Posted on 10/28/2023 7:31:21 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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y/v/w.............I miss it, too.
Thanks for the link to the balsamic. I’ll be making some of that for sure.
Some very nice spaghetti Squash!
The hoses are all disconnected & drained, the hummer feeders are inside, still need to pick peppers & bring the spaghetti squash inside the house. Anything that might have water in it is being emptied, like my watering cans. I checked the well house to make sure the vents were closed - the only time I have ever had frozen pipes was when a vent was left open on the side where the pipes are highest, coming from the tank to run to the house. The vents appeared 'closed' & just as I started to turn to walk away, a big gust of wind blew the closest vent open! The little latch on it was disengaged, which wasn't obvious at a glance. Both vents are now snugged down tight (other one was ok).
I will lose all my annuals tonight, which is very sad, but I am already planning new spots for them next year.
The house is starting to smell 'good' - I have a batch of chicken wings in the crockpot, trying a new recipe. Tonight could be the last World Series game (hope not) so while the wind blows cold outside, inside there will be good food & maybe a good game as well.
Qiviut; Nice peppers, and a great view from your front porch! (And its still autumn where you are!)
WOW! ‘Impressive Pepper Production’ - which is what we all hope to achieve in life. ;)
Remember that ‘Bonnie Brand’ Jalapeno I planted in a 5-gallon pot? I cut that thing off WEEKS ago and since we had a rather warmer-than-normal October, it STILL continued to grow leaves, bloomed and set one more pepper!
I, for one, WELCOME our new Pepper Overlords! ;)
What a great poem! I plan to ‘rest’ until next Spring, too! :)
It’s dual purpose. If I’m ever to get away from the more laborious chores at work, I need to learn electrical as it pertains to automation. I had always had it in my head to automate the sides on the high tunnel though because I KNOW that one day, I’d forget to open it up and would cook my veggie plants. I had no idea how I was going to do it. It was just happenstance that I got a job at a factory with lots of automation. So here I go learning a new trade at 58 years old.
We got our first frost last night and our first freeze. It was 33 this morning around 8:45 so I know it dipped below freezing around dawn. Looking out the windows & across the fields, the frost was heavy enough to look like a light snow on the ground.
The Giant Marconis I picked yesterday are going to the Fire Department up the road, about a mile. They are the ones who respond when we need help (like with dad Dec/Jan) so they are my favorite recipients when giving away garden produce & they love getting it, too. They got tomatoes, some peppers & spaghetti squash earlier in the summer. This time, I separated the larger peppers that are a better ‘stuffing’ size from the smaller ones & included a recipe I printed off the web for stuffed Marconis that can be grilled (they have one) or baked in the oven. I see the guys in the grocery store on occasion & I know they are good cooks .... one of them immediately knew what to do with the spaghetti squash! The smaller peppers can be chopped up, roasted, or even stuffed like jalapenos - the stuffing could be spiced up & wrapped in bacon as well, they would be “yum”!
When I took the ‘packaged’ peppers to the car (mom will deliver), I did so in a T-shirt/flip-flops. Brrrrr! It’s 46 on the thermometer, but feels like 38.
It’s supposed to be in the high 60’s over the weekend - we may be going to NC to see that elderly relative we visited in July - she’ll be 90 the 12th .... got to make sure to see family, especially the older ones, when there’s an opportunity.
First batch of ‘Fire Cider’ is done & in the fridge. It was supposed to steep for 2-3 weeks ... this was a 2 week + 1 day batch. We’ll see if there is a difference in batch strength when I process the 3 week stuff.
I was a little concerned it would be too ‘stinky’ to strain in the house, but once I got the liquid/solids separated & the solids dumped outside, the liquid was ‘aromatic’, but tolerable. You have to add 1/4 cup of raw honey to the final strained liquid & then I topped off my quart jar with more organic ACV (with ‘mother’ - Aldi’s has the best price on a quart).
I tried half a shot glass - not bad, actually. I was worried the horseradish would hit my sinuses, but the vinegar mellows it out a lot (I think I read that, too). So this is my new ‘tonic’ - I’ll probably do a whole shot glass once a day. If you get sick, I think it’s a tablespoon every hour or something like that. :-)
Yes, to the uninitiated, the mixture sounds as if the final product will taste awful, but you’ll be surprised at how the ingredients mellow as their flavors blend in the vinegar!
https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/fire-cider
https://www.almanac.com/how-make-fire-cider
We’re getting inundated with leaves which is expected since we’re basically in the forest. I broadcast a bed of leaf lettuce, mustard and other greens and the poor little things don’t even have true leaves yet and keep getting mulched with leaves that are blowing off the trees.
