The Garden Thread - November, 2025

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

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Looking good! Sorry to hear of the hail damage. :(

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Lots of grocery SCORES and you survived The Big City, which also counts as a SCORE! :)

And, I agree. I don’t mind waiting for cattle to cross the road. Other cars? Not so much, LOL!

[MomwithHope]

Beautiful job on the garden and congrats on the hunting.

[FamiliarFace]

*** Give me 2-lane rural roads, fields, cows & mountain scenery over ‘city’ life any time :-)***

You and I are seeing “eye to eye” on getting used to rural (or semi-rural) living, at least in my case. In the past, I’ve always been in the suburbs of a town (or on the wrong side of the RR tracks of a town). Now, I live in the “suburbs of the suburbs”. 20 minutes to some shopping in the suburbs, and an hour to most of the shopping/restaurants that so many others are looking for (Indy proper).

I wish I could say that I “scored” today. Does finding molasses when it’s on the grocery list even count? I think not. However, it IS an ingredient in the gingerbread simple syrup recipe that I’m looking to make this holiday season. It is part of a mixologist recipe for a Gingerbread Old Fashioned that I had 2 years ago at a speakeasy (the most fun time I’ve ever had looking for an establishment).

I have most of the rest of the ingredients, so this may be the holiday drink that I try to get right. The one at the speakeasy was memorable. I hope to live up to their standards.

[Liz]

NEW ENGLAND CRANBERRY PIE / tartly sweet

Ing: 1 c fresh cranberries 1 c golden raisins pre-soaked in juice or applejack 1/2 c cranberry juice, divided 1 c sugar (more or less to taste) pinch salt 2 tb cornstarch 1 tsp vanilla home-made pie crust

Method: Line 8-9" pie pan w/ pie crust. Cook cranberries, 1/4 c cranberry juice, raisins to a boil, reduce heat; simmer 10-15 min til cranberries start to burst. Stir in sugar/salt. Add combined 1/4 c cold juice/cornstarch. Cook/stir 4 min. Offheat add vanilla; pour into pie crust. Add top crust. Bake 350 deg 30 min. Serve pie warm w/ dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream or both.

Chef says you can double filling. Eliminate top crust for Nantucket-style pie.

[Pollard]

Yes, nothing like a 4” roach dive bombing you from a tree. Most of FL is built on clay excavated from GA. Disney was swamp land. I can only imagine how many truck loads of GA clay went into it.

[Pollard]

Getting behind a tractor who goes 4-5 miles without once pulling over to let cars by even with plenty of spots to do so, can be aggravating. Ignurnt.

[Augie]

Howard spent over an hour in his crate yesterday evening - unsupervised - in my grouch cave - completely out of sight.

He didn’t destroy the new crate pad.
He didn’t bark.
He didn’t howl.
He didn’t throw a fit of any kind.
He wanted to be there.

He was quite content to gnaw on his new, giant-size, bacon-flavored, Benebone Wishbone chew toy in peace, without having to defend possession from the other two dogs.

I think I found his kryptonite.

When he finally got tired of the chewy toy he very politely let us know that he wanted out. I don’t really know how to describe the sound... out of most dogs in that situation it would be a little yip... out of Howard it’s more like a squeak... it’s almost a bark but there’s not enough air behind it to fire those big hound vocal cords...

[FamiliarFace]

Your post reminded me of my dorm room senior year of college in Atlanta. There had been construction going on nearby, where they took out trees to make room for new buildings. Suddenly, I had two huge roaches flying around in my tiny little room. No place to hide. I don’t remember how I got rid of them. Did I smush them or capture them and let them go? That’s a long time ago. I don’t think roach spray ever worked on them, plus, I’m sure I was too broke to afford a can.

I do remember calling my boyfriend (now husband) on the phone. He went to the other school across town. He laughed and asked me what I expected him to do. Did I want him to drop what he was in the middle of, and drive over to help me get rid of them? I realized that made little sense. I guess I just wanted to tell somebody and have them console me or something.

I can’t imagine that I smushed them. Maybe I caught them under a cup and flushed them down the toilet.

I remember when Disney was being built. We lived in Winter Haven at the time. It was BIG NEWS. Like you said, they had to fill in a lot of swamp land over there.

[FamiliarFace]

Oh, good boy, Howard! I think you’re on to something, Augie!

[MomwithHope]

Just LOVE your Howard posts. Someday your wife will be completely won over.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Score one for Howard!

My cat, Boyd, always says, ‘Thanks’ when I let him out. One short ‘Mew!’ He really wishes he had opposable thumbs so he could open doors; mainly the fridge, LOL!

[Qiviut]

I have spent the day in the kitchen. So far so good ... I think.

Made:
Double batch of Cranberry sauce
Sausage, onion, celery for stuffing fried/sautéed
Double batch of gravy base*

*I have not made this recipe before. It gets great reviews, but I am not confident plus I can’t remember how much in the way of pan drippings I get which are added to the base. If I don’t have enough drippings (minus fat), the gravy won’t work. Tomorrow, I will buy some turkey gravy to be on the safe side - it’s the only thing I’m stressing about.

Sweet potatoes are baking in the oven & the only thing left to make tonight are the maple pecan bars. My cousin texted this morning that she had picked up a pumpkin pie at Costco so I could take that off my list. She said people were buying 20 pumpkin pies at a time - must be feeding a crowd!

It doesn’t look like I have done that much, but I have been cleaning up the kitchen as I go so that really slows things down.

Tomorrow:
Bake/make mashed potatoes
Put together casseroles (3 easy ones) & stuffing
Get the bird ready to go in the oven early Thursday.

Mom & I figured out the seating - we can do 10 in the kitchen eating area - if we get 12, we’ll use the table in the dining room, too.

[FamiliarFace]

Your Boyd sounds like our cat who departed us last summer, Crick. (The other one still with us is named Watson, so guess what famous duo they were named after.)

Anyway, Crick was the one we had to watch out for. He very nearly knew how to open doors with regular knobs, but if you had the lever types, he had those figured out!

He escaped so many times, a very fast mover. He would paw at a door until it would open just a smitch, then he would scoot right through and go find a hiding place. He was my sweet, sneaky, little monster. Miss that little boy.

Fortunately, we still have his partner in crime with us. Watson is a good boy, too. Not nearly as mischievous as Crick was, but he has his own ways. He sleeps with us every night, sometimes on my head. He reaches his paw out and pats my hair. Funny little guy. 😻

[FamiliarFace]

You’re doing great!

Me? I am stressing out. Trying not to, but it’s catching up with me. I don’t think I’ve ever been away from my home for more than a week or so, so I’m trying to figure out which things I should pack, and what should stay here. I can do laundry there, and I know I will be, but I still need to make sure I’m packing smartly.

Your Thanksgiving will be wonderful! I can smell the delicious all the way here!