Bogieblog

De-Linked

I think I have been de-linked.

I'm not sure how much of her post is supposed to apply to me, but it seems the whole thing is just meant to insult people, so I have answered accordingly.

Hey, I went ahead and made a semi-interesting post out of it though, just to be different.

Baseball Fever

How bout them Red Sox? Between the rookies and the old-timers, it looks like they may just take another World Series!

And an East Coast furniture chain is about to give away a whole bunch of furniture (when they announced it last spring, I though they wouldn't shell out a dime).

New Camera

I'm in love with the digital camera I bought last week. Although I didn't get the one I really wanted, I got the one I was willing to spend the money on and has already proved to be a nice "beginners" camera.

After much investigation, wavering and downright stalling, I decided to get the Canon Powershot SD1000. It takes a bit of getting used to - the menu system is a bit involved. But then again, this camera can do a lot of things that I never thought a slimline could do (and some that I never really heard of or thought about).

The most impressive feature for me so far has been the ability of the camera to adjust for subjects that are back lit, or conversely, those that are lit a lot more brightly than their background.

For example, this is the original picture taken on my way home at about 5:45 PM. The sun sets about 6 PM and it is setting almost directly behind the hillside:

And this is the picture that came out after a couple of minutes of fumbling around trying to find the setting I was looking for (as I stated, the menu system is a bit involved, plus I was going by memory of what I had read a couple of days ago):

A world of difference!

Picture Show From Mid October

Here is the pumpkin I got WS the other day:

And this is a rose called "Always a Lady. It is a miniature rose that I got as a cheap grab-bag pick when I ordered my other minis. Since I planted it, Always a Lady had been in bloom all but a couple of days. She normally has 5-8 blooms/buds that are delicately scented. Unfortunately, she is only rated for zone 6 (youz gets what you getz in a grab-bag), but perhaps I will get lucky and be able to overwinter her:

Then there is Arizona:

Garden in MId-October

Although we had had morning lows in the 30's for 4-5 days, when I looked out the kitchen window last night I saw tomatoes that were ripe and semi-ripe. So, I went out and picked what was there. Not a haul by any means, but for mid-October the list wasn't bad: 11 tomatoes (3 of which went into last night's dinner), 2 handfuls of green beans, 3 green peppers and 4 mini squash.

The mini squash was a volunteer that probably came here with the manure that WS brought in last spring. It grew up in the tomatoes. The squash is about 3 inches in diameter and is a flattened globe shape. It is  green with white stripes and is very cute. I will use them as ornamentals for a while, then open them up to see if they contain anything besides rind and seeds. If they don't contain any flesh, it's not a big deal since they cost me absolutely no work (except to bend over and pick them off the withered vine) and they can go straight into the mulch pile. Who knows, I may dry a few seeds and see if they germinate next year.

I left a lot of green tomatoes and tiny green peppers out there. The next several nights are supposed to stay in the 50's, so I figure they have more time to develop/ripen. The green pepper plants are even flowering again. I couldn't believe that they set flowers with the cold mornings we have had, but apparently they aren't as warm blooded as the hot peppers are.

I plan on slowly dismantling the garden this weekend. I'll take down the teepees the peas had for climbing, the grow-thru supports for the green bean plants, the roll-out wooden walkways and the weed barrier fabric. I'll also take down some of the tomato supports, but leave the supports to the plants that are still producing. The corn stalks need to be ripped up to and then WS can rototil, if he has time.

In signing off, I will leave you a tip:if you got too much garlic to plant, and are a true garlic lover (or know someone who is), here is a way to use it up.

Fall Decorating

I stopped at a nursery in Amherst on Wednesday looking for some decorative kale. A woman that had gotten there ahead of me was busy transferring all the best plants to her wagon, so I left her too it. I already have mums and pumpkins for the porch and beside the steps to the driveway, so if it made her happy to take the kale, I wasn't going to protest.

However, I did take a look around, and figure I got the best end of the deal. There were hundreds of 4" pots filled with chard. Bright Lights chard to be exact. I scooped up 4 of the pots; they are now beside the steps to the driveway.

When I went into the greenhouse to pay, the lady with all the kale had filled the counter with her picks and saw something on a shelf that she had to run off and grab. Once again, I was content to look at all the more tender plants within the greenhouse. I put my plants down and turned around to look at some mums. That is when I saw what I had walked by without seeing (with an armload of chard in my face, it was hard to see anything), a  pumpkin that had the Harley logo hand painted onto it - a must have as a gift to WS!

