Killing Frost

29 and a hard frost. Clear skies.

It has to come every year, and so it has this year. Frost has ended the growing season, and now we can concentrate elsewhere.

Today, it's back to eBay and paperwork for me, and maybe more paint on the little dresser I started on the other day. My arm is sore from the booster shot but we had no other side effects, which is nice. I feel ready to go out and about with more comfort and safety again. This Saturday is the Fall West Virginia Writers Conference, and I am looking forward to going to that worry-free. It will be held in Huntington, WV, a city on the Ohio River that I have not spent a great deal of time in. Huntington is well known, sadly, for its drug problems, but there is a vibrant arts and writing community there, and it is home to Marshall University, the second largest school in the state. It's unfortunate that more focus isn't put on the good aspects of the city, but that tends to be how news is reported, isn't it. We focus on the bad and the sensational, barely giving a nod to the better, uplifting things in life.

Larry found two large hams in the freezer during the big cleanout, and he is slicing them up this morning. Poor man, I am sure his fingers are freezing, again. We found we had a fair supply of meat, but not as much as we thought we had, actually, so we'll be on the lookout for a butcher hog, and for some deer during the hunting season to restock. I am hoping turkey prices will be low again too so I can stock up on that like I did last year.

We watched a movie called Michael Collins last night, based on the story of the Irish revolutionary who fought against British control of Ireland. I'm of two minds about this man. The movie, of course, made him out to be a hero, and in one way he was, although violence and bloodshed seemed to be his preferred methods--even in the end when he was fighting against his own people who saw a different path to the establishment of the Irish Republic. I need to read more about him to really draw any conclusion about his heroism or his culpability in causing needless harm to his own people. Liam Neeson and Adrian Quinn were excellent in the movie, however; Julia Roberts really didn't seem to fit, at least to me, and her attempts at an Irish accent were less than good.

Back to the salt mines of eBay I go. Enough of this lollygagging, as my Dad would say.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

First Frost?

47 this morning, and didn't warm up much. Rain in the early hours, gradually clearing up. Expected to be in the 20's-30's tonight.

This may be the end of the run for the flowers, I'm afraid. It looks like a very cold night tonight and even colder tomorrow night. I know it's time, but in the last few years we've avoided a killing frost until much later in November. 

At least the vegetable gardens are pretty much done, thanks to the deer that managed to get in and eat everything except the turnips and kale that Larry covered with chicken wire, and the beets and onions in the walled garden. Oh, and the dill that only recently came up from seed. Still, I know Larry is glad to see the end of the gardens. He said he can use a rest. I don't blame him. He did move a young peach tree today that was growing inside the new chicken yard; I was worried the chickens would dig around its roots and kill it.

I brought in the many aloe plants--I have no clue why I have so many--a begonia, and the Christmas cactus. It's getting ready to bloom and I'm pretty sure the abrupt climate change to indoors will make the blossoms drop. Ah well. 

I did a quick walk-around in the gardens, getting photos of some of the last blooms.

The miniature roses are making quite a show. I hope these new plants make it through the winter.

Geraniums seem to love cool fall weather. I usually try to being some inside but they never survive, so this year I just left them alone.

My fall-blooming iris. I am so in love with it.

The Mandevilla is still doing well. I probably misspelled that, but this has become a favorite too, it blooms so steadily all summer and fall.

And the hydrangea, still looking so pretty.

My single tea rose doesn't bloom much, but it's had several blooms this fall.

Drift roses and chrysanthemums; photo didn't come out very well.

And the zinnias, still going crazy.

I did bring in a couple begonia plants. They manage to survive the winter usually, and are such cheerful little plants.

So I brought in the best of the blooms. They won't last long in the house but will probably fare better than they would outside tonight.

I've spent my day cleaning up in my eBay room, which has been badly neglected for the past few months. No one but me would know I'd made a dent but I can see progress. I've had time to do listings again and it's paying off in sales. I also worked on the bedroom, sorting and cleaning, and got the first coat of paint on a small dresser. Oh, and made a venison stew that is still cooking and smelling very good. 

Larry and I had to pull the dryer out and re-attach the vent line. When he put the dryer in last August, he didn't level it very well so it's been out of balance, which caused the line to come loose. I noticed an awful lot of dust around the top of the dryer, a giveaway to the problem. Hopefully that's fixed now.

So nothing exciting here. We had a very quiet Halloween, and I worked at the antique mall Sunday. Just normal, boring stuff but it certainly keeps us busy. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Gather In

44 this morning, windy and cloudy, then sun, then showers. Warmed to lower 60's.

