The shivering dog.

Good evening friends!

This morning started off chilly again but not so chilly as the day before when I had all the windows to the house open, I had closed them last night. Still though, it was cold enough this morning in the living room to make the dog, our "tough" hunting dog, bred to deal with difficult hunting environments and rugged territory, shiver. For such a "tough" breed, she sure gets cold easy. The poor thing doesn't like to be in temperatures lower then 60. I guess I will have to make her a dog sweater or something for winter time! But at least the dog and I finally have something in common besides our love of socks, watermelon, and balls of yarn.

I'm reading some good books right now. The first, which arrived on Monday is "Heirloom, Notes From An Accidental Tomato Farmer" by Tim Stark. I'm enjoying it thoroughly. And then there is a surprise book "Five Acres And Independence" by M.G. Kains. It wasn't a book I'd ordered or was even expecting in the mail Wednesday, but there it was, thanks to my friends in Michigan who'd sent it to me. These are the same friends who bred Buttons, my Dutch rabbit and whom with I occasionally go hiking with. They needed the room, they wrote, for their expected new baby so were getting rid of books and thought of me when they pulled Five Acres off the shelf. That was very kind and thoughtful and I will be sending them a thank you note. I'm sure I can take the information in the book and use it to my advantage, even in my tiny lot garden and someday on my own piece of land. In any case, it should be a good read for the long winter that is before us.

Looking forward to the weekend.....

Have a good night all.

Nickie

Cold and Rainy

Dear Friends,

It's been cold and rainy all day. I woke up this morning and had to layer in clothes in the house and close windows. I don't think it got above the 50's today. Today's chill reminded me that I really need to get the shed prepared for housing animals during our long cold winter. I need to clean it out and organize it so that they have space and are easy to tend to and I need to set up a light on a timer for them and heat lamps and heated waterers. I also need to buy some hay, maybe two bales should do it? And not only all this but I need to make nest boxes for the hens as they should be laying well in another month or two.

The cold also reminds me its time to stop fooling around in the garden and get it cleaned up. Pick green tomatoes to ripen inside, the remaining peppers and to cook up all the pumpkins for the freezer and either dry the seeds and pumpkin skins for rabbit feed or roast the seeds for ourselves to enjoy. Then I need to pull all the tomato plants, weeds and whatever else needs to be pulled, composted or disposed of, mulch beds that still need new mulch, and give the compost pile one last turn over for the season. Also, annuals I wish to keep need to be cut and brought inside for rooting and growing over, and perennials in pots have to be either sunk in the ground or planted then mulched, and my potted amaryllis bulbs have to be debugged and brought inside.

Of course, all this stuff is pretty miserable if it's cold and wet out...Time to start dressing for the cold I guess. Good buy summer clothes!

Good night my friends,

Nickie :)

A good weekend

Good evening friends!



I hope you and yours are finding yourselves healthy. My weekend has been pretty easy going. Mostly I worked in the garden and with the animals. I watched Internet TV with Mike, we went out to dinner and went to the hardware store to buy bulbs with a gift card Mike had won in a drawing. I also had a coupon for a free bag of bulbs from on-line that I used. I bought 20 tulip bulbs, mixed purple kinds, and purple and pink anemones, some organic cow-free bulb fertilizer and a bulb planter all without paying a dime! I planted them around my apple tree along with the purple flowering perennials I had received from the plant swap last week, and I moved one of my irises there as well.



Mike mowed down my buckwheat with protests that it was too pretty to mow. I told him I didn't want them to reseed though or they might become weeds so he went ahead and did it for me. After, I turned over the soil and the buckwheat stalks into wide rows where I will be planting next year. I have one side of the garden all done now. The other still has tomato plants so I haven't turned the soil yet though they are on their last leg and they will be leaving soon enough.


Saturday a few good reads arrived in the mail. A couple books on prairie plants, grasses, sedges and rushes as I've been interested in the ecology of the area for a while but haven't taken the time yet to learn much. I also bought a reading book just for enjoyment about an heirloom tomato farmer, and another (which hasn't yet arrived) about propagation techniques.

Over all it was not a difficult weekend even though I was called in to surgery late Saturday night and didn't get home until 4 Sunday. I slept in until 10, much longer then I had hoped to on Sunday so I got less done then I had planned but still not a bad day.

Today, Monday, it has been wanting to rain all day. Real gloomy looking but the clouds give a nice look to the yellow leaved trees.

Well, nothing more to report here. Have a good night,

Nickie.

What I Learned #2

Good morning everyone!

Its beautiful out. I spent a little time in the garden weeding a flower bed and pulling out old cleome plants that were past their prime. I also spent time playing with the kittens, the rabbits and the chickens. They do keep me busy. The kittens think they are helping me when I'm weeding but they are really quite distracting. You just can't tell them otherwise though.