When it was finally my turn, the lady at the counter (I believe the owner) said that her girl would be so happy that someone got it. She had painted it this morning but wasn't sure anyone would want something other than faces, cats and witches. That pumpkin now resides on the porch, where it greeted WS as he got home that night.

I must thank the lady with the kale for making look at things other than I normally would.

Officially Autumn

Mornings, since last Saturday, have been down in the 30's, with the days warming up to the 60's. No, I'm not complaining, I think that is the recipe for getting the leaves to change. The drive home yesterday afternoon was lovely - especially the part down Rt 149. As I went by Beaver Pond, my jaw dropped (figuratively) at the sight. The hillside behind the pond was alive with color; greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and everything in between.

When the leaves are in the midst of changing, that's when we know that autumn is clearly here.

Fall Weekend

We decided to turn on the heat Saturday. It was 62 upstairs at noon, and I decided I wasn't doing homework when I was freezing (and WS concurred), so on the heat went. The downstairs heat is still of since it is staying at 65 so far.

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Last night's spaghetti sauce was excellent - made out of fresh tomato sauce and fresh green peppers (both straight out of the garden - okay, the tomatoes were picked last weekend and matured on the table). We also had corn on the cob, from the garden. The ears were small, and only developed about 1/2 way up, but there was still enough that I was able to blanch and freeze two pints worth of corn.

That says a lot about how well the garden did this year; actually getting corn and green peppers. There are still small peppers out on the plants. I don't expect them to develop any further, but the way things have been going, I wouldn't count them out either.

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WS and the neighbor rented a wood splitter for Sunday. They got all the neighbor's wood split and about 1/2 of our wood split before having to return the machine. We have twice the wood to split that the neighbor did, so there is still a mighty large stack of wood to be stacked. Of course why WS elected to cut and split the wood up behind the dogpen is a mystery to me. I'm certainly not going to carry arm-fulls of wood 150 feet to get it to the lean-to. Hopefully he has some master plan that I am unaware of.

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Hopefully your weekend was more interesting, and/or exciting, than ours was!

October Fest?

Note to Mother Nature - I'm good now.

It has rained/drizzled almost continuously since last Sunday. We've gotten somewhere between 3 and 4 inches of rain in that time. The temps have been in the 40''s and 50's (this morning in the 30's). The house is cold because there has been no sun to warm it up. Between the rain and the wind, I missed the last bloom of the roses (okay, also the fact that I didn't get home until after dark on most nights didn't help).

I did get a peek at a little blue sky last night - just as darkness was falling. We are supposed to have sun today, and lots of wind. Tonight, more rain.

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My job today is to go out and empty all the water under the planters. The mums probably are a wee bit stressed from being in inches of water since last weekend. Then, after patting myself on the back for a job well done, I'll head back inside to do homework. WS should be cutting up wood 9for next winter).

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In the last week I have gotten most of the books transferred from boxes in the back room upstairs to the new bookshelves in the den. I have most of the boxes of stuff that came from the den when the heater broke emptied out. Yep, a Little on the late side, but here in a couple of weeks we may be able to use the back room for something other than storage again.

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And that was the exciting news from the Bogie household.

Irritations

One of the hazards of living in the country is running out propane. After bugging WS for a couple of months to take the propane tank in and have it filled, we ran out - in the middle of cooking dinner. Ever try to make pasta in the microwave?

No? Me neither. I threw in the towel and had WS call in for pizza. I went and got it, which was only fair because he had to unhook the tank (in the dark and rain) so put it in his truck. Me, I stayed dry and warm.

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This morning my alarm went off and after swatting the snooze a couple of times got up (grumbling to myself about how tired I felt) and did all my morning things. I took my shower and got dressed, when I noticed WS was still in bed. Shaking him awake, I asked if he was going to work today. Sure, but since it is only 4, I'm good to sleep for a while - thanks anyway. Darn, it was supposed to be 5!

Looking at my clock, I saw that it had jumped an hour - crap! i got this clock because I can (if I scrunch my eyes up really tight) actually see the number (well, enough that I can guess the time anyway) from 2 feet away. unfortunately, the buttons are very light touch, and aren't recessed into the case, so a cat rubbing against it can change the time easily.

Crap - like I don't get shