Saturday, the last day of Nov. I made it up the hill in beautiful sunshine and 53 degree weather. Finished with all the tomato cages on all the uphill gardens, cleaned and put away in closed pens of turkey pen. Raked and hand picked the tomatoes off the ground and under the parsley, let the chickens run through everything and smiled.
It feels oh so good to have that done!

on Nove 28th I managed to go out and drag my tomato cages out of the garde, strip plants from them and stack them into the back pen of the  turkey pen. It felt good. But that really was a good choice of how much to do. Thought about raking up toamtoes and decided to let the hens mull them over. Perhaps I can rake them later.
Today was not cold but it felt frigid with damp low clouds and threaning rain. Noticed my young rooster setting on the roost, his back to the world. That ain't good.

Planting!

First real snow. About 3 inches everywhere this morning. But as the day wore on it is melting, though it is still partly there late this afternoon. Saturday night, the 10th brought our first killing frost here.
There are a few things still going, but not for long. Last year that frost came on Nov 7th, so warming climate changes-- possibly but could just be a long cycle. We have never went this long before killing frost though.
Today I went out and tore the topgrowth off of the creeping charlie, the impatiens and martha washington geranium in the big pot on the entry porch across from the door. The pot is large,  between 24 and 30" across and that deep too. So I planted 10 or 12 hyacinths in the pot. Half were red ones and half were mixed. We will see how they do-if they do!

Catch Up

On Tuesday Nov the 6th, I looked at the cracked from the water, sour from the temperature tomatoes, grabbed a very tight head of cabbage from the garden and turned the left condo of chickens into the  West, goat pen, and East corridor and old duck pen section of the garden. I set their water outside so that I could refresh it from the gate and put a pan for feed on their porch. The birds keep flogging their housing anyway.
It is supposed to freeze tonight Nov the 8th and so plan to let them roam and have fun for a week or so and then start putting them into the greenhouse quarters for the winter. This way, I don't have to make excuses for not cleaning the garden or mulching or anything.
Lionel finished putting in a frost free pump for the greenhouse, cleaned up the horse corrals some and piled up a big load of manure for the rain to ruin. I need to get busy, but really, my health isn't so good right now and now ambition to garden. Its scary.

Spuds

I dug the spuds in the old dog pen. Not a big crop, but really big potatos! These were Red potatos. I dug my white ones first. Now need to dig the russets. But I am very out of shape and that was enough for today. Don't need to push it. Need a nice day to clear the stuff off and save what is good for compost, read up what is to be planted where in there and prep it for a long winters nap!

Whispered Promises---

I am comming. I am comming. It just might be a few days though-------

Dratted Sparrows

Theres no push to garden. I change and check the watering and promise my garden
a workout---but later. There is always things happening at Labor Day, fairtime and back to
school. You would think it wouldn't effect an old lady, but this time there is something leaking,
probably a hotwater tank and floor boards getting soaked and things needing move, dumped
and set somewhere else. The good news is there was ton of old collected dust cleaned out of
the "proprosed shower stall that we never finished. The bad news is I have about 4 boxes to
"sort and go through stuff"  to take care of later.
So it is rush off to the hen house to feed. There is a mob of sparrows in the hen house. Its been
like that all week. I don't like to be mean to sparrows, but neither do I want to feed them. Plus them
bring nasty gifts like mites, and lice and disease. Nothing seems to keep them away. So I have
decided that I will feed my chickens once a day, on the ground. They will waste and loose some feed, but if they are hungry they will scratch around. They will learn to hurry to me when I come and call.
And there will be no cafeteria for the wild birds. They will have to scratch too, later. But I doubt if
they do. When the food pan remains overturned, they will go elsewhere.
And then there is a wedding to shop and prepare for. I have spent the day doing my homework on that project andgetting ready. In the morning, its off to the big "hot and cold" city of Spokane.
Early night. I need to rise in time to eat my cherrios!

No Empty Chair Kingdom

Its Labor Day and as I struggle to push  my way through the verdant weeds and dry scabland of my garden, ideas just keep rolling through the brain. Next season I need to plant less but better. We need to up production here. What is this, melon ghetto?
 I am tired of this section, its time to rip it out, nourish it and put it to bed for the next seven (7?) months for newer and better things. Seven Months? Are you for real?  Winter ain't that long! Yeah. I think so.
More control . Give up on veggies here and plant more flowers. Can't I work in some water somewhere?
DREAMS_____ PLANS_______IDEALS
This is not my yard here, not what the neighbors see or the very rare guests, this is my personal EDEN.
My bio---empire experience. Long may it live, thrive and change.

Back about the year 2003--somewheres there,  our bustling retail nursery went bust. Thats a polite way
to put it. And I do't even remember who was President then, so can't blame it on him. We were proud of our family nursery and  still are, but it wasn't paying for all the potatos, much less the gravey.
When it wasn't paying the taxes, big brother said, "Hey, you can't work for the sheer fun of it anymore, You are Done." Very brutel. Very heartbreak. Very much a relief, we eventually realized. My husband no longer had to put in 70+ hours a week to keep the little project wet and bug proof
But here I was, a suddenly semi-retired, unemployed  mother of many, greenhouse lady put back in   a home that had in  "The Working Years"  became a glorified bus depot, unkept laundry mat, and  "stuff" dump. Well, who really wants to face that! Talk about boring, depressing and mentally derailing!

When I escaped into the real world (read fresh air and God's good earth) much of what I had was partially or practically landscaped and semi-orderly. Oh every spring I loaded the 69 pots around the place with flowers and plants  and watered them, remembering occasionally to fertilize, but for the majority of the year, what was left but so much yard keeping. Yard Keeping. House Keeping, Home Keeping. Yuck! Where is the inspiring challenge of keeping all of that up?

So my husband, good man that he is, took part of what the kids had used from time to time for FFA animals and made me a Thirteen by Twenty Nine foot, fenced in, gated and watered by overhead cable and low volume sprinkler set up, and said, "Here is your very own. Enjoy, and Stop Complaining..  Of course, I still needed a greenhouse to start plants and such projects-- so He took the old arched timber framework from our first greenhouse at the nursery and set it up complete with double plastic and a pellet stove and water hydrant. "Ok, Have Fun!"
See how easy to please that I was? And delighted. I all but put up "No Trespassing signs"! I would go and set in my little kingdom and plan to my heats content. And I am still planning, still keeping up the mental "No Trespassing Signs". Its still very much MINE. I might allow the grandchild that shows genetic promise of  possibly wanting her own "scabland playground someday" to labor and toil beside and before me, but still, its
MINE!
But like all kingdoms, (sigh) it comes with its own regional and cultural problems.Kind of like Obama's temporary kingdom. Let me tell you there may be a couple of empty arbor benches in my kingdom--but there are no empty chairs!