September-Preparing for Fall

Those all look great!! My potatoes never got any size to them so I've left what I haven't dug up in the ground until next year. Maybe they'll do something then. Yellow onions look great too as far size goes.

Good looking harvest!

Just a quick check in

CG what a beautiful set of pictures. I keep thinking about actually growing vegetables next year. I don't know how, but then again I didn't know how to grow tomatoes either and I certainly have been picking them. They are about done now. I thought I would've pulled them by now but they keep producing. It is nice to see you posting!

Will, I hope you get to go to the RU. You guys are going to have so much fun!

Y'all keep talking about rain. I wish we would get some. They keep saying we have chances, but then the chances drop down to 20% and then 10% and then poof. I have been doing a very decent job of dragging the hose around. The little Smoketree, which was totally burned up from the heat when I bought it, is starting to get normal leaves now. The Hydrangia looks 80% pathetic, but there are two branches that are starting to look normal and healthy. That gives me hope. I'm going to hard prune this after it goes dormant ( gosh, I sound like I know what I'm doing! ), put a cage around it, stuff the cage with leaves, and probably bundle it up in a tarp. I put it in the perfect position aesthetically, but it will have no protection from ice, snow and bitter wind off the river. I am hoping I can nurse it through this first winter without it getting more damaged.

I should put a thermometer in my basement. I'll bet it stays around 55 or 60° in the winter. If I did decide to grow potatoes, I could maybe keep them there? I know nothing.

Brenda, how are your flowers doing? Here in Wichita, it's business as usual. The Monarchs have been flying through. I was loading groceries in the van Friday afternoon and three of them were floating above my head.

Every once in a while, a leaf or two will fall off a tree. The change of seasons is coming.

GB, Nice pictures of the fire in the backyard. You do that quite a bit apparently. Fun! The last picture looks like part of your garden. Are those tomato plants? Whatever they are, to my eyes they look very healthy. Your granddaughter is ADORABLE,

Thanks Patti, we always have a great time!
Will

Patti, don't bury the hydrangea and don't do the tarp. It will have plenty of time to put down roots before winter and come back looking great next year. Doing all that will actually cause it to rot or to bake. Just put a thick layer of leaves around it after you prune it. That will be more than enough. And make sure you shred the leaves with a mower or something because the full size leaves won't break down.

Pepper, really? OK, I can definitely live without the tarp, but when I say this little plant is in horrible condition And when I say it will get zero protection from frigid wind blowing straight off the river, I'm not kidding. I could not have picked a worse spot for it had I deliberately tried.

Not much going on around here today. Thank goodness. We been so busy lately. Kinda lly want to stay home. I need some more garden space. lol. I am starting to take some plants out of the "line up". ha Looks so much better now. Kind of crowded looking. I lovey old fashioned coral belle still have a few blossoms them. Have a great rest of your day all.

Patti - You asked how my flowers are doing. Thanks for asking! Check this out, they are attracting a lot of Monarch passers through! Yeah!

I figure I have right at a month of blooms left before frost. Better yet, I'll hope for frost in November again like last year......... You can't say it's not colorful around here.

Beautiful, Brenda! We've had monarchs drifting through here for the last three weeks or so. It's nothing like it used to be. I'm praying they make a comeback. Do you have lots of milkweed for the butterflies? I am trying to get some started here, but of course it is too late for this year.

I am still in the process of preparing beds. Jamie will be here in the morning and we will start actually layering a lasagna bed. I have everything except leaves. Another two weeks or so and I should have those too.

I am a little disappointed in myself however. I have not completely finished a single bed I've started, other than where the tomatoes are. The gutters on the house did get cleaned, so now I can actually finish the bed on the north side of the house. All it needs is to be mulched. I need Jamie eight hours a week instead of four – that would solve my problem.

I believe it was Will who counseled me to be patient. I am trying, honest! LOL

Amy will be back here Wednesday night, late. I will go pick her up at the airport and she will be staying with me until next Wednesday. It is hard for me to get stuff done when I have someone else here. Because she does live so far away and we see each other so infrequently, as a rule, I feel like I must stay inside and be with her. I am really encouraging her to make plans with other people. I even told her she could take my car. LOL I just feel like winter is closing in, even though it's not here yet, and I have so much to do outside. She's not the kind of person I could invite to help me, at least I don't think she is. I guess I could always ask and if she says no, I could go do it anyway. We have been friends forever, so I would hope she would understand.

