Merry Christmas 2021 — RET-ADD.com

Howdy, and Happy Holidays,

I know I haven’t put out a blog entry in a half year. I wasn’t getting much traffic to here to read them, and sort of gave up. But, I do want to give an update of what has been happening, and where I go from here.

Since the prior blog entry was on the Greenhouse, I figure that’s a good place to start. I learned a lot over the short growing season up here on the north coast.

First of all, I learned I had no idea what I should plant where. I put the wrong varieties of plants in the greenhouse tent, and in the outside beds. I had cucumber and tomato vines turning the inside of a 10x20 greenhouse into a jungle, and little fruit to be found. I now understand to plant determinate tomatoes in there, and to only have self-pollinating cucumbers in there. Also, I should let my pepper plants get bigger before fruiting.

Not to mention, I will give up on trying to get Basil and/or Spinach to grow in there. Too hot and humid for them.

I’ll put the indeterminate tomatoes that like to vine forever, outside on the trellis structures in the raised beds. I have around 100 square feet of raised beds now. Things like carrots and onions along with the peppers and tomatoes, produce well in them. And spinach too.

As for Basil, I have a great crop indoors in my Click and Grow garden, and guess I’ll stick to it.. Also can do mini peppers and mini tomatoes in it too. All through the winter or summer.

Back to outside.. There is a separate bed, now, for the berry bushes. Should make getting to them easier. And the strawberries, well, they kept producing and producing, right up to when I covered them with straw, just before first frost.

Next year I’ll use the greenhouse to get lots of the outside plants a head start, and then replant them when frost season is over — which is near the end of May!!!!

I do have garlic sets trying to live in there over the winter and they “should” be able to finish growing in the beginning of summer.

Also I have dug up a section of ground to do more potatoes. I did them in bags this last year and while I got more pounds out than I planted, it certainly was not a great harvest.

Let’s see what kind of pictures I can find of where things were prior to winterizing.

The outside beds earlier in the season. The berry plants were later moved to a new bed built to the right of these.

Hmm, a picture inside greenhouse after I removed cucumber plants and most of the tomato vines.

Where potatoes will go next year. You can see the grow bags I used in 2021, on the left.

This was the potato harvest from 2 of the bags. More than I planted, but not so great.

I froze a couple baggies of onions that were later used in a big batch of tomato sauce.

Every few days I had a harvest like this. I froze a lot of those tomatoes for later.

Once I wised up and planted some cucumbers in the raised beds, I was harvesting more than I could stand. Oh, that is one of those long beans that taste like any other bean to me. Just need to cut it up more than a regular one.

Once the tomatoes started producing outside, they were overwhelming too.

This was a small daily harvest of tomatoes.

A lot of those tomatoes, peppers, onions and basil ended up in this big pot.

And then prior to going into freezer — I’ve used a few since then, and will use some for Xmas dinner too.

Something else I started growing this year is mushrooms. I have had crops of white buttons, baby/large Portabella, Shiitake, and a few Oyster varieties. Yummy in my omelettes, and dinners.

Oh, just realized I missed this earlier. The last harvest from the greenhouse was on 11/17/2021 — yep, mid November.

Peppers in November. I cleared out the greenhouse at that time — well almost.

Oh, and lastly, a quick shot of the indoor garden (Click and Grow) with Basil plants that are close to a year old and I just keep clipping off leaves, and new tomatoes and peppers just starting.

So what else has been happening?

I built, and then rebuilt, an enclosure for the generator. For an area that seldom loses electricity (per my neighbors!!!) I seem to use that generator at least every other month during a wind or rain storm. So glad I have it…

I also had to replace my battery lawn mower again this year. 2nd year in a row that the self-propelling feature died. Well this time Snapper wouldn’t replace it. They would gladly repair it, if they had the parts. But they aren’t making them anymore and their 5 year guarantee is worthless.

