Wait, I think I've found it!!

Oct 29, 06 to Nov 2, 06, a total of 4 days - - there were only 2 posts.

So, it is the time of year! And then as now, our thoughts on the outdoors are probably mostly on waiting for the inevitable changes in the weather. By next weekend here, the weather channel says snow.

digitS'

digit, will that be your first snow of the season? We have had a couple of dustings and there is snow on the mountain, but nothing serious here in town. Way behind schedule. And to think I was worried if it was too late to plant trees at the end of September. October is the new June....

Are you sure it's not 23 hours with daylight savings time ending? :-)

It's been a busy, busy weekend taking down the Halloween decorations. It sure seems like it took a lot longer to set them up than it did to take them down. The hard part is finding room in the garage for all of the new stuff. I guess it serves us right for changing themes this year - last year was pirates, this year a Harry Potter tribute (complete with spoiler warning)...but boy was it fun. hmmm...what to do next year...

Front yard leaves are all vacuumed and mulched, and ready to dump in the backyard. Dead tomatoes, squash and peppers are pulled. I have some onions that I planted in the spring that finally look like they're doing something and spinach is still going. Still have to get to the leaves that pile up along the fence in the backyard.

No snow forcasted here yet, still in the 50-60s during the day, and 30-40 at night

I still have a lot of yard work to do - only have a quarter of the dahlias dug and put away. None of the dead annuals are cleaned up yet.

I've been offline for a bit though because my IDE controller did a death spiral. So now I'm posting from a brand new computer.

It will be the 1st snow and may come as early as Thursday.

The weather people say that isn't late . . . I'm not sure how they are thinking but I suppose it is measurable snow. And, I can remember one October when there were 3 snow storms in October. I had a field that was planted late and Mr. Cooney was coming with a combine. I think I must have nearly cried when it snowed. Twelve months later, my relationship with a girlfriend had ended, I had moved into town and would soon go to work at a greenhouse.

That first of October snow that year probably changed the course of my life. Ah well, it was a long time ago and the elk sure enjoyed that grain all Winter.

Big work in the big garden is done; little work in the little garden still to finish. ThereÂs already frost in the ground but I still need to dig the carrots - potatoes, squash, gladiolas, and dahlias in the basement, parsnips are in the fridge.

Next year, Dafy, how 'bout a scary basement theme? You can have steep stairs to fall down, low pipes to bang the head on, cobwebs for general irritation, and 50 pound loads to contribute to the marathon spirit of the adventure. Hey! I just remembered that there's still some Halloween candy in a kitchen cupboard!

digitS'

I don't know how we post at the same moment sometimes, Cnetter. If I moved 100 miles east to Montana, we'd be in the same time zone . . . and then I would have posted my note an hour . . . uh, . . . . Think I'll go get some more of that candy!

LOL I was wondering where everybody was today too, Digit. From the response it looks like everybody was chomping at the bit to respond to somebody. I had such fun today! Spent the day cleaning house and cooking food for my cousin from Illinois whoÂs stopping by tomorrow on the way for a visit to her daughter in Steamboat. So it was 72 in my back yard (80 in the shade on the sunny side), and I was stuck inside dusting and vacuuming! Groan! And tomorrow is supposed to be in the low fifties! Oh, well! There will be more nice days!

I still have a bunch of stuff to do in the yard, but barring another blizzardy winter like last year, there should be nice days here and there all winter to get it done. First job, now that most of the leaves are off the trees around here, is to get them raked up and onto the compost pile. Then I have to cut all my perennials downÂI do that in fallÂitÂs part of my neatnic thing! Since my family room windowsÂwhere I spend all my timeÂlook straight out (ground level windows) at my perennials, I prefer to not have them looking all brown and ratty looking all winter. And it also makes for a lot less work in spring when thereÂs enough other things to do.

The parsnips are definitely staying in the ground again this year, and I think IÂm gonna try letting most of the carrots and beets in too, and just dig them as I want them. My neighbors across the street have now raked and bagged all their maple leaves, and I plan to appropriate them for my gardenÂto cover/mulch the root cropsÂand to help build my compost pile. Since maple leaves decompose so quickly, I should have some yummy stuff for the veggie garden next spring.

AndÂspeaking of Halloween candyÂI still have 60 full size candy bars! I wound up working on Halloween, so I donÂt have a clue what IÂm gonna do with all that candy! I almost never eat a full size candy bar anymore! I was really kinda hoping IÂd happen to be off. I had a fun time last year watching their eyes when they saw the big candy bars.

The weather here in DEN is supposed to be in the 50's and 60's all week with no precip of any sort predicted so far. I have the whole week off, so maybe itÂll be nice enough mid-week to get out in the yard.

