest first. I have about 10 dozen in the shop refrigerator from July - September.

I'm sure I'll run out around the holidays. Hopefully I'll be able to buy from my neighbor when that happens. She always has new chicks each year. I am standing firm on letting these chickens live out their lives before getting new ones as I'm truly wanting to downsize. Maybe stick to my original plan from 12 years ago. LOL I just got a little excited about it all. And, it was so fun to hatch our own chicks under broody hens and all the things. I might do that again with G is around 4 or 5 (old enough to appreicate it) but give the chicks away.

And, Glenda, a co-worker is having piers put in because their backdoor won't close. He kept waiting for rain because that usually adjusts things, but with no rain in forever he just decided to do the piers. They are $900 each.

Larry, I'm sure the wildlife is appreciating your help. Our pecans are actually doing okay this year. The squirrels have been busy with them. I haven't had a chance to see if they're buggy. Although, we decided that is one thing we are going to spray because we never got a non-buggy year until we did spray.

Other things like the wild native sunflowers that come up in our burn pile every year were absent until last week. They are smaller and shorter, but it made me happy to see them. I shot them a blast or two of water.

Larry, do you like turnips? I'm not a huge fan but I do like the small "salad" type of turnips.

I made a taco soup/chili type of thing last night for dinner. I used a jar of black beans that Rick and I canned back in 2023. It feels so odd to use those jars. It reminds me of good times and really hard work.

Things have changed, tho. We still have good times and work hard but it's different. I'm so happy I got to experience growing a huge garden and preserving all the things.

It's raining again at work! A good, steady rain!

I sure hope it is doing this at home too! The radar shows it is.

Jennifer, I eat turnips, but I am not wild about them. When I grow turnips most of them get disc back into the soil. Grain rye is my first choice for a cover crop, and the deer like it too. I don't think that I have any rye seed, but I do have turnip seed. I expect that I will buy a bag or two of rye and use the turnip seeds that I have. I am also feeding the deer a few range cubes.

Jennifer we didnt get a drop but hope you got some rain this morning

Glenda, we did get rain. Maybe .05 of an inch, but it's something. I'm happy for it because I had zero time to water anything tonight. Prayers that more will be coming soon for all of Oklahoma this coming weekend. (and texas and arkansas too)

The deer have found my garden

The deer here are hungry. The grass and brush have come back a little, but it has been a rough summer, and may be a worse winter.

I checked one camera this morning, and I only had 1 picture of a buck, he looked like he has been on a diet.

They did me a favor, actually trimming back the sweet potatoes because I need to get those dug. They also took out the peppers some of the peppers and Black Eyed Peas one watermelon vine.

Sorry about your garden and the deer, Kim.

Larry, I hope this winter isn't worse.

I've not done gardening today other than watering a couple of things when I got home at 730. And put the sprinkler on the KG. I'm going to leave it for an hour more, I think.

There's herbs I would like to come back and my fall green beans. Those are the things I care about and I ran out of daylight to water them by hand.

It's been a full day. Worked my part-time job in Edmond and then went to my regular job around 430. We announced the parts for the Christmas program and showed the kids their costumes. They were all so excited. No one was disappointed. How often does that happen.

Anyways...just checking in without much to talk about.

It is still hot and dry here.

This is the only picture I have of a buck. I have not pulled the card from the other camera yet, I know that there will be more pictures on it because I am feeding in that area. The deer do not look great this year. Even tho we had some rain 2 or 3 weeks ago the pasture has not greened up a lot, and on the hill sides a lot of the food for the deer is dead or dying.

If I can get someone to help change equipment on the tractor, I want to start working on some food plats for the deer. I don't know when we will be able to move, but I think that I have found a couple of guys to help with feeding the wildlife around here. I plan on leaving enough equipment to make food plots.

My neighbor came over one evening when I was tossing out corn in the wildlife garden and told me that he had pick 4 pumpkins out of the wildlife garden before the deer could get to them, he said that they got 8 qts of pie filling from the 4 pumpkins. I have never had the deer eat the pumpkins as bad as they have this year. When I brush hogged the wild life garden there were still some pumpkins hidden in the weeds that I could not see, but after I hit them with the brush hog they were gone in a couple of days. I don't think that I can remember a year that it has been any dryer that it has this year.

Here is a couple of doe, this is about how most of the deer look, they are not too bad, but should look better for this time of the year. I hope to get some seed in the ground to help feed the wildlife for winter. I fuss about the deer eating my garden, then I try to feed them in the winter, a guy like that cant be very bright.

Here is a guy going to check the trail camera, you can tell that everything on this place is not going hungry.

I went out to check the game camera where I have not been feeding, and no pictures of deer, just an armadillo.

