According to the gardening books, it’s time to put the garden to sleep for the winter. Not that my little patch was completely awake during the growing season, but it did produce a few vegetables and a good many herbs. 

I like getting the garden ready for winter. Expectations are low; in fact, all that matters is that I pull the weeds and pile them on a compost heap. Preparing the soil to rest is like stripping old paint from an antique dresser. You simply can’t hurt anything; it already looks as bad as it ever will.

The sage and mint are continuing to persevere amidst the relatively cold nights and chilly days of mid to late autumn. They will shine even more when I remove the dead, gangly stalks of brown plant material: they’re a true tribute to the robustness of domesticated weeds.

Finding time to clear out the garden seems to be my biggest challenge. The sun dips behind the horizon shortly after 5 pm these days. By the time I close down the computer and push in the last chair in my classroom, the large lunar fireball is already dipping dangerously low in the sky. We do have a few holidays coming up in the next couple of days. Thanksgiving is near, and the Powers that Be have seen fit to give us three entire free days this year…more than we have ever had before. Perhaps I will spend the frantic hours of “black Friday” puttering away in the back forty. Stacking weeds seems so much more restful than pushing through throngs of agitated bodies at the local mall. Such clamor and clutter messes with the minds of theoretical farmers---way too much reality for our philosophical brains to process.

Between now and Friday, perhaps I will do a bit more research on proper winter gardening for our neck of the woods. I still haven’t given up on horseradish and carrots, although I suspect I should have planted them much earlier… Whatever the case, I am looking forward to several uninterrupted hours in my garden. I’ve missed our time together. 

Late Autumn Mint

Fall has come to the Shenandoah Valley in full force. We seem to have bypassed any type of Indian Summer and temperatures have settled in at around 45 degrees by day and down to 30 at night. Delicate plants such as basil and green peppers have turned black and limp from frost while the more hearty herbs like rosemary and thyme are still thriving. I think the Last Rose of Summer fell apart into brown-edged petals yesterday. It was still clinging bravely to the vine when I left to go grocery shopping. By the time I returned home, the wind had dislodged it and all that was left on the vine was the center of the flower, looking frail and rather pathetic in the watery su

I love the change of seasons, and it suits me just fine that summer chose to exit without lingering goodbyes. Still, I still feel the need to play in the dirt a bit. I’m not quite ready to give up gardening yet. I talked to a seasoned farmer at church this morning and asked him if I could grow anything now. He was rather cryptic in his answer. “Yeah, there are lots of things you can grow now.” I waited for him to continue but he had stopped talking and was obviously not going to enlighten me on the bounty of late fall growing. I prodded a bit further and asked if I could plant onions. “No,” he said, shaking his head solemnly, “you don’t want to plant onions now. They will freeze in the ground.” What about carrots, I continued. “Not so sure. Maybe.” Such was the extent of my interview. Perhaps I shall just resort to Google.

Or more likely I will create a lush winter garden inside my head. After all, I am a theoretical farmer still and there is no pressure to  have anything to show for my intensive labors of the mind!

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s nice to warm up on winter nights with a light, simple soup. It’s great to have the ample servings of turkey and dressing, ham, pies, cookies and candies during this season, but in between, take a break. It’s like watching a holiday movie one day with a cup of mulled cider because you’re tired of the holiday shopping. And soup is a natural for cold weather, of course.

Collard greens are best from the garden, especially picked while young, but can often be found at the grocery store. If you can’t, it is fine to use spinach, and you might prefer to use spinach if you like a subtler taste. Paired with good old standbys potatoes and carrots, and just a little seasoning, this soup turns out to have a surprisingly deep flavor. If you’re vegetarian you can use vegetable stock instead. Collard greens are usually cooked with bacon or pork because the strong salty flavor helps the greens taste like meat. But I like to taste the greens in the forefront, rather than just have greens that taste like bacon. (Sorry, all of you who are part of the “bacon makes everything better” movement.)

Warm, easy soup lifts your spirits, helps you reflect on the true meaning of this season, and assists you in seeing past the endless gray days to see the beauty of a cold, sleeping world. It’s a world that is resting, building its energy to produce a colorful array of produce come spring and summer.

Greens, Potato and Carrot Soup 

1 pound collard greens
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped
½ cup chicken stock plus three cups chicken stock
1 cup chopped leeks (white part only)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teas. celery seed
1 teas. dill weed
Salt and pepper 

Thoroughly wash collard greens, then cut off stems and larger rib pieces. Discard stems and ribs. Tear greens into bite-sized pieces. Set aside. In a large pan, boil 4 cups of water, then add potatoes and carrots and boil for 15 minutes, or until soft. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, place half cup of chicken stock, leeks, garlic, celery seed, dill weed, and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain potatoes and carrots. Add saucepan contents to potatoes and carrots, then add three cups chicken stock. Simmer, adding collard greens and cooking them in the soup for about two minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately. Can also puree this soup before serving.

