I am very tire of the weather too. I want to see some sunshine! It rained again early this morning and everything stays so wet that I can't do much outside.

My flowers are done for because of the frost so I just want them to dry now so I can save some seeds.

Still waiting for the vegetable garden to dry enough to clean it off.

I did clean and bag up some seeds I had saved from earlier.

I made an apple pie from apples from Plaster's Orchard and cooked down the peelings and cores along with some I had in the freezer and will be making apple jelly later this afternoon. I am going to try not using pectin at all. I think that is what I did last year, but didn't make notes.

We finally got to the garden out on Fort St. to buy turnips and some lettuce. We were disappointed in both. I hate to say it, but the lettuce was pretty tough and the small white turnip was pithy. Wonder what that is about? Everything is different depending on the soil it is raised in....I have seen that even within my own garden and yard.

I am getting ready to order some essential oils so I can start making soap again. We are getting pretty low. I have rendered lard and tallow just waiting.

Been reading a lot because of the weather.

Isn't cooler weather supposed to make turnips sweeter? I pulled my first one today. It wasn't very good. Maybe I let it get too big.

I picked my cherry tomatoes this afternoon so they won't freeze tonight. NOAA says it's supposed to get down to 30 here.

The kids and I made one last trip to Close Gardens to see what was still blooming. Wish the sun had been shining but at least it wasn't terribly cold.

I didn't get up to the gardens for fall. I like looking in shirt sleeve weather!

It got down to 32 here this morning and everything is covered in white frost.

chilly here and there is a lot to be done. starting the leaf season for the compost bin which is almost full now. when you have greens you don' have browns and when you have browns you don't have greens. so goes life.

william

Turnips get sweeter in SUNNY cool weather. Whithout the sun, not enough sugars are produced in the leaves to be shunted to the roots. Everything has suffered from lack of light this year, not just people.

My bush beans bore well but lacked the flavor I would have liked. Put them up anyway of course, will just cook them in very little water and dump in butter and garlic and they will be better than anything else I can get next January.

Rainy and cool (fifties) in Sacramento,CA. They had a three inch rain that was all over the news the day after I arrived - a record for them. Some days have been warm and sunny. We have gone to a few garden centers; I have a new rain chain and a metal lizard. I see lots that I like but it was expensive and wouldn't fit in a suitcase.

Helen, so that's where you have been; wondered about you. Hope you are having a good time.

I did the first gardening work today in about a month. What a beautiful day it has been; got up to 73°. I mowed the yard for the last time. Also got the garden mowed off. Pulled some dried bean pods for seeds and collected some flower seeds.

I found 8 more L.I. Cheese squashes in the frozen dead vines. They look pretty ripe to me. At least they are a nice buff pink color. So far the ones in the milk parlor are holding ok.

The tree trimmers are on our road today and I am hoping they won't forget my load of chips.

Hope you all had a good day too.

Cats are funny. The mother cat we adopted has totally weaned her babies and doesn't even eat with them! She now thinks she is a house cat and comes in every time we open the door....I told DH he could do litter box duty if she stays in too much.

You all sound so busy. Glenda I admire your making soap. That is something I would not trust my self to undertake.
Yes the leaves are starting to turn here so raking leaves can not be far behind.
I think my flower beds did so much better this year. I had put leaves into all of my beds last fall and worked them in an the put more on top to cover for the winter. I think I could count the amount of weeds I pulled all season on one hand.
Now that I am pretty much over the flu (still get tired fast). I have a lot to do and supervise out side to have all the beds put down for the winter. An still waiting on seed from a few things. I still have some perennials blooming. As well as zinnias an impatiences and dahlias.
Have fun on your trip Helen.
Bonnie

Hope your hubby appreciates all you do Glenda. Not many people make their own soap. I wouldn't have a clue how to do it.

Mulberryknob - Thanks for the explanation on turnips. This was my first try growing them and I thought the problem was my brown thumb.

