Saturday Night and a Tiny Rant

As if I am not worn out watching out for THESE GUYS

I have never, ever in my life, seen turtles out heading across the road in 

mid-September!!!!  Yes, I helped this little guy... and held up three cars while I did it. (It was on a gravel road on the way home from the old house, not on a highway, thank heavens) 

He was heading for a very deep ditch, too, so he got a lift up. 

And now... THESE GUYS are going back and forth across the road. (though this is our driveway) 

Yes, it's a wooly bear... and yes... it's almost black, you can hardly see the bands. 

Old wives tales say that that means we are going to have a harsh winter again. 

I am seeing scores of them, so if you see me swerving suddenly in Leavenworth County, Kansas, this is why. 

Good gravy.  

I'm going to end up being an agoraphobic at this rate. 

I thought you might be interested in seeing the roots on a few of the plants I have 

been digging out of the beds.  This is an elderberry.  They are NOT fun to dig up. 

But, as you see... I have made HUGE progress.  

This is the back side of the south bed.  See the piles of debris? 

I hauled them all away today, and built another compost heap over by the old garage that you see in this picture. 

This is how I moved them.... one load by one load.  It was 86 out and 86 percent (nearly) humidity.  It was very tiring, if I do say so. 

But, it's all finished.  I am going to rake the bed over, get the rest of the little weeds out 

of it... and then add a little dirt, and a lot of mulch. 

This dog, whom we love so much, will not let us groom her.  There must be a thousand stick tites on her. 

She is going to have to go to the vet and be sedated, because she literally will attack us if we come near her with a brush.  

Many of the bean fields around us are ready to be harvested.  

Ditto the corn. 

This year, Leavenworth County farmers are going to have a good harvest, unlike the last two when the corn and beans burned up. 

After I got all the weeds out of the south bed... I was rewarded today. 

The orange zinnias are so bright that you can barely see the phisostegia. 

Exposing the flowers also brought beautiful visitors. 

I wish I knew my butterflies, but for some reason, I think this is a moth. It's beautiful, though, isn't it! 

The pear tree that has turned. 

The pear tree that didn't bear this year, and has not turned. 

Strange. 

Keith insisted I go home after cleaning up all the debris from the two beds, he told me I was 

not looking very well.   I had started the day not feeling well, and the humidity got to me. 

In fact, I had put the dogs in the house for the last half hour I was there... they were suffering, too. 

We turned the air on for them (and us). 

Storm clouds began building, and by the time I went to church,it was 

very dark. 

When we came out at six... it was sunny again... no rain! 

Tomorrow is our grandson Jace's 3rd birthday party... we can't believe the 

little guy is already three years old!  He's even a big brother to baby Carson now. 

In the evening, we have Jaxton's third baseball game with his new team, so 

it's a full day for Grandma and Grandpa, but doing things we love to do. 

Some Garden Comments

Well, this was going to be a review, but I am so tired tonight that I've already fallen asleep once, and am gong to just make a few comments. 

These are Gypsy tomatoes, from Baker Creek Seeds. 

They are a nice tomato, sweet... but very small.  They are about twice to three times as large as a cherry tomato.  What I am trying to say here, is that they are not a slicer. 

They were very prolific, but also, the four vines were hit with wilt and went down quickly.  I have about this many to pick tomorrow. 

I pulled two of the vines out, cage and all, and dragged them into the henspa yard.  The hens in there are desperate for any greens... I try to give them some daily.  It must be torture for them to see the green grass all around them, but they can't get it.  Lily would kill each and every one if I were to let them out. 

I do rake grass for them when I cut. 

The sad state of the tomatoes today.  The bare plants you see on this end are being pulled tomorrow, after I pick the last few tomatoes off them. 

The pillar of green is the one pepper plant I planted.  (green).  We don't use peppers very often, and I got LOTS off this plant. 

Those are the two muskmelons growing just to the left.  

Yes, folks, we ARE going to have some muskmelons! 

And some watermelon... there are about five growing on this plant in one of the whiskey barrels. 

Whew, don't look at the pumpkins that are sucking up a HUGE amount of duck pond water daily on the left.  They have yet to blossom, though I can SEE the blossoms.  I am counting down days to Halloween now, in hopes that we actually have pumpkins.  I did cut grass yesterday and today, but that's not why I am showing you this picture. 

It's the epic, epic fail of "On Deck" hybrid corn from Burpee.  It germinated both here and where I planted it in the stock tank by the old henhouse.  It was described in the catalog as the first "container" corn.  The stalks did not grow... as you can see, only one is higher than the others... and those that formed ears never formed kernels, or formed deformed kernals.  I won't waste time with this again, and saved these stalks only to use them for fall decorating. 

