I Hate To Admit It.......

But I know I have to. Summer's coming to a close. According to the weather forecast for Friday night and Saturday morning, the temperature is dropping to a cool....er cold thirty-one degrees. That means FROST!!!!



This morning I gathered all the green tomatoes, the peppers, the cucumbers, the larger of the pear tomatoes and the last of the green beans.



The tomatoes are larger than the ones we grew in the earlier part of the summer. It sure panged me to pull those tomatoes from the vines. I wanted to let them ripen on the vine but it is not to be. I will wrap them in newspaper and put them in a box to ripen.



The squash plants have several small squash on them but the squash aren't as big as my pointer finger. They would be good salad fixings though. It would be a good idea to pick them tomorrow morning before we leave for our day trip.



All good things must come to an end. I've realized that I must say goodbye to the summer of 2010 and the fresh vegetables we've enjoyed from our garden but nowhere is it written that I have to like saying "Goodbye".



'Tis the cycle of life! Seasons come. Seasons go.

What have I been up to?

Sewing and knitting!

I knit while I'm watching t.v. and sew in between household chores.

I saw Martha Stewart make the baby changing pad on one of her programs several months ago. It's easily put together and will make nice baby gifts. There's a pocket on the pad for a diaper, wet wipes and a pocket for diaper cream. For the front I chose a colorful fabric and the backside is made of a hand towel. It can be folded and tied to fit into a diaper bag.

They're convenient to use when a mother needs to change her baby in a public bathroom. I love the idea of having the pad to lay the baby on instead of putting the infant on the bare changing table.

Laying the baby on a bare public changing table doesn't seem sanitary to me. I've seen many moms laying their tiny babies down on those cold, plastic, dirty changing tables. May be I can keep one of the pads with me and make a gift of them when I see a mother about to put her baby on a dirty table. :)

I will have to admit that the knitting is not done with needles but with a hoop. The hoop gets the job done and it's quick.

The little caps were play time. I made one and gave it to three year old Emmy Kate (the baby in our family and my great neice) for her baby doll. It IS getting cold you know.

The adult size caps I'm going to donate to a homeless shelter or the Salvation Army. There's plenty of people out there that can use a warm tobagan.

On an aside note.......WE HAVE GOTTEN RAIN three days in a row and from the forecast there's more on the way now. There was a tornado warning a few minutes ago for two counties southwest of us. The storm was moving this way although the tornado warning has been lifted. Thank God for the rain!

Rain Sneaked In During Early Morning Hours....

Sunday afternoon the rain came down for less than five minutes. I thought that was all we were going to get but early this morning the rain came down again. This time we got around a half inch. All the plants look happier.

More rain along with some thunderstorms are in the forecast for the next three days. I'm hoping that we get at least another half inch.

I've always taken for granted that the rain is going to fall, the breeze is going to blow and the garden is going to grow but it doesn't always happen that way. We're over twelve inches short in the rainfall category this year. The temperature was close to 90 today and there was no breeze blowing. The garden is still growing though. That's a good thing.

There's Just Nothing Like It!

I can't think of anything better than fresh greens cooked in a black iron pot with bacon to season them. Mustard and turnip greens grown without insecticides or commercial fertilizer. I know they are healthy eating.....well maybe they would have been healthier sans the bacon for seasoning but you only live once. :)

Add to those fresh greens a piece of chicken that is oven fried and a baked sweet potato...A sliced cucumber and hot peppers on the side rounded out the meal. That's what this southern gal calls a gourmet meal.

The pear tomatoes are ripening. I picked four on Thursday and had them with my scrambled egg on Friday. They had a good tomato taste for it to be so late in the season. When I was gathering the greens this afternoon I noticed there are a few more ready to be picked. Being the good wife I am, I'll let William have these.

There were a few yellow squash large enough to gather today. I sliced them and a couple of potatoes and an onion then stewed them down for dinner tomorrow night. I gathered a handful of green beans for our dinner also.

While I was in the garden I pulled a green tomato to slice and fry for our breakfast in the morning. I think we will have a bacon and fried green tomato sandwich.