At the harvest fair I learned how to make apple cider. As it turns out, you can't squeeze much juice from a whole apple, so the apples have to be ground up first before pressing. You put the ground up pieces in cheese cloth and put them under the press, which squeezes out the juice. Juice doesn't last forever though, and when it goes bad its not really 'bad'. A slimy goop forms on the top called "the mother". When the goop sinks to the bottom, you have apple cider vinegar. The longer you keep it (the more times the mother forms and sinks), the better it tastes. I had been curious about how to make cider for a long time, especially with the wild apples that grow in the woods I think it would be neat to be able to make my own at some point in time but since I have nowhere to store even a small apple press here I'll likely never get around to doing it until I have a bigger home.

Well enjoy your day everyone!

Nickie

What I learned this this weekend #1

Good day friends!

I hope you are all enjoying this first day of fall which started at 10:44 am today. This weekend has been all about fall stuff. First I went apple picking at the local u-pick orchard which was disappointing. Oh the apples are good, but since they changed ownership the atmosphere of the place has also changed. They are making it so commercialized now it's ridiculous. Soon it will be another Disney land. I may have to go farther to get my apples because I don't think I'll go there ever again. Not only did they jack up the price of their apples to more per lb. then they are at the stores, they now make you PAY just to pick the apples........ Nope, not going back.

But Sunday, I had a grand time! I went to the harvest fest at the Indiana Dunes National Lake shore. I did a short hike and then took a tour of the old farm house, the organic garden and checked out all the booths that were demonstrating old ways of homesteading chores.

I spent some time talking with a bee keeper who had a hive there (empty of bees for safety sake) and watched as he took a steam knife that was heated by hot water over a fire to the hive frames to cut off the waxy part so he could put the frames in a centrifuge. Next, we spun the frames until the honey came out, and drained through a spout at the bottom. I got to taste the fresh honey right there. This honey was goldenrod honey and very yummy. I learned that each hive could make a HUGE amount of honey, but that since everywhere was getting built up, open places were being mowed and people don't plant flowers as much that what the hives used to make in honey has diminished a great deal. I've also learned that hive die offs haven't effected this area much at all and that some bee farmers are refusing to take their hives to farms that use a lot of chemicals anymore because they are afraid of the risk to their bees. An interesting thing I learned is that buckwheat (the cover crop I am using) makes a very strong black honey that a lot of people don't like.

I learned a lot from each of the booths, and I figure I can reflect on each thing in different posts.
I'm glad I went and had a lot of fun.

Today I took my spare roses and peppermints to Deep River park, where they were having a plant swap meet. I only managed to give away a couple of peppermints but the roses all went. I received some bulbs, toad lily clumps, ferns, spearmint, edible sage, ornamental basil, a couple tulip tree seedlings ( I figure I could try to have fun with them and grow them as minis), obedient plant, and some sunflower seeds.

Well, it's time for me to go.

Nice chatting with ya,

Nickie.

Howdy dear friends,

It is a beautiful morning here in northwest Indiana. It's the perfect morning to do a bunch of mulching. I hopped out of bed early today and made a bee-line for the free mulch pile and filled up my car twice, which was enough to mulch one bed nicely. The daylily bed along the road needed new mulch bad as what I had put there when I planted it was almost all gone now.

Yesterday i spent time in the garden doing other chores. The Latham raspberry twigs I planted in the spring are getting tall and floppy so I went to the hardware store and bought some metal stakes and wire to make the trellis I had been putting off for too long. After i trellised them, it looked a lot neater. The layer of half broken down compost I'd mulched with in early summer has kept the weeds at bay nicely. Then I used the old bricks from a neighbor to line the bed and finish it all off. It looks almost professional now. I'm pleased with myself.

I cut down the yellow scabiosa plants. these plants were considered 'weeds' by the evil association here, but I ignored thier dyer warning in the form of a ticket requesting that I "weed". Surprisingly, there were no consequences and the butterflies and insects got to keep loving the scabiosa flowers. Now though, I decided to go ahead and cut them down as they were starting to look very ragged and unkempt. Though as I was doing the deed all kinds of butterflies kept visiting the flowers as I worked, making me feel guilt ridden, even worse as they visited the growing pile on the ground of cut plants. If you want LOTS of butterflies, plant yellow scabiosa. Bees, hover flies and butterflies can't seem to resist them.

While I was out in the garden, I decided to share with you some of the very pretty leaves I have right now. (See the picture). Top: Blueberry, Hydrangeas. Middle: Coleus, Heuchera. Bottom: Ornamental sweet potato vine, native tulip tree.

