CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in September 2016

CC These last three years I have been getting my beets from Paul,  a friend of my friend Diane.

He is a single guy and retired and he has a garden that is like a jungle.  He grows just for the fun of it, to give away to friends and people like me who appreciate what he does.

My friend Diane and I have to pick the stuff, but we do not have to grow it. 
I started to give him some canned peaches as I know he does not have a preach tee, but he said he enjoyed them and appreciated my thoughtfulness but no more please as he only does because it pleases him to have his friends come and enjoy his produce.

This year I have seven jars of green and yellow beans, several heads of corn, and raspberries.  In addition when his bantam hens lay too many eggs he gives us some of them as well.

His mother lives on a trailer on his land and she is a sweetie.  I make sure I sit with them on the annual Veterans' Day Dinner in November.

Scorpio, reading back on the last page when we wrote about billing for water, of course we pay for water but not as a separate item, it is lumped in with the city taxes so we are inclined to forget that we really do pay for it but not how much.

In 2017 the water is being charged so we will all see what it actually costs and I am sure some people will be  surprised and not in a nice way.

One thing I noticed as we drove home yesterday (a trip of 550 kilometres) was the many deciduous trees that have already started to change to Fall colours. I expect many will change early after being stressed by the very hot and dry summer in southern Ontario.

TD, get ready to start collecting your fall leaves for next year's garden.

Kelejan wrote:TD, get ready to start collecting your fall leaves for next year's garden.

Since we don't have any deciduous trees on our property I will have to get them from my neighbours.

 

trolleydriver wrote:

Kelejan wrote:TD, get ready to start collecting your fall leaves for next year's garden.

Since we don't have any deciduous trees on our property I will have to get them from my neighbours.

 

I get some from my own yard and a lot from my neighbours. I am getting them trained with three regulars who collect their own in bags and let me have them, or I can collect them myself if I see them and they are not around.

Yep, with the Pistachio tree gone, 90% of the leaves for compost have to come from neighbors.

A wet, dull, dreary day here in Ottawa but the temps are still way up for this time of the year. At least I have an excuse for not doing any yard work.

TD, a day's rest is good for you.  You will bounce back.

Oh Heck!  Just checked tomorrow's weather forecast and see that tonight it will be  down to 4C WITH A POSSIBILITY OF FROST!.

Already? it's only September!

TD, Now you will have new energy for the garden.

sanderson wrote:
TD,  Now you will have new energy for the garden.

Beautiful day today. Unfortunately I just spent 2 hours in a dentist chair and left with my wallet $500 lighter. It's going to get worse ... I need gum surgery for crown lengthening and then two crowns. I may have to come out of retirement and go back to work to pay for it. I lived the first 10 years of my life in England back in the 40s and 50s and at that time dental care (at least where I lived) was almost none existent except for extractions. Over the next 59 years I have been paying the price for poor dental hygiene and care when I was young. 

I feel your pain, TD.  I had free dental care until I was 21 years of age; that consisted only  of fillings and/or extractions.

Then coming to Canada, I still did not look after my teeth apart from daily brushing.  Then trouble with a broken tooth and infection (while going bankrupt) then had the good fortune to go to a dentist who gave me treatment and allowed me to pay him as and when I could.  Meanwhile he taught me how to look after my teeth and then my health improved dramatically.  He retired this year but I still have his son to see to my basic care.  I consider myself blessed and to this day I know that healthy teeth is the basis of good health.

I Hate going to the dentist but do not begrudge the money spent on dental care.

Kelejan wrote:...  He retired this year but I still have his son to see to my basic care.  I consider myself blessed and to this day I know that healthy teeth is the basis of good health.

I Hate going to the dentist but do not begrudge the money spent on dental care.

My dentist is retiring at the end of November. Great guy. He has a young "protege" who is taking over for him (there are two other dentists in the practice as well). I decided to let the young dentist do my filling today and she did a wonderful job. So I will go with her as my new dentist. I agree that healthy teeth are the basis for good health but I have so many fillings and crowns that I'm not sure the "good health" part applies to me. Oh well, I'll keep fixing the old chompers for as long as I can.

Today I went and bought 40 pounds of tomatoes to process in various ways for eating until next year's harvest.

I have started by dehydrating 6 trays 14" x 18" to get down to tomato powder as detailed somewhere else on this Forum. 

I will be making some of that Crock-pot Marinara Sauce as I do love that sort of eating, hopefully with spaghetti squash sometimes instead of pasta.

Then I went and did my usual pot plant watering for my friend down the road, and on passing my near neighbour he called out to me and asked if I would accept some frozen tomatoes as he had swapped freezers with his son and now has a small model instead of a very large one.  He is off visiting family tonight and was rather desperate to do something with these toms. The frozen toms weighed 17 pounds. I am going to make the Marinara Sauce with these toms first. It will be interesting to see if the taste is different using the same ingredients apart from the tomatoes. When he returns I will be able to give him and wife some sauce.

Absolutely the teeth are a big deal....for one thing it is evidence to health care practitioners that you are attentive to wellness.  On another note, a lot of bad bacteria live in there.  They can go where ever they choose.  Take care.  

I need to process my paste maters into sauce.  Anyone should be super cool getting homemade wonderful sauce!    I would!

Kelejan ... I hope you don't mind me posting these photos of non-SFG flower gardens. If it is a problem perhaps we can get them moved to another thread.

Amazing marigolds at the front of the house were started indoors last spring.



Sweet peas in Mrs TD's new "perennial" bed.



More plants in the new perennial bed.



Along the front of the house.



The Japanese Beetles have disappeared so these roses are now thriving.



Cosmos are doing well.  Mrs TD took some indoors as cut flowers today.

No problem. TD.  I love looking at your pictures.    If the management prefer it to be moved, I am sure they will let you know in a nice way. 

But I feel that this is our Canadian thread and it would be a pity to put these pictures elsewhere.

I love to see the flower pictures too  We love flowers and veggies at our house. The food is good for our stomachs, the flowers are good for our souls.

Very nice, TD,!

Mimi2 wrote:I love to see the flower pictures too  We love flowers and veggies at our house. The food is good for our stomachs, the flowers are good for our souls.

Agree 100%, Mimi.

What am I doing? Went out about lunchtime to mow the lawns. Ended up staying outside and emptied the plastic composter, sifted the contents, refilled the bin with what was left over after sifting plus new material from the gardens and some grass from the lawns. I got about 1.5 wheelbarrows of compost; at least I assume that's what it is given I am not using a scientific approach to composting. Came inside for a glass of water ... looked at the clock ... yikes! already 4 o'clock and I missed lunch. Now tired and hungry.

trolleydriver wrote:
Amazing marigolds at the front of the house were started indoors last spring.

Fabulous! How many plants are in that bunch?
CC

CapeCoddess wrote:

trolleydriver wrote:
Amazing marigolds at the front of the house were started indoors last spring.

Fabulous!  How many plants are in that bunch?
CC

CC ... I think there are six plants there. It's a hot dry location as well.