We are enjoying the last of our bounty before the cold sets in and the veggies are gone. I'll miss running out the back door to gather fresh vegetables for our meals but I can begin to dream of the coming spring when the cycle will begin all over again.

The Morning After....

the rain was just as I expected. The greens look like they grew six inches overnight. The kale is big enough to pick along with the turnip greens and mustard.

I'm going to wait and pick the turnip greens and mustard over the weekend. I'm hankering for some more good old southern food. I am thinking there will be the mixed greens, fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, hot peppers, cucumbers and some of those pear tomatoes that are ripe on the menu for Saturday dinner.

The Jalapeno plants have a lot of peppers almost ready for picking. The plan for these peppers is to chop them and put them in the freezer for making salsa a little later on.

I guess I'd better get into canning mode if I plan to make the salsa, barbecue sauce and some jellies for Christmas gifts. Christmas will be "snuck" up on me if I'm not careful.

Today is sunny with a few white, fluffy clouds floating around. The leaves are turning on the oaks, sweet gums and elms. Fall is in the air but the temperatures today don't feel like fall. It's a bit warm outside today.

We finally got the propane installed for this winter. We had the house plumbed with two outlets but as large as the heater in the living room is we probably won't need another heater. That is unless we have another winter like last winter.

Life is good around Hunny Bunny Haven. Thanks for dropping by and please do come again. :)

RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sweet, Blessed Rain!!!! The first rain we've seen in at least six weeks and probably longer. So long that I've forgotten the last time we had "good" water fall on our garden.

Rain has been falling for at least thirty minutes. We're predicted a half inch but you know what? A half inch is better than none! I can't wait to see our garden in the morning!

Thank you Lord!

No Frost.....

Yet!

We had some fall nearing winter temperatures this last week. One night the low was thirty-six degrees.

The vegetables in the pictures above are why it would be nice if the frost held off for a few more weeks.

We have some nice looking tomatoes that are still very green. It would be wonderful if these tomatoes could ripen on the vines or at least get mature enough that I could bring them in and let them ripen.

My youngest daughter gave me her prediction today. "Mom, these tomatoes will NOT be ripe before frost." Thanks Li...Just what I needed to hear. LOL I'm hoping that she is wrong too.

There's a good crop of new Jalapeno peppers on the vines. I'm hoping they will mature so I can chop them to go into salsa later on this winter.

But whatever comes that will be what comes. Nothing I can do about the weather. Maybe Ol' Man Winter will stay away for a few more weeks so Jack Frost won't come calling.

If there's frost in the forecast I guess I can pull the green tomatoes and we can go on a green tomato binge. We can have fried green tomato and bacon sandwiches, fried green tomatoes and grits or a plate full of fried green tomatoes.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Our garden grows because we keep it watered! Still no "good" water for us and it's not in the forecast for at least another week.

The vegetables are doing o.k. so far. That is everything but the kale. I think the bed we planted the kale in has a little too much sand and the water drains away from the roots too quickly. We could water this bed three or four times a week and it wouldn't be too much.

The armadillas almost destroyed the collard bed. They dined most every night in that bed. One night they rooted several of the collard plants out of the ground so William put some newspaper and pinestraw around the plants. That didn't stop the varmints. When we went outside the next morning they had been rooting again.

As you can see from the picture, we did solve the problem. William took some wire from old rabbit cages and cut it into strips. After he laid wire around all the plants it stopped the armadillas from dining on the bugs and worms. That wire plus a shotgun put a stop to those pesky rascals.

Our temp is supposed to be down to thirty-nine tonight. The high temperature is supposed to be seventy-two for tomorrow. I'm still hoping that our tomatoes, squash and cucumbers will get another week or two or three....at least a month of growing and producing.

From the weather predictions it's looking like the Naked Ladies know thier stuff. I have my fingers crossed they're wrong. There's some pretty tomatoes on those vines and it would hurt to see them ruined by frost but they're still too small to pull.

That's about all that's going on around here. I hope I can soon post about some of that wet stuff they call rain.

Thanks for dropping in and do come back soon.