Gardening and an Experiment

Today is Granddaughter Paiton's spring program at school, 

so I am posting a little earlier than normal. 

Over the weekend, I re-potted most of the tomato and 

pepper plants downstairs. 

Here they were a month or so ago. 

Here are part of them on Saturday... don't you LOVE my set-up? 

Yes, those lights are balanced precariously on the wood-standing-on-it's-side. 

I have everything transplanted except the coleus and the six or so tomato plants you see on the left. I went to Walmart yesterday to get more big Jiffy pots and some more soil for them, and I'll finish up tomorrow. 

And here's the rest of the set-up... cool, huh????  

These are two kinds of tomatoes and one kind of pepper, 

growing on.  They are good, healthy plants. 

It's still a little too early to plant here, but Michaele 

also is experimenting with Gro Tunnels... I would like to 

try that.  Our veggies are being planted in containers, though. 

As you see here, the deeper pots I started them in allowed for good 

root systems. 

This morning, I read my friend Michaele's blog, Sprout 'n' Wings, and 

one of the things she wrote about was trying to eat something found in the wild. 

(not a morel) 

So, I gave it a shot.  She wrote about curly dock. 

I did not take a picture of it "in situ", so you will have to 

read Michaele's blog entry to see it ... 

but

Here are some of the larger leaves washed and ready to oil. 

I should have picked much smaller leaves, and I realized that, and did. 

This was from our pasture at the old place. 

I wised up and cleaned the smaller leaves then.  I sprinkled olive oil on them (too much, I think) 

and sea salt (too much, I think). 

Here they are, fresh out of the oven... and I have to tell you... they are GOOD. 

Now I understand why people rave about crispy kale... these are along the same lines, I'm sure. 

So, I'll have to pronounce this experiment successful! 

Thanks to Michaele. 

By the way,  here are the dead horses from yesterday's blog entry: 

Hale and hearty, as you see!  The fourth was just out of camera range on the right, you 

can see part of his tail! 

Another Beautiful October Day

The volunteer zinnias at the old place are starting to fade, finally. 

So I am going to take an envelope out there and collect seeds later this week. 

I want some more of these huge blooms. 

They might not bloom like this again, because they may be F1 Hybrids... 

but we will see.  That's the fun of gardening. 

This is a mess of burrs in the pasture.  I put Roundup on them the other day. 

They HURT! 

Troy could not mow them because there is chicken wire caught in that grass, 

so next week... I'm going to sit on the ground and cut it out, piece by piece, until it's all gone. 

After spending the day at the hospital with Keith, I loaded the dogs into the car as soon as I got here, and off we went to Basehor City Park.  The dogs have to stay leashed here, of course, and they pulled me all over... and tonight I am VERY tired.  So... we walked back to the car, and in we hopped, and we went ahead and went to the old house. 

They ran and ran...

I swear this guy does not know how to do anything unless it's full tilt boogie. 

They both had a roll in the same spot. 

While they ran, I carted all those vines from yesterday to the burn pile. 

Yes, we have decided to burn, because the pasture is so soft right now. 

We are afraid the truck will get stuck. 

I have some little miscellaneous things that need to be done out in the yard and in the henhouses, and I'm going to enlist Jacob's help again this week, barring any complications with Keith's care. 

Yes, he is still in (five days) and no, we don't have A Plan yet, but the doctors are working on it. 

Jester got to go in the old henhouse for the first time... it is so desolate, full of spiderwebs and a nasty mouse smell.  Sad.  Yes, it makes me sad.  I miss them. 

But look at this... the Virginia Creeper on our dying walnut!  Wow! 

Gorgeous in the sun. 

All of your prayers and kind wishes are so appreciated while we try to be patient and 

wait for the doctors to tell us what they think will help Keith best. 

Sunday Thoughts

Today after church, Keith took down the big Christmas tree on the porch, while I drove down to see my oldest grandson Chris in Garnett, about 65 miles from us.

Chris and his old gran!

 Keith packed away the big artificial tree which we put on the porch so the kittens could not climb in it constantly before Christmas, where Nathan dressed it with plastic balls in case it came to harm outside.  In fact, it DID fall over twice in heavy winds despite a sack of gravel at it's feet.  Yesterday I took down the inside decorations from the Gatlinburg pine that also was dressed in plastic this year (same reason!).  We packed them away in bins and tomorrow they will go out to the storage building to wait until next season.  By then, the kittens - or Josie, at least - will be old enough that climbing the tree won't be so tempting.

Jenny, an hour ago... she still tries sometimes to stay near Keith, who was on the couch

Our little Jenny tonight is still very ill.  We have decided that she will go again to Dr. Tom tomorrow morning, and have him give us an honest assessment of her chances.  He and we hoped that she would be able to grow out of this upper respiratory infection, but the last week has been horrible.  We have seen this before... last year, our Nick wasted away before our eyes, and Dr. Tom was unable to diagnose what caused it exactly.  We see this same condition now in Jenny, the wasting of the back and thigh muscles.  I tried dropping some plain bouillon down her throat tonight, but she struggled so against it that we stopped.  She has had her antibiotics faithfully, and we have tried to keep her nose clear, but she is even now laboring as she breathes.  She can still get up on the table where her food is out of reach of the dogs... but does not eat, and we have not seen her eat for four days now.  She is still drinking water, but sleeping almost all the time.  We let it drag on with Nickie for almost a month, and we regretted it... thinking the rest and sleep would do him well.... we will not make the same mistake with this sweet little girl who deserves better, and never had a real chance.

On a happier note, Keith ordered our vegetable seeds from Burpee today for the vegetable garden.  We are going to try putting the tomatos in containers again this year, as we have had wonderful success with this in the past, but the bulk of the garden will be in the ground, in the new layered beds.  We have (Keith decided!) decided to fence the vegetable garden to keep Lilly the Mole Digger out of it, and to keep her away from the paper layers  - which tend to end up in the far corners of the yard when she decides to play.  We'll use cattle panels and t posts, as I used to at the old Calamity Acres to make pens there for my chickens.

Gardens in winter

I am still pouring over catalogs myself, to order flowers and a few special perennials for the gardens, and then we'll buy whatever we don't order from a couple of well-liked local nurseries. Tomorrow I am off, so after a few necessary errands and a trip to the vet in the morning, I'll put away the last of the Christmas things, spruce the house up, and get ready to tackle the new year at the office on Tuesday.