Wednesday, September 23, 2009

I have planned to sit down--actually I'm doing that lots lately--and write about all the things that are going on here. However, with helping Grandma, doctor, visiting nurse, and PT visits, getting ready to visit Melanie this weekend, and getting Grandma and Dad ready to survive alone, plus some intestinal bug (for 5 days and I'm trying so hard to make sure no one else gets it), when I do sit down I don't want to do anything useful.

Rather than catch up an all the past, I'll tell you about last night. I hurried outside to get a couple of tomatoes to add to my stew, and was amazed at how cold it felt. I decided to go back in and get a container and pick the ripe ones so I could dry a few more in my new food dryer Emily gave me. {Yeah Emily!} While in, I asked Dad doing Seminary stuff on the computer to look up the temp. tonight. There it, was a forecast for a possible frost. I stopped supper prep and Dad helped me before it got too much darker to get things covered. After the tomatoes were well covered I decided I would try to cover my beans out in the back garden since they were just starting to really produce. Dad carried out his big tarp to put over the trelluse, and he got there before I did and yelled "Too late!" I could hardly take it in. Nothing else was frozen in front, but out there all the more frost sensitive were nipped. Maybe it was worse because it was a little dry.

Can you believe that on the first day of official Fall we had already had a little frost? How unfair when we had such a hard hail and everything was just recovering. I picked just enough beans for the 3 of us from what wasn't frozen underneath and left the garden to fend for its self.


After dinner, we brought in the more delicate pots from around the outside of the house. Dad built our first fire of the season, and we were toasty warm. This morning I had to start the furnace, because it's pretty cloudy and we won't get much free heat and I don't have time to feed a fire.

I did see a couple of trees yesterday that had started to get really pretty, I guess everything but me is getting on with the season. I hadn't even started getting my pots ready to bring in. I just put them in the front entryway because I haven't washed off the bugs or anything yet. Maybe Dad can put them out again latter when it warms up. It's supposed to warm up by early next week. After I get back I can start washing and spraying to have them ready by the next time it gets this cold. I also need to plant my winter seeds sometime soon. They should have gone in way sooner. So much for gardening in NM.