CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in September 2016

Having finished the bulk of my canning for the time being and made a couple of batches of Crockpot Marinara and dehydrated 12 trays of tomatoes, I am out in the garden but not as yet preparing for garlic and flower bulb planting while I get on with clearing up the remains of the cedar hedge before we can get on with another few feet.

I did not realise how much debris was there to be cleared up as it  continued out of sight around the house.  That was the place when I consign all things that need to be taken to the dump. I am hoping that when my friend passes by in his truck he will know that I have been at work and he will be able to get on with his part, which is cutting the hedge down so that I can do my part as far as I am able.  He is only home  four days  in a fortnight and has things to do on his own account so I am very grateful for what he is doing.

There are also bags of wood chips to be moved from that side of the house before we step on them and cause the bags to burst.   So far the weather forecast is favourable  but as soon as it rains then work will come to a stop.

My friend Persis who is away for two weeks coming up six weeks, (I water her pot(ted) plants each day) stressed before she went she wants me to take time to go to the Seniors Centre and drink coffee and play crib on a Friday afternoon and perhaps play whist on a Monday afternoon. I think she is afraid that I may turn into a hermit and would like to see me hitched up with a nice guy.  I think maybe I will get myself a nice little cat.

Kelejan you kill me!  Canning, hedge eliminating, and the prospect of a date on the horizon!     Love it!  Persis is just wanting you to have some fun!  

Scorpio Rising wrote:Kelejan you kill me!  Canning, hedge eliminating, and the prospect of a date on the horizon!     Love it!  Persis is just wanting you to have some fun!  

+1  

Kelejan ... Please send some of your energy my way.

Just changed my Avatar. We are loving this year's selection of tomatoes.

When is a good time to bring herbs inside (to keep them alive during winter- and have indoor herbs) - this it?

Mimi2 wrote:When is a good time to bring herbs inside (to keep them alive during winter- and have indoor herbs) - this it?

I have never been successful with any overwintering any herbs with the exception of Rosemary.  It needs water.  I have an east facing window.  No go with basil, chives, or cilantro.  And I need to pot the Rosemary up about every  2-3 years...makes sense...

Let me know what you try and if it works!

My thyme beds outside are evergreen and I use them year round even to dig under snow to get some for a nice lamb dish...or sweet potatoes!  Love thyme. Hardy.

Sorry!  I dont' bring my Rosemary in until mid to low 40s .

trolleydriver wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:Kelejan you kill me!  Canning, hedge eliminating, and the prospect of a date on the horizon!     Love it!  Persis is just wanting you to have some fun!  

+1  

Kelejan ... Please send some of your energy my way.

Scorpio, Persis is one of my best friends and I love her to bits.

TD, no can do, I really do need it all for me.  I could do with a bit more myself.
My energy use seems to comes in bits, it is not like this every day.  Tomorrow I will no doubt take it easy so as to build up for another burst of energy expenditure.

You hardly sound like a hermit to me. You're always having lunch or something with friends, and talking to folks when you walk.

+1 Just don't see the hermit in you...

NOT a hermit.

A kind neighbour brought over a couple of Prickly Pear Cactus for us. He has a lot of them in his garden. He puts them into a lightly heated greenhouse for the winter. Ours will go into the house.

I love them!  But those babies are hard to see if they get ya!

Nearly finished processing the last of my tomatoes and apples.  I still have this urge to save everything that comes my way, whether it is donated to me or I grow myself.  Far more than I need in some things so it is nice to share.

Trying to find some time to prepare my garlic beds, should do it later this week when the forecast seems to think that the rain tippling down today will lessen.

Another session with the cedar hedge. That is the fifth truckload full of branches taken to the composting station at the other end of the town.  So far we have taken down most of the smaller branches but there are at least twelve tall (40ft) trunks that will be left when there is space for them to fall.  There is room for them to fall on to my neighbour's land.  It will be ironic if the owner decides to build a house there as we will have done all the work, but I have waited years for this and I do want to get some benefit from it.

I can definitely see more light in my kitchen in the morning that lifts my spirit. When their huge oak tree and the large apple shed their leaves, then it will really make a difference to me in the winter.

