Posted on 10/23/2021 6:18:54 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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“So all the ‘dire’ predictions didn’t happen.”
My Weather-Dorks did that to me ALL SUMMER LONG! Grrrr!
Glad that it came to nothing for us both. :)
I have a couple of days this week that look perfect for more bulb-planting (Garlic is IN!) and bed clean up. I’m going to make an attempt, at least - I have tomato plants that grew to the size of ‘Audrey’ in ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ so I can relate to your having to chop them into pieces to remove them.
Beau measured ONE branch and it was 10’ long from the main stem!
The regular Celebrities were not hard to pull up & they were huge this year. The cherry tomatoes were another story ... they tried to take over the garden. By the time I finished lopping & was left with the ‘main’ stems, with just some thick branch stubs left, I figured I could get them out of the ground. Nope - ended up with a pick mattock, partially chopping them out to at least below ground level. The main roots are still in about 6-8” down ... they’ll rot out by next year, but boy were those plants anchored in the ground!
I have two flower beds & one veggie bed to go. I have zinnias in one flower bed and marigolds in the other. I’m leaving the flowers (only a few zinnias, two huge bunches of marigolds) for the birds & bees, occasionally a small butterfly. The bees are getting really lethargic ... in the evenings, I’ll find them hanging out on marigolds, barely moving - if you stroke them with a grass blade, you can see them move a bit.
In the veggie bed, all that is left are two bell pepper plants. After a slow start, they’re now loaded. I’m picking peppers as they get large enough to be worth eating. Some branches are heavy enough with peppers that they’ve broken off. I figure in another week, I’ll be clearing out the rest of the beds. In the meanwhile, since I can’t spread compost and I need an empty bin, I think I’ll dig out the rest on a tarp out of the way. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to talk my brother into bringing his mower with grass bins up here to run around the maples - that would not only chop up the leaves, but get some grass in with them, which would help heat up the compost pile, at least initially. It would also save me a lot of raking. He ‘owes’ me after last weekend dog/chicken sitting .... but then it’s deer hunting season so you know how getting mower time from him is likely to go. :-)
I scored on some gardening stuff at Wal-Mart and Home Depot the other day.
They have a lot of their fertilizers and insect control stuff marked nicely down. I guess they are clearing out their shelves of inventory.
The best deal was a small bottle of liquid copper sulfate fungicide that makes 48 gallons regularly about $10 marked down to $1. I bought a bunch.
So people may want to check out the gardening sections of stores for good deals on supplies.
I had to search for the gardening stuff.
It was tucked away in a back corner of the garden section, now the Christmas section.
I’m near a different Wal-Mart now so will check that one tomorrow, too.
Diana’s Apple Cider Oatmeal Muffins
2 cups Oatmeal (dry)
2 cups Apple Cider
1 cup Apple Sauce
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 cups Flour
1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice/Cake Spice
Soak oatmeal in cider for about 15 minutes. Add Apple Sauce and combine. Combine all dry ingredients and sift/stir together to blend. Add wet ingredients to dry. Stir just to combine, a few lumps are OK. Grease or spray muffin tins. (Cupcake liners don’t work well with this recipe.) Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes until lightly browned. Makes 18 muffins. (They freeze well.)
Since these don’t have additional sugar in them (other than what is in the cider) slather them with Apple Butter or your favorite jam.
.......yumyumyumyumyum.........
The yummy muffins have only the sweetness of the cider.
I’m thinking of a Maple Butter Glaze.........
ooh, chills!
Nice!
What a gorgeous Fall day today. Blue, blue, blue sky .... not.a.single.cloud .... all afternoon! I had to go somewhere & even on the bridge over the interstate, where you are up fairly high & have an unobstructed view far to the west ... not one single cloud! It was remarkable.
No one does ‘color’ like Nature ... bluest sky, gold/red leaves ...
Rain due in tomorrow with “buckets” expected Friday so we’ll be doing ‘shades of gray’ for a couple of days.
Excellent add with the Maple Glaze! The muffins are really good. Filling with all that oatmeal in them, too. One for breakfast or a mid-afternoon snack really fills you up. :)
Blue Fall skies are definitely their own particular shade - and always SO intense!
It’s almost as if the entire PLANET were designed and made for our Mortal Pleasure. ;)
https://growagoodlife.com/prepare-vegetable-garden-winter/?fbclid=IwAR2fbD1x3efTIEGokfEuba5xYJwb793AhVVIoxKdfKPx8_9naCc7eIFj09c
Love all the ing.....perfect b/fast treat.
Why does the first chill of the season feel so cold?
After months of soaking up sun rays and summer temperatures, it can be shocking to step outside in relatively chilly weather and realize that you need to go back inside to grab a jacket. It can be even more shocking when you pull out your phone to check the weather and realize that the weather that seems so winterlike is much warmer than you thought, something that parts of the Northeast experienced just after the middle of October when a cold front blew through the region, bringing a brief end to a stretch of unseasonably warm weather.
Despite 50 degrees being, well, 50 degrees no matter what season it is, a 50-degree day in the fall feels much chillier than a 50-degree day in the spring. So, why is the temperature such a relative feeling? Why does the first fall-like day of the year feel so cold?
As it turns out, there is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon.
Unlike that of any other animals, humans’ skin responds quickly and accurately to both hot and cold temperature changes. Tiny vessels called arterioles dilate or constrict to help dissipate heat or conserve it. These mechanisms allow humans to achieve precise internal temperature control, Penn State News reported.
“It’s a uniquely human system,” said Penn State physiologist Larry Kenney, who has been studying how the human body regulates temperature since the early 1980s.
More at link...
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