The Joy of Gardening, Cutting Hay, and Fall Cleaning

Last week we received 5 1/2 inches of rain.  My garden is on sand and drains well, but this week we are getting more rain.  I am not complaining because we need rain now to have a garden and crops next year.  I will not even complain about snow and severe cold.  In short we need a normal rainy fall and a cold snowy winter.

I still have quite a bit to harvest in the garden, but I did manage to get all the potatoes dug before the rains started.  I do not think I will be making anymore tomato juice this year.  If I do get enough tomatoes to juice and can, then that will be wonderful.  There are still gourds, lima beans, peppers, and cotton to harvest.  Yes I planted cotton (in Southern Indiana) to see it grow.  It has beautiful flowers and I am still waiting to see the cotton to appear. 

My husband cut hay again last Saturday, rain was not in the forecast until Tuesday.  Well it is wet and will have to be picked up with a pitch fork.  We have two pitch forks so I guess I will be helping. 

All these little things make life interesting.  We definitely do not get bored around here.

Since it is cold and has been raining since Saturday afternoon, I have tackled fall cleaning.  I am thrilled to say I have 2 rooms done, from top to bottom, closets, drawer, and rotated clothes.  After all the house is cleaned I am setting a goal to deep clean one room a month so it doesn't have to take so long twice a year to get it done. It will make normal cleaning a lot easier and hopefully I feel like I am always behind.  Sounds like a plan to me, I will keep you informed if it works out.

The good thing about any type of cleaning and or organizing you find things you forgot you had or those misplaced items.  It's an a-ha moment when you find things.  I am looking for a land line phone I bought last spring to use when we loose power,  just a plain jane, no bells or whistles.  I know I bought two of them, but I can only find one of them, the one that is plugged in.  Its is here somewhere, along with a big flashlight.  Sometimes I put things up so my grandkids don't play with them and then I can't find them.  I found a stapler after six months of looking for it.  You just have to love grandkids, they tend to keep us on our toes.

 

Lightning Benefits Your Garden

One of my husbands friends told him this morning that lightning during a rain storm adds nitrogen to the soil when the rain falls.  In short it its true.  I went to the Internet and found several sites with information on it just Google--How Lightning Benefits Your Garden.

The temperature only went down to 43 degrees last night, so I was thrilled about that.  The windows are open today so the air conditioner can get some rest.   I should have started fall cleaning today, but I have some things to get cleaned up outside, it can wait a few more days.

Will my garden beat the first frost?

Listening to the weather report for our area I am beginning to realize, my garden is getting close to being done for the year (a low of 39 tonight).  Autumn officially starts September 22 this Saturday.  It will be the earliest start to Autumn since 1896.  I wonder if their overall weather was as weird as ours has been this year?

There are still several items growing I am not ready to give up on.  Tomatoes and Lima beans are just now starting to produce.  I am going to wait and see if they beat the frost.   They struggled through all the heat.  I will just wait and see what happens. In Southern Indiana summer heat is not uncommon.  What hurt us was the total lack of humidity.  

Gardening is a gamble.  Just like life and you just have to keep going. 

An update on the new calf.  Mama and baby are thriving.  The little thing is already at a full gallop(my husbands description)  in the pasture.  Hopefully the rest of the cows will deliver soon so there will be little friends for it to play with.