Today's garden bouquets. The one in front is in an Early American Pattern Glass jar that is missing its lid, but doesn't it make a perfect vase?

Lavender plants came in the mail yesterday, so you know what I had to do today. The tiller came out--again--and new ground was worked up to plant them. My flowerbeds are so full there's no room for more plants. And since I seem to keep ordering them, I had to find a place to start a new bed.

This is not the perfect way to start a new flower garden, I know, but I seem to have put the cart before the horse. Last week I tilled ground for new peony plants, today for the lavender and for several other plants now on their way. I have to admit I'm excited about this. It's been years since I established a new garden. I kept thinking it was time to scale back since I'm getting older, but this year I've decided what the heck, plant while I can and enjoy it, and when I'm finally unable to care for them, we can just let them go. In the meantime, we'll have lovely flowers. I hope.

Since the day warmed up nicely, we spent most of it outside, cleaning up and putting away. It always surprises me how much must be done--garden tools that had accumulated on the cellar house porch, garden chemicals, flower pots, hand tools, garden ornaments, etc, all needed to be put away for winter. There were wheelbarrows--count them, we have at least 6, most destined eventually for our booths--to be put up, a garden bench to be moved to a better location, some tomato stakes to put away, and on and on. It took several hours, and there's still a bit to do, but we made a really deep hole in the list.

It's fun to be out in the gardens at this time of year, although sobering to see how the vine-y weeds have run amuck while I was so busy canning. Even so, some plants that struggled through the summer are blooming like crazy and growing well. The dill re-seeded itself and now we have some lovely young dill I can harvest and freeze. A few squash plants are still hanging on and have a few blooms, and the calendula has seeded and spread all over a part of the walled garden and blooming nicely. The cannas I started from seed have a few blooms, and I must remember to dig the roots this year. There are green onions because the potato onions I planted have sprouted, and beets and kale and of course turnips.

And flowers. Flowers everywhere. Roses, zinnias, those ones I call stevia, Victoria salvia, the calendula, a few marigolds, chrysanthemums, all are loving this cool, damp weather. There are chives in abundance, basil still growing, and the perennial herbs have tender new growth. It does my heart good to see all this, and I feel grateful because the plants have managed quite well without me. Even some small lavender plants, some that I started from seed and others that I bought, are looking strong and healthy and I am hopeful they will survive the winter.

I will have to get back out there soon and do some cutting back and cleaning up, but for right now it's all good. Now I'm looking forward to the arrival of seed catalogs, when the whole cycle will begin again. I have to admit, it's exciting. Because next year, in the gardener's mind, will always be better, there will be more time, less weeds, and fantastic results. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Booths and Garden Talk

69 and muggy this morning. We're back to hot weather, but still not as hot as it was in August. We had some good rain this past week, and some very pleasant days.

The days are simply speeding by. I've been in the kitchen most of the time, still putting up tomatoes and peppers. I had a routine doctor visit Monday, and we worked at our booth in Marietta on Wednesday and our Ravenswood booth on Friday. So a week that was a bit broken up. Here's a few photos of the booths; I don't have but one recent one from Ravenswood, of the new display window, so I'll have to take some more this week. This is the new display, focusing more on primitive antiques.

And here's some from Marietta This booth is really full, since it's the only one we have there now:

The above photo is the dressing table I finished last week. It's such a pretty thing. I painted three other pieces last week, all taken to Ravenswood so I'll have to add photos of them when I get over there again.

I decided not to paint this little fliptop table, and see if it sells as it is. It would be a handy thing to have.

These planters are by McCoy, a brand that is collected by quite a few people in this area.

Stacking it up to make use of the vertical space!

It's funny, but I've gotten to where I really don't want to go anywhere; the more days in a row I stay home, the more I don't want to go out. It's not because of the pandemic; it seems to be because we simply have all we want or need right here. We are so stocked up with good food, plenty of books and movies, and loving pets. We have lovely views and gardens to look at, each other for company and when we want a little more people interaction, there's the phone or online--which isn't the same as face to face of course, but can fill the gap for long stretches of time. I'm not interested in traveling anywhere these days, really, which is such a change from how I used to be, always wanting to go. Perhaps it's because I hurt. Arthritis can really be a pain, in more ways than one. But as a lady in her 80's told me, "if it hurts it works", so I try to keep that perspective and get on with my days.

I made stuffed peppers for the freezer this week, and I tried something new with summer squash. The peppers are easy, just make your usual recipe, cooking the filling and stuffing the raw peppers. Then wrap each stuffed pepper in aluminum foil, then seal in plastic bags for the freezer. I put about 4 peppers in each vacuum-seal bag, enough for us for a meal. 