I have not grown many things like lettuce this year, getting them instead from our weekly market. My favourite being a mixed bag of lettuces, kale and spinach, grown by a young couple who offer a wonderful selection of organic produce. Think of those clam-shell offerings in the local supermarkets compared to the value I get from these young people. Their $5 bag lasts me the whole week and I have some of it every day. Such a pity we cannot freeze lettuce.

Sadly, as I approached the market this morning, there was an ambulance and a couple of fire rescue cars, all flashing lights.  There was a person on the ground being given CPR for quite some time before he was taken aboard the ambulance, still being given CPR very forcibly.  This person was one of the stall holders so the atmosphere there was very subdued, as it was the consensus that he would not survive. At this time I do not know if he has made it, we can only hope.

Kelejan, Your posts are so newsy that I sometimes have a hard time replying. You are so active! I hope the man is okay. You will probably find out next week. Sad.

sanderson wrote:Kelejan,  Your posts are so newsy that I sometimes have a hard time replying.  You are so active!  I hope the man is okay. You will probably find out next week.  Sad.

I totally agree. I always look forward to reading what Kelejan is doing. She also gets me thinking about how little I am doing.  Sad about the man.

I know, it is like reading the Kelejan Gazette!  I love it!  I wish lettuce and what I refer to as leaves could be stored for more long term. But they are fleeting!  

It will be a miracle if the man lives.  Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are not usually survived.  There is hope, though, it happens, just depends on the cause of collapse.  

Fingers crossed.

sanderson wrote:Kelejan,  Your posts are so newsy that I sometimes have a hard time replying.  You are so active!  I hope the man is okay. You will probably find out next week.  Sad.

As I read your reply I though you were going to say a hard time reading.

I expect next week the news will not be good, but one never knows.

TD, Scorpio and sanderson, I really think I come over far more industrious than I really am.  When I write you only get the good bits.

(The following is exceedingly Off Topic, so ignore if you wish, or Mods delete.)
My sister in England once said to me that my life was so much more interesting than hers, but she does not know that I envy her her large family of four children and ten grandchildren and the latest GGD. The grass is often greener on the other side, isn't it?  I am happy for her and happy for me that I have been able to join the family at this late stage in my life. For anyone who does not know, I was brought up by foster parents until six years of age then lived in a 500-child institution for the next nine years. This is my birth family I am writing about and they are a wonderful group of people and it is wonderful getting to know them. It is not their fault that I was brought up this way, it was the mores of the time.

Kelejan wrote:

sanderson wrote:Kelejan,  Your posts are so newsy that I sometimes have a hard time replying.  You are so active!  I hope the man is okay. You will probably find out next week.  Sad.

As I read your reply I though you were going to say a hard time reading.

I expect next week the news will not be good, but one never knows.

TD, Scorpio and sanderson, I really think I come over far more industrious than I really am.  When I write you only get the good bits.

(The following is exceedingly Off Topic, so ignore if you wish, or Mods delete.)
My sister in England once said to me that my life was so much more interesting than hers, but she does not know that I envy her her large family of four children and ten grandchildren and the latest GGD. The grass is often greener on the other side, isn't it?  I am happy for her and happy for me that I have been able to join the family at this late stage in my life. For anyone who does not know, I was brought up by foster parents until six years of age then lived in a 500-child institution for the next nine years. This is my birth family I am writing about and they are a wonderful group of people and it is wonderful getting to know them. It is not their fault that I was brought up this way, it was the mores of the time.

You just have to play the hand you are dealt.  All we can do.  You, Kelejan, are a resilient survivor who inspires me and everyone who you touch with your stories, journey, and experiences!  I am lucky to "know" you!  

Scorpio Rising wrote:

(The following is exceedingly Off Topic, so ignore if you wish, or Mods delete.)
My sister in England once said to me that my life was so much more interesting than hers, but she does not know that I envy her her large family of four children and ten grandchildren and the latest GGD. The grass is often greener on the other side, isn't it?  I am happy for her and happy for me that I have been able to join the family at this late stage in my life. For anyone who does not know, I was brought up by foster parents until six years of age then lived in a 500-child institution for the next nine years. This is my birth family I am writing about and they are a wonderful group of people and it is wonderful getting to know them. It is not their fault that I was brought up this way, it was the mores of the time.

