The Garden Thread - November, 2025

November 1, 2025 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[FamiliarFace]

The wind today was BITING! I’m kinda glad to hear you thought it felt cold, not because I want you to be cold, but because I am such a WIMP, and often I don’t even want to go outside when it’s like this. It will take me a few more weeks of 30’s and below to start to adjust. Then I’ll complain when it gets into the teens. When it gets to the zeroes and below, I have a really hard time about even going outside. Usually that only lasts for a week or ten days. These are the times when my Florida upbringing does not help me. It’s not SUNNY enough here!

[FamiliarFace]

Now they call it “climate change”, Diana!

Climate change, where change is the constant in the equation!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Solar storm that may affect power grids in northern tier states. Probable aurora. (Had them here in KC at about 8:47 but I did not see them.)

Power Grid Warning issued Solar storm

[Qiviut]

First of all, it IS colder here farther west & living at the foot of the mountains. In general, it seems spring is about a month later & fall a month earlier than at our previous home. Additionally, it is MUCH windier. The house is on a knoll so we catch any winds & winds are 5-10mph most days. Last week, gusts were 20-30 with some as high as 50+ mph. Leaves were flying, all mom’s decorative stuff on the porch & patio was knocked over, & some empty plastic pots from bushes I planted got blown out of the barn & I had to chase them across the yard! We even lost a small piece of siding trim off the peak of the roof.

Last week was not that bitter cold, but this week, when you don’t get out of the 30’s & that wind is blowing, then you get the wind chill factor. At our previous home, I could make it all winter with my outer layer a Columbia fleece jacket (a Goodwill find, BTW - I love that jacket!). That jacket isn’t enough here with the wind & colder temps so I had to buy a heavy duty ‘work’ coat at the Farm Bureau last winter. It’s still pretty ‘stiff’ so it’s going to take some washing & wearing to ‘break it in’. I have never had a coat that needed breaking in, but it sure felt good pumping gas yesterday with the wind howling across the parking lot!

Yesterday, I kept putting off going to the store because I just did not want to go out in the wind & cold. I finally went about 3:00. Sunset is a few minutes after 5 & as soon as the sun gets low, the temperature noticeably drops - I got home before that happened. “Warmer” temps will be here the rest of the week after our frigid cold snap with nights in the 30’s & days in the mid to upper 50’s which is almost balmy LOL. At the moment (7 AM) it’s “only” 34° instead of in the 20’s, but it feels like 28 with the wind chill .... brrrr!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks, Pete! If so, that would explain the hinkey electrical problems I’ve had this past week!

Three small lamps in the house would flicker, as well as a night light in my bedroom. A plugged in clock radio in the Family Room kept turning off then flashing 12:00. The furnace would kick on, then kick off - with the flickering lights! I set it low, so it usually doesn’t kick in until the wee hours, and it was doing it at 4am. Partial power is out in the barn. The main lighting works, but the chicken coop and Stew’s luxury accommodations have no lighting.

I thought it was a loose wire due to all the wind we’ve had, blowing back in some warmth!

This morning, everything seems to be OK. I’ll wait before I call the power company - which I was going to do first thing.

[Paul R.]

No problems like that here! Well, one, actually. the thermostat in a quartz space heater in the otherwise unheated part of my shop had gone “intermittent” even with the thermostat set at the top of its range. The power cord and plug seemed fine, so, I unplugged the heater, pulled the cover off, and discovered a push-on connector to the thermostat not tight to the spade lug it pushes on to. That had cause arcing, damage to the connector and lug, and a poor connection.

I pulled the connector off, cut it off the wire, stripped the end of the wire, and removed the oxide from the stripped end of the wire. (Kinda tedious to do right, with finely stranded wire.) Then I scraped down to bare metal on the lug (harder to do, mostly because it was hard to access that part of the thermostat, and the thermostat knob refused to come off, so I couldn’t pull the thermostat out.) Then I passed the stripped end of the wire through the hole in the middle of the lug, gave that one “wrap”, and soldered the wire to the lug. Test @ both low power and hi power: Worked great. I checked all the other push-on connectors in the heater: None showed signs of arcing, but, I tightened up a few that seemed slightly loose, then reassembled everything & put the heater back in place.

I mention this because those darn push on connectors often get loose with time and thermal cycling. I guess they are used so whatever they are attached to can be replaced easily (if the dang knob will come off, in this case!) but my experience is that they are a frequent source of trouble in various types of equipment, especially if subject to thermal cycling and / or vibration, and if the female connector’s material(s) is(are) suspect.