I think my zinnias are pretty much gone. There were some red dahlias blooming at Close Park. They caught my eye from quite a distance and I had to go over to see what they were.
I have a plant with red spikey flowers that has looked better this fall than it did over the summer. I've been trying to think of the name of it for two weeks. It's not celosia. It's a perennial.

This rain is really bringing down the leaves. I haven't had a chance yet to get out with my camera and take pictures of the fall colors. Hope it's not winding down already.

Bonnie - Glad to hear you're over the flu. We've avoided it so far but there are lots of kids absent at our school. The flu shots take two weeks to kick in which I think might be too late now. With 20% or more out at some schools, I'm grateful that this flu didn't have a higher mortality rate like they first thought it might. Hope they can get vaccine out quicker next time.

Helen - What's a rain chain? Are you going to show us pics of your souvies from CA?

Well, we had another day of rain....now today is cold.

My essential oils came yesterday so I can make soap anytime now. I only use lavender and rosemary. I am not big on fragrances but I do love these used together.

I worked up another L.I. Cheese squash. It had been sitting on the bale of hay and had a beginning soft spot on the bottom. I couldn't stand to let it waste so worked it up, pureed it and froze 7 bags.

I guess the zinnias will never get a chance to dry out so I can save seeds! I see rain is predicted next week too.

Christie, post a picture of the spikey red perennial and maybe we can help you.

My favorite fall mum just began blooming, but the weather isn't cooperating. It is a salmon flowered 'Sheffield Pink', dendrathema morifolium. I can't keep up with the name changes on the mums; it used to be called Koreana.

Nasty Friday morning, supposed to get colder all day here. those to our west already have the cooler weather today, but ours is slow moving in.
Glad I have a few good books!
The men finally got busy the day before the rain, and moved my garden shed in, I'll have to adjust where garden beds go, but it will be soo nice to have all tools at hand.
Wish I had wire enclosers around my little fruit trees, I have the wire, but not the help--oh, the joys of getting older! I counted 4 Bucks and 5 Does in the garden Tuesday evening. The Deer walk around my yard and garden daytime eating the fallen pears. Guess the know we dont shoot them, try to shoo them out, and they just look at you!
Glenda, the Squash sound good, I must try them next year. I'm going to bake my Sweet Potatoes, most of them, and freeze up.
I havent made soap in years.
Well, what kind of Winter do you think we'll have?
Certainly starting off wet, here in Howell County.

I don't have deer but the blasted rabbits chewed on my new fruit trees last winter. I still haven't found the tall spirals to wrap them with....the aluminum foil looks just a tad tacky!

Christie, a rain chain is supposed to replace a downspout. It is copper and guides the water down to maybe a rain barrel. I haven't figured out what to do with it. Water comes down in torrents because of the shape of my roof. I have ugly stock tanks instead of a rain barrel but I do catch water from my roof. It helps a little. Glenda where do you buy your essential oils and how do you make the soap? I buy soap at the craft fairs. I love spearmint and anise and one that smells like cloves or some other spice. Everyone thinks I'm nuts for buying so much. I put it in drawers and closets and musty places. I agreed to trade seeds and so I brought some seed heads inside. I have the heat on so they dried in the house quickly. It looked messy to have them around on newspaper but what else is new.

Helen, I was lucky because a woman on another forum I belong to had made soap and sold it for years and she taught us online a simple formula.

I buy all my essential oils (not fragrance oils, because I wanted an all natural soap) from Wholesale Supplies Plus. I use an online soap calculator to be sure I get a good balance of properties. There are lots of very simple recipes online for beginners. What I am doing with mine is using up saved fats, rendered lard, and rendered beef tallow, soybean oil, olive oil, coconut oil, sunflower seed oil. You can buy everything you need except the beef tallow at Wal-mart. I can only find the lye at a local Ace Hardware....it is in the drain cleaner section.

Read some online sites and I will be glad to help you all I can.

The batch I made yesterday seems a little sticky this morning; maybe because I used more oil than usual. I wanted a really good conditioning soap for my winter skin!
I just use lavender and rosemary EO's. I can't tolerate some fragrances. We love it. I have made goat's milk and cow's milk soap and that is what my sis like the most. I just use the canned goat's milk from WM.