In the veggie patch, I harvested a moon and stars watermelon. I read that you should harvest when the tendrils nearest the melon have dried. I'm hoping this is right. I'm too scared to cut into it yet to find out.

Well, have a wonderful Sunday!

Nickie

And things return to normal...

Dear Friends,

Things are high and dry now here at my place and almost all the roads are open once again. For a while there I was quite frazzled with it all. I was worried about the animals who were constantly wet despite changing bedding every day and trying to keep the wet out. I was worried about my father-in-law who lives in Munster, IN. which is still under mandatory evacuation. He's OK by the way. I was worried about my neighbors, and worried about how I was getting to work everyday as the traffic situation was very bad taking 2 hours to get around instead of the normal 45 minutes.

But now, things are getting back to normal. I cancelled my mini-vacation plans because of this storm, and as upsetting as that is, I have the opportunity to help out my not as fortunate friends, neighbors and family that were affected by this storm by helping them dry out and clean up. Considering I could of gone fishing from my steps the other day, I count myself lucky just to have suffered problems in the garden only.

In the garden I lost my Brussels sprouts, most of my pepper plants, a conifer shrub which I replaced today with something much more interesting (Burgundy Star Ninebark), and my parsley.

Today as I was feeding and cleaning and brushing the rabbits (who are shedding like I've never seen them shed ever before) I noticed that the buckwheat was already blooming (See the picture if you don't know what buckwheat looks like). I'm tempted to let it go to seed and maybe have yet another crop pop up from that since it seems to grow so fast and green. I'm still debating as I feel like I should be planting greens and such right now even though I KNOW there won't be time before the first frost. I forked up a good wide row of the buckwheat turning the soil so that I can at least get my garlic planted.

I need to get the trellis for my raspberries in this weekend while the ground is soft. I had no idea they would grow so fast and they are starting to get long and floppy. Luckily Mike won a home depot gift card that should cover the costs of the project easily!

To cheer up, I've decided to do some fall things. I'm roasting pumpkin in the oven for pumpkin pie right now and afterwards the seeds which I'm soaking in oil and spices will go in next. Those little sugar pie pumpkins have a LOT of seeds for their size. I'm saving a few seeds for next year's garden. Tomorrow I think I will go apple picking at the orchard down the road (providing that road is open tomorrow) as my favorite apples are ripe right now. MMMMM. Nothing cheers me up like a fresh picked apple! :)

Have a great Friday all!

Nickie

Things I do While On Call

Good evening dear friends,

There are lots of crafts I wish i could partake in but just can't tie them into my busy schedule. Things like quilting, soap making, painting, and the like but there are at least a couple things that are very portable for me to do during down time at the hospital or in the on-call room. One of those things is knitting--- which for whatever reason I prefer to do during winter, when warm fuzzy yarn doesn't over heat, and the other is cross-stitch embroidery which can make down time fly. I actually think I'm getting pretty good at it, so I'm tooting my own horn here. It's a relatively inexpensive hobby as hobbies go (much less expensive then my other great loves of travel, backpacking, and gardening) and like I said, Its pretty portable.

Hydrangea is my latest finished project--- though really it isn't "finished" yet as I need to wash and press it then decide what I want to do with the piece. I'm debating whether to make it into a pillow for the couch or a wall hanging. If I make it into a pillow I wouldn't be able to display it since Brandi dog loves to fling pillows around the house. It wouldn't stay nice for very long that way I'm afraid. I guess I could use it as a wall hanging for now then someday I can use it as a pillow once the dog grows out of that kind of behavior.

I just liked the piece, which I saw in a magazine. I thought it was very cheerful and colorful.

Speaking of colorful I've been pondering what I want to do with the garden next year. I'm thinking to have a bit of fun and experimentation. Why stick with just a yellow theme for the flowers next year when I could also have a yellow themed veggie garden too? I looked at my favorite seed source on line and chose out varieties that were yellow to order. Did you know they even have yellow radishes and yellow beets and a watermelon with a yellow rind but red inside? I didn't know that. I think it would be very fun to try these things. Incidentally, the yellow watermelon takes less then half as long to ripen as the stars and moon, which still hasn't ripened here and I'm guessing won't before frost. So I guess I'll never get to taste that famous old fashioned watermelon in this zone--what a waste!

Have pleasant dreams tonight,

Nickie

Jacket Weather

Good Evening Friends!

It was very chilly this morning. So chilly that the garden impatiens were sulking, with droopy leaves. They are dragging their feet to the inevitable end of their life though I am sure they perked up later during the day when the chill lessened. I even had to wear a jacket.

