Over the Fence Chat 10/28 - 11/3/01

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Starting today's thread -- I actually remembered it was Sunday, instead of thinking it's Saturday as usual.

Did you all remember to set your clocks back one hour? I've done the ones like the VCR and TV, but have left my alarm and watch to the later times. I am hoping to use them to keep me "alarmed" at how late it is and still get out of bed. After all, the critters don't know about clocks, they STILL want their vittles at the right time (moving an hour EARLIER would please them, but not an hour later!).

Later in the year, when it doesn't get light so early as now, I'll be struggling to get out of bed. I really rely on the morning light to wake me up. At least, wake me up pleasantly. I can be jarred awake by a blatting alarm clock, but I don't like it!

Went to a community Halloween Party last night. It was fun, but I guess I am turning into an OLD person -- the music was mostly noise and it all sounded the same. Gee, where have I heard comments like that before? Maybe from my mother? Anyway, they did play stuff like "Witchy Woman" and "Moon Dance" too, and they played some swing, which got lots more dancers, including the young folks, than that techno-pop stuff. I don't think there was anyone there old enough to remember swing when it first came out, but we all could dance to it at least!

Still pretty windy here, but not as bad, and it's warmed up some. Gotta go do some yard work in a bit, leaves and sticks that the wind brought down. What's up with all of you?

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001

Answers

We had our first real frost last night, not a killer yet, but there was ice on the water in the wheelbarrow. Optimistically this morning I hung laundry up to "dry" as it looks like we might have some sunshine after the fog burns off...

I think I have one good day to work in the garden before it rains for the rest of the week (forecast sez anyway.) Plus I start the new job with the commute and everything on Thursday (gulp.) Less daylight, less gardening time.

We had company Friday night and stayed up until 2:30. Sheesh! Yesterday, I went over to Mom's and painted one of her bedrooms...a nice warm light peach. Amazing what a couple of hours of painting can transform.

I intend to spend some time thinking about how crabby I have been lately, and what to do about it. First I get depressed and then I get bitchy. Oh well. At least I'm not boring, although I'm possibly being kind of offensive!

Had our first turnips from the garden for dinner last night. They were pretty good. We are starting to eat from our fall garden more and more. It's satisfying to be able to do so. I'm going to print Polly's gardening notes off and study her techniques (from the garden seed thread.) I'm in awe!

Have a good Sunday!

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001


Just returned from taking my granddaughter back to her family. Wow, the house sure is quiet. We had a really busy 5 days and she was moving every minute. Oh to have the energy of a 4 year old again. She had to hug ALL the animals at least twice a day, and would not be exluded from chores even in the pouring down rain. We lost power due to the wave of tornadoes that went through here the first night she was here, and she though it was pretty exciting to go to bed by lantern light.

We had a really HARD freeze last night, leaving ice in the outside buckets and the few remaining leaves just pouring down out of the trees this morning. A couple of the pansies and snapdragons right near the house are still in bloom, and I was surprized to see they still made it through this freeze. They are even more hardy than I thought.

We are all waiting to see just what we can do to help our neighbors who lost everything in the tornadoes. No one but power company workers have been allowed into the area as yet, so we have no way of knowing what the eventual need will be. We are feeling very grateful that no lives were lost and only a few stitches and broken bones occured. The force of nature can certainly be fierce!!! We have no basement and had rushed to the church to wait it out in the basement of the church (wouldn't normally but having the granddaughter made us more cautious). I was quite certain that when all the church doors blew in that we were all going to be blown away but it didn't touch down for another mile.

Hope all is well with everyone.

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001


Diane! Good grief! I didn't read or hear about the tornadoes. What happened? I'm so grateful that you guys are all okay. What an experience for a 4-year-old, too. Yikes!

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2001

Thought I'd post to the OTF chat for once before we start Homeschool this morning. In the mornings we do stuff like geometry, english, science and then in the afternoons Kyle does the stuff he really likes like tearing apart dirtbikes, computer stuff, splitting wood, and other things that teenage boys need to keep themselves busy.

