Today

OK, who else is busy up to their eyeballs right now?

Today on top of normal laundry, feed the family, dole out medications, on and on, I have jalapenos drying in the dehydrator (they smell WONDERFUL) and we're baking double batches of cookies and canning more venison.  I still have to slice up a bunch of venison so it can marinade to be come jerky and I'm waiting for a conference call to come in, which will probably ensure at least one batch of forgotten and burned cookies.  lol.

I need to go pull the few onions that are left outside, too.

Can you believe that hubby got a doe this weekend, biggest doe this year and we forgot to take a picture?  Of course you can, you know how I am about pictures.  lol.

Oh - we did get the tree up.  It's not decorated, but it's up.  Hey, that counts for something, right?  Yeah, OK, fine, add that to the To Do List, too.  I see how you are.

What a ride

Sorry, folks, I've been MIA, I know.  Life's been pretty brutal lately and I just haven't had time to be online too much.

I pulled the jalapenos finally and dehydrated the last crop of them.  I still have onions in the ground, believe it or not!  I pulled one yesterday and it wasn't as big as my fist, but it wasn't far from it, either.  I have no idea what the carrots are doing under there.  There are some baby broccoli growing and my lettuce is still doing OK.  It's been raining all day and it's going to get close to freezing tonight so I went out and covered them up.

I know I'm going to have to call it done here pretty soon, but I'm enjoying seeing how far I can stretch the growing season here without hoops or a green house.

Sorry, forgot the picture!  lol

Someone forgot to tell the plants that we are entering Fall

I have two jalapeno plants still in the garden and one bell pepper plant and they are all putting on new peppers like CRAZY.

I pulled 19 jalapenos today!  I'm loving it.  I don't understand it, lol, but I love it!

Good to know

Apparently the honey bees consider the tomatoes to be theirs.  They do not want to share.

(This is the top of my hand, so I know I didn't squeeze or grab it accidentally.)

(The good side of this is that I haven't been stung by a bee in years and years.  My reaction was:  Oh, will you get Off and I scraped it off.  I know it will die, poor thing.  I want some hives in the future, so good to know it didn't hurt that bad since I really couldn't remember.)

Ground breaking

One thing about the heat, it didn't take long for fall plants to start coming up.  Now if they'll stay alive until it cools off, I'll be good to go.

Want to know something funny?  I forgot where I planted what.  I know the cabbage and cauliflower are in one part, but I can't remember which was on the left and which on the right.  The carrots, spinach and lettuce I know.  

Think I need more sleep!  lol

It's on the way

I know it's still eleventy-billion degrees outside.

I know we're all still working on canning summer produce.

I'm telling you, though, it's coming.  This is what I saw when I went out to get clothes off the line.

Fall doesn't care that the grass is all dead from the heat and the heat is still coming.  Doesn't care that I've still got tons of green tomatoes out there.  Doesn't care that the kids are back in school so their play time is limited now.  It's time to give us a well needed break from the heat and fast pace of summer and she's on her way to deliver just that.

You can see the difference in the sun rises and sun sets.  You can feel the difference in the winds.

She's coming and she's not making or taking any excuses.

Fall Garden

I got the small Fall garden in this morning.  It was cool enough still that I went out barefoot and worked in the cool dirt.  That's one of the best things about gardening to me, a bit of cool dirt on your feet and between your toes, feeling how fluffy it is (hopefully - ha) and knowing that what you're doing to improve your soil is working.

I cleaned out the last two zucchinis (and man, did the squash bugs come crawling out!), the last bell pepper and some cucumbers.  There are still a few cucumber vines out there but I'll probably remove them within a week, they are starting to wilt and die back.  The honey dew melon vines are dying, too, which is too bad, because there are four small honey dews out there.

Tomatoes are still loaded with green tomatoes but I'm not getting nearly as many red ones daily as before.  Will probably end up pulling those and hanging them in the basement to ripen during the cold weather.

Jalapenos are still going strong, they are loving the heat.


I planted carrots, broccoli, lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower out there this morning.  After I pull the cucumbers and melons I'll put in more of these same things because I have seeds left.

I don't have a picture to share, there's nothing to see but dirt and sweaty me and you don't want to see that!  lol

Fall Garden

I've never really done a fall garden before.  This year I'm going to try it and do more than plant some lettuces, which is what I usually do.

So far I'm thinking:

lettuces
cabbage (I do have some growing now and they are doing OK)
collards
garlic
broccoli


I'm finding different information on when I should plant them for my area and zone.  Some say in the next two weeks and some say I've missed my window.  Harumph.  lol.

I'm going to get them in the ground this week and see what happens.  Live and learn, right?

What's in your fall garden?