The Garden Thread - October, 2024

October 1, 2024 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.

This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to/removed from our New & Improved Ping List.

NOTE: This is a once a MONTH Ping List, but we DO post to the thread all throughout the month. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest to Gardeners are welcomed any time!

[MomwithHope]

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[Qiviut]

I don’t start worrying much unless it’s ‘general anesthesia’ & that should not be you!

You’d be ok posting gross/gruesome pics ... it will be Halloween, you know!

Seriously, prayers that all goes well & I know Beau will keep an eye on things, too. Let us know (when you can) that you’re ok.

~Q

[MomwithHope]

Many prayers up for you! 🦾🙏🙏🙏

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Diana, keeping you in mind and in prayers for your Minor surgery tomorrow!

(Of course, Beau needs to take you to a good restaurant in Madison after the surgery!)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"Woke up at 3"

Qiviut, hopefully anticipation of a another beautiful sunrise in your new idyllic surroundings!

It always took me a while to get used to the sounds of a new house at night, wind across a roof, the sound of the furnace going on, creaks in the walls or floors as it changes from day to night and gets colder.

[Pollard]

Did some techie stuff today. Swapped the Tunnel Mini PC with my rugged tablet. The rugged tablet is now in the shed and for the tunnel and the Mini PC is now a web server.

It’s running fresh installations of nextcloud and wordpress that are both accessible via the web via an unused domain name of mine. NextCloud works a lot faster that the one with my prepper/gardening cloud that I pay hosting for but it’s really cheap hosting. I prefer free and faster.

[Liz]

Smoked Salmon Pinwheels
Great no-cook do-ahead for those homemade tortillas while you convalesce.

Ing 8 oz bar cr/cheese, 1 tbl chp fresh dill or tsp dried 4-8" flour tortillas 4 ½ oz sliced smoked salmon, finely chopped 16 fresh spinach leaves 16 (1/4 inch x 3 inch) strips red bell pepper

Directions Mix cream cheese and dill. Spread about 1/4 cup mixture onto each tortilla. Sprinkle each w/ 1/4 cup salmon. Arrange 3-4 spinach leaves and 4 red bell pepper strips over. Roll tortilla tightly and wrap securely in saran; refrigerate 2-24 hours. Remove from wrap; cut rolls into 1-inch pieces.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Not deep enough for MOHS, thank goodness! Just a few stitches she said. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“It always took me a while to get used to the sounds of a new house at night...”

My BFF when she stays over: “It’s so QUIET out here, I can’t SLEEP!”

Silly City Girl! ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

If you don't have these at your gathering, you're not really from Wisconsin. 'Lutheran Sushi.' (Dill Pickles, Cream Cheese, Ham.)

https://matadornetwork.com/read/pickle-roll-ups-another-genius-culinary-innovation-midwest/

[Qiviut]

I’ve been spending nights here since February when bringing loads of stuff from the old house. I was staying 5, 7, 10 days at a time depending on what contractors I had to deal with, deliveries, mowing, etc. I heard lots of strange stuff to begin with (fridge, heat pump, some creaks, birds pecking on house, etc.). I’m totally adjusted ... mom can’t hear anything much without her hearing aids, so nothing is bothering her!

I’m so exhausted by say 8 pm, I fall asleep (knitting, listening to podcasts, etc.) & generally crawl into bed around 11. Typically, I wake up between 3 & 4. I have so much stuff to do around here, it starts running around in my head - if I can’t fall asleep right away, I get up instead of tossing/turning for hours. Those early hours turn out to be pretty productive, actually.

My alarm, if I do manage to sleep through, is set for before sunrise ... I love that time of morning & it’s so beautiful here with the mountains, fog off the river some mornings, etc. The sun rise is visible from the kitchen & bay window eating area so it’s a great way to start the day. Sunsets over the mountain/gap to the west so far haven’t been as great as I thought they would be, but lately they’ve been picking up in color. Interestingly, during sunset, the light glows pink off the mountains to the east (we’re between 2 ranges) - very pretty!

[FamiliarFace]

I have a sound machine for our guests to use while they’re here. I take one when I travel, too, so I don’t have to listen to city noises. It’s very compact with lots of choices.

Magicteam Sound Machines White... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RWRJ4XW?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[FamiliarFace]

Wondering how you’re doing.

In crazy fall weather news, I recently realized that our lilac shrub is blooming again! Few leaves but lots of very pretty blossoms! When I walk in the neighborhood, I see irises in full bloom too! What strange things to see in full on autumn!

[Pollard]

Butterfly farming! Butterfly farming? Wow man.

Talk about information overload!

Butterflies are caterpillars at one stage of their life. You can have 'em.

I got a home web server up and running with NextCloud and my files are syncing now. I plan to grab a lot of stuff from Journey to Forever, Appropedia and CD3WD to add to my cloud files. Once done, I'll update all the links on my profile page.