Diane, so you got one of those tornadoes the other night! That was some vicious storm that came through. I heard that a tornado touched down in MI, but didn't realize that it would be close to you. Hope that your family and all of your neighbors are OK. I live where the Seneca and Hancock county lines about meet. The county next to Hancock, Putnam, had a F3 tornado that was 3/4 of a mile wide and was on the ground for 30 miles. I did not hear of any injuries though. I think the path it took was mostly farmland.

Wow, I just went over and read Polly's thread about her garden. Wow, what is it like to be that organized?! Some really good ideas though. We are still eating lettuce, beets, turnips, and chard out of the garden. I covered them, and they made it OK through the freeze the other night. The gilfeather turnips are delicious, nice and sweet.

I splurged and bought some really beautiful flannel material for a quilt this weekend. This afternoon I'm going to try to come up with a simple pattern. I like simple patterns the best with flannel quilts because the material frays so badly. Flannel quilts are so warm though, so nice on the beds in my unheated upstairs. Just ask the cats! Peace and blessings--Vicki

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001


vicki, there were all sorts of little communities all across the state of Michigan affected but you don't hear about it on the news because of the war. Over 200,000 households were still without electricity Sat. AM. Homes losts in five small communities near us, a school and a school learning center distroyed. Amazing that there was no life lost. In a town north of me there were children spending the night at a "school farm" and no injuries although the farm was distroyed. The strange thing is that they are calling most of the damage was from "down bursts", what ever that means. I was quite certain, as were others, that I saw a funnel up at tree level from the church, but they say our damage was from a down burst.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001


Diane, how very fortunate that no one lost their life in the Saturday tornados, we have first hand experience also in dealing with tornados here, one or two touched down several years ago in the valleys around our ridge top farmhouse, laying over huge 100+ year old oak trees like so much kindling, all in a row. They appeared to get "stuck" in the valleys and follow them through.

Also have several experiences with "down bursts", almost got nailed by a hunk of silver maple tree top that a down burst tore out of the giant tree next to our chicken house as I was "battening down the hatches" on the chicken house as the sudden storm hit. Rather like being caught up in a giant blender of wind, very weird feeling, and truely awesome up front and personal dealing with the powers of Mother Nature. She has earned alot of my respect living here in the ridgetops in the boonies.

Tornados and high wind are my greatest fears here in SE Ohio, everything else I can handle.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001


I don't live in tornado country so I don't know what a downburst is. Could someone please enlighten? Thanks.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001

Ha! I live in tornado country and I don't know what a downburst is either. I think weather folks are either [1] telling us more than they used to (but still not really explaining what it means), or [2] making these things up to make it more interesting!

Diane, I haven't heard anything on the news about your tornadoes and I'm one state over! Sheesh. You told me in an email, but I didn't realize that it had been so close to you and affected so many people!

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001


The only thing I know about a "downblast" is what they said on the radio. A tornado has a "path" a downblast has like a epicenter with damage going out in a circle from it like a bomb.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

We had that crazy weather here too. The kids were asleep when I decided that the winds were just a little too strong and I woke up Bre and carried Lea down stairs. I wasn't scared tho. storms always excite me, guess I'm silly. Jim has dragged me in off the porch where I stand watching them before, I find them so interesting that I wouldn't even mind if I got swept up into one, I can think of lots worse ways to go. No damage here tho. but there was a house in our county that had it's top blown off. The news paper said that the seventeen year old was holding unto his mattress and his feet were flying up into the air. wow, wonder what that felt like. Yah, I can handle the storms of nature, its the storms of man that get me down.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001


"Downburst" is the same as wind shear, except it happens on the ground. This is the explaination the weather people have given me. The high and low pressure systems are colliding and the sudden meeting of such differing pressure systems can cause catastrophic wind patterns, violent up and down motions of rapidly shifting air masses.

As I mentioned above in my previous post, I liken it to being caught up in a giant wind filled blender. Much like a tornado but without the suction power of a funnel to concentrate the power, and without the train noise, just lots of wind noise. It can tear your roof off just the same as a tornado, and blast down buildings like a bomb.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001


Wow...you folks out there in the midwest get some pretty wild weather!! Other than a snowstorm that might last a couple of days or a bad thunderstorm, things are rather "tame" here in downeast Maine in comparison. Even the hurricanes usually poop out before they get this far north. BUT the ice storm of '98 was an exception!!

