On 11/2/2010 8:58 AM, Ross@home wrote:
> On Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:30:45 -0500, George Shirley
> > wrote:
>
>> Had a light rain this morning, just went out to see how the gardens are
>> doing and it was nice. Looks like the kumquats are going bonkers, both
>> trees are absolutely loaded with fruit. I see visions of kumquat
>> marmalade, maybe even kumquat wine, but surely kumquat run through the
>> food processor and then frozen on a bun sheet. Then I cut them into
>> squares that equal two cups of kumquat puree for making cookies, cakes,
>> puddings, even kumquat smoothies.
>>
>> The sugar snap peas are up and about ready to bloom, the Gypsy sweet
>> chiles are still producing but very slowly due to lack of rain.
>> Irrigating with city water just doesn't do the trick for the garden. The
>> okra is pretty much done, the eggplant are still producing a wee bit of
>> fruit but the fall green beans are doing well. Unfortunately we lost
>> about three-fourths of the 24 foot row due to drought but the rest is
>> producing enough for us to have a mess of green beans every two or three
>> days.
>>
>> I hear thunder in the distance so maybe the weatherman is correct and we
>> will have scattered thunderstorms today, at least I hope so.
>>
>> Day before yesterday we had temps as low as 50F, yesterday the temps got
>> into the eighties, today, who knows, it is hot and humid out there but a
>> few rain showers should cool things off.
>>
>> I think I'll take a nap with visions of kumquat "stuff" floating in my
>> dreams.<G>
>
> I think I'll take a nap thinking abut how glad I am that we don't
> garden 12 months of the year. Garden is pretty well finished except
> for digging some carrots. It's good to get the new seed catalogues in
> the middle of winter, then sit inside planning next year's garden
> while it's blowing snow outside. Outside right now is 34ºF, went down
> to 22ºF overnight.
> Both bird baths were frozen solid yesterday morning, birds were
> sitting on the edge, scowling at us through the kitchen window. Put
> the heated baths out yesterday afternoon, birds are happy this
> morning.
> Changed over to winter tires on the van last week. Woodshed is full.
> Bring it on.
>
> Ross.
> Southern Ontario, Canada.
> AgCanada Zone 5b
> 43º 17' 26.75" North
> 80º 13' 29.46" West

Ahh! I remember winter tires, snow, ice, road salt, etc. Lived on the
East coast of the US for 3.5 years when I was in the Navy. We look at
seed catalogs all winter too, but we still garden all winter unless we
get the rare hard freeze. It's about 65F outside right now, a light rain
drizzle is falling and we had intermittent rain showers all night last
night and most of the day today. Still, the rain gauge only shows a
little less than one inch so far. Another twenty inches and we will be
caught up on our annual average.

The sugar snap peas are blooming, the green beans are still producing,
the chard is coming along, life is good.