I thought I'd try a different approach with the yellow squash and young zucchini. I cooked them in boiling water with butter, salt and pepper--our favorite way to eat them, bagged in a ziplock bag in meal-sized amounts, then vacuum-sealed the bag. I am hoping the squash will taste just as good, or close, to freshly-prepared. As you probably know if you've frozen squash, the result is usually less than ideal. I've done some flash-frozen with an eye to making that squash-sausage--pasta sauce-cheese dish this winter, as I think they will work well for this. I've dried some too, to use in some recipes I've found online for dried squash. I dried it last year but never used them, but this year I will be sure to change that. 

Right now I have tomatoes in the dehydrator. I did these last year, and found that a great way to use them was to grind the dried tomatoes in the food processor and use as a thickener in pasta sauce and soups. It works great. 

I canned more pickled jalapenos this week, made more ketchup, and canned another 8 gallons of cider. The cellar is getting very full. I have a basket of jalapenos which I think I may dry. I've put away the garlic now that the bulbs are good and dry and we ended up with about a peck of them.

Here's what the cellar looked like a few weeks ago. I've added a lot more since this photo was taken.

Harvest time is definitely winding down now--I can see light at the end of the tunnel at last. Larry is digging the potatoes, which we planted very late, at the end of June. They've done better than expected. Deer got in the garden one night when the electric fence wasn't working and topped off the late beans and the sweet potatoes, so I'm not sure we'll get anything much from them. Larry's been harvesting the Indian corn for decorations, and there are still a lot of peppers coming on, but the tomatoes have slowed down, the cucumber vines died off, and a lot of the squash plants have died too. Kale, carrots and a couple other things are just coming up, so perhaps we'll have some later veggies there. But honestly, I think we're both ready for garden season to be over. I did buy Larry a compost tumbler this week and he's filled it up already. I may be buying a couple more of them if we like it.

But soon I can turn my mind and energies elsewhere. I haven't written much at all this year and would like to get back to it. My flowerbeds are crying for attention, and so are many corners of this house. It's been a very good summer, though, and I am happy to see the full cellar and freezers.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Bye Bye Ducky, and Hello Tomatoes...Again

70 and very muggy, rain most of the day, heavy at times. Warmed to about 75.

I am so enjoying this rainy weather although the grass is growing like crazy. The water table is certainly being replenished thanks to Tropical Storm Fred. I'm wondering where Grace will go? Hopefully she will benefit some other water-starved area.

I mentioned a while back that a neighbor gave us two chicks and a duckling, didn't I? Now, our place is not suited at all for ducks. There's no pond or creek, and our little run is often dry. Besides the lack of water, a bird of any time free-ranging here is easy pickings for the many other critters we share this habitat with--foxes, raccoons, hawks, possums, weasels, minks, skunks, etc, etc. So what could we do with a duck?

The problem was solved today when my son flagged me on a Facebook Marketplace post. A lady was looking for a duck to be a companion to the one she had. I messaged her and after a little discussion, it was settled. Our duck found a new home. The lady is delighted with her free duck, and we're happy it has a good home. It was so cute, though. I was really tempted to keep it but common sense told me not to even think about it.

Other than the duck business, it's been an uneventful day. We made more tomato juice, this time using the Black Krim tomatoes exclusively. It is the most delicious juice we've ever made. The black tomatoes have a deeper color and are so flavorful. 

A Black Krim tomato, with a little garden dirt still on it. I love the color variations of this variety.

We also canned some whole tomatoes--these were Better Boys--and you can see the difference in color between them. The only additions to the juice were salt, pepper and a little hot sauce, so nothing to cause a color change.

About the only other thing we got into was dicing peppers for dehydrating, and Larry did some weed-eating when the rain stopped while I packed eBay sales and listed a couple things. I finished painting an enamel top table that Larry made by replacing the very weird top on a nice wood table with a porcelain top from our stock. Yes, we have several of those tops stored away, just for this purpose. I'd intended to take this table to our booth, but now I am thinking of keeping it. I could use another work surface in the kitchen; today we were hard put to find space for all the stuff we were working on.

There was a nice surprise in the mail, something I forgot I'd ordered. Who would have through flowers could be shipped like this? I will use these to replace the worn-out pansies in a few planters. A little surprise gift to myself.