I have saved some seeds but it is a slow process trying to get the zinnias to dry before I bring them inside.

I took a picture of my seeds on the kitchen table but it turned out so blurry that I hated to post it. Then I moved the operation to the top of a bed in a dark warm bedroom; I also have them on the plant stand on the back porch. My house especially the porch and the kitchen seem always to be messy because of some project or other.
{{gwi:1120390}}

Today's project is a new recipe for a typical french baguette. When there is nothing else to do, I make bread.

Glenda

The red perennial I was trying to think of is persicaria firetail. It's almost true red but a little on the pinkish side. It's a magnet for Japanese Beetles so it looked like heck all summer but recovered and bloomed good through late summer/early fall. It hasn't been one of my absolute favorites but it does to be getting better every year so I may change my mind someday.

Ceresone - I was just thinking I hadn't seen you post for a few days and wondered if you were doing ok. Sounds like you have more than your share of deer. Is it like that every year? Will your garden be in trouble this winter when they get hungry?

We have a place at the front of our house where the water overflows the gutter when it rains hard. The downspouts can't keep up. We made sure they weren't clogged but that's not the problem. Maybe a rain chain is just what we need there. I googled them and I think it would look much nicer than adding another down spout.

The rain chain sounds wonderful Helen. You will have to post a pic when you have it up.
Do you have a lot of deer around when it snows Ceresone?
Glenda that sounds like a big job making soap. I'm glad you enjoy it. I rather enjoy making bread or just baking in general.
Christie I have a place on the front of my house where the gutters can't handle the water flow as well. It sure is a pain. It flattens any thing under the run off or just washes away soil an I have to keep putt in more back in. I need new gutters w/ more down spouts this time.
I finally got out side for a little while yesterday. It was so pretty out. I cut back or down about 80% of what needed to be done for winter. Still have a few things I just could not cut down yet b/c they still look nice. Now I need to go move all the big piles to the compost bin. I also raked a few leaves for one of the beds for mulch. The leaves are really falling off the tree today. All that is going to have to wait b/c it is supposed to rain here today. I pulled all the green tomatoes off the vine to bring in when I was cutting down the vines. I also found a hand full of peppers that I had missed before. Saves some okra for seed As well as a few sunflower heads.
Bonnie

I will be glad when all my weeds have died down to a nice burnable brown. I had no garden here this year, too late but I'll get an early start in 2010.

May I part from the normal to give a eulogy for a lady gardener?
She died yesterday, at the age of 84. The youngest daughter hated her mother enough to block family from her bedside, and will have her cremated ASAP, and scatter ashes with her beloved dogs.
So, hence the eulogy.
She loved to garden, even if in the last few years, we could only share seed catalogs together. She was the first person I had seen that could grow a cup and saucer plant from seed. She loved her Iris, we've scoured many catalogs to be sure we didnt order duplicates, and could then trade. My Iris will never bloom without thoughts of her.
She also grew a HUGE lavender dahlia, that I've never seen before, or since.
Raising 5 children, she always had a huge garden, and would tell me about the gardens they had in Iowa, where she was born. She even grew and loved eggplant, why I could never imagine!!
She baby sat my 3 girls all the years I worked outside the home.
I was in the ambulance when she was taken to the hospital, and was with her after she was transferred to St.Johns in Spf.
Yes, the Ozarks has lost a dedicated gardener- and I lost my Sister.

Ceresone - I'm so sorry. : ( Sounds like you were very close to her.
Wish I could give you a real hug instead of just posting.

"My Iris will never bloom without thoughts of her." I thought I was just going to read some gardening stuff, but that line brought a tear to my old eye. I'm so sorry to hear of your sister's passing. It sounds like she lived a great life.

I'm sorry for your loss. It is good to remember but not be too sad. She had a long life and many don't get that. I tell myself that about my mother. Your sister had you there when she needed you. You ought to make a memorial garden in your yard. It would be a comfort to you. It could be a small area but special - her favorite colors and flowers with sister's name or nickname garden sign on a stake.