Fall has been beautiful. Temps are really starting to drop now. Got all my does bred for Feb. kids...want to send them to market a little earlier this year!! I still haven't decided whether or not to sell my Nubian buck this winter or use him again next fall. He's such a good boy!! He throws more doe kids than bucks, but that doesn't make any difference to me since I sell them all as meat anyways. I might keep an exceptional doe and register her as a grade...or maybe not! He sure produces colorful babies as he is black and white spotted!! Decisions, decisions!

We're in the process of putting up the framing on our garage addition. Just four of us working on it and with it getting dark earlier now, it seems like it's gonna take forever to get it finished!! Hopefully, we'll be done before the first snowfall!

Hope you all stay safe out there in tornado country! Have a good week!!!

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001


We are having one last week of beautiful 60 degree weather before the cold gears up here in Illinois, I think. The hardy mums I've been wanting finally went on sale (25 cents for 4" pots, 50 cents for the 8" pots) so I bought some and spent time this afternoon sticking them in the ground. The fun part is none of them are blooming and the color names don't tell me much. Dark Triumph? Sounds like a car. Bold Megan. A woman warrior? I guess half the fun will be hoping they all live till next fall and I get to see what they all look like.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2001

Hey all! I know I haven't been around much lately; so I have some catching up to do!

Where I've been: Fighting health issues. Bad PAP, repeat. Two bad Mammos, repeat. Tired to the point of exhaustion. Trouble sleeping, trouble staying awake. Short of breath, getting fatter and slower, can't concentrate. Doc says "getting older, lose weight, more activity, pre-menopausal..." Finally got her to listen, tests ran - result; I'm hypothyroid, with tumors in both lobes; so out goes the thyroid next month. So, to go along with my self improvement plan; now I'm working out (slwly!) three times a week at this women only place, and trying to lose a little weight. Just hope the energy level comes back up - I was even too tired to go shopping with Jessie this past week, and I never turn down spending time with her.

Re: my garden. Thanks for the nice words! But I've got witnesses (that would be YOU! - Cass and Sharon and Phyllis!) who will tell you that sometimes it don't quite work out the way it's s'posed to! Weed city this year!! And now you hear it, the rallying cry of all gardeners: "Just wait 'til next year!" Isn't it wonderful that in gardening, we get the chance to start over, all new, the next year? I'm really not organized; it's just that I like to waste time reading and other things, so I've got to cut corners somewhere! I once had a boss who would always put me on new installations; he said "Now, I ain't saying you're lazy; but I've got to admit that you always find the easiest way to get something done." I informed him that "efficient" was the word that he was looking for! Right now, with my health being lousy I can't work very hard or very long. So my small beds are a blessing; as is Pop's willingness to run the tillers and buddy Mike offering to come over with his tractor to scoop poop into my beds.

Other stuff: As Cass said, we've been getting some decent weather here. Windstorm the other night when everyone else had them, lost a few tree limbs here at home, but the town where I work was harder hit. Had a freeze that took out the last of the 'maters (the ones hiding under the weeds!) and the dahlias. Time to dig the cannas and glads and get my tulips in the ground. Like Cass, I have a few mums left to plant; and still have two garden beds to clean out and the perennial beds to prep. Need to plant garlic too. And clean my house. And do laundry. Find my sweaters. Finish a jumper. Sew some more winter stuff. Wash windows. Lift that barge, tote that bale!!

And since I've got to work this weekend, I guess I'd better get at it! You all take care, enjoy your weekend!

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001


My sympathies for your health problems, Polly! No fun at all! Geez, even feeling lousy, you seem to have more energy than two of me . . . . or do you just talk a good game?

Great weather here too. I guess this is Indian summer. I still have greens in pots on the deck (for my pet birds).

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001



(((((((((0)))))))) to you Polly from me. Please keep us posted re. health etc. Doesn't sound like any fun. You will be in my prayer bundle.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2001

Polly Thinking about ya here too, praying for ya too. We love you here! Be Ok! Love TREn

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

so sorry about all your health troubles, Polly. My best wishes to ya.

Love,

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001


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