The mole came back and is burrowing around underneath them and something’s digging in there which is new. I’ve got chicken wire attached to the fence bottom so it’s a climber of some sort.
We’ve had 20-25 mph gusts for 2-3 weeks so Fall foliage is not going to be good this year. Leaves started turning colors and then the wind came and dried them out to brown and proceeded to blow them off the trees. Happens most years. Kinda sucks since it’s hill country and on the occasional good year, is gorgeous.
More wind today and tonight and then we get a break for the weekend so we’ll be raking our butts off and burning. One of these days I’ll get some sort of shredder/bagger and start making lots of leaf mold.
We’re back to 70s/50s and no real rain chance in the forecast so I’ll have to bring the drip/sprinkler system back out there. I had brought it in for the freeze we had. I bought some Senninger inverted micro-sprinklers so I might try them out. Inverted means they hang from above and my lean and lower trellises are still in place to hang them from.
Need a motion detector to turn them on when the digger shows up. LOL
A friend was at a craft show, fall bazaar, or something like that last year & bought me a 4 oz bottle of fire cider. When I got ‘the bug’ (yeah, THAT one) last month, I pulled out my little bottle that I’d been saving & started taking it. Couple of things:
It was spicy hot, but my whole being (physical & mental) had a ‘response’ to it. It tasted ‘good’ in a weird way - a wakeup from the spicy heat, but you get a feeling of overall well-being .... sort of like your body is saying ‘aaahhhh, that’s what I need’. Funny thing, back in ‘21, when I had an earlier, potentially more serious variant of THAT bug & I took IVM, I got a similar overall feeling of well-being.
My home brew fire cider tasted similar to the commercial one which is made small batch by a small company within driving distance, not some big manufacturer. I am happy with the result & will ‘tweak’ a bit more to my personal taste as I make future batches.
Cost savings - I went through that little 4 oz bottle in no time. Since I was currently sick, I did not have weeks/month to wait until my own would be ready, so I looked online to order more. I was shocked to find my little 4 oz bottle was $13 and a 16 oz bottle was $38 & prices for other brands were similar or higher ($45)!! Since I refused to pay that kind of money, I had to get through the rest of The Bug without fire cider, but I promptly set about to brew my own.
Since I plan to take it daily as a tonic, not just when ill, I made 2 quarts. The total cost was less than $20 for both quarts. I also included herbs from my medicinal herb garden which was seriously satisfying :-)
I get moles in the garden walkways & even in the raised beds! When I built the beds, I put down a landscape fabric weed barrier & the moles dig right through it - I have had some shreds of fabric coming out of mole holes. Somehow, I ended up with a decent number of earthworms in my raised beds & they are a favorite mole food, plus we have grubs in the yard, another attractant. Our yard is an ‘old country yard’ - mowing is the only care it gets so there are chickweeds, wild violets & other non-grass plants mixed in. We could do Milky Spore to reduce the grubs, but we don’t have that many tunnels & unless you step on one, they’re not that noticeable.
The worst damage to the garden was when my brother’s old Brittany checked out a raised bed (before the fencing was up for the season) & detected a mole. He was quite the mole hunter & he started digging. That bed was a 4’ x 8’ bed & I ended up having to repair almost half of it. He also liked the smell of organic fertilizer & would roll in it, crushing any small plants, so he was a reason, besides crows & deer, to have fencing. The old guy passed away last January, blind & deaf at the time. His nose still worked, so he could sniff out a mole up until probably his last month when he didn’t have the energy to do much running around.
We also get ground hogs periodically - this year, I shot one in the field & trapped another in the pole barn with some fresh figs so I think we are free of them at the present time. Fortunately, they have never gotten into the garden - they are good climbers & could go right over the fence. They would have torn the garden up big time. Some years back, one made it all the way from the barn in the back to the fig bush in the front field. That one also was climbing the redbud trees to eat their seeds! Hopefully, that’s not your digger, but I think you would have extensive damage if it was. Good luck figuring out your mystery digger garden menace!
*Excluding Short Diameter Models (what I have because I don't need 33 feet diameter)
Single row at 3 ft height - 4ft table & 3ft Spacing
I just ran one and it did bigger than 4 foot but I had it 5 foot off the ground hanging down a foot from my lean and lower trellis.
The little sucker put out a nice pattern once the air was purged and it got up to pressure. After I cut power to the pump, it continued to sprinkle for a good 30 seconds due to some pressure remaining. They recommend 20-30 psi and my regulator is 25psi so that's perfect.
They mention 3 foot spacing I bought six and that should be just right for the two 30" beds 9-10 foot long. I can hang three from each mater trellis. .
