Over the Fence Chat -- Oct. 13 - Oct.19, 2002greenspun.com : LUSENET : Beyond the Sidewalks : One Thread |
No one else has started it, so I will.We were almost down to freezing last night, and it's supposed to get there tonight. I guess those green tomatoes over in the garden won't ever get ripe . . .
Julie is coming today/tonight. New adoptee dog has a Vet School appt. to find out what we can about her vision problems. Hopefully, Julie and I will have some time for a LITTLE fun.
Still lots to do, gotta go, later!
-- Anonymous, October 13, 2002
Hi all,I sure hope you are all just *busy*! I would hate to think that this forum is declining...was it something I said??! Or something someone else said? LOL
I have been happily provisioning the motorhome, as well as building the perennial garden (yawn). I went to thrift shops today and found a book on how to speak Minnesotan (which I'll read while camping next weekend). I also found a woven rag rug, a turtleneck (can't have too many of those!), and a plastic Lions Club pillow (from Pendleton, OR) for kneeling on in the garden. My knees are getting shot (probably from hiking too many years).
I had nightmares all last night. They aren't about anything specifically contemporary (i.e. world concerns), but I'm sure my psyche is making the connection somehow.
Anyone here deal with nightmares? What do you do for them?
And yes, cold here at night....going right from picking strawberries to killing frost! Been warm during the day, though...60s. Got the down comforter and the flannel sheets on the bed. Still sleeping with the window open, though.
-- Anonymous, October 13, 2002
I HATE winter. I want to go somewhere warm all the time.Sheepish, they say if you have the same nightmare, you can change it before you go to sleep by thinking of a different ending over and over again while you are awake. Or, if you realize you are in a dream, change it to be better (doesn't always work for me)
I think we have a leak in our above ground pool. Not a good thing.
Last on the lately list, a friend I know who grooms and shows dogs called me back in reference to a puppy. Unfortunately, the message she got was short so she didn't know who the puppy was for and more unfortunate, my husband was the one who talked to her. He didn't say I couldn't have another dog but he did ask why I was looking for puppy without talking to him about it first. Well, I guess I can stop hinting now, seems it didn't work anyway.
-- Anonymous, October 14, 2002
Ya know, Dee...sometimes I *can* change the "plot" of my dreams. But sometimes, I'm almost compelled to follow even the scary ones to some resolution! Sick, eh? The other night, I dreamed about some blimp and aliens descending from it (no I don't smoke cigars, play with unusual (ahem) toys, nor is my sex life in serious decline...I hope!)...but there's always a need to flee in these dreams, and it always involves some kind of cunning to get away...or as Elmer Fudd would say, "twickewy".Maybe I need to eat dinner earlier!! I'll try your idea before nodding off...thanks!
btw, I'm still dreaming (except during waking hours) of puppies, too...
-- Anonymous, October 14, 2002
Hey all! Not much new out this direction; but then, I've been working so I've not gotten much else done these past few days. Pop and Uncle Ivan got the all the beans cut, finally! I've got to get a soil test in to the lab and see what we need to get on the bigger field before we plant the wheat - which we need to get doing. The small west field will go in to corn next spring - I'm thinking about trying some open pollinated; I'm afraid the neighbor will be planting Frankencorn across the road next year tho, so it might be a lost cause.I've got 4 days in a row off work, but I have MD appts on two of those days; and a staff meeting on another one. Need to run in to town to do laundry, take Boo-Boo kitty to the vet, stop and pick up some sale items at the store, get a hair cut, stop by the library, take the soil sample in, stop by FS and order the lime and potash or whatever I end up needing, remind Uncle Ivan to check on the wheat seed and MAYBE run up to the sale barn with him on Friday night - just to look, of course!