I left you with a cliff hanger last post as to whether Old Nebraska Dave was going to go down for the count with the new faucet installation or was he going to rise to the occasion and wrangle that old plumbing into the trash can.  As Paul Harvey would say, "Here's the rest of the story."

As we left the story last time the installed faucet was dangling from a piece of wire wrapped around a mirror cabinet and the wall pipe from the sink P-trap was stuck in the wall.  The whole thing kind of looked like a display in a red neck faucet shop.  The score at this point in time was faucet 2 and old Dave 0.  So let's continue and see what happens next.

   
With very delicate instruments the surgery to remove the drain pipe from the wall was performed.   An amputation was made with a sawsall and the end of the pipe removed.  Next a ball peen hammer and a chisel performed the actual splitting of the pipe and rolling the sides in on themselves.  An hour into the surgery the final extraction was made with the ever so versatile vise grips and the surgery was declared a success.  Score a point for old Dave.  Now the score is faucet 2 and Old Dave 1.  Could he be making a come back after being flung to the mat by the stubborn plumbing? I don't know. Flat box furniture comes next.  Everyone knows how much he likes flat box furniture.

I don't see a smile on old Dave's face but he is diligently working on the sink cabinet and I'm sure before the day's end it will be standing in good shape.  What do you think? 

You can't see the sink too well because of the bright sunshine but I think we can chalk up another point for old Dave and make the score faucet 2 and Old Dave 2.  The old geezer is rising up isn't he?  So the sink is set in place and the final assembly begins.  Supply lines for the water are too long.  A trip to the home repair store nets the shortest supply lines they have which is 9 inches.  It's still to long and exerts too much pressure on the bottom of the sink when connected.  So as this day closes the score is faucet 3 and Old Dave 2.  It's a neck and neck battle.  Who will be the winner.  Will the faucet repair be too much for old Dave or will he be able to recover and continue the fight for long flowing plumbing at sunrise?

Ah, one more thing before the day shuts down.  Old Dave always has to improve on the design of flat box furniture and this time is no different.  You can see that he has reinforced the back side of the cabinet to give it more stability  Ah, yes, it's just a thing with him and flat box furniture.  It's been a long day so Old Dave toddled off to a hot shower, a hot coffee, and a hot sandwich before settling down for late night TV viewing.

Wake up!!  The suns up and the coffee's on.  Old Dave is revived and ready to go toe to toe with that old plumbing. Another trip to the home improvement store was first on the agenda for very long flexible supply lines.  Huh!  If short is too long then really long is going to work?  This time the plan was to buy the longest supply lines available and circle them around in a loop right into the fitting on the bottom which would give downward pressure to sink  and help hold it in place.  The supply lines were attached to the sink, a bead of construction adhesive laid around the top of the cabinet and the sink with faucet and supply lines installed was set in place.  A small wait of about an hour for adhesive to set some found old Dave rolling on the floor attaching the supply lines to the wall supply lines.  A few minutes of close quarter combat and Dave rises hands in victory.  So now the score is 3 to 3 with the faucet working and Old Dave is gaining momentum.

Next day Old Dave made a few jabs with a hand saw on the PVC plumbing pipes to fit things together and this fight was over.  Final score Old Dave 4 and Sink faucet repair 3.  Now Old Dave can get to his real passion .... gardening.

The GRIT Garden Planner says that this 4 X 8 bed will only hold 8 broccoli plants.  I haven't planted or grown broccoli before and didn't know that a broccoli plant got that big.  So eight tiny little seeds were planted in the big prepared bed.  The other bed behind me is a different story.  The left side is lettuce which has even smaller seeds than the broccoli seeds.  In this case an 8 plant by 10 plant grid nets a total of 80 plants.  The other side of this bed is planted with carrots which has even smaller seeds than lettuce.  A good health sneeze would blow them all away.  It was the same grid story through which again was an 8 X 10 giving 80 carrots if they all grow.  So
far the only thing up is the lettuce.

So as the sun sets on the Urban Ranch all is well with the plumbing once again.  Until that old monster creeps up out of the deep dark depths of the drain pipe life will remain good.

I leave with one more tidbit of information which is pretty self explanatory.  I just had to try my newly acquired toy which is the flip video camera that I won right here on the GRIT web blog site.  Thanks go to Purina and also Samatha Biggers for hosting the give away on her GRIT blog.  I hope for you to enjoy many more videos as time rolls on in the life and times of Old Dave and the Urban Ranch.

Now where's that dang bottle of Aleve.  I know it's around here some where.  Oh, yeah, there it is.  Right by the coffee maker.  See ya next time and the only rule to remember when working on plumbing is that it all rolls down hill.