Yesterday's rainfall amounted to just under 2" according to my rain gauge this morning. The Buckwheat is loving all that rain. Its growing nice and thick...maybe too thick? I wasn't sure how thick to plant the seeds, as the dog ate the directions. I'm sure it won't be a problem though as buckwheat can't take frost at all. It's days are numbered.

I saw in the paper today that a local plant club is hosting a perennial exchange next Monday. Great! I can take the extra roses, peppermint, irises and lilies and exchange for new plants. This way I won't have to hold them over the winter. Just what I needed! Things work out well sometimes.

Have a good night all-

Nickie

Turning of the Seasons

Good evening friends,

I know I haven't typed anything for a while but believe me, I've been thinking of all kinds of things I could be adding here. Working for surgery sometimes I may disappear into the dark abyss for a while. Surgery pretty much OWNS me. Such is the price of learning....They beep, I hop. It seems most of my waking hours are spent at the hospital these days, especially now that I'm picking up on call time. The couple days I've had off these past couple of very busy weeks, I've spent vegetating and resting up because by the end of my long shifts---on my feet the whole time, I am exhausted. My legs and feet are tired, and then I wake a million times at night wondering if the pager is going off. When it does, I have to leap out of bed, throw on scrubs, and get there fast. I had Saturday off, and it felt strange to wear street clothes. I felt almost naked without my scrubs. I have to constantly remind myself that I like my job when the halls of the hospital seem endless.

It's when I'm tired I begin to wonder how I even ended up working in this environment. It's strange really. I'm a Forestry Science major, with an art degree also. If I had known how much I would like working for surgery, I would of skipped all the rest and headed strait for Surgery. Truly strange how the seasons of one's life changes.

Speaking of changing seasons, Fall is blasting in. It's shoving summer aside very rudely. I'm not sure I'm ready for it at all. I thought perhaps it would ease into fall, but not this year. Seemingly over night the trees have started changing. Golden Rod and Snake Root are changing the nature of open fields. Weeds are yellowing in those same open spaces. Trees look tired. And rain. we've had lots of rain. First we had a day long rain that gave us 3.5 inches (according to my rain gauge in the garden) the other day, I think that was Friday. Today its gotten down right chilled, and lots more rain. It's been in the 50's since about 2 pm or so. When I get off work tonight, I'm likely going to freeze since I didn't bring a jacket.

The Buckwheat I planted is loving the rain. It's very green and healthy looking but with the dropping temperature, I'm wondering if I planted it too late. Its only a few inches tall. I also worry about other things in the garden--the watermelons still haven't ripened. They are just sitting there. Not growing, not ripening, not doing anything but existing. I'm sure the bulbs I planted on my day off in Sasha's memorial garden are also enjoying the rain. I planted yellow tulips, yellow and orange cupped daffodils, and mixed crocus (I wanted yellow ones as my theme will be Yellow next year in the garden but all the store had were mixed colors.) Planting bulbs is about the only gardening I've done since I last posted.

My busy schedule is showing with my poor neglected animals. The poor bunnies need a good grooming. Especially the dutch bunny, who is shedding like mad and looks dreadful. I combed gobs of loose fur from her this morning. It's Brandi though, who is showing the most signs of missing me. When Brandi gets lonely, she gets destructive. She likes to tear things up and drag things around the house. When she's missing me, she gets into the dirty hamper and drags out clothes with my scent on them. Usually that's dirty socks. The other day, she'd dragged out some scrubs from the hamper to lay on them in the living room. I found another dirty scrub top on the bed. Silly dog. Her latest 'trick' is to open the refrigerator. This is trouble. When she's learned something once and been rewarded (in this case she learned there are lots of yummies in the fridge) then she remembers it and keeps doing it. The other night I came home to disaster....food pieces and containers all over the floor--refrigerator door wide open. Uh oh. This one, is way too smart for her own good. This one, learned how to let herself out of the crate a while back. Now how many dogs do you know can figure that out? Perhaps I can teach her now to fetch a beer for me since she knows how to open the fridge?...There has to be a silver lining in this somewhere!

Anyway, that's it for now...I've lingered far too long on the computer. I have to get hopping.

Have a good night all!

Nickie

Our Daily Bread

Good Morning Friends,

Another gorgeous cool morning here in Corn and Soybean land. The perfect kind of morning for long walks in the woods if one was inclined to. No walking for me today though, as I am very tired! Yesterday at work was crazy. I even had to work some over time and my boss HATES giving out over time. I expect another busy day today and so I am resting up and working on some sewing instead of working in the garden. It's only Tuesday and I have a long week ahead--too soon to be so worn out.