Tomorrow is booth day, and a break from the kitchen. But there's a half bushel of apples waiting on me for Saturday, and I'm sure there will be more tomatoes and cucumbers too. It's a bountiful time of year, and what a blessing it is to have it. And what joy to be able to make sandwiches like this!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Ketchup, Mustard, and Other Things

66 and a heavy dew this morning. Temps went up to about 85, not a bad day.

So today was ketchup day. I had a variety of kinds of tomatoes ripe so they all went into the ketchup. I used Mrs. Wage's mix and recipe, which is a lot simpler than the recipe I used years ago that called for 12 hours of cooking down the tomatoes. This recipe is different, in that the tomatoes are peeled, chopped up and mashed, and are not de-seeded or blended to make a smooth sauce. I did put most of them through the food processor to make it a little smoother. It tastes great, and I can't wait to give it a try on some burgers. I used 2 packets of the mix, which yielded 12 pints.

Yesterday was pepper mustard, and it came out very well. It made a lot, about 20 pints, I think.

I also made spiced pear jam today, since I lucked into some over-ripe pears that needed to be used quickly. I'm wondering if I got a little heavy-handed with the spices! I guess we'll find out.

That's another 12 pints for the cellar. I am so appreciated of a friend who decided to sell off most of her canning jars; I bought 10 dozen pints and 5 dozen quarts, and she still has a lot of half-pints to sell to me. We seem to buy jars every year; we give so much away over the course of the year that it's really no surprise that we end up needing more.

While I was in the kitchen Larry put front brake rotors on the van, a hard, dirty job but it sure needed to be done. Then he worked on the light columns he's building. He's about finished the second one. I think these are going to be so nice, and it will be good to have some light along our walk in winter. It's so dark out here, no other outside lights which is fine with me because we can see so many stars. But it will be a help when we have visitors who are not used to this darkness.

This is the first one--he still needs to do a little mortar cleanup. The second one will be a little different since the glass blocks we had for that one are smaller. 

Tomorrow, I think I'll have more beans to put up, but there might be a little break in the garden flow. I kind of hope so, as I have to get to some housecleaning! Not to mention getting back to work on furniture for our booths. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Busy Busy

70 and cloudy, then later hot and humid and clear. This evening a nice thunderstorm that dropped enough rain to wet the gardens well, and no run-off.

It's been a busy week, so many different things on our agenda. 

The gardens are beginning to really produce, and Larry seems to bring 5 gallon buckets of yellow squash to the house every day. I found a recipe for squash-lemon bread that I will try soon, and I froze some shredded squash for use later on. I've been giving it away too, even took a basket of squash to the antique mall with me yesterday and put outside with a FREE sign. They were all gone by the end of the day.

It's also tomato time. They're beginning to ripen but so far I've only made the chili sauce. Tomorrow I'm going to make ketchup with the ones ready now. Today I made pepper mustard from the 80+ banana peppers Larry picked. I made more dill pickles the other day, and canned more green beans. 

Besides canning, I've been painting a big dresser, and of course yesterday I worked at the antique mall. I was happy to see my friend Donna Wilson, my old storytelling friend, who is visiting from Florida. She moved several years ago and I do miss her. so we had a nice chat. I also had a lunch date with another friend this week; we tried out a new coffee shop which was so-so, and then lunch at another new place in town, which was also just so-so. But nice to get out and visit anyway.

We were super busy at the beginning of the week to prepare for Larry's planned trip to Florida--he was going to visit his sister in Orlando for 4 days, but at the last minute Spirit Airlines canceled his flight. We were literally on the way to the airport; our power was off for a planned outage so we had no internet or cell service the morning he was to leave, and weren't able to get the notifications until we were already in town. I don't think we'll ever use Spirit Airlines again. What bad, bad service. 

But I will admit, I'm happy Larry didn't go. Totally selfish of me, I admit. He really wanted to see his sister, who just turned 78. Opportunities for them to visit are rare, and we'd been planning this trip since the spring. But I was dreading him being gone, and having to take on all his chores in addition to my own work. Not to mention just missing him. We do enjoy each others company, and spend a lot of time just talking. 

Today we were up and out early because there was a big yard sale at a church that I didn't want to miss. We got there just as the door opened and came away with some wonderful finds. Then we stopped at another sale and did very well there too. When do you ever find an antique coffee grinder for a dollar?? It needs a little repair which Larry can do, but what a bargain. I will take photos of everything tomorrow; we haven't even unloaded the van yet.