IÂm still not totally accepting that summer is overÂbutÂ
Happy fall all,
Skybird

Digit, when did you see my basement?? It does have steep stairs with loose carpet to trip over and lots of stuff to fall on people. One of my roomies is an audiophile who loves scrounging around thrift stores for old stereo equipment to mess with.

At least it was warmer than usual on halloween this year. I still have a bag of almond joys and take 5 bars left, and then the rejects from the kids.

I'd be happy if it stayed this temperature for a while yet, because I'm still a nervous nilly when it comes to driving in the snow and ice.

I might have to try planting parsnips next year since we love those and the selection at the store is usually nasty.

(...no snow, no snow, no snow...)

Here is a link that might be useful: pics of the audio collection if you're interested

We've had light snow and freezing temperatures here. Yesterday it was in the 70's and I was watering all day. Another cold front is supposed to arrive this morning. I still have a lot of garden work to do. The biggest project is to put a new layer of mulch on everything. I usually use wood chips from the tree trimmers. This year, I decided to treat myself to some pretty mulch. I haven't had any for many years. I saved some of my daylily money for that purpose. Hope I have enough. The darn stuff is $45 a yard.
Karen

Hey, you've got Peter, Paul and Mary on an 8 track! With Skybird's "Leaving On A Jet Plane" . . .

That album's "I Dig Rock And Roll Music" was what finally brought me back to R & R and I realized that these guys all really "dug" IT . . . Well, of course. May even have had that 8 track in the Ranchero!

And, Van Morrison's "Wavelength" . . . Gosh, he had me on his wavelength there for quite awhile - until the reception and the tuner began to fail . . .

digitS'
I DIG Rock and Roll music and I love to get the chance to play. (and sing it)
I figure it's about the happiest sound goin' down today.
The message may not move me or mean a great deal to me,
But hey! it feels so groovy to say:

I DIG the Mamas and the Papas at "The Trip," Sunset Strip in L.A.
And they got a good thing goin' when the words don't get in the way.
And when they're really wailing, Michelle and Cass are sailin'.
Hey! they really nail me to the wall.

I DIG Donovan in a dream-like, tripped out way
His crystal images tell you 'bout a brighter day
And when the Beatles tell you
They've got a word "love" to sell you
They mean exactly what they say

I DIG Rock and Roll music I could really get it on in that scene.
I think I could say somethin' if you know what I mean
But if I really say it, the radio won't play it
Unless I lay it between the lines!

Saturday was partially blown by turning my spouse into a dead viking for an "I see dead people" party. If I posted a picture of him or my daughter as a zombie, would the ugliness offend anybody?

Offend someone? Nah!

Ya want ugly?!?

Still getting up into the 70's here during the day, and maybe freezing every-other night. Its so dry, and the humidity so low that my lips are cracking, and that is pretty rare. I sure hope we get some snow here quickly.

Those are beautiful. How do you keep track of which is which? I've been writing on mine with a sharpie, but I still seem to get some mislabeled.

I just took two Aleve to prep me for digging more.

Are those sweet potatoes or yams Digit? I love sweet potatoes - which I define as the yellow fleshed tubers. The orange ones, which I call yams, are ok too.

We didn't get anything done in the yard this weekend except for digging the Mexican primrose, a little bit of raking, and moving the compost bin to right smack dab in the middle of the vegetable garden. It was only 1/3 full, so it wasn't too hard. Then next spring it will be so much easier to spread the nice compost!

I wanted to do the Lasagne bed in our side lawn, but we didn't have enough time to go get the manure, and I didn't want to have that in the bed of the truck or in the driveway all week. So hopefully the weather will hold and we can get it done next Saturday.

Still have loads of leaves to rake and need to get all the veggie garden detritus chopped and into the compost.

Shoot, I thought they were dahlia tubers.

Well, they get better lookin' with a little trimmin':

I can't keep track of 'em, Cnetter! My intent is mostly to have nice blooms. And, how they "morph" into something I didn't have previously, I've never understood. They are clones, after all.

As an example, the white-tipped bicolors tend to sunburn if there's too much white. So, when one develops too much white, I tie a string around it and then leave it in the garden in the Fall. I think I may have lost a few bicolors as they've morphed on to solid colors but I still have plenty.

If there are varieties I wouldn't want to lose a single root, I tie a different colored string around the plant. Then the bags where they will spend the Winter months are marked. The more ordinary (or vigorous) are unmarked and just reappear each year in about the same proportions.