Yesterday before work I found a bread machine at the thrift shop. $5. It seems to work when I plug it in and play with the buttons. I printed a manual from the Internet. They did not have that particular model on-line as the company who made it, Regal Ware, no longer makes or repairs bread machines. But that's OK, so long as I have the general idea how to use it I can experiment. This will be my first time making bread in a machine-- I've always hand made bread. However, I rarely do make bread because of my busy life so I always end up buying the grocery store bread. With a machine, I can set a timer before I go to bed at night and have fresh bread for my homemade strawberry jam in the morning when I wake up. How sweet is that?

Have a good day!

Nickie

Perfect Morning

Good Morning Friends!

It's simply too beautiful out to put into words correctly. Its sunny and cool--the perfect weather for working in the garden. Too bad I have nothing much to do this morning. :) I planted some Spinach seed in an empty spot between the bush cucumbers and the tomatoes, just a couple short rows. It's "Giant Noble" which bolted way too quickly in the spring as soon as it started to get any decent size on. maybe it will do better as a fall crop then a spring crop. In any case, the seeds were 10 cents a packet so I won't be crying much if they don't do well and the rabbits don't mind one bit if the spinach has bolted or not. I prefer Bloomington Longstanding, which lasts forever in the garden, spring or fall but i ran out of seed this spring and couldn't find any locally and bought these cheep seeds instead.

Though its really nice outside, I don't want to laze around. I think I'll get some sewing done instead.

Have a good day!

Nickie

Buckwheat

Good Morning Friends!



Its a beautiful morning outside today. In fact, its the perfect kind of morning for lounging around outside watching chickens, kittens, rabbits and birds with your caffinated beverage of choice. It's sunny and 70 with a breeze. But I told myself I would finish the left half of the vegetable garden today and get the buckwheat planted. I could tell when I was digging this morning and turning the soil over, where I had amended last year as apposed to the new area this year. HUGE difference. Still clay but dark brown, moister, filled with organic matter to make it lighter in texture and easier to turn. I'm still stunned at how well the corn did in the not amended side with little rain or water and no fertilizer either this year. I will have to remember the variety-- kandy Korn i think. It isn't too picky! I don't know, it could be the soil too, after all, my broccoli gets huge without fertilizers in the unamended clay too and I KNOW those are heavy feeders.
Anyway, I got that part finished and got out my big bag of buckwheat seed (there are a few peas and mung and alfalfa seeds mixed in there thinks to our old dog getting into the seeds and spilling them onto the floor) The directions on the bag said to broadcast the seeds and lightly rake in, but not how much per foot to broadcast so I took handfuls and threw them all around. I probably planted way too many but its short term anyway as if we get an early frost they will be goners and I intend to cut them down before they go to seed as green mulch before frost anyway.

A few things to note, The strawberries grew bonkers this year but the fruits are sour---I think they did not get enough sunlight so I will move them next spring. I think I'd prefer them in a strait row anyway so I can control the runners more carefully. I need to move a few flowering plants to the shadier garden on the north side of the house-- the bleeding heart that is in with the strawberries now, *don't ask*, and the hardy geraniums that are in the south flower bed. they do OK where they are but the get sun burnt and ugly in the heat.

Yesterday I collected a whole bunch of daylily seeds from the stella d' oro's I planted along the street last year. I think I'll offer up those for barter or pay this winter with some other things. Daylilies are surprisingly easy to grow from seed. My not yet year old plants I started in the winter last year are doing great. They are knee high and loving their new garden spot.

Today's Harvest was:

• 1 really big red tomato (I think it was called Supersteak)
• 39 cherry tomatoes

Enjoy your day!

Nickie

Kittens and Plants

Good Afternoon Friends,


Today's Harvest:

• 1 cucumber
• 3 past tomatoes (not counting the ones the chickens helped themselves to)
• 22 pumpkins

I am late for my normal morning post today because I have been busy working furiously outside! I am having a small plant sale which isn't going good and a kitten give-a-way. I advertised, put a notice on Craigslist, and put signs up but nobody comes down this dead end road ever who doesn't live here. All morning I only had one customer, who bought a peppermint plant but she really didn't come for the plants, she came to pick out a kitten. She chose out the black and white tuxedo kitten and promptly named him Oscar. I knew that kitten would be easy to home, he has such a nice personality and is as cute as a button. There are 3 kittens left now, all little girls, all tabbies.

In the garden, I cut down all the corn stalks and piled them up near the compost. Then I harvested all the pumpkins and the 3 mystery squash mutts too. I added the vines to the pile just to get them out of my way. I'll likely not fit them into the compost, they have too much powdery mildew on them. Then I began to dig up the garden area, it was dry and dusty and a little difficult to turn the earth and dig out the corn roots but I want to get it done this weekend so that I can plant a cover crop and try to start improving the soil on that side. It looks bare and empty now, with only the sunflowers still on the end. meanwhile, the chickens were dust bathing and having a blast today. That's the first time I've actually seen them dust bathe. They were both competing for the same spot even though they have the entire garden full of dust!