I worked out a deal with the guy that was trying to work with Snapper to get a self-propelled gas mower. However, he normally deals with commercial grade toys. So, my new mower is a 32 inch WorldLawn mower. I affectionately call “The Beast” It weighs way more than I do, and if I am not careful, will toss me across the lawn when I try to turn it. I will also run through walls, if my mind wanders and I don’t brake quick enough. But, it sure does make a quick job of mowing this 1/3rd of an acre. The price was not bad, and seems to be less than half what they sell for on the open market.

I may look to trade it back in for a riding zero turn come spring. I am getting older, and weaker, and it was a workout to use.

From a security camera as I was being pulled along by “The Beast”.

Next, health, or lack there of…

My health has been fairly good. After spending the first half of the year at the dentist office, and running through all my deductibles and payouts, I was set for 2021. But 2022 will be another year of the same. Lots of old repairs crumbling after 40 plus years.

I have been a good citizen and gotten all of my vaccines and boosters. But I must admit that getting the flu vaccine and then the COVID booster (Moderna) within a couple weeks of each other, did me in. I always have some reaction to the FLU vaccine, and this year was like heck for the last month plus. Nothing major, and I am glad to have gotten them, but, I sure wish it was an easier time.

On the other hand, the 2nd half of the year was Kitty’s turn to see doctors and dentists. Well, veterinarians. I knew when I adopted her that she had some dental issues that needed to be handled. However, nobody would touch those until she had her heart murmur checked.

That was a big ordeal. Only one place in northeast Ohio had a vet-cardio doctor. And she was booked for many months ahead. Meanwhile, Kitty decided to have an eye infection. A visit to the vet to get drops for that. And she also needed her vaccines. So we got those done.

The cardio vet was next, and that is an hour from here. Oh my that was a long ride. She (and I) cried the whole way. But her heart is semi-okay. Yes there is a little whole in it, but it hasn’t gotten worse in time and most likely will never be a major issue.

So we were able to set up a dental appointment. But first, they needed a blood sample. By now Kitty did not want anything to do with her carrier. And wasn’t too fond of me either. That vet visit was horrible. I had to chase her down, after she fought her way loose when I was trying to get her in the carrier. Had to drag her from under the bed to get her in the carrier. And apparently, she fought so much at the vet, they couldn’t get the blood sample..

They took it the day of the dental surgery and she was under pain killers and anesthesia for quite a while. A couple of extractions later, and a lot of gum scraping, and I was able to pick her up that evening, after getting her there at 7 in the morning..

It was 2 weeks of pushing pain killer into her mouth, while she hated me, before she was even allowed dry food again.

But she is forgiven me finally. Makes me very glad.

Early visit to vet. Before she realized they were going to hurt her.

I had to move one of her heating pad beds to the floor, because she was always a bit loopy with the pain medication. Here she is sleeping with her best friend, “Mini Kitty”. Mini Kitty was restuffed with Kitty’s fur that I kept gathering up from brushings. She will frequently “groom” Mini Kitty.

And now it is Christmas. I didn’t deck the halls as much this year. I do have a Christmas tree.

I'll plant this outside come Spring. It supposedly only grows to 6-8 foot tall.

And there are presents under the tree.

What is on tap for 2022? Sure wish I knew.. Ohio, and especially this corner of the state, is having the worst wave of COVID so far. Somewhat afraid to do anything that gets me near people.

I know I’ll be replacing the fabric on the greenhouse tent this spring. The last two windstorms ripped some of the windows apart. And I know I’ll be planting a better selection of vegetables out there and in the beds.

I’m considering having a fence put up on the sides of the back yard, just to keep the leaves out in the fall. Neighbor on one side doesn’t do much yard cleanup, and I end up with a lot of their leaves and small branches every time the winds blow.

As I wrote before, I’m considering a ride-on mower to make it easier for me.

But that’s about all. So for now….

And I say Merry Christmas, and enjoy life.