We got a hard frost Sunday night and it pretty much wiped out the garden. Had a bunch of family out that day, so they picked all the ripe tomatoes and peppers; and a bunch of green ones. Pop lopped the pepper plants off and took them in to the shed and hung them from the trusses upside down, so I'll have to figure out what to do with them. Need to get out there and harvest the rest of the zinnia seed heads as well. And pull the yucky slimy tomato vines - yecch! Got a Thompson and Morgan seed catalog in the mail, so it must be time to start planning for next year! Think I'm gonna have to lock Pop in the attic again come spring - he wants to use all the raised beds for perennial food, herbs and flowers; and plant the annual stuff out in the edge of the field. No, no, no, no! Guess I'll just have to build me some more raised beds. Durn man!
Well, I'm zonked so I'd better head for bed - so I can get up this afternoon and try to find my kitchen counters again. I've got a vague memory of where they're located, but I sure can't see them for the dishes and 'maters and apples and peppers and work gloves and duct tape and .... well, y'all know how that goes!! You folks take care; have a great week!
-- Anonymous, October 15, 2002
Sheesh, what a week! One doc appt got cancelled, someone called in at work so I went in and worked a couple of 8 hour night shifts; I finally drug all the laundry and Boo-Boo to town yesterday morning - 8 loads of laundry and a po'd cat - only to find out that the vet wasn't in until afternoon. To keep my multi-tasking tiara shiny, I went ahead and threw the laundry in, then decided to go pick up the groceries, since I was already in town. Not one of my better ideas. It was Senior Citizen day at the grocery store. An hour later, I finally got back to the laundrymat; after slipping on a fast food wrapper in the parking lot and throwing my knee went out again. Listened to Boo-Boo howl all the way home - the last time that 12 miles lasted that long was when I was taking the dog in to the vet - he gets car sick! Hobbled to work last night and ended up with a last minute admission right before the staff meeting, which usually lasts maybe 45 minutes. It lasted 2 hours. And I hadn't had time to grab a cup of coffee or pee beforehand. Bad plan. Then, the used book store didn't have the book I wanted, and I forgot to stop at Staples on the way home for more seed (coin) envelopes - not that it matters 'cause the birds apparently ate all the seeds out of my zinnias. Wal-Mart didn't have white underpants in my style/size (which has unfortunately gotten larger); and they were out of Special Kitty blue bag and my cats don't like the green bag. Boo-Boo won't come down out of the top of the shed. And I got a crick in my neck from turning around to look for the bullseye that musta been painted on my back!Gotta admit that it hasn't been all bad tho! A friend from gardenweb sent me some Florida Speckled Lima bean seed, and tucked in some yard long beans as a surprize. I beat the birds to my moss rose seed pods from the hanging baskets - and even remembered to lable the bowls that they're sitting in (waiting to be crushed and sifted) light and dark pink. Wal-Mart had their bulbs on clearance, so I came home with 90 crocus, 50 daffs and 30 grape hyacinths. Kinda forgot about my knee while I was picking them out, so had to make chicken and dumplings for supper tonight - to get Pop in an amiable mood for operating my new handy-dandy-step-on bulb planter. I found a dozen other books to read at the UBS. My geramium that I forgot to bring in survived the freeze and is happily living in the main floor bathtub until I can take cuttings and get them potted in a window box for the winter. I changed some things on insurance and saved $500/year. And I got registered for the 10th National Small Farm Conference down in Columbia, MO; to be held Oct 31, Nov 1 and 2 - and Hubs is going with me! We're gonna get that vacation in one way or the other!
Speaking of small farm conferences, Acres USA is having the Eco- Farming 2002 conference in December - the 12th, 13th and 14th, I think - in Indy. Joel Salatin is one of the speakers; and is also presenting a 2 day mini-course on the two days prior to the conference. Lots of good info to be presented; though my aim is sustainablity rather than organic certification (especially since the feds have gotten their fingers into the organic pie (cow pie?) and made it a pain in the ass to get certified. One of the sessions is on "Stella Natura: Farming by the Biodynamic Calendar" which sounds pretty interesting; plus some other courses on soil and soil fertility, and rotational and multi-species grazing. Kinda pricy, at $160 per person for the three days or $95 per day; plus $70 for the motel. I'd only be able to attend the first two days; so I'm still waffling about it.
