I think I am finally adjusting to Fall this year, now that we’ve had the sub freezing temps and it’s killed off most everything but the hardiest plants. I have one purple and white verbena that is still blooming. It’s an annual type, but the leaves are still green, and not withering. I halfway want to bring it inside and see if it can overwinter. I haven’t set up my grow lights yet, so it will just depend. Plus, it may succumb soon. It’s been a nice friend to have perched on my deck.
Yesterday turned into a gardening day in the late afternoon - yay! Temps were ‘mild’ & the wind wasn’t beating us to death.
Mom got the back yard raked, the biggest job being getting the leaves out from the various bushes & plants. The trees in the backyard are bare so this should be the last leaf maintenance necessary.
I checked the truck, hooked up to the battery minder I found in the garage at our previous home - all lights are green. Next was taking a good look at the battery in Little Red & what it will take to remove it. It doesn’t look easy so I saved that for a day with more ‘project’ time.
In the shop, I moved all liquids I didn’t want to freeze into the bathroom where we have to keep a small space heater to protect the water pipes.
All the newly planted bushes needed watering. The hoses are drained & put up which made getting water from the outside faucets more difficult as they are very low to the ground. I had to fill a smaller container that would fit under the faucet & dump it into my gallon containers. The boxwoods, helleborus, Rose of Sharons & lilac were all watered (16 bushes/plants).
Next was cleaning the zinnia beds. The birds have picked all the seeds out of what was in the garden & I left the plants just for them. I had already cut blooms & saved a lot of seeds. The big surprise was that I had a calendula blooming. I tried to grow them all summer with no success & figured the 3 I had on the end of one zinnia bed were dead. We have had at least 2 nights in the 20’s and another at 31, but the flowering plant looks great. Our forsythia has been blooming the last 2 weeks as well despite the frigid weather - it must be a bit confused.
Cow Chronicles: no babies yet & they’re getting checked twice a day now.
Wildlife Watch: Thursday morning a very skinny, small fox trotted across the yard & through the woven wire fence toward the Cow Palace. I suspect there are plenty of mice around due to the hay & grain for the cows. Hunting season is in - while working on the zinnia beds, there was a shot behind our place, fairly close by. The shot was followed by another maybe 5 minutes later. I believe yesterday was the last day of muzzle loader season & today starts rifle/shotgun season.
I may go to my favorite orchard today for some late season apples. It’s cloudy & mild & the patio is wet from a stray shower. I planned to chop some leaves in the front yard today with Clyde, but wet clingy leaves aren’t the best scenario for that job so a drive in the countryside for apples is much more appealing! 🍎
We’re looking at a mild, sunny week so there’s still time to get outdoor stuff done.
The dogs were not pleased by all of the ruckus caused by the roof replacement. Booger spent the better part of Thursday and Friday looking at me from under my desk.
Howard isn't exactly house safe yet so he spends most of his daytime hours in his dog yard. He was equally unimpressed by all of the noise and commotion. He's also VERY unimpressed with deer season going on and not being allowed much freedom over the weekend. His energy level has made teevee time a bit of a wrassling match the last couple evenings. lol
Turns out Pops fractured a bone in his left shoulder when he fell two Fridays ago. ER Radiologist missed it, but his ortho guy didn't. It doesn't require surgery, but he'll have to keep that arm in a sling for a few weeks, and they're pushing the replacement of his other shoulder joint back a month to allow time for this injury to heal.
His Holter monitor came off last Thursday and was turned in to the cardiologist. It can take up to six weeks to get the results back, but his doc is hopeful that it will have some good data so they can get a treatment plan in place to combat the dizzy/pass out spells that he's been having. Speculation is that a pacemaker implant will do the trick but the Holter data is needed before a final determination can be made on that.
Deer season opened on Saturday. Mrs. Augie saw a few in spite of the unfavorable weather conditions. None of them were up to her standards so they all got to walk. Same result for my buddy Nick. Same result for the neighbors hunting across the fence. The weather guessers are saying it's going to cool off with a decent chance for rainfall over the next couple days so hopefully that will get the vermin moving around again.
I got a good bit of cleanup work done in the kitchen garden over the weekend. Tomato and pepper cages have been stripped of dead plant material and moved aside. Still need to store them for the winter. Most of the weeds have been knocked down and burned off. All of the t-posts that held up the tomato cages and cucumber fence need to be pulled up and stored. The ground is way too hard to pull them by hand so I'll have to get a tractor out for that job. Soon as those posts are out of the way I'll run over it with the tiller then add six-ish inches of composted stall waste on top and that spot will be ready for spring.
Spinach crop is doing well in the greenhouse. The turnip/rutabaga planting in the raised beds are doing very well, and I noticed the garlic is starting to peek out of it's compost blanket. I still haven't gotten my lettuce planted out there. Probably too late to start it now but I'm going to do it anyway. Maybe. If I have time.