Names have been hopelessly lost but with about 300 plants each year, it would have just taken too much effort to be terribly organized. If I had to write a name on 6 or 8 roots from each . . .

digitS'

Yes, dahlias but I understand that Mr. Dahl was interested in them because they are edible, Alice.

d'S'

Here's about half of the cellar room:

And, that's less than half of the roots. The boxes with sawdust are the glads, the dahlias are in peat moss.

Kind of reminds me of a loafing shed with the livestock in for a Winter storm.

digitS'

I donÂt quite understand, Digit! You keep telling us how old and infirm you areÂand then you show us acres of flowers and buckets and buckets of dug tubers and corms! Non sequitur! So I donÂt believe youÂre old and infirm!!!

And, I donÂt have 8-track, but when it comes to "leavin on a jet plane......... When we were boarding one of my flites about a year ago, a guy got on carrying a big guitar case and asked me if there was somewhere to put it. I asked where he was sitting, and he indicated that he was in the coach cabin, so I told him we had a light load and there should be plenty of room in the overhead bin. He looked really familiar, but the coach cabin didnÂt make sense for the person I thot he looked like, so I assumed I was wrong! Then he said the guitar was worth $25,000 (yes, you read that right!), so I went, "Uh! OK! I think I can find room for it in the closet," and took it from himÂcarefully! When he turned to go to his seatÂwhich was only 3 rows from where I was standingÂhe started singing "Leaving on a Jet Plane," and by then I was REALLY curious if my original perception had been correct. I anxiously waited to get the passenger listÂwhich we donÂt until just before they close the doorÂand as soon as I got it I looked, and, lo and behold, it was Peter Yarrow! When I had a chance, I talked to him for a few minutes (leaning completely over/on top of the girl in the aisle seat, and really not caring about it at all!), and heÂs a WAY cool person. Would have loved to have been able to sit around and talk to him some more, but couldnÂt do itÂbut I did get his autographÂcomplete with a peace symbol by his name!

No 8-tracks, but I really do have to get one of my old turntables hooked up one of these days. I have lots of PP&M on vinyl!

Skybird

I thought they were sweet potatoes too, now I'm gonna have to make a pie since I'll be wanting that now.

I remember Peter Yarrow was at Tattered Cover recently for a book signing of Puff The Magic Dragon. I thought of taking either Peter, Paul & Mommy or the Peter (of the PPM trilogy), but apparently they don't like it when you bring other things for them to sign instead of the book. My personal favorite PPM song is The Marvelous Toy...it went zip when it moved and bop when it stopped, whirrrr when it stood still, I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will :-)

I think we're up to 10 turntables now, including a couple that play 16 rpm and of course each one sounds better with a different receiver and equalizer, which explains most of the "collection" (at least that's the story I've been told).

Since no one said they'd be offended, here's how part of Saturday was spent - doing the spouse's face for a party:

My daughter is much better with the makeup:

We only have three turntables and only one is currently hooked up to the sound system (and this computer). But I have six guitars - all of which didn't cost a total of $25,000. Though I absolutely completely understand somebody paying that for a good guitar. I've been playing various PP&M on my old guitar for 30 years.

Not going trick or treating at your house Cnetter - WAY to scary!!!

And I agree with Skybird, has anyone actually met Digit? I'm not sure why he thinks he has to have a cover story with us. What's up with the secret identity Digit? What are you hiding?

And while I don't have any 8 tracks anymore (my Dad has all his though). I do still have the Partridge Family albums from my childhood. And still play them occasionally!

I'll go to Cnetter's - I like scary

We even have a few reel-to-reel tapes, but no player yet.

hehehehehe

Are you trying to tell us that's you in the picture, Digit!

...or just a reassurance that he's not a crook?

.....or just another scarey picture!

Or he was there... But, hey! I could've been there. Well, ok, I think that picture was taken on the White House Lawn, so the likelihood of me being there at any age are slim and none!

But see, this picture fits in with my notion that Digit has has a secret identity. It's just up to us to figure out who he really is!

sub rosa (under the Rose Bush): privileged and not to be made public

I think the gauntlet has been thrown down. I'm calling in my research assistant.

That pic kind of looks like this one

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1229841}}

Nevermind, I get it - he's the "don't ask, don't tell" general

Thank you, Dafy! All that was WAY over my head!

Skbyird

Have I been snookered? It wouldn't be the first time. Guess I better tell those folks at the White House never mind on my question.

"under the Rose Bush"

I remember there was a Rose Kennedy, but I think that's G. W. Bush, not Rose.

...crouching tiger, hidden gardener...

Here is a link that might be useful:

Oh, yeah!

Of course, now we need to wait for a confirmation (or is it denial) from Digit...

I don't think he's ever gonna be back here to post! I think he's just having too much fun watching the confusion he's created around here!

It was definitely a lot more fun than the proofreading I'm supposed to be doing :-)