And we haven't unloaded because we went to Parkersburg, about a 45-mile drive one-way, to get baby chicks. They had pullets for 1.00 each at Tractor Supply, so we bought 20 of a kind called ISA Browns, French variety that lays brown eggs and are supposed to be prolific layers. So we had to get them all set up when we got home. Then I had those peppers to deal with, and Larry worked on his new project, laying up too small light columns along the walk with glass bricks and regular bricks. He's finished one and is about halfway with the other. We still have to do the wiring too, but they are going to be so nice. I will post photos tomorrow if I can remember.

I think that catches up what we've been up to this past week. Nothing exciting, just lots of little things that seem to fill the days so quickly.

And just for fun, I'll end with this video that I just love. The geese go marching...

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Booths and Gardens

55 and foggy, with a clear day expected. Some light rain last evening and the evening before has been a blessing.

I am so grateful for these cooler mornings. The little bit of rain we got wasn't nearly enough, but it helped cool things down. And the heavy fog and dew added a little more moisture so the gardens look happier, and so do we. We will have to water again this evening, but we had a day or two respite.

Not much news from here. We stocked our Marietta booth yesterday but I forgot to take photos. July was probably the best month we have ever had at this location, clearing enough to pay all our taxes for the year--here in WV that's personal property, real estate, the business taxes and tax on our gas well. That's a good feeling. Riverbend booths are also doing exceptionally well, again probably the best month we've ever had. 

We restocked Riverbend Friday. Here's a few photos of the changes.

The dressing table we took in last week. Below is the stool that goes with it.

A different way to display hankies--in a spoon rack.

The Delta variant of Covid has us worried, however. Will this become the Covid Journal again? I hope not. Larry has a trip to Florida coming up, and the news from there isn't good. He'll be at his sister's home and not traveling around but still there are the airports. In our county there are currently 21 cases, but after fair week I expect that number to go up. I guess it's time to mask up again, although the masks we have are not the kind that can protect us, but just protect others from us. Still, every little bit helps, I suppose.

On the garden front, Larry picked and we shelled limas the other day. It's the first time we've raised them, and they've done well except Larry jumped the gun and picked most of them too soon. But since we've not raised them before he wasn't sure when exactly to pick. There's another bunch coming on soon, so they'll be bigger beans I'm sure. Even so we got enough for half a dozen meals and I'm happy since it was only a half row. We'll grow more of them next year.

The tomatoes are starting to ripen fast now, and I'll be making Jenn's chili sauce today. We really liked it; it makes a fast and easy meal with kielbasa or other sausage and put over rice or pasta. We're eating tomatoes three meals a day, heaven in my book. Mostly what we have right now are the Black Crims, Indigo Cherry, and German Pinks. All are heritage varieties and are really producing. The late cabbages are doing very well despite the drought, a testament to Larry's watering. My late lettuce, kale, beets, onions and squash in the small rock-walled garden are all doing well once they got large enough that Clyde the cat quit digging in there. That was frustrating; I'll need to find a way to keep him out if there is such a way.

That's about all the news for now. I hope all of you are well and getting a little rain. Seems like it's dry almost everywhere.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Summer Musings

62 this morning, so cool and pleasant. Yesterday only reach the upper 70's, a nice day despite the smoke from the fires out west that made the air very hazy. Most haze was gone today and it was another really comfortable day.

It's that time of year. Yesterday I made sweet pickle relish and yellow squash pickles; 

today we put corn in the freezer. Dinner last night was corn and a few of our first ripe cherry tomatoes. Tonight, tomatoes, squash and cucumbers were the sides. Lunch was cucumber sandwiches. Yum. 

The gardens are still doing well, although we are really in need of rain. My flowerbeds are suffering, and we've had to start watering again. But all in all, it's been a nice July. So far.

I had to turn down two more storytelling enquiries. It doesn't bother me, as I have really enjoyed this second "retirement". But I got to wondering how many other people have changed course as a result of the pandemic, or perhaps because the lull in activity seems like a good time to make life changes.

A man who called today about storytelling runs a bus tour company. He said he and his wife are glad to be back to work, but several of his drivers decided not to come back, or are considering stepping down from driving. Several teacher friends retired this year, earlier than planned. Another friend retired from his physical therapy work. I don't think anyone in my immediate family has made any changes in their careers or jobs because of the pandemic, but I haven't really asked either.

I suppose this forced slowdown has made many of us stop and consider what we're doing, and if we actually want to continue the same pace. For me, the answer was no. It was time to slow down permanently, although it sure doesn't feel like it as we are busier than ever with our booths and gardens. But certainly the pressure of preparing for performances and travel is gone. Other people now work from home as a regular thing, and a lot of them don't want to go back to commuting to their jobs. 

How about you? Has the pandemic made you reconsider any major activity in your life, and have you made changes since the pandemic began?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.