Here is a picture from the west side of my place, this is looking toward the wildlife garden. You can see the hill in the back ground, and see that timber is much browner than the timber in the floor of the valley.

This is the lowest spot on my property, and you can see that the timber is greener, but there is still not a lot of grass, and the hay has only been cut one time this year.

I know of other people that are feeding the wildlife, I hope that they continue, they will need it this year. There has also been reports of livestock being attacks, and bear sightings.

There was a huge acorn crop last year, and not much of anything this year.

Larry, you make me laugh. It's a good pic of you. Thanks for sharing all the pictures.

I have a day off and am super excited about it. I guess I will get my fall decorations up after all. It's part of who I am--decorating for the seasons. I'm not an over-decorator, but do like seasonal things up and around my house. I've already felt very out-of-sorts--like I'm not myself. So, this day off is a huge blessing.

I'm going to Edmond to pick up the baby around 3. Daughter is in NYC this weekend and will be going to Maine for a work retreat on Sunday. We're bringing G to our house for the weekend and then he will go home and Dad will have him for the rest of the week. I'm sure he'll do fine, but I'll be on call. lol

His mom is very helpful too. And close because she also lives in Edmond.

The veg plants that I'm trying to keep alive, are alive. So that is good.

IF we do get that promised "true" cool down next week, I'll get some pumpkins soon. And fall flowers.

We might take G to pick out a pumpkin tonight. I'm sure he will pick out pumpkins with his parents later on too.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Just checking in. Hope everyone had a good weekend. The rain missed us again this weekend. How did everyone else do? Anyone get any rain?

No time in the garden this weekend other than shooting a bit of water to things. Lucikly G was fascinated with a child's watering can I picked up at the last house I worked at and would refill from my hose and water things that I told him to water. That lasted a good 30 minutes. So...we got some things watered.

Tonight we'll begin the fall clean-up and prep for going out of town next week. Get the coops ready and all.

The hen that I mentioned last week...she died on Saturday. Her name was Star. She was special because she was almost thrown away. She was a late hatcher. Her egg was under Stormy along with 2 other eggs. Nothing hatched, so at Day 24 I went to Atwoods and bought a couple of chicks. Banty chicks because someone had just came in and cleared out all the regular sized one. Anyway, at night I was sneaking those 2 chicks under Stormy and taking the "dud" eggs out to the trash when suddenly one of the eggs started peeping. So, it went back under Stormy. It was a beautiful night--all the stars were so bright. In the morning, this little white chick had hatched. She was named Star. She was one of the sweet ones. Her two banty sibs were Baby (who recently died) and Sisco, a little rooster who died 3 and a half years ago. Stormy has passed too.

Star was 7.

SIgh.

We're downsizing and downsizing can be sad.

You are such a good chicken, mom, Jennifer. We did get some rain at home. Still waiting for rain at work, but the signs are aligning to get some rain this week. I said, of course it’s gonna rain a lot because I’m supposed to move starting Thursday.. I am very excited to be cutting my drive from three hours a day down to less than 10 minutes. It is a gorgeous day here very breezy cooler temperatures, which is nice. I am hand watering a giant garden just to make sure the water goes exactly where I want to. There is a shady spot in my garden, and I can actually sit in a chair and reach most of the garden from my chair which sounds incredibly lazy but right now I need all the rest I can get.

Kim, that is how I water also, but I havent watered anything in a long time, everything is bunt up.

Madge and I have been going out each day and putting out food for the deer. Feeding the deer is a waste of money, but they seem to like it.

I still plan on planting a food plot, but things are so dry I doubt anything would come up, but we have rain chances within a week.

As soon as I am sure the deer are being stopped I am going to nursery to get plants. Broccoli cauliflower cabbages

I'm excited for you, Kim. You'll feel like a new woman cutting that drive down.

I like your lazy way of gardening.

Is there a particular nursery you go to for your vegetable plants?

I didn't buy plants this year. There's 15 broccoli plants that were started from seed and that's basically it other than the greens/lettuce. I almost bought a 6 pack of cabbage at TSC. It was $6--better than $6 for one plant.

The fall green beans are starting to make beans. They'll probably be ready to harvest when we're in Colorado next week. Lol. That's about the way it goes.

Really, it probably wasn't the smartest to put the zucchini in the hoop house. I'm not sure about pollination for them.

I have a day at home. Trying to get a plan for the day. I think I'll go up to the attic before it gets hot to get my fall wreaths and fall kitchen towels. I always put my regular towels in a tub. (At this time, I always think that I won't see them again until January.)Then, up-pot the Muir lettuce IF they survived. I forgot to water them for 2 days, so we'll see. Maybe start some more seeds if I can get my mom to water them for me while I'm gone.

Possibly move the taller Greenstalk back to the patio. That way it can get some rain and will be close to the house.

Yesterday we were able to get a couple of things done to the chicken area and make a plan for when we're gone. I'm trying to make it as easy as possible for my neighbor. She has her own stuff to care for, 3 children with activities, and works too. Next year we'll probably put in an automatic door for the chickens. Well, for us really.

Pretty sure I have some sort of cold going on and it's very annoying. Hitting the elderberry tincure and oxymel...and Zicam in the nose.

So...are we getting rain? The experts seem pretty sure we are.

Here is how I am wasting my time now.

These critters ate up my garden long ago, so Madge and I drive around the place tossing out corn every day. Yesterday evening there was a fawn coming up the trail toward the house, it was still about 1/4 mile from the house, when it saw us it would go back toward the place where we were tossing corn for the mother and her 2 young ones. I told Madge that the fawn was running back to tell mama that corn was coming. I feed in 4 different areas. The area shown is where I hope to place a food plot if we ever get any rain. I plan on placing the food plats where if will be harder for the deer to be shot if they are feeding in the daylight. All of the hunters in this area are not great sportsmen. My land is posted, but that does not mean much to some people.

Thanks for sharing the deer picture,Larry.

Yesterday I was able to get some stuff done. The Greenstalk was moved to the patio and planted! I wasn't planning on doing that, but had the thought 'why up-pot the Muir lettuce....just put them in the Greenstalk'.

So...all the lettuce, kale, and arugula went into the Greenstalk, which was cleaned up and refreshed. I enjoyed that project.

I also got the pots and trays washed and stored away. And a few other things.

Hopefully will start more lettuce seed tonight. The Greenstalk is full but I have a couple of beds in the hoop house. I'll have to see if my Mom will watch after the seeds/seedlings for me next week.

Really, I feel bad right now. Some type of sinus infection. I masked up and cleaned the coop as I didn't want to breathe in the dust and stuff. Looks like I won't be working at my second job this week. My boss has a lot of personal stuff going on this week. There's a few other tasks I can get done today but, like I said, I really don't feel well so might take a nap first.

Still hoping the rain comes in without severe weather. I hope we all get some rain.

I went out to try to dig a few sweet potatoes. I dug a hill of Vardaman, and a hill of Covington. The deer and the hot dry weather really messed up my crop for this year. The Covington are on the right end, the Vardaman on the left. Of the two hills, the Vardaman did the best, but I don't think I want to mess with digging them, the kids may want some of them, but I don't plan on wasting any of my time with them.

It looks as tho the rain we had 2 or 3 weeks ago started the Vardaman to growing again, there were a couple of the Covington that had rotted, the deer kept the Covington eaten back so much that the heat and sun killed the plant.. The Covington were a little farther from the house, I think that is why the deer were eating them.

I doubt that I will ever grow sweet potatoes again, but if I do, I hope to try the Vardaman again, they seem to be easier to dig, because they don.t tun all over the garden.

Thanks, Kim. I did the Celtic salt when it was so hot but haven't done it in a couple of weeks.

Feeling a little better today--not 100%, I'm at work, tho.

I haven't dug sweet potatoes yet and won't for a couple of weeks. They're not pushing out of the soil like last year so it will be interesting to see what we get.

I'm not sure what would cause mushy sweet potatoes, tho. It seems like too wet soil would do that and we sure haven't been too wet.

Larry, my neighbor has a really nice garden that grown in raised beds and pots. She grew a good amount of sweet potatoes and regular potatoes in grow bags.

We got a wonderful inch and a half of rain yesterday/overnight. Not as much as we were originally forecast to get....but I'll take it. Honestly, as I was going to sleep last night I though we wouldn't even get that much. I'll come back with a picture of the radar often looks. We're in that dry spot. lol

We were blessed with 2.2” rain over a 2 day period. Very slow soaking rain. While it didn’t add any water to the ponds we are thankful for every drop. It is amazing how fast the grass greens up with just that small amount. I still have not dug any of the sweet potatoes - hoping they will be good. We’ve had too many doctor appointments and cattle issues lately to do more than essential daily chores. Jennifer enjoy your trip, a few days of different routine would be great. Kim, I wish I had part of your energy and stamina. Larry, I enjoy your pictures. While I still enjoy watching the deer I am not feeding them. Of course, they are eating from the calves creep feeder so basically yes I am. They haven’t got back into the garden YET, but they’ve destroyed flowerbeds that I’ve worked on for over 30 years at this place. We are having some work done in the house Monday and I need to be on site but out of the house for about 5 hours so will spend that time in the garden and greenhouse. A chore that needs to be taken care of but haven’t done so it’s a good thing. Take care and enjoy the cooler temps.

Glenda, what sort of cattle issues are you having?

I can see how doctors appts could really eat up a person's time. I hate making the time to go to basic check-ups, screenings, and teeth cleanings, etc. I do it, but complain about it. I guess it's just what we will all deal with at some point.

I saw a thing this morning about strength training for our future not just to look good currently. BUT, someone said that they talked to a 90 something year old woman and asked her how she stayed moving. She said many years ago, she started sitting on the floor and getting up every day. And still did! That's amazing. So, I'm going to start doing that. Right now I can still get up without using my hands to push off. Of course, a lot of things are out of our control. There's just bad luck and genetics and other things. Stuff that's not fair.

I have really bad posture because of scoliosis and kyphosis, so I'm really mindful and it's why I do the Pilates class that I do. It's beyond just "stretching" and exercising. Her method is amazing. I have several more years before my insurance pays for bone density screenings.

It is drizzling this morning. I just saw on the news that a high of 90 is expected next week. I sure hope they're wrong.

I wish I had some seed starter at the house to start another round of lettuces. There's some potting soil out there, but it's not my favorite to start seed.

Is anyone making notes of gardening changes they'll make next year? I'm going to continue to downsize and bought all those container varieties of cukes, zucchinis, and beans. This year, we really wanted to get some structural things in place but the heat and drought shut that down. After our trip, I'm hoping we can work on a couple of them.

I will say that it was SO fun growing all the things and having a giant garden, canning and preserving all the produce. But, lives change. I suppose if we NEED to go back to growing all the things, we could. Rick and I hoarded up canning lids back in 2020. Even with all the jars I've shared, we still have a lot.

This is the first year since maybe 2015/16 that I haven't had green tomatoes on the vines that I would bring in before the first frost. What a hard gardening season we've had.

I have some turnip and mustard seed, and a tiller hooked to the Kubota. We have had a light rain, so now would be a good time to stir up some soil in the garden. It may be too late in the year for planting anything, but I have more seeds than I need. I also have some rye seed, I am hoping that I can get the disc attached to the other tractor, and maybe I can get a food plot started also.

Madge have been going to the dr. a lot, plus trying to visit with family more. It seems as tho time just slips away from you. We have a 65 year class reunion to go to tomorrow, a family reunion to go to the next day, then to the clinic for more test next week.

I want to go toss some corn out for the deer. I did not go out to feed yesterday, and did not have many pictures of the deer last night. The deer may be off eating from other feeders in the area, I know that I am not the only one feeding the deer.

I had better go to check if the soil is soft enough to plant turnips.

Well, Larry, did you get your turnips planted? Enjoy your reunions this weekend!

I'm about to head to Edmond. My daughter finally made it home after flight delays and changes.

Yesterday, I cleaned out the baking pantry, refrigerator, and freezers. Wow. That got out of control. I was bad about labeling things too. I have several frozen jars of beautiful orange something that is dated 1/7/26. It doesn't look like the squash puree--I have that too--so, what did I jar up and freeze?! I'm wondering if I made a batch of tomato soup. When we get back from Colorado, I'll thaw one and check it out.

But, there's my hoards of stuff--frozen garden produce and Tom's hoard of frozen junk food. And lots of stuff that needed to be tossed. Or fed to the chickens--done.

The shop freezer has ham steaks that are maybe 7 years old. I found many bags of lamb meat--it's not old, tho. I just didn't realize we still had so much. It was buried. Tom says we're about to get another lamb too. SO, I need to put lamb dishes on the menu.

The final bag of frozen peaches was used to make a cobbler yesterday. The past few years, I've frozen peaches in apple juice and it's a really tasty way to freeze them.

AND...the baking pantry is organized which is nice as we're getting into baking season now.

I felt it was a day well spent.

What's everyone's plans this weekend, other than Larry? Sounds like Larry has a full weekend of social events.

Jennifer, I did not get the turnips planted, I did get a place tilled up for them, and that is as far as I got. I tilled up a spot in the wildlife garden to put in a food plot, it is only about 1/4 acre, but I am sure the wildlife will use it. The area down by the creek was too wet to till. I will let the creek area dry for a few days, and then try to work it again. I went to the co-op and bought 100# of grain rye and wheat seeds, that will be enough to at least get me started on the food plots.

I will be going to my 65 year class reunion today, I am looking forward to seeing the group, some I will not remember, and there is a lot that are already gone now. This is the year that we turn 83, a few a little older. There are a few that would not remember anyone anyway, time can be cruel.

I'll make a new October thread.