Are you tagging your zinnias for seed?

I had better go. I have a friend coming over in about half an hour. She is bringing her dog to play with Tucker for a few minutes. She lost her male dog about four months ago and Tosha is bored. Tucker loves playing with other dogs so… She is about Tucker's age so they have roughly the same energy level. LOL
Patti

Me? We musta been talking about patience to see if a plant would come back to life.
I wouldn't tell anybody to be patient, like I was a head shrinker..lol

OK Will, maybe it wasn't you - maybe it was Ju. If I weren't so darn lazy I will go back and look. LOL

We got pretty chilly for a couple days and now are going to be up to 90 again tomorrow. I wouldn't mind if we had a late frost. I would like both the smoke tree and the hydrangea to recover a little more.

Do you work all night? I've often thought that I would do well at an all night job. Then there are nights like tonight when I can barely keep my eyes open.

Pretty dreams everyone!

I think it was me actually, patience on plants that look dead because sometimes they'll grow back from the roots.
Do I work all nite? I did. I've got a new temp job now.

This message was edited Sep 22, 2015 1:25 AM

And you are going to leave it at that?

Yes - tagging and saving zinnia seed.

Patti, too bad you can't come to the RU because then you could grill him in person. With a big grin on your face of course. LOL

ROTFL Pepper.I wish I could come, believe me. as for Will, I wouldn't grill. I would gently "coax". And of course I would have a grin! LOL

Haha! Grill! Yes, you should come to the Ru, it's not too late. I used to think I couldn't make it but things changed.

Will, I really can't. I have a scheduling conflict. I will be doing something for my mom that has been scheduled for months.

I see, Patti. People have things going on, I understand.

I cancelled because I'm already attending an annual family get together this weekend in Eldon. Now I'm suppose to attend a regional quarterly church meeting on 10/3. I am hopeful for next Spring.

I cancelled because I'm already attending an annual family get together this weekend in Eldon. Now I'm suppose to attend a regional quarterly church meeting on 10/3. I am hopeful for next Spring.

I did some repotting today, some big-pot repotting..lol
It is nice to be able to lift more than 15 lbs.! My hernia and surgery are behind me as of a month ago yesterday, the recovery period is over! The first pic is my now-big variegated Rubber Tree.
I put it into the big brown pot next pic. I made some poormans potting mix and it used almost all of it. Btw, poormans potting mix is just a bag or 2 of topsoil mixed with a bag of the nice, expensive Miracle-Gro. Here the Rubber Tree (in the 3rd pic) is in it's new big pot (it's taller than my car!). The 4th pic is my repotted Sago Palm (and a bunch of other stuff I see). There's the Rose tree from pepper, the Ditchlilies from happ and the hardy Kalanchoe from Joeswife in that pic, some thornless Blackberries from green are there too but you can't see them in the pic.
The last pic is your bigboy blister right on my big toe!

Nice pictures!!! Except for Will's painful toe :o)

I read so I'm caught up.

Well, we got thru all the busy and now can get life back to normal. Some of you have seen the FB reunion pictures I posted. My camera's battery went dead so I got a new one put in. Then I got sidetracked and didn't take another picture the rest of the afternoon. Things were winding down anyway. DH, DD and I all have colds that started Sunday night and Monday morning. Last night I went to bed at 7:00 pm and slept all the way thru.

Monday, I canned 24 quart of apple juice and the three jars of peaches I had in the fridge. I forgot to can the syrup.... We got about 10 gallons of juice.

Tuesday, I picked up all my yard ornaments and packed them away. I cleaned the shed and sideporch.

Yesterday, I finally made stuffed peppers before I lost any in the crisper. We'll eat on them a couple of days before I freeze leftovers.

I'm starting to cut back the flower stalks. That wore me out, lol!

Have a better day than yesterday!

