Fall is gone

Howdy all,

Haven’t done an update in awhile. Kind of down a bit with all the cool/cold rainy weather. Not my cup of tea — I write as my herbal tea brews.

Yesterday was likely the last decent fall day. Got to upper 70s and didn’t rain until evening. Today woke up to the upper 40s, and Accuweather saying it’s downhill from here. 30s overnight, and even the suggestion of “snow showers possible” within a week.. UGH…

Anyway, most days when it hasn’t been raining, I’ve been trying to get rid of the leaves on the lawn. I’ve mowed then into rows, mulched them, composted them, bagged them, burned them, trashed them, and they just keep coming. Mostly from my neighbor’s mess of a back yard with 30 or so trees.

To give you an idea of how many leaves are falling, this was a day after a clean-up. Also note the “guest” in the back of the photo.

Coyote “not so” ugly. Leaves are messy.

This fellow has been wandering the neighborhood for the last couple of weeks — maybe with friends. He certainly didn’t look like he’s missed any meals. Sadly, he does eat a lot of domestic pets along with the other wildlife.

So Kitty will always be an indoor cat. Oh, here is an obligatory picture of her with mini-kitty (a little plush toy for her to abuse).

These dark rainy days make Kitty down too. She keeps waiting for the morning sunshine that doesn’t arrive.

My Green House experiment is coming to an end for the year. While the green bean and cucumber plants grew quite well, it obviously was too late in the year to get produce. The lettuce and radishes never really got it together. They sort of “vined” over the top of the soil, and didn’t make anything really edible. I did get some basil from the boxes. Oh, and I had this huge harvest of spinach and “bean”.

Yep, one bean made it to maturity. And it was soooo good. The spinach plants got choked out by the cucumber plants, and this was all that made it to harvest. Not really enough for my breakfast omelette.

There are a few cukes out there that average less than an inch long. I doubt they will grow enough to become edible before the frost. Same with the beans. I see a few, not many, and time is running out for the blossoms to become fruit.

On the other hand, the indoor “Click and Grow” garden is looking good.

When the “included” plant stand was lost by DHL, I bought this commercial kitchen stainless steel prep table (14” deep, 60” long) to put the planters on. Works great, and takes up very little floor space. This is a north facing window, which gets ZERO direct sunshine even in summer.

The upper right planter is the one from just over 6 weeks ago. I’ve trimmed the basil 4 times now. And, as you can see, the mini-tomatoes are blossoming all over the place. One plant even has 4 pea sized tomatoes already.

The other planters were set up just 2 1/2 weeks ago. The larger plants are peas, and then there are tomato, red/yellow peppers, and more basil.

My brother came over a couple of times to help me get a few things assembled. We got my chop-saw, bench grinder, sander, all set up on their tables, and also my new toy-sized CNC router (and its bench and enclosure).

Here is the CNC router:

I will play with it and the software this winter when I can’t get outside.

I did make quick use of the miter-saw to fix an issue with the out-building doors. There was a gap at the bottom large enough for the chipmunks to get inside and start crawling into my lawn equipment. That had to be stopped. So, a few quick measurements, and cuts, and then a 2nd trim because one door wouldn’t close, and all handled.

Those little black boxes on the floor are in case anyone was left inside — baited with peanut butter and ready to zap the chippie into a new world..

Oh, here is a product-view of the router.

That’s about it for now. Thank you all for visiting and reading. Comments are always welcome — gives me something to do.

Be sure to

Enjoy Life