My cloud is currently 2.4 gb, 1215 files in 44 folder/subfolders. It needs a little more organizing. That will probably end up around 10 gb and several thousand files when it's all said and done. That will be information overload.

Self hosting with a PC that has 250 gb is quite an upgrade from my 20 gb paid plan. It expires in March and I won't be renewing.

There's a tool, scan.nextcloud.com for checking the installation. My new cloud scored an A. The old one an F. The old nexctloud needed an update but I couldn't do it because the paid hosting server needed updates which is out of my control. The PDF viewer has been broken for a year so I ended up disabling it so that pdf files would just open in a new tab for the browser to display them. Pdf viewer on the new install works just fine.

I set up the server the easy way using FreedomBox. It handles the server configurations and gives me a web page to manage things. Below are the apps installed.

Right now, the root or home page of the domain, example.com, takes me to the above page but I'm going to make WordPress the home page. I'll still be able to access the above page at example.com/plinth. Nextcloud is already at example.com/nextcloud so that can stay the same.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’m so glad you’ve landed in such a beautiful spot! At first I had a VERY hard time leaving my little farm, but now this place (8 years in) finally FEELS like home. I have some gorgeous views too, that I wouldn’t trade for the world. And the change of seasons i really magical, for the most part!

And you know what? The CHORES will NEVER be done and projects will ALWAYS have ANOTHER project waiting behind the current one. Pace yourself, Girl!

I STILL don’t have my @#$%^! pantry painted, there are walls upstairs that need patching due to water damage before we got the new roof finished. I HATE the carpeting in all the rooms upstairs, the hallway and the stairway and at the advice of my Local Appliance Guy I won’t be getting a stackable washer and a laundry tub in my laundry room - but life goes on. And I got a new Speed Queen washer that I just love, so there’s also that. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I will check that out; I’ll bet it’s very soothing. I might actually like that for myself!

I don’t want guests getting TOO comfortable, you know? ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Well, looks like you’re stuck with me for a while yet.

A 1.5 hour procedure turned into a 3 hour procedure due to three things: there was more cancer in there than they thought, so the ‘margins’ needed to be cut larger. Secondly, there’s not much skin to work with on that part of your neck, so they had to cut more than they were planning. I have a ‘T’ scar that’s going to be just lovely once it’s healed. And lastly, the young woman (I’m not old - the Doctors are so YOUNG these days) operating on me was previously a Plastic Surgeon, fixing up people injured/disfigured in battle, so I had one HELL of a great lady working on me. She. Was. Meticulous.

And, as always, they’re training another nurse/intern who has never done this procedure before so it goes a little more slowly. I don’t mind being a Guinea Pig.

The REAL Doctor, their Big Boss, checked in on things every 15 minutes or so. When we were hitting the three hour mark I asked him to tell Beau I was OK and why things were taking longer than anticipated. He was grateful for that - he’s the kind of person that might go all, ‘Shirley MacLaine’ on the doctors, as in the movie ‘Terms of Endearment’ when the daughter doesn’t get her pain meds on time, LOL!

While I was still numbed-up we were able to have a nice lunch at Buck & Honey’s on the way home, then when I got home I slept for a solid two hours - the whole day was pretty exhausting.

The wound is NOT bleeding, so that’s a very good thing. It’s starting to hurt now, so I just took some OTC meds that they recommended. I have to stay bandaged up for 24 hours, then need to keep Vaseline on the wound at all times, no heavy lifting, no bending over, and I’m to pretty much take it easy for 10-14 days. I CAN DO THAT! Follow up appointment in 6 months unless something else crops up.

Thanks for your well wishes and prayers. I’m a pretty quick healer, and from the pictures I’ve seen, things look stitched up nicely back there, though my sister is calling me ‘Zipper Neck’ today in honor of Halloween.

[MomwithHope]

Thank for the good update. Good luck on taking it easy, the las 3 weeks have been terrible not being able to do much of anything. Finally getting around better. You can always leave the heavy chores to Beau and you can cook and bake up a storm.

[Pollard]

Good to hear

[FamiliarFace]

Thanks for the update. I’m glad it went well, even if longer than you thought. I love some when some people are meticulous at their jobs. It shows they take pride in their work and their skills.

Trick or treaters are gone for the night. Lots of great costumes and the kids were very well behaved. I have taken to asking them about their costumes because I’m not up on the latest fads by any stretch. Lots of kids dressed as characters from video games and movies I’ve never heard of.

We also had friends pop in unexpectedly and that was TERRIFIC!! They had eaten dinner out and our house is about half way to their house. So they sat with us handing out candy until it started raining and then we came inside and had adult beverages. Fun chatting to catch up with them. I love when we can be spontaneous like that!

Happy Halloween, everyone!