Those are more Gypsy tomatoes behind them. 

The tomatoes on the end on the left above have literally almost fallen over today, after the wind on Sunday and their own weight.  It was tomato "Super Sauce".  They are coming on VERY strong here at the end of the summer... after not producing much for the past 2 months.  

I picked a bunch today and am going to make a last batch of Italian base tomorrow. 

The "Abu Rawan" tomatoes from Baker Creek did not get much bigger than the Gypsies, and that was very disappointing to me.  They cracked more than the others, but did have a very sweet and good taste. They cracked so much that most spoiled on the vines.   However, there is just so much I can do with two small-type tomatoes.  

Probably cross all of these off my list next year, and go back to a slicer and a good cherry tomato. 

I pulled all the green beans and yellow beans out yesterday, but wanted to take this picture to show you the bristly greenbrier growing up through this bed, even though I have dug and dug at it.  I almost tore my hand again.  Once I have every last bean gone, I'm going to take the supports down and start digging.
I.WILL.GET.IT. OUT.

Can't weed eat in between these beds, we'll tear the melons up. 

Some of the older hens couldn't have cared less! 

They let the younger ones eat the tomatoes on the plants, and eat all the leaves off the green bean plants I threw in to them. 

And now, even the zinnias are giving out.  It's like we hit September 1, and everyone said 

"That's IT" for the summer. 

You can't see it in this picture, but one of the huge sunflowers came down in the wind on Sunday, and neither Keith nor I could pull it out. 

I am going to hack at it with a saw tomorrow and get it out of there somehow.  

Summer seems to have gone in a flash, hasn't it? 

And today... September 3rd, is the birthday of this wonderful woman: 

My beloved Mother, Mary Trehey Peterson. 

Wasn't she gorgeous? 

She would be 99 years old today, had she lived.  We lost her at 94, almost six years ago now. 

How I miss her. 

Both Mother and Kathleen gone, it just doesn't seem possible to me. 

My dad died when I was 19, so has been gone many, many years.  I was privileged to have Mom for so long. 

Happy Birthday, Mom! 

The Last of the Beans

You can read a "thank heavens" behind that line. 

'

Yes, there ARE bean plants in this picture.  We are on the "green side".... yellow beans are planted on the east side of these beds.... and the weeds in back are growing amongst the melons, so I can't cut into them for fear of tearing the melon vines up.  The problem in this picture is that the entire middle of this bed has grown up with bristly greenbrier, which HURTS when you grab it accidentally.  Try as I did to dig it all out in the spring, it has all grown back up.  We are going to take the supports out, and dig the whole bed up to remove it.  We... I mean, I am going to. 

The poor pumpkins.  That's what the heat and yesterday's blowing wind did to them.  They got three buckets of water.  Then the other three went on the melons on the other end. 

Can you see the melons peeking out?  These are the muskmelons from Baker Creek I planted... "Collective Farm Woman", and the melon, "Kansas".   Both are doing very well, considering they were planted one on top of the other.  

While I was changing out frozen water bottles in the henspa, I checked the nest boxes.  Lest you think we are buried in eggs... these under Reddy were IT. 

This actually alarmed me, and really, still does. 

The box next to it had a lot of feathers in it, too.  I did a quick look around. 

Here are the three girls who have been setting forever, and they seem to be okay.  I've noticed that we are going into the moult VERY early.  The Farmer's Almanac people announced this week that we are expecting a VERY COLD winter.  Could this be why feathers are dropping already?  Can you see little Bitty in the back of this corner? She has pressed herself up against the wall and is laying her daily egg.  She has also been broody for weeks. 

I did not see little brown Fluffernut, so I am going to look for her tonight. She has also been setting. 

Watch out for the brier, Kody!!!

Everyone appreciates a cool drink at midday, and these waterers will all be changed out again at 5. 

Kelly got tired of waiting for the green beans, and laid down to chew his cud for a while. 

These guys are my granddogs, Shiner and Jester.  I stopped to see my son Jim this morning, as he has become laid up for the next six weeks with a broken ankle.  

Ouch! 

Here he is this morning, still in his soft cast.  Jim works out every day of his life... and drives a truck for a living, so he is going slowly crazy from boredom and lack of activity.  He was trying to show me something on his phone and I was just.not.getting.it. 

The soft cast will be replaced, he thinks, by a hard cast on Friday. 

And finally, 

here are Kelly and Kody five minutes ago at the door. Kelly had been laying there right on the doorstep, but heard me come up. 

And this was the scene on the inside: 

Aunt Abby, who could tell her little friends were out there, was listening for them! 

Everyone try to stay as cool as you can!