I think I'll move my sale table under cover of my porch now as I have indoor chores to do now--like cleaning my sewing room that I finally have back from the kittens! Boy were they getting into everything and making a mess. If anyone stops by, I'll leave an honesty jar outside for them if they don't want to knock on the door.

Have a great rest of the day!

Nickie

Chassed In By Rain

Good morning friends!

We are getting a nice hard rain this morning. I kept hearing the thunder in the distance and was enjoying the warm humid morning until the rain chased the hens and I under cover. But that's OK, we need the rain and it will hopefully be enough to make working in the dirt easier this weekend. Clay...hard as a rock clay.....

I got up nice and early this morning ready to get out and get hopping on the garden today. There really isn't a whole lot to do but a bit of puttering around like trimming the mint before it goes to seed, doing a bit of light weeding so I can re-mulch one bed this weekend and chopping up some things for the compost pile--mainly some corn stalks which would take forever and a day to decompose if you don't chop em up into small pieces. You would think that a grass on steroids would seriously heat up the compost like a bag of grass clippings does. It doesn't so I need to throw in some chicken turds this weekend to get it cooking. Part of me cringed at wasting such pretty corn stalks, after all the local shops sell bundles of them for fall decorations near Halloween. But it's not near Halloween yet and I don't want to store them as my space is very limited and even if I were to use them as decoration like last year, i don't expect them to last thanks to the deer who destroyed my fall display last year.

I keep starring at the small pumpkins scattered all throughout the corn patch hoping that with every blink of the eye that they get orangier. I really want to get those ugly vines out of there before all those squash bugs hatch. Some already are hatching. Did you know those suckers bite? I found that out this morning. And speaking of getting ripe, I realized today as I checked out my watermelon that I have no idea how to tell if one is ripe yet!

My finicky and somewhat spoiled rotten hens turned their noses up at cantaloupe slices this morning. But the rabbits didn't. They chowed right down. The buck is a pig. He'll eat anything without hesitation and if I don't measure his feed out everyday he would be too fat. He goes through a lot of feed. I've noticed that rexs are like that. The doe is much more hesitant about eating new things, even though I've fed her new things since she was a baby! She doesn't eat a lot and one dish of food lasts her days if I were to give her the same amount the other eats in a couple of hours time. My co-workers were going to throw out this perfectly good fruit from the office fridge last night....I thought of a much better use for it! I took it home and they shook their heads at me, the office weirdo. At least the hens don't turn up their beaks to elderberries. I have a couple of year old plants that bore some fruit, not enough for me to do anything with so I gave them to the chickens who sure love them. Word of warning though, don't stand too close--those suckers squirt!

This weekend I think i will do a plant sale, and offer up my kittens for free as well. They will be 7 weeks old and they are going through so much litter and chow. I need to find them homes this weekend! I found a home for one this week Monday, with some co-workers of my husband in the city. The big fuzzy fluffy laid back kitten. I also need to find homes for all the peppermint seedlings, rugosa rose seedlings, and red lily bulbs that are threatening to take over everything so that I won't have to trench them in for the winter. This particular dark red Asiatic lily increases itself like mad and it really needs to be divided and re-homed and since the almanac is predicting a cold hard winter, I doubt things in pots have a chance at survival if I don't bury them deep in the ground.

Other things I will need to do before winter arrives will be to fix up a place in the shed for the rabbits and chickens. last year I had one rabbit and she stayed inside the house until spring. That isn't going to work now that we have Brandi, who likes to kill rabbits--plus, they are very messy! And there is no way the chickens could stay inside either. I'll have to clean and organize the shed to fit them in, and add lights and maybe heat lamps for the really cold days. I could put the lights on a timer in case it snows so bad I can't get out to the shed in a timely manner but if its very cold we usually have very little snow so that shouldn't be so much of a problem. Snow likes to drift 4 feet high or more sometimes in front of the shed door! I also need to get some kind of protective tree wrap for my young trees or chicken wire to put around them, whatever is cheaper. The chicken wire helps my hawthorn and other small seedlings keep from getting chowed down, so it should work for tree trunks and blueberry bushes. I need to get a supply of hay or straw for animal bedding during the winter and for mulching more tender things like the cranberry, and some burlap for my not-as-hardy-as-it-was-advertised rose bush which luckily came back from the ground after last winter. Thats enough typing for now.

Hope all is well,

Nickie

Poison Day

Dear Friends,

This morning I am glad I had been out bright and early, for If I hadn't been, who knows what atrocities may have happened?