Ceresone, that brought a tear to my eye. I am so sorry you lost her, but how wonderful that you were close to each other all these years; what a blessing for you both.

I talk to my sis in Iowa two or more times a week, and we have done daily before. Thank God for cell phones.

I love the idea that each time an iris blooms you will think of her. I bet it would make her happy too.

Thanks, Everyone.
The last few weeks have been a struggle, Both with trying to break a "hold" and get abuse stopped. Unfortunately, we failed.
But, I hold fast to the faith she's visiting with both our brothers, another sis, Mom and Dad, and all the others--probably planning her next flowerbeds, and where she want's her garden.
So, Thanks again, everyone.

Ceresone, So sorry to hear about your loss an trouble.
As you, I will think she is with loved ones.
((((((((((hug)))))))))
Bonnie

my most sincere condolences.

william

Does Tahlequah, Ok count at Ozark region?

My flowers are still in bloom even though we have had two frosts. I am trying to collect seeds but waiting for something to look dead. My cleomes have produced so much that I find that I keep collecting them as if they were gold.

I am about to make soap for Christmas gifts, but I used goat soap and add oils and seeds to some. Put up tomato jam, salsa, and spaghetti sauce this year. New to gardening and canning although I have made jam before.

Wishing we had some sun. All we get is rain, rain, and more rain.

Ceresone, I am so sorry for your loss. It is never easy.

I think you'll fit right in here on this forum. We are easy to get along with, but sometimes there aren't many of us. I see the sun, Yeh.

Welcome Jessaka! Tahlequah does count. : ) You're in Cherokee County right? Sounds like your weather has been pretty much like ours. As long as you have a few chiggers and rocks like the rest of us, you're included. lol

Our little Sheltie has been barking at our pecan tree for the last three days. I found some empty pecan husks under the tree and under an oak tree nearby so I think the squirrels were letting me know that the pecans are ready. I picked some off the tree yesterday but was only able to get about two gallons (with the husks on). That's not very many. Maybe there will be more next year.

Big hug Ceresone. This would be tough enough even if your family was getting along well. I'll keep you in my prayers.

Welcome Jessaka! Glad you joined us. I post on the Oklahoma Forum often and they have welcomed me graciously.

Sounds like you have been busy. Glad to see another soak maker here. I just finished a batch of conditioning soap. The family's favorite so far has been the Goat Milk though.

Christie, hope you beat the squirrels to all the nuts. Either our dog doesn't see the squirrels in our yard or he just doesn't care!

I may run out later and see if the zinnia heads have dried enough to pull. That should finish me with seed saving except for some petunias.

Thanks, Everyone for the expressions of sympathy.
Hard times, but only one member was the problem.

The squirrels have been terrible this year.On one of my Pin Oaks, they are cutting about 12" off each branch--I don't know why, acorns are thick without doing that.
Nothing bore heavily this year, almost no Pecans, or Walnuts. I thought it was because I pruned the fruit trees heavy, but maybe not.
Some amimal has decided the Deck is his oun personal bathroom!! Think maybe after last night, the problem is solved!
And I just learned that Deer have been seen on our deck!!
Neighbors cows got out suprise!!- and broke off one of my new fruit treesThe demolished 15 trees 3 years ago--we fix the fence one spot, they find another.
But Hey--It's getting better--We're expecting 4+ inches of rain next few days, least it's not ice!!

Hi, Jessaka, I'm in Stilwell and "visit" here sometime although I post more often on the Ok site.

Ceresone, so sorry for your loss. How neat that you have the irises to remind you of your sister. My garden is like that too, all kinds of stuff that my grandmother gave me. She's been dead over 36 years, but I still think of her each time one of her passalong treasures blooms.

hi, mulberry and gldno, i recognize you from the oklahoma forum. didn't know that you lived in stilwell mulberry.

where are most people on this form living?

we have chiggers and rocks. also ticks, but this year was great, i didn't get chiggers or ticks, nor poison ivy, come to think of it. when we first moved here i had all three and my husband and i came down with tick fever. rocks? I have dug up rocks and put them in the driveway,and you know what? they disapeared. if i want them they go away; if i don't want them they grow. so now we are having to bring in rocks for the driveway.

