Fall cleanup

Hello Everyone,

Well, I've been able to start some of my fall clean-up around my place.  It is kinda a mess, had a lot going on and not enough hours or time in the day to complete it. 

I pulled all of my peppers out of their buckets except the Tabasco peppers, I am still getting a few and I will throw these into my vinegar jar to seep and see if I can make sauce later.  I have never tried this before, so its a little new to me.
I pulled my bean vines and tomatoes and cucumber vines on the south side and will take down my fence I use as a trellis.  I use snow fence to trellis and string up vegetables holding everything up with fence stakes that are about 5 feet long, since I am a poor slob, I cannot afford the fancy things that gardeners use to trellis cucumbers and tomatoes so I use this.
I also garden in large plastic blue tubs that are about 20 gal each.  I get these at the dollar store and have used these for a long time.   Where I live, I cannot dig as the utilities are strung all over the lot, and I did have the utility company digger's come out a few years ago and mark the utilities where they run, like water, sewer, electricity, and gas lines, so I do know where they are at, but for me to dig is an understatement, so this is easier for me to handle and work with.

I also grow in the bags of garden soil.  I think that is is called "bag gardening" or instant beds, but I use this also.  I have had good luck with tomatoes, peppers, beans, but I will tell you, don't buy cheap topsoil as some of this stuff is clay based and does the plant no good for the root system.  Spend a little more on good soil or container soil and you will be rewarded with a wonderful bag garden.  I bought some cheap soil and had some problems with yucky clay soil.  So I will take this soil next spring, and mix with peat moss and compost and fill my buckets and dress them out for lettuce and greens. I have a very tiny space in which to grow produce, so I have to really plan and use my space well, I will try to have some photos of my garden spaces.
The best soil I used was the Miracle Grow potting soil for containers.  I grew some awesome cherry tomatoes in it to try and they did beautiful.  I'm not promoting Miracle Grow, but they did good. It even had fertilizer in it and I did not have to dress any bags.

I am still canning.  I have some more tomatoes to can for salsa.  I have some hot salsa in the frig to start, and I got some apples from the neighbor's tree to see if I can do something with them.  They have holes, and I'm sure, some worms, so I am not sure if I can do anything with them but I am going to try sometime next week.

It is cooling off here considerably.. It is now getting into the low 40's and even into the 30's but not freezing.  But this morning, it did call for some "patchy frost " in some areas.  So I am sure some of my farmer's market friends are cleaning up and getting ready to finish up the market which ends this month.  I had very good business this first year of market and I hope to have more next year, I learned a lot, but you also learn that the public, especially here in my area, they do  not really understand the farmer's market, and expect things to be just like the Wal-mart or grocery store chain,  they expect perfect produce and what ever else you have, which those of us who live with in our means or frugal know that you cannot provide the "perfect" anything.  So this is a stumbling block with the public here.

Mom is doing ok.  ICU kitty is having some issues with the bowels, but the vet says its because she is tiny and will have to grow out of this, so it will be a long haul with this little girl, but she is doing better, and growing.
When I had all of this going on at the house, I sure got behind with everything else.  My mom really cannot go anywhere any more with the hips falling out of their sockets, and we cannot go clear to Omaha to replace anything.  This is one of the problems living in a retarded rural area like this, little health care or medical care needs. It amazes me, the community brags that it has wonderful medical care and a modern hospital, but yet tells  you that you have to go 5 hours to a city to get care.  Go figure.

Well everyone, thank you for stopping buy.  I hope to have some photos of the clean-up going on here.  I still don't have a camera, but I will try to see if I can work my camera on my cell phone.  That is something I don't have much use for is a cell phone, but I do keep it because of my parents if they need me and I'm out running errands or outside.
Take care all, and enjoy your weekend plans.

Unexpected things that happen or Murphy's Law

Hello everyone.

I am sorry that I have not posted for a while, but my elderly mother fell during the week and my ICU kitty seemed to think that they had to fight for my attentions.

My mom is ok, but will have to have the artificial hip replaced after 30 yrs, she has 2 hips  but she broke her leg over 2 yrs ago and every since, it has not worked the same since that time, so its off to the Doc's office Monday early am, and my ICU kitty had a relapse with the constipation issue and have been up all night with her. She finally did her business early this morning, but these are issues that come up and so far, she is doing good and eating again.

I want to thank one of my readers for her recipe for kitty glop, thank you, I am mixing some of this up and will work this into the ICU kitty and see if we can keep this under control until she gets older and can handle potty habits better.  What our issue is, is that she was a tiny thing, very malnourished  and no mom kitty and moms usually wash kitten's behinds to get them to do their business, but this one didn't have a mom, so she hasn't quite figured out when to go, so we will get this under control and the vet thinks that as she gets a few weeks older, she will figure this out, until then, we have to do our mom kitty part, and I assure you she doesn't like at all, but we need her to get the idea, just time on all of our parts.

I am still here also, no jail or other nasty things.  Got plates and things done for the car and got the cop out of my hair. Now he's on my landlord, which is fine, it keeps him out of my hair, I have enough in my hair at this time anyway. We decided not to do anything about this cop, as this one seems to have an issue in general, I talked this over with my dad, who was a cop many years ago in the 50's here in town, and he said to let sleeping dogs lie, as this cop may find issues and harass just to do it, he said, to let something bigger take him, which I'm sure it will the way he is going at this rate.  My dad said to keep a low profile, which I do anyway, for God's sake, I garden and putter around in the yard, and unless the drug dealer slips up, I don't think that we will have issues for awhile.

So, hopefully things will calm down, I'm not sure when my mother will have hip surgery, but I will try to get a few posts going, and get back on track.   I have also been canning in all the middle of this, it seems to calm me down somewhat, and keeps my mind off of the world in general,  and takes me to a simpler time with my grandmother's kitchen and all that we did together. I am also trying to tackle the housework too, it seems everything either grows legs and walks off or it has babies and multiplies into many things, especially the laundry.

It has been chilly here, a couple of weeks ago, on Saturday, I did Farmer's Market, and I just about froze, it seems to be ok when we were all setting up  and then all of the sudden, the wind came up and it started raining a very cold rain, and we all just about packed it in.  It was all I could do to keep warm, and drink coffee until it poured out of my ears, I finally quit early at 11:30, and was able to pack up and it took all day to warm up and get the chill off me. It was funny, there were quite a few people wandering out and about that morning. I think that it was only 40 degrees that morning after being 80 something on Friday. Go figure.

So, I should go for now, I have beef stew in the crock pot going, and am trying to get some laundry done,  before the wheel starts rolling again tomorrow.  Anyway, everyone have a great week, and I will try to post back later this week.

Take care all