Now I am going to grill. Will, what in the world did you do? If that has anything to do with your new temporary job – get a different one.

I picked Amy up at the airport last night at 11:00. Even though I am a night Owl, I do not like driving around at night alone. I was going to take Tucker with me. I had the flight tracker on my tablet, I swear, not 10 minutes had passed, and I got a message saying the plane had landed. From my driveway to the front door the airport is only about 20 minutes, But that message freaked me out so much I forgot my dog. ROTFL. I don't know what was going on in town last night; police cars were all over the roads. Of course, we made it home without incident and at
1 AM I was on the front porch watering plants.

Jamie and I did get a really good start on the lasagna bed. All I have left to do is come up with leaves Then I want to add another layer of compost, one of peat moss and finally straw, to finish it off .

I hear Amy moving around. I will try to get back later. I think she and her daughter are going out for a while this afternoon.

Haha! Oh, that blister and two others. (and other temporary maladies) àre à direct result of the previous temp job. It's just the nature of the manual labor job. And I was only there for 8 days (full-time). They are working all their employees all the time (no days off). Some people were working 12 hours a day 7 days a week. Those blisters were from ill-fitting steel-toed boots and being on my feet. It's true! I do manual labor! They call me blue-collar Bob! Hehe..you asked!
Yeah, I saw your fb Sally, you were busy organizing that reunion. It looks like it went well, your family people look like they actually like each other, mine not so much..lol
Will

This message was edited Sep 24, 2015 12:29 PM

Yes Will, I did ask. I am so sorry that job resulted in injury. I truly hope you have moved on. However, I see nothing wrong whatsoever in manual labor. I wouldn't have gotten this far with my yard were it not for Jamie. My dad was an engineer at Boeing Aircraft Company. Anyone who knows aircraft knows layoffs are always a possibility. During one of those layoffs, dad, who was in his 40s, went to work for a company that tarred roofs. It kept food on the table and a roof over his families heads. He did get hired back by Boeing in short order, but it was an experience that stayed with him all of his life. He said it was the hardest work he had ever done. Of course, that was a summer we had the week of 108 degree temperatures. I had/have nothing but respect for that man.

Oh, roofers have the worst jobs. Especially in the hot summer time. But they sure are strong guys. The way they carry all those bundles of shingles. I would be wiped out for sure.
Will nice blister shot. Man that temp job sounds awful for sure. Way to many hours for anyone. Hey at least the manual laborers are the backbone of America far as I am concerned. The heart beat...
The round up always sounds like so much fun. I wish it were closer for me. But I am working on that weekend anyways. So I hope you all have a great time.
I have been to a couple kind of around here but lost interest really. Not that it wasn't fun. It was a nice time, I really do not need anything else. I am trying to cut down on my plantings. lol. I have been moving something's around to make it look a little nicer. You know the gardening never is happy with the way there own yard looks.
Tomorrow I am off seeing how I feel want to get out there and pick up my yard brick a brack and put it all away. Am starting. Sad to see them go they are like my Christmas ornaments.

Ronna, dad was not carrying shingles. He was working with the big boiling cauldrons of tar. Many of the industrial buildings locally have flat roofs that they use many of the industrial buildings locally have flat roofs that they pour tar on instead of using other roofing product. Ugh!

59°/79°/55°
Relative Humidity
87%
Today...Partly sunny. Northeast wind 10 to 15 mph.
Tonight...Partly cloudy. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Patti,
Rolling on the floor over you forgetting your dog!! I'm glad there were no problems getting home. I don't care to be on the road at night either.

Will,
DH's brothers all pretty much have a few features in common and if their youngest sister dresses up like a man she looks like three of them rolled into one, lol!

Patti,
My Dad worked other places too when there were layoffs. Boy, there were always jobs in the 50's. When my Dad got the job he would retire from, he still came home, loaded up the truck and roofed barns and houses. I respect my Dad too.

Ronna,
You should see the bundles now. They are about half of what they used to be.
Laughing, I have a couple of beds I ''hate'' right now!

Patti,
When we were kids, my two brothers and sister got to help Dad tar the firs station. We thought it was sooo cool to be on the roof. We just had to use a bucket of tar.