I stood outside to guard my garden and livestock with spade and shovel in hand, dirty kneed from garden work, standing defensively with a look of determination and a bit of terror on my face. I planted my feet firmly in the way. "No herbicide here needed!" I exclaimed to the balding, pale, thin man in the golf-cart like vehicle with the big tank full of poison that had been going up and down the streets spraying the asphalt cracks. "Look, no need, there's no weeds in the cracks here!" He backed down...moved on and continued spraying recklessly in front of my neighbors, whether there were weeds in the cracks or not. He was very wise not to mess with the fed up crazy woman with the strange hat and garden tools. I didn't back down until I could hear his noisy little contraption going down another block to spread his poisons around.

Meanwhile, the hens found my distraction a good time to raid tomatoes while I wasn't paying attention to them. I can't fault them a few tomatoes though, they are pretty good. I shooed them from the vegetable garden and got to work on the pumpkin vines, cutting back vines which were useless with no pumpkins on them. I began cutting them up into bite sized pieces for the compost. Last year I didn't cut them up, I threw them in whole, which was a mistake as they were fibrous, stringy and took forever to break down, even with copious amounts of rabbit poop mixed in. As I was cutting, i noticed on every leaf, an army of red insect eggs. Pretty fascinating if I didn't know they were trouble. I had never seen so many squash bug eggs in my LIFE. Some batches had just hatched, confused and bewildered baby bugs still grouped together didn't know what to do as their world collapsed around them. "Here Chick chick chicks!" Henrieta feather bottom comes running, I hold out the baby bugs on a leaf platter. She tilts her funny red head one way then the other. Pecks at one of the eggs, tries it again and loses interest. Waddling back over to where her companion is working on a ruined tomato. I returned the leaf to the compost pile. I guess it will be the spiders getting fat on them instead. That's OK too, so long as somebody eats them.

Speaking of getting fat, I harvested my last cabbage today. Its a savoy cabbage with very crinkly leaves. Its amazing how big the plant got. It took up a LOT of space. Most of the outside leaves were ruined by caterpillars and grasshoppers, and next year I am going to have to do something about it. Certainly I can find an organic solution to my pest problem? I mean, other then toads...two of which I found living in the leaves of this cabbage likely getting fat off the caterpillars. I appreciate their efforts, but most of the cabbage ended up in the compost so I'm going to have to do something more.

Well, thats it for now!

Have a great day.

Nickie

Invasion of the Blackbirds

Good Morning Friends,

I hope the new day is bringing you joy. When I woke up this morning and the first thing I noticed out the window was that the female blackbirds were everywhere outside. They coated my lawn, my trees, my corn plants, the power line and anything else they could perch on. I think my home must be marked on bird maps as a resting place because I get all kinds of flocks stop by from geese, to finches, and I've even had herons and ducks show up.

The blackbirds are getting ready to fly south. The females always go together, flocking for the journey. Then the males. It's the males who come back first in the spring. Seeing them puts me in the joyous mood of fall, where nature and harvests are celebrated but it also reminds me that summer is coming to a close and soon after that, barren garden and icy weather for months.

I went outside to enjoy the cool morning while it lasted, to finish 'weeding' my garden and then I weeded the real weeds in my elderly neighbors yard. I use those weeds to give my rabbits and chickens something fun to do. I layer the weeds thick in the bottom of their cages. Much better then sending it to the landfill as I am not about to stick crab grass into my compost. I have enough problems with it thank you very much. The critters will eat it, seeds and all and turn it into some great manure for the compost.

The pumpkin vines are looking terrible now all except for the new growth. Seemingly over night the invasion of the powder arrived. Powdery mildew is pretty much a given in this climate but this has been a pretty dry year and so i haven't had a problem with it on anything else. The pumpkins are just about done anyway, as is the corn. I will be cutting back vines this weekend to encourage the pumpkins to start ripening. If I get the corn out soon enough I can plant a quick cover crop of buckwheat. That spot really needs something. Its clay. I'm surprised my corn and pumpkins did so well there without any amending. I love fresh from the garden corn, but I'm debating on whether or not to grow any next year. In the same space I could probably grow a lot more food and I have neighboring farms who grow plenty of corn. I'm also debating on changing my big flower bed that is along the side of my patio over to veggies, exclusively and moving flowers over to the front as the people here give me a hard time about growing vegetables in the front. *sigh* I might do it anyway but not because of them, It would give me more space for things like greens and herbs. and I would have to buy less seeds for flowers.