You just have to play the hand you are dealt.  All we can do.  You, Kelejan, are a resilient survivor who inspires me and everyone who you touch with your stories, journey, and experiences!  I am lucky to "know" you!  

 
Thank you, Scorpio.  You may note that I edited a couple of words due to trying to correct a spelling mistake (not unusual when I rush through things) that gave the opposite meaning to what I meant to say.

I am happy to "know" you too. and so many kind and caring people here.  One thing I must say about the Internet, without it I would not be in touch with my birth family, and the countless others I have "met" through it.  Some people think the Internet is a wicked place, so it is at times.  I find that all you need to do is gnore them and concentrate on what feels right to yourself.

Kelajan ... thank you for sharing some personal details of your life with us. I think we all want to reach out and give you a big hug.

Thanks for the virtual hugs, TD.

Now, back to business.

I am trying to dehydrate some of my tomatoes as I have too many.  I am trying to get them dry enough to powder, but at the moment they are still in that sticky stage so that if you try to process them it all sticks to the blades then gums up.  So I am putting all the pieces once more in to the dehydrator and hoping to get to that brittle stage that will work.  I read that toms are 97% water so it is no wonder they take ages.

Lots of rain yesterday so the ground is still saturated making it hard to plant my garlic etc., nit that I have a lot to plant as my promising harvest this part year seemed to get waterlogged so in the end I have only enough to replant and not eat this year.  My friends who like garlic are going to be disappointed this year come Christmas time.

I really do not like these dark mornings and early dark evenings. If I were rich I would like to take a trip below the equator to take advantage of the longer daylight hours.  It's funny to think that everyone in the world gets an equal amount of light and dark, just distributed in different amounts at different times of the year. That is if you stay in the same place all year like I do.

I think this may be the last day that I have to take a walk to my friend's home and water her pot(ted) plants as I believes she is flying home today. I need also to return her broom that I borrowed to sweep my driveway of all the little cedar bit left behind that are so difficult to sweep up with the broom that I do have. I even used my vacuum cleaner one time, on a very long electrical cord, to really clean up.  then the wind blows and I am now getting the oak leaves from next door.  Normally the wind blows the other way.  That is the trouble when you live in a heavily treed area.
It is now the beginning of leaf-collecting season; it will be interesting if my neighbourhood kicks in with their leaves after the soliciting I had done after last year.  Ideally some of them will have shredded and bagged their leaves, the worst scenario is that I have to sweep up and bag them myself.

Well, back to work processing some more apples and tomatoes.

Kelejan wrote:

I am trying to dehydrate some of my tomatoes as I have too many.  I am trying to get them dry enough to powder, but at the moment they are still in that sticky stage so that if you try to process them it all sticks to the blades then gums up.  So I am putting all the pieces once more in to the dehydrator and hoping to get to that brittle stage that will work.  I read that toms are 97% water so it is no wonder they take ages.

After dh'ing for 24 hrs I finally gave up on my maters getting beyond sticky, stuck them in a jar to use as dried and into the fridge they went.

But I know it can be done because I've read about making powder. Good luck!
CC

I might have to think about getting a dehydrator.....

I think my maple tree leaves have some kind of black blotches....good thing I got a loaf of straw from a friend.  Will use that to compost.  Not sure what the black splotches are all about?

Scorpio Rising wrote:I might have to think about getting a dehydrator.....

I think my maple tree leaves have some kind of black blotches....good thing I got a loaf of straw from a friend.  Will use that to compost.  Not sure what the black splotches are all about?

Do a search on images of Tar Spot Maple or Rhytisma, see if that matches your black blotches. If it matches: Offhand, looks like composting reduces the chance of harboring the spores for next year, but 'destroying' could be better, or could be pointless, depending on what neighbors with like-wise infected trees/leaves do. The fungus appears to be specific to maple and related trees -- it doesn't look like it affects unrelated garden plants.