We're Not Done Yet

On Monday I managed to get the garlic in. Hooray! No pictures taken, I'm afraid, but there are two neat, respectably shaped beds out there with sand, garlic, and a thin layer of dairy compost.

A good thing, too, since the rest of the week has been rain. We got, I think, two inches. The grass is very green, leaves are dropping like stones, and there are still raspberries out there to be found. An interesting fall. Who knows when we'll get back in to finish up the fall clean-up and put the whole thing to bed. I had wanted to rototil the walkways and shape beds, but with this much moisture in the ground we'll have to wait some time, I expect.

Killing Frost --With Snow

Here it is, I think. Last night the low was 27 or 28. It was windy and wet, however, so we won't know what really froze for a while (except it will be even colder tonight, I believe). The sweet potatoes went two weeks ago, but everything but a couple pepper plants in the low part of the garden has been fine up until last night. I'm ready for it all to go to sleep except for the raspberries, which have a LOT of berries on them. I took a couple bedspreads out last night and covered some bushes, just to see.

And what did I salvage yesterday?
Parsley.
A few tomatoes. I just wasn't interested in picking every green tomato out there.
And Peter finished off the apples, which waited patiently in the basement without too much spoilage.
Now for some pictures from the lovely fall day that yesterday was -- bright blue sky all around, no clouds, not much wind, a lot of sun for warming cats in hog feeders:
And Owen, after two weeks of being sick with strep throat, was up and around and on the move. With help.

Grandma Daisy's Spoons

From the Chicago World's Fair 1892 to Bisbee Arizona and Yellowstone National Park 1909.

Sweet Potatoes

Wednesday I got out there and dug these beauties. I got two full laundry baskets, or (I think) 80 lbs. Which seems like too much, but remember, it's all really just water.

There are some nice big ones there, just like my friend Cindy's, who gives me the slips to plant. Hooray! Lots of water is the key, I think, as well as planting them close together without any fertilizer.

This bed also had a good amount of sand in it -- not too hard to dig them out. In contrast to the cabbage beds, which are quite compacted.
It's quite a treasure hunt to dig these amazingly BIG roots out of the ground. Now they are curing in the basement with heat and humidity. I need to store them more carefully than last year, too, since I had most of the little ones rot away. Oh, well.