I just can't waste these perfect fall days. Except for walking thru spider webs, it's been a good fall so far. Luckily my cold is clearing up fast.

I still have tomatoes trying to ripen. The hot and green peppers are doing good. The tomatillos keep dropping. We even pulled two plants now and just have one left. My late planting of green beans is a success. I picked three quarts yesterday. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have enough to pressure can pints.

I'll be cutting plants back again. Naturally it uncovers all the weeds.....

Have a good Friday everyone.

Patti - Thanks for sharing that you forgot to take Tucker to the airport. We all get side tracked once in a while. At least the rest of the round trip was uneventful of mishaps. You asked a while back something to the effect of "Why all the canning?". I can because I enjoy growing veggies and I know what is in the can when I can it, and I grew up this way - living in the country where we could easily be snowed in for a week. Plus, it is always fun to share. Hope your company is having a great time while there. Enjoy!

I, too billyporte,r am still finding enough green beans to can. Yesterday I put up 5 qts and a couple pints - lost my pressure part way when I went to fix lunch and had to start the pressure over. Bummer.

Speaking of fall - I cannot believe how many leaves are falling in the yard. First picture was taken from the front porch this morn, and the second pix taken from the back deck. Trees are old hard maples. Lots of leaves though the trees are only slightly changing.

I've been junking and found some odd containers to plant hen & chicks in. Went to a Junkin Jamborie (or something like that). I thought this monkey (#3 photo) was adorable and the two brass swans (#4 on the floor) made for good potting containers for the hen & chicks. Of course none of the containers had drain holes, so DH took care of that issue with a diamond bit. A few weeks back, we were at an Ace Hardware and they had this brown bird bath with planting pockets. They had it on sale, and I thought "what a buy". Got it - the bowl is separate from the base. I have another on (the green one in pix 5) and it was lots more expensive than the brown one. Geesh - I did not realize, when I bought it, the brown one is completely open at the bottom. Probably wasn't as good of a buy as I had anticipated, but I made it work. Later in my running around, I found a bowl to use for the bottom to keep the dirt in. When I planted it and filled the base with dirt - I first put the base in the bowl on the caster base so I can move it around if need be on the deck. Anyhow I think it is going to work if the guinea will quit picking out the hen and chicks.

Time to go plant some peony that I purchased a couple days ago at a garden club plant sale and I should get those in the ground today - just in case it rains (that would make them happy). Then I have a whole list of other thing I should do, but I'm thinking of throwing the list in the trash and just doing whatever I reallllly want to do. Best I get busy.

EVERYBODY - HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Yeah, the backbone of America, the majority of laborers aren't union workers. They don't get paid real good, unless they work alot of hours, unfortunately. I don't complain, yeah it keeps money in the pocket and gas in the tank, not to mention hard work is good for the health. Ewww, roofing is a hard job for sure.

Dh's sister looks like a man! hehe!

I went to McDonalds yesterday and they were having a car show. I couldn't believe these 2 little kids were throwing rocks at the show, I had to get a pic, sorry. The medians are filled with those stones and they were just sitting there throwing them with show cars all around.

Will, another fine example of lack of respect for another person. Did those two kids not have parents? The older I get, the less tolerant I get. And, truthfully, the sadder I get it at the way things seem to be going.

My stepdad had antique cars. When I met Gene, he had Charlie Chaplin's touring car in his garage. Mom has a 1956 thunderbird sitting in the garage. The roof is a hardtop with little opera windows and the entire roof lifts off, if I remember right, turning it into a convertible. Out of all of his cars, I liked the DeLorean best. Everyone in the family drove it except me. I don't know what I was thinking, not taking advantage of the fact that it was sitting right there. His biggest pride was furnishing all of the cars for the movie The Untouchables. I think that's the name of the movie. I could be having a senior moment here. LOL I can't ask him because he passed away 2 1/2 years ago.

Brenda, looks like you had fun putting together your new planters and birdbath. I do understand why you can food. If the trucks stopped rolling, for any reason, I would be in dire straits, when it comes to food. I think what surprised me, Brenda, is the fact that you have so many beautiful flowers, I made an erroneous assumption, thinking the vast majority of your energy went into them.