I'm really sorry to see that the forum has been declining. I don't really know why, but I wish it wasn't so. There are a lot of good folks here that I would miss greatly if this forum were to disappear. I've noticed that a lot of the forums that I visit are slow right now; so maybe it's just a seasonal glitch. I know that I haven't posted much anywhere lately. I've been mostly just reading!
I'm getting lots of good info on permaculture - and Hubs is even getting interested. Still got a ways to go with Pop! Contemplating clearing out the under sink cabinet and setting up a worm bin for the its and bits of scraps we have on a daily basis; and saving the big scrap days (harvest, processing or clean the fridge days!) for the chickens. So I've been re-reading Jay's posts from the Countryside Archives CD I got from Phil, and lurking on the vermicomposting forum at Gardenweb. Jay - do you ship starter worms?! Think it would be too warm under the sink - the dishwasher is right next to that cabinet? Sure would be handy to the coffee pot and food prep area.
Gardenweb also has a new square foot gardening forum that I've been hoping will take off; tho this may be a bad time of year to start a new garden forum. I need to get off my butt and get outside into the real garden in the little daylight we have left to us this time of year. Got plenty to do out there, that's for sure! Need to get the garden put to bed and pick up some limbs and the walnuts that have fallen in the yard. Need to get some beds ready to try some winter sowing; and figure out what I'm going to do in the east and west side yards. Gotta get the front perennial bed cleaned up and the plants marked too - my crazy phlox has started blooming again, guess it thinks that it's spring! Hope it doesn't weaken it for the winter.
Inside, I've still got tons of work to do in the store room - time to get rid of some stuff! I need to go through Mama's boxes of fabric - I think I'm soing to make a satin puff quilt for the guest room bed this winter, so I need to see what I have before I start hitting up the Sallies and Sr. Citizen thrift shop for old bridesmaid dresses. I'm thinking rose and pink and greens - ought to be easy enough to find those colors, I would think. And it would give me something to do at 3am this winter - I'm spending way too much money on books! for some reason, the family gets real annoyed when I start up the vacume or the sewing machine at 3am; so I reckon I need to find something quiet to keep myself occupied.
I'm quite the idiot, I think. (So what else is new?!) We're having staffing problems at work; with three nurses working toward their BSNs and one helping design the new computer program and one calling in all the time; and since Jes is out of high school and off to college, I no longer have anything I really need to plan around, so I offered to give up my set schedule at work (Sat/Sun, Thur/Fri, Tue/Wed; all 12 hour nights) and work "as needed". I'm not going strictly prn or resource pool - I'll still be full time and will keep all my bennies, I'll just not know when I'm working until the schedule comes out (right now, I can plan for the next 20 years if I wanted.) It might be days, might be nights. Should still be all 12 hour shifts, but might be 7a-7p, 11a-11p, or 7p-7a. I'll give them a list of the days that I'm not available, and they'll fit me in where they need me. Might not even be all on the Psych ward, tho I can't see my boss letting me go off the unit too often - I'm the only one brave enough to clean the employee fridge!! Guess we'll see how it works out...
Well, I'd better get off this computer and go pick up the book that I was wanting to finish before I fall asleep. You folks all take care,
-- Anonymous, October 17, 2002
I posted ealier in the week to say that I'm home sick with the flu but apparently it didn't go through. I"m still feeling yucky, I'll be back when I'm feeling better.
-- Anonymous, October 18, 2002
Hope you get to feeling better soon, Sherri!
-- Anonymous, October 18, 2002
Wishing you a speedy recovery, Sherri!Julie left for home (got there too!) on Wednesday. We had an action- packed three days. We were (for once) blessed with good luck -- everything we had scheduled went smoothly and dovetailed nicely; so we wasted no time running in circles. :-)
Now it's time to get the garden fencing out, which I will do if we get any days where it isn't cold and drizzly. I can deal with it being cold, but I'd prefer to avoid the drizzle! yuck
I've been spending time studying the local political candidates -- not very scintillating conversation for this board! And I have zillions of fall chores to do. I swear my autumn is far busier than summer. To say nothing of all the on-going chores. . . (oh thrill).
Well, gotta go. Critters want dinner.
-- Anonymous, October 18, 2002