As for wind, the nuts (mostly hickory and some walnuts) and a few small branches coming down yesterday were... “nuts!”

At least it’s bringing in warmer temperatures. We’ll go from 20 deg. F below normal to 20 deg. F above normal. :-)

[Paul R.]

I wonder if that would keep cats out of certain spots?

For the opposite, attracting them to certain spots, I tried getting catnip going this summer. It grew ok (in a “cage”) but never flowered / went to seed, so, I’m going to try to overwinter a couple plants “caged”.

[Paul R.]

Part of it is the breeding. One year, Rural mixed up some broiler breed with other chicks, and we ended up with a broiler hen. I called her “Big Girl”. She was huge - about 11 lbs. just before she died (early, at only 2 y/o.) Her eggs were infrequent, but many were well over 3 oz.

The bad thing was that B4 I realized the potential problem, as a chick she trampled a couple other chicks to death. :-(

[Liz]

PEANUT BUTTER BON BONS / makes a lot for little work
Store in fridge or at room temp. Makes a nice gift.

Ing 1 1/2 c creamy p/butter 3/4 c butter, 1 tbl vanilla 1 can sweetened condensed milk 1/2 tsp salt
2-1 lb ea boxes conf 6-1 oz ea chocolate sqs, melted, or choc/chips -or- use melted white chocolate.

Method Beat p/butter, butter, vanilla, salt fluffy. Slowly beat in condensed milk then conf til smooth. Shape inch balls; chill. Dip in melted chocolate w/ toothpick. Let set on wax papered sheetpan.

[Qiviut]

“Weather” ... we talk about it all the time on the Garden Thread. Personally, I don’t buy into ‘climate change, global warming’ & all of that stuff .... it’s “weather”. The earth has had warm spells and ice ages in cycles long before someone(s) figured out they could make a LOT of money scaring the crap out of people with ‘climate change’. People, plants & animals generally do quite well in warmer climes, but when it’s too cold, plants don’t grow & animals/people don’t have enough to eat. It’s hard staying warm & people freeze to death without fuel for fires/heat.

That being said, there was a thread on FR yesterday that was of great interest to me because back in the late nineties ... 1997 to be exact, a book came out by an author named Robert Felix & the book is “Not by Fire but by Ice: Discover What Killed the Dinosaurs...and Why It Could Soon Kill Us”. The post yesterday is “Climate scientists’ controversial claim Gulf Stream could be near collapse — predicting a new ice age” & here’s the link: https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4352216/posts

Felix’s book left a lasting impression on me - I remember it to this day & it’s interesting that ‘climate scientists’ are now coming around to consider his original theory.

I posted on that thread about the 1997 Felix book & there were two replies to my post (to see originals, see’view replies’ on my post https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4352216/posts?page=8#8) - one was “I have a signed copy. A very interesting read, with actual citations and repeatable facts, unlike 95% of what’s out there right now.”

The other was by someone who “talked with Robert almost daily on his web blog “Ice Age Now” before he passed” and he gave a link to Felix’s site “with with all his years of news, updates, data, and charts if anyone is interested.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20180828070011/https://www.iceagenow.info/

So, if you’re interested too, there’s plenty for deep diving.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Interesting. Thanks! And I’ll pass that on, too.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Don't be fooled! Those canned 'Yams' you see in the grocery store? They're really Sweet Potatoes! They must be able to get away with the false advertising much like the, 'Tomatoes are really a FRUIT' ploy. ;)

[Qiviut]

So I did my Thanksgiving feast shopping list today.

What works for me (& I have been doing this for years when I do big meals and/or multiple dishes) is to sit down with my recipes & put the ingredients on a spreadsheet. The first column is in general, where to find the ingredient - for example, eggs, butter, milk, cheese, sour cream are going to be 'dairy'. Flour, sugar, etc. are 'bake' for baking supplies. The second column is the ingredient & how much is needed. The third column is the recipe name.

Once all are on the spreadsheet, I sort first by location (Col A), then by ingredient (Col B) - both are sorted alphabetically. That should give me an ingredient like butter, eggs, brown sugar etc. all together. I then manually calculate the total of each ingredient & write it in.

Whew! This is what it looks like (a bit messy, not perfect but it's a working document):

The list is a page & a half. For the most part, it takes me to different sections of the store, like the dairy area, just once. This makes for pretty speedy, efficient shopping.