I went to see if I had any blueberries left, so that I could throw some on my oatmeal. I didn't find any but I noticed that I have cranberries. 6 of them. At least I have an even number! I only planted one sprawling little plant and didn't expect anything to come of it this year but it did bloom and now I have berries. I'm hoping it spreads and fills in around my blueberry bushes which also didn't grow much this year thanks to deer and rabbits eating them down during the winter. I'll have to protect them this year.

I told myself that in order to focus on the future, I had to stop living like I'm going to be here forever, which means buying no more fruit trees! But then yesterday, the very day after I told myself that, the Stark Brother's catalogue arrived in the mail box with pictures of luscious peaches, apples, plums and cherries, with a promise of 20% off on the trees if I were to order before October no less. Its cruel. Just plain cruel.

I also got an invitation to the Midwest Hound Dog Hoot-N-Nanny and fall faire parade in the mail.. Its a get together and donation drive for those who adopted and who volunteer with Robdar's Houndsong Hound Dog Rescue, whom we'd adopted our dog, Brandi from. We would of loved to go, and I know Brandi would of also. She would be able to play with other dogs like her. Because she is big and strong and barks a lot, a lot of dogs are intimidated by her around here, all except for one Australian Shepherd dog, who adores her down the street, she really doesn't get to socialize much with other dogs. But she has a hoot with other hounds! Unfortunately, the day of the gathering, I have to work--and since I don't have to work most weekends, it would be unfair to my co-workers to ask for it off instead of taking my turn. Maybe next year we can participate. :)

Well I think that is more then enough typing for now. I have other chores to do.

Have a great day!

Nickie

The State Of The Garden Address

Dear Friends,

I've had a great little harvest from my vegetable garden today! The Great White tomatoes are producing the best this year and I'm finally starting to get a few cucumbers from my late planting. Unfortunately, it looks as if one of my cherry type tomatoes has some kind of blight, as all the leaves are turning yellow and sickly. I may have to pull that one up early and send it to the landfill instead of the compost pile. I've never had blight before in all they years I've grown tomatoes. One thing I loved seeing on my tomato plants this morning was a shriveled blackened tomato horn worm with the remains of predatory wasp eggs on it's back. Nature can be gruesome, but I love it. That being said, I'm going to enjoy today's harvest!

Today's Harvest:

• 3 dozen cherry tomatoes
• 3 drying tomatoes
• 6 Great White tomatoes
• 7 Gypsy peppers
• 13 ears of corn
• 3 pickling cucumbers

But not all is peaches and cream in the garden this year. It seems that some folks have nothing better to do with their time then to harass the non-conformers. Who would of thought that a trailer park housing committee would be so uptight? Apparently they don't know the difference between California Poppies, Larkspur, and Yellow Scabiosa from weeds.

I know who it is who keeps complaining too-- If it isn't one thing it's another. He rides a lawn mower up every street in here, even if he isn't mowing. he's a cranky looking guy that never smiles. he looks rather unhappy with his job or life in general. He works for the trailer park and he HATES anything that isn't lawn. But I didn't want to sit in a sea of useless lawn and when we moved in here, we chose our lot more on the size for gardening then anything. The office told us strait up that they welcome gardening and in fact have a garden contest every year. It turns out, their idea of gardening is to have 1) a few scraggly annuals from walmart in hanging baskets or a couple of pots, or 2) sprigs of fake flowers stuck in pots. I am seriously not kidding about this. The don't appreciate carefully tended garden beds, mulched and weed free filled with unusual flowers and plants I have either collected from cuttings or mail order, and from seeds I've planted.

Last spring, before the ground even had a chance to thaw we got a notice that they didn't like our empty garden beds and to correct the problem by so and so date. I ignored that one. It was BS. How could I 'correct' the problem before it was warm enough to plant anything? And then they complained about our patio being messy. I had left my shovel out that morning leaning against my step railing.....and about the skirting on our trailer even though its fine and completely intact unlike several folks in the neighborhood. One gets the feeling they are being targeted after a while.... And the one thing I would of thought they would complain on they haven't; the chickens and rabbits which I keep meticulously clean so that none complains about barnyard smells.

So I was told to rip out my 'weeds' by the 20th. I got the notice Saturday. This morning I got up bright and early to pull my lovely flowers that have given me so much joy, fed butterflies, bees and the yellow birds. Right now I just can't afford the fine. If i didn't take care of the problem, Mr. lawn mower would be over here mowing it all down then fining us with a hefty price to cover his hard work. I can't afford to protest that one right now.

Such is life here...see why I would love to get out of here?

Someday I can have free rein over my own garden, I can have as much corn, sprawling pumpkins, and yes, even yellow scabiosa and larkspur as i want to my heart's content. i just have to grit my teeth a while and try to have patience.

Have a good day,

Nickie