Wow, has it really been that long since I’ve left a blog post here? Hi folks, I hope you all have been having wonderful adventures at home in garden. I know that I have, and it all will be missed as I tell you about putting the garden to bed.
Every garden year has an end and this year it came on November the 10th for me. Although we had a couple earlier frosts it didn’t seem to get to aerial plants such as the tomatoes and green peppers. November 10th was D-day at the Urban Ranch. Every plant was killed by the mid 20s temperature.
As you can plainly see here it’s definitely over for everything. However, there is a final harvest. Ripe and green tomatoes still hung on the dried up plants. I really can’t complain about this year’s harvest. I didn’t keep track of the bounty, but it supplied family and friends all summer long with some left for me. Next year the garden will be two beds bigger and better. My goal is to preserve some of the harvest next year. It will be marvelous. You will be able to follow along as I blog about it.
Here’s the final tomato harvest on November 8th which is way past the date that harvesting should be completed. It was a gift from the pleasant weather we’ve been having through out October. We had temperatures in the 40s at night with highs during the day in the middle 70s. Seventy degree days in October are not unheard of but for a whole month it is. It caused such a wonderfully long fall to enjoy. The color is still on the trees here.
Here is absolutely the final harvest of the year. There was a final bunch of onions as well. I was quite excited that so many tomatoes were still useable. Next year I will actually try to use the green tomatoes. I have all winter to accumulate recipes that use green tomatoes. If you have anything that you like to do with green tomatoes leave me a comment and I’ll add it to the research I’ll be doing.
The watering system as been dismantled and drained until next spring when more exciting things will be happening with it. I hope by the end of next summer to have a nice fountain in the big tank with a good home for fish. No exotic fish in this tank. Only native Nebraska fish caught out of the local ponds. My grandson will probably enjoy helping with that task.
Some of you are probably wondering what could this picture possibly have to do with gardening? Well the answer is, nothing. I awoke one morning to the sound of the tumbling clothes dryer loaded with clothes that my daughter had started. Something just didn’t seem right when I opened the door to remove the clothes and they were cold and still wet. Hmmmm, right away I surmised something was wrong. I know it’s just gift I have. Anyway having been down this road a time or two I pulled out the tools and a test meter and began to test the possible parts that would cause such a issue. When I put the meter on the heating element presto no response. Right away my gifting kicked in and said “this part is bad.” I just love it when that happens. Now, if this would have been Hank Will, he would have grabbed a chunk of something around the farm and fixed the element and put it back in the dryer in true pioneer fashion. Since I’m still learning about such things, I just went to parts place and bought a new part. As the sun set over the horizon, my daughter was glad to know that the dryer once again was in working fashion. You can read more about trips and home repairs by going to my personal blog here.
This is a three day door installation that I helped with. It’s not that I actually know how to do all this stuff. I just hang out with friends who do, which makes me look good. This was a arch opening and my friend wanted to close it off with the installation of a door. Normally this would be a days work for a good carpenter but for two of us it was three days. It couldn’t have been the fact that we just had to go to Home Depot every day could it? Well, of course there is the stop at the Italian pastry shop before we get started each day. Oh, yeah, then we have to have coffee with our pastry.
After the second day the hard part was finished. On the final day we trimmed out the door and splashed on a good coat of primer paint. I didn’t quite get to finish up with this project but the only thing left was the to install the door knob and give it a good covering of paint.
I’ve been out on a couple of volunteering trips since my last blog entry. This one was in Kansas City at Midwestern Baptist College. Our team worked on a new chapel they were building. Most likely this will be the last trip for me this year. They put me to work doing many different things. Here I’m insulating the water pipes that go to the airconditioning. Of course it was way up in the attic and required crawling and climbing into the smallest of spaces. Also they had me helping with hanging drywall and helping with running of electrical conduit. The team was there for two weeks, but I could only be there for the first week.
At the end of the day whether it be putting a garden to bed, or working on a clothes dryer, or bending a wrench on a sick car, there’s always time for a good cup of coffee. I hope you enjoyed the post and leave a comment to tell what’s been going on in your part of the world.
Oh and one final thing before I’m off to replace the fuel injector in my old ’93 Cavalier, if you are ever close to Topeka, Kansas, be sure to drop in to meet the GRIT magazine staff. They are the greatest folks ever.
Until the next time, hunker down and batten the hatches because winter is coming.
