I think I mentioned a month ago or so that it seemed like the doves and starlings were flocking up earlier than usual, and wondered if that meant we were going to have an early winter. It looks like that is indeed what has come to pass. We had a hard freeze on Wednesday night and woke up to a dusting of snow on Thursday morning. I don't think we got much over 35° yesterday and it's only supposed to be mid-40s today. I sure wasn't planing on running the furnace this early in the year, I hope we can get a company to come and replace the chimney pipe for our woodstove soon, none of them seem to be in too big a hurry to get back to us, though.
I harvested every tomato out of the garden Wed. afternoon, we'll see how many of them we can get to ripen indoors, also brought in all of the peppers and anything else that was still out there, just a few small zucchinis and a butternut squash. I left the carrots and parsnips in the ground and just covered them with some straw, apparently they will store in the ground just fine and we can just dig them up as we need them. I have no idea if it will actually work, but we'll see.
I had a fun 30 minutes or so on Wednesday evening. I went to go throw some more straw in the turkey pen and must not have latched the door behind me. When I started spreading straw the turkeys freaked out, as usual, and a few of them must have pushed the door open. So I suddenly had 6 turkeys walking all over the yard. With Nikki's help I got them all rounded up and back inside, but it took some effort!.
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the chill hit here this a.m. i've no radio or tv and had on a light sweat jacket leaving the city for work at the usual 4:30 a.m., but didn't notice the chill until walking the 8 surgery overnight dogs - one-by-one. that's when i noticed the frost. the siberian, lab and bouvier loved it. the smaller others were not so cooperative. i felt like a queen when i arrived and had a note i'd been cleared to manage the a.m regimine for the post-surgical international champion walker hound.
funny sometimes the similarities between plants and animals. at my practice (over 32 years old) can be like your carrots, a surgery we "have no idea if it will actually work, but we'll see". the quality of life (resulting from the surgery) for the pet and its owner is jointly decided.
i love those overnighters - especially with the hound breeds - me curled up in blankets on the cold concrete floor, the door to their heated cage floor all warm, the managing the sound of normal/abnormal iv beeps and ticks, and when they wake-up scared, or soiled, i'm there to provide their comfort.
hounds are big business here and one breeder only allows me to overnight his dogs. the walker champion's a.m. pick-up learnerd today what i do for his competitor at no charge. hounds are big competitive bucks and my supervisor said she expects now $$ to start rolling my way in hopes my attention will save a hound and/or give it the needed competitive edge from 24-hour comfort. kinda like outting straw on carrots - it works and we all benefit. except for this brussels griffon - one crappy little dog who despises me - i can's get near it without it going into attack mode - go figure!!
Snow? Wow! That is crazy. We dipped down below 50 but so far the days are still up in the mid 60s - 70s.
If you put the green tomatoes in a brown paper bag they will ripen more quickly than if you just leave them out. Just a little tip from a former farm girl! ;) Good luck with everything. -Jen Bretl
Wanted to second the brown paper bag technique for ripening tomoatoes on the counter - that has worked for us for years.
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