Mullberryknow, know what I cherish? My Sis gave me a start off our grandfathers rose, and it came to him from his father.It's a deep red/mahogony, millions of thorns, and not as heavy petaled as I like, but I do love it.
And Jessaka, you remind me of what happened to a former neighbor. He was from North Missouri, and stationed in Mississippi. He took a lot of geode rocks down to line his drive. First time they all left home together-so did ALL their geodes! Not a one was there when he came home.
I don't think it's ever going to quit raining here. Next week is supposed to be nice, so maybe I can get the chicken house and barn cleaned out.
I'm thinking next summer we might be wanting all the rain we've had this year, don't you?

ceresone, these rocks just disappeared into the ground, whereas other areas of our yard sprout them. can't imagine using geodes to line a drive. i imagine that someone thought that they were too pretty and too valuable. i lined flower beds with limestone from the country this year, so much work. did back yard last year. no one seems to take them though. ha.

i feel like we are living in seattle or oregon with all the rain we got. my husband didn't want to live in oregon due to the rain. ha.

nice to have a barn and a chicken house. i live in town on 1/2 acre. wish we had a barn. but i can't keep up with all the work here. today i hope to empty maybe 10 bags of leaves that my friend and i gathered from neighbors. if they have been mowed they go in beds; if not, along the fence line.

I am getting bagged leaves from 2nd street in Joplin where they have the recycling center; I was getting grass clipping there. The leaves smell better and are lighter than the grass. I am covering paths with them. Other people think they are a nuisance and I haul them in.

We made a spur of the moment decision to head north and visit my sis in Iowa and our daughter in the KC area so have been gone since Thursday.

We came home to my guage (empty can)filled with 2.75 inches of rain. Found the farm intact and the cow and two calves did well out in the field together. DH separated them again last night so I can milk again.

The kittens are almost grown and getting very brave; three of them were on the porch this morning. That's the first time they have left the barn lot area.

Their mother has left again on one of her jaunts...have no idea where she goes but when she returns she scratches on the back door and comes inside for the day.

My yard is covered with leaves. I need to gather them and mulch some flower beds.

I see our weather is supposed to be great this week. Won't that be a nice change!

we are getting a mulcher/mower for next year. bought it from a friend of our's. most of the leaves that i gathered are not mulched, and i am not in the mood to drag them out of the garden to mulch. dragging bags of leaves is hard on my neck, but i did it. i got tired and just put the whole leaves around the plants too.

gldno, kittens are so much fun. we have one that someone dumped at the park. she is growing fast and spent yeasterday out front with us while my husband was painting the house. she buried herself in the large pile of leaves in the flower bed, and my husband almost stepped on her. i said that we now have to watch where we step on the leaves. she got on my ladder to watch me paint, and when i move the ladder to paint the bottom of the windows she ran in the front door, climbed upon the cedar chest by that window and watched me from there. i didn't know cats were that smart.

Cats are smart when it benefits them. I love cats; people say they are aloof. Mine are helping me anytime I try to plant something. If you keep it, get it neutered; they are prolific and the Toms don't live long when they roam.

I think I will be working in spurts today. I have already put in almost two hours cleaning the garden and pulling some steel posts. I want to get a larger clear area and not have so many little nooks and crannies. Usually I work until I drop and need to recuperate. I am now having another cup of coffee and resting. As my Dad used to say "I am pacing myself".

The ground is beautifully soft and may be too wet to till anything.

When I went into the barn to get the cow out, she had gone into a hallway and to the back and I had to go drive her out. There was a small skunk in one of the back pens......I got the cow out and left. DH went back to get it, but it was either gone or buried in the hay. I will have to keep alert when I milk now!

This is a perfect fall day. I love this kind of weather.