October 31, 2013 - Trick or Treat!

BOO!

From Alicyn and Amaya

October 28, 2013 - Basking in the Cuteness

A couple of people have expressed their concern because of my lack of blogging recently.  I'm still alive, people!  It's just that the gardening has slowed drastically, and I'm bored to the point of playing a lot of solitaire and Scrabble with my computer.

We're expecting our first hard freeze tonight, so I've picked the green tomatoes and they are ripening in the house.  Weight totals are added to my sidebar as they are moved from trays to kitchen window.   Just six pounds to go before I hit 1000 pounds of garden produce for the year! 

I still had one pepper plant, so I pulled off all the peppers and got them into the freezer yesterday.  

There weren't many carrots surviving after Annie and the squirrels tried digging up the bed, so I pulled them all and had delicious baby carrots for dinner last night.  

 

Some of the flowers are blooming prettier than they did all summer, but I fear today is the last time I'll be enjoying them.

We're in the middle of another big windstorm, so the pine branches have been joined by the neighbor's leaves to litter our yard.  The leaves were so deep on the front porch this morning, I had to dig around in them to find the newspaper!  I had moved the lettuce cage over to cover the spinach seedlings, and stapled on plastic to keep the little plants warm. This morning the entire cage had blown off the bed and was up against the back fence.  I had to go out and staple on some heavy boards to (hopefully) hold it in place.  I may have to find some tie downs!

Spinach seedlings (last week).  They aren't much bigger yet, so I hope they survive the winter.  Yesterday I found two huge slugs sliming themselves all over the plants.  Today I noticed the squirrels had again dug holes throughout the bed once the cage blew off.

I had Mr. Granny light the pilot on our propane fireplace insert last night.  I'm preparing for the oncoming frigid temperatures, and ready to plop my body into the recliner in front of a roaring (or maybe a simmering) fire.  In the meantime, I've been basking in some real cuteness.......

Great-granddaughter Yaya (Amaya) is three weeks old today.

October 10, 2013 - The Garden in October

 It's still touch and go with the sugar snap peas.  The vines blew off of the trellis during our last windstorm, but there are some blossoms showing on the few upright vines.  I see just one pod developing so far.  

 The raspberry canes have been transplanted.  Eventually this should be a more productive bed than the old bed, as it is nearly twice as long as the old 8' bed.  Right now the canes share their spot with carrots, onions and the snap peas, but they'll have all that space to themselves before spring arrives.

 There are still a lot of green tomatoes on the three remaining plants, but I'm only finding a bit of color on four or five a week now.  Night temperatures have been dropping into the high 30s this week, so a frost is probably not far off.

 The two new beds have been built, but the far bed still needs some soil and compost to bring the level even with the top.  I put a few spinach transplants into the near raised bed, but next spring both beds will hold the tomato plants.  There are still two broccoli plants giving me a few side shoots, the recently transplanted strawberries are looking strong and healthy.  

 The north garden is looking quite empty, but many of next year's planting beds have been cleaned up and prepared.  

 The east garden is empty, except for a few parsnips and nasturtiums along the fence at the left, and two or three lettuce plants, along with a few bunching onions in the net covered bed.  The ground is littered with walnuts from the neighbor's tree.  Too bad they're wormy and unusable.

 A view of the north garden from the patio.

The garden shed has been cleaned up, and most of the tools have been cleaned and stored for next year.  I've been busy washing buckets and containers for winter storage.

Yaya update:

 Great grandbaby Amaya Christine (Yaya) with proud daddy Aaron.

All dressed up for her trip home from the hospital.  Mama says she's doing fine, a very good baby, just eats, sleeps and poops!

October 7, 2013 - Harvest Monday (Updated)

The weather has been too cold for them to ripen, so I harvested most of the peppers and pulled the plants.  There were about 27-1/2 pounds of them here, and my daughter took 5 pounds of them home with her.  The remaining peppers were all donated to the food bank.

I'm still getting a few tomatoes.  I manage to get about two quarts of tomato juice a week now, just enough for drinking, but not enough to bother with canning.

My year to date total is now at 981 pounds.  I might get another 20 pounds of tomatoes, but it's doubtful.  

Maybe I could add this 6 pounds 12 ounces to my harvest total......

  I just got back from the hospital, where my new great-granddaughter was born just 2 hours ago.  Welcome to the big world, little (Amaya) Yaya !  

Daphne's Dandelions is the host for Harvest Monday.

Update....about 4 hours after the birth

Yaya with her mother, Alicia. They look alike, don't they?