During my working days, I used spreadsheets a lot, both manual ones & on the computer. My old HP is about to kick the bucket so I used mom's Chrome Book - had to figure out the sort function, but it's fairly easy so I was able to end up with my list. :-)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thursday’s Chores include, but are not limited to:

Cleaning Houseplants (Some need haircuts, some need to go to the compost!)

Clean out potato basket and add MORE potatoes that kind Neighbor Nick gave me!

I moved the two Rosemary plants to the greenhouse, and they seemed to have survived the 19 degree weather we had last week. I am going to clip some for cooking, and clip a LOT to keep fresh in water and use them as little ‘wreathes’ on Christmas packages this year. On brown craft paper, it will look so cute - pretty white ribbon bows, too. Of course, ones that root well between now and then will go in little starter pots under lights until seed starting time.

Freshen a bouquet of fall flowers (all kinds of Mums!) that I found at Walmart earlier in the week. I have two many crammed in there so will make a few arrangements with them and clipped tree branches (mostly Oak) that still have leaves.

Dump my porch fern - that did NO survive the 19 degree weather, LOL!

Put out my hanging suet logs and get ready for the Woodpecker onslaught. Re-arrange other bird feeders and set up my Bird Feeding Station by the kitchen porch window. The small songbirds just LOVE that and it’s fun watching them up close.

Make Beef Vegetable Soup. (Real beef, not bear, LOL!)

Beau & Jeff are on their way back from CO. Jeff got a VERY nice buck - they could’ve stayed longer and tried for a MAGNIFICENT one, but they were both tired and tired of a week spent in the woods. They should be home Friday afternoon - will drive all day today, stay over with their ‘other wives & famlies’ in Iowa, then be home Friday afternoon. Works out great, as I’ll be with the BFFs on Friday, ‘doing lunch’ and Christmas shopping and he can take over the animal chores for me. Score! :)

Got my diagnosis back from the VA on my bone scam. It’s official! I’m OLD! I have Osteopenia, which is less than Osteoperosis, but still needs some tending to. My bones don’t have the mineral strength that they used to. I am in no danger of fall fractures (unless kicked by a steer or a mule!) but I need to up my CALCIUM intake (ordered Calcium and D supplements; I promise to drink more milk!) and I’m supposed to spend more time outdoors IN THE SUN. ROFLMAO! Um, Yeah. Dermatology is already lopping off parts of my FACE and telling me to stay OUT of the sun! So, which do I chose, Doc? Bad bones or more skin cancer? *Rolleyes*

Anyhow, I’m pretty sure I’ll survive this. I’ll survive anything until that very last thing that kills me. ;)

[Liz]

Double Chocolate Ricotta Marble Cake
Rich and decadent dble chocolate marble cake made with creamy ricotta.

Ing: - 1 cup flour - 1/2 cup cocoa powder - 1 tsp b/powder - 1/2 tsp b/soda - 1/4 tsp salt - 1/2 cup unsalted butter, - 1 cup sugar - 2 lge eggs - 1 cup ricotta - 1/2 cup milk - 1 tsp vanilla - 1/2 cup semi/choc/chips

Instructions: 1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9-inch round cake pan. 2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 3. In a separate large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the ricotta cheese, milk, and vanilla extract. 5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. 6. Fold in the chocolate chips. 7. Pour half of the batter into the prepared cake pan. 8. Add the cocoa powder to the remaining batter and stir until well combined. 9. Drop spoonfuls of the chocolate batter on top of the plain batter in the cake pan. 10. Use a knife to swirl the batters together to create a marble effect. 11. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 12. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve drizzled w/ chocolate ganache.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I don’t see any BACON? You’re going to be in the store, anyway, LOL!

You’re so efficient. I usually just wing it, but it’s usually only the 6 of us. I have started buying ‘parts’ of the meal already and I have potatoes and squash and green beans on hand.

I’m more concerned with jazzing up my table - though I’ve started jotting down some Dollar Tree ideas, already. I can’t believe the number of Thanksgiving Dollar Tree vids there are in my You Tube list, LOL! I guess they know a Cheapskate when they see one. ;)

[Qiviut]

No bacon in the recipes, but I have 2 packages of bacon in the freezer already :-)

Mom found some Halloween arrangements on sale at Walmart. They are mostly green, but with small white pumpkins - different, but attractive. They are not too tall - I hate table centerpieces that are tall enough to block the view of the person across the table.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

So pretty!