The trick will be to attach the 1/2" mainline to the trellis. It's not super flexible and came in a coil and still wants to coil. It also wants to spin as you handle it. The mainline I used for drip doesn't have holes in a straight line down the tubing. Some are rotated from others. I have about 25 foot with no holes punched yet. Just need to pick up a few barbed fittings to add it to my existing mainline.
Large cable ties to attach mainline to trellises and a few barbed fittings. Punch holes in mainline after it's secure. Hang sprinklers in holes.
Once the lettuce/greens are bigger, I could swap to drip but being on the ground, I would disturb the plants anytime I try to drain the line and/or bring it inside for freezes. I really don't know how they handle freezes but don't want to find out they split.
The little sprinkler heads will drain on their own and they even make anti-drip valves for them to prevent dripping/draining when there's no pressure. The mainline going to pump unscrews and can be laid over, downhill to drain. I'm just going to leave the drip part of the system out for now. I'm just trying to prevent the very top from drying out from these winds we've had for weeks. The little sprouts don't even have true leaves yet.
I'll get the overhead sprinklers put up today, go to the hardware store tomorrow AM for fittings to make a couple last connections, sprinkle some wood ash on to bump up the pH and water it in.
Today, put new gas tank on splitter, clean rust out of carb and get it running. Cut some logs into stove size. Cut a few standing dead trees down and haul them up. Go get water, maybe two trips and fill one of the new IBC tanks. Or at least as much of that has I can. Standing dead trees can wait. It's windy today anyway and will be safer tomorrow.
The boy is going to be raking and burning for two days. Only about half the leaves are down but there's plenty to get rid off and I always have to do it in 2-3 sessions.
Sitting on the front porch on a rocking chair, waiting for sunset in 27 minutes - it’s a very nice 74°.
Earlier today, mom & I went to an orchard about an hour away. It’s on top of a mountain, so there are views. This is a very popular place - you can get food (there was a food truck on premises, too) & they have a pretty large country store. You can pick your own apples or buy prepicked. I bought a peck of Weinsaps for Apple Maple Jam - a peck should make a batch with a few left over for eating.
Prices: peck of apples (about 10 lbs) was $21 (a couple of sweet varieties/crosses were $30/peck). A large apple cider cookie was $4, a whole apple pie was $18 & a half was $10!
Earlier this year, we went to an orchard in the Shenandoah Valley, 2-2.5 hours away. It is not as ‘commercial’ & you can pick your own or buy apples already picked. They have a few other items for sale, like apple butter, made by a local church. I think we paid $14 for a peck of Gala apples. Now that I know about/found the Valley orchard & how it compares with the one we visited today, we need to visit the Valley earlier in the season & combine the trip with seeing relatives in the area.
On the way home, the outside thermometer on the truck was reading 82! Tomorrow should be cooler, around 66, then low 80’s Thursday & cooler with maybe some rain Friday. There is a forest fire that’s been burning a good while near my niece & into Shenandoah National Park, so some rain there would be helpful.
Good day - nice to get away from the house. The trees were well past peak, but enough deep gold & burgundy to make for scenic driving.
So glad you had a good time at the orchard! I love visiting ours, even if I have six apple trees. I’m no good at making cider donuts, which we all love and the cider, of course, and there is a woman (GalPaca Farm) that sells her ‘lotion bars’ which are made from EVOO, Coconut oil, Shea Butter, Beeswax and Vitamin E and I use them all year round on my hands after a long day in the garden and in the winter months, too. They smell heavenly and really work well.
“...but enough deep gold & burgundy to make for scenic driving.”
We are at that point, too. Gold and Burgundy from the Oaks and then add in a lot of Evergreen trees and the white trunks and branches of Birch and Poplar and it’s still very pretty. :)
As of dark today, my new leaf bin is full - I’d do a ‘happy dance’, but I’m too tired. We have 8 maples around the driveway and all but one are mostly bare. I have raked the leaves under those 7, so the ground will stay mostly clear. The 8th maple will be dropping major leaves until December & we have an old sunken lane next to the neighbor’s that we are filling with leaves, so that’s where those leaves will go. There are still plenty of leaves blowing around that will get chopped up by the mower & disappear into the grass.
Tomorrow will still be good weather & it’s a travel day. We are meeting a friend of mom’s for lunch about 2 hours from home. It’s 30 minutes past where I have to pick up my half hog. We will swing by & get the hog on the way home - I loaded coolers in the PU earlier today so I’m ready to roll in the morning & the freezer is organized with what I think is plenty of space for the fresh pork. :-)
This week is going by fast!
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