Sally, I tried to find you on FB. I was unsuccessful. I love apple juice. Yum!

Amy and I are on different schedules and it's funny.
I have said time again that I am a night owl, and I am. She is set on an Oregon internal clock, Plus she's dealing with some emotionally stressful things. I normally go to sleep between one and three, and am waking up between 4 and 7 AM. Amy's going In to crash at around three and she's waking up at noon. Can you see where this is going? We can't even figure out when to eat breakfast! LOL

It is hard to believe we've been friends for 51 years. Her daughter, Rachel, was here day before yesterday. I have never seen Tucker get so excited over a human. I think he would've gone home with her and never looked back. Talk about a crush! He was practically doing somersaults! Rotfl

You guys are starting to winterize. I will probably start that next week sometime. We have had drizzling off and on all night. I want to open the windows, but it is to muggy.

I think I will try to sleep some more.
Patti

Brenda,
You and me both. I am so glad I like to can. My Mom canned green beans for a family of 6, to last all winter. That was hard work all by itself. She also did pickled beets, sweet and dill pickles in a crock, with the soaking and rinsing, etc. We went thru a lot of tomato juice. My favorite was using it for Swiss steak. She didn't add a lot of sugar so it was tangy.. I don't know how she did it all, all by herself.
Laughing in horror! Losing pressure is my biggest fear!!
Love the leaf fall :o) Our walnut drops early. One tree is almost bare, the other two are still full.
LOVE LOVE LOVE your containers!!!

Will,
I should have a picture some where of her dressed in men's clothes. It was hilarious! She even put on a mustache.
Wow, if I owned the closest cars, I would have gone over and asked them to stop throwing rocks!!

At my aunt's funeral I met the parents of my cousin's school friend. They love to garden and wanted to see my flower beds. Well, last week they were driving thru and stopped. They had tomatoes left and she canned some for her husband because she can't eat them. She said next trip thru she would bring me some. And she did. I finished cutting back my flowers, took a shower because I was itchy and DH and I started in on them. I had a bowl of not too ripe tomatoes in the fridge so I got them and the last few ripe ones out of the garden and canned 13 quart. I counted up the jars and in spite of having very few tomatoes this year I managed to get 40 quart since August. I canned almost every one we had. I can't wait till next year's garden!

Have a successful day!!

Good morning Patti!
I am less tolerant too. We're turning into crotchety old people, lol! But now I understand them :o)
How awesome to have a variety of neat old cars!
On FB I am Sally Mills Hazen. Find me or I'll look for you.
Rolling on the floor over your time differences! If you still have time to visit, so be it.
Aww, Tucker is so adorable.
We've been sleeping with windows open in spite of the high humidity. It dries during the day. I like to think it's drawing odors out and dissipating them :o)
I finally got myself back to my perfect sleep pattern. If I go to bed at 7:30 pm and get up at 3:00 or 3:30 am. I am in top form. I think I was born to be a farmer.

It is drizzly out there this morn. I could not see the water sprinkles on the pond, but could feel them on my face. It is supposed to be cool and cloud covered here today.

No one likes rock throwing, mean little kids. Not a pretty site! Can only imagine what is in store for their future if someone doesn't get them headed in the right direction.

WOW - billyp - You are getting your 8 hours of z's, but what keeps the phone from ringing from 7:30 to 9 p.m.? Also - if this is your perfect sleep pattern, what do you do from 3 a.m. to daybreak? I doubt you are milking cows..........or are you?

We have had this black vulture on our ponds island for the last 3 days. Strange! It just stands there in the edge of the water or on the bank. Sometimes it moves to the other side of the island. I decided I would give it a food offering this morn so I went to catch some fish. I had not been fishing in a long while - so long that there was a dirt dobber nest at the tip of one of the rod and reels. Gessh! I first tried a jig and low and behold I drug out a bass. That was fun! Well, bass was not what I wanted to feed the vulture, so I caught a grasshopper. No luck there at that spot. So, I went to another pond where the algea wasn't so bad and BOOM, I caught about a 3 pound bass this time. Well that was a keeper and not for the vulture. Caught more grasshoppers and caught another bass and 5 small redear (brim). So I ended up with food for the vulture and fish for the frig. Nice peaceful morning here - wish I was in the woods squirrel hunting - another day.

Yesterday I got busy and saved more zinnia seed, dug the calla lilies and saved 4 o'clock seeds - after deadheading some of the crepe myrtles, planting 4 peony bushes (in a row with other peony), I also transplanted some daylily which should make for a better show next summer. Patti - My strategy is that I can rest when I die or I'm no longer able - crochety I believe was the word. Real crochety - and I think I'm headed in that direction. HUM!

Love this weather - I can find all kinds of things to do. Enjoy!

Yeah, no respect from the kids. Their parents were probably looking at cars.
I don't what it is about little kids and throwing rocks. Years ago I was on my street almost home and a little kid, maybe 4, threw a rock at my car as I drove by. I never threw rocks when I was a kid, at least I don't remember throwing any!
On Facebook feel free to friend me too if you like, I'm Will Burccham.
Quite a storied collection of cars, Patti.
Hehe Sally.. I know you said dressed like a man, that's still funny! lol
Your quite the fisherwoman there, Brenda! Buzzards gotta eat too I suppose!

I was taking a photo of this vine that's growing like a house a fire on the arbor here.
I got the leaf photographed then I looked down and saw a new flower and it hit me "that's a Morning Glory vine"!". My mom was outside then and I said mom "look here a morning glory vine" and she had to spoil it for me and say it's a weed! - pics #1 then 2
I planted them from a seed packet, they sure grew fast and even flowered fast.
A Toad jumped out then and it appeared to be looking at my camera case. - pic #3

It is a weed unless you plant it in the middle of the yard where it can be contained. lol

I will have some of the philodren vine for you too. I'm just gonna wrap in in wet paper towels and a baggie for the RU. Everyone can take as much as they like because it's a big plant now. lol

Yeah, it's safe where it's at, now, its not safe from my mom..lol
I planted it from a big 2014 seed packet that also included Moonflower, Mina lobata, NASturtium Fordhook. Is philodendron vine hardy?

Brenda,
The phone? We get very few calls from family, and the rest, DH blocks. And they do call. Someone called at 8:30 pm the other night....
3:00 am to daybreak is my computer time. Then I'm not on till coffee after dinner. Then, usually not at all at night.
A black vulture. Our turkey vultures are gone now so we'll see more hawks. I don't know why, when the vultures come in the spring the hawks seem to disappear. We never used to have vultures, or pelicans.
AWESOME fishing!! Do you stock your ponds? Did he eat?
You have been busy too :o)
ROTFL!!! I'm starting to get a mental image of us crotchety people. Anyone else want to fess up?

Will,
It always seems to be the bratty kids. We actually call them rock throwers. It's a real thing if you can name it. I never threw rocks either.
It was funny to see her dressed up too. I think we laughed for 5 minutes!
I said morning glory before I even opened the picture :o)
Nice to see a toad! I have a big one hopping in the flower beds, but just one. It's not right to not have a few. We had so much water this year we should be swimming in toads and frogs, but we aren't.

Pepper,
Funny but true! Across the road we have the sky blue weedy ones. So beautiful, but such a mistake to plant them!

Will,
ROTFL over your Mom!!!
Philodendron are not hardy at all, but can be outside in the summer.

Yesterday, DH noticed our McAfee wasn't giving us updates. It used to twice a day. So he called. They used remote access to uninstall and reinstall a new one. Hopefully it will work right now. It's not cheap so we are watching it closer now.

I have enough green beans to can this morning. I also need to hang a load of laundry. Then I'm going to try and finish cutting back the flowers. I've got most of them done. Then I'll just have the asters and a few odds and ends.

I need rain again to dig the lilies and repot them into their own pots to be buried in. I did manage to tote the bags of dirt out I'll be mixing, lol!

Have a good Sunday!

Gas went down overnight to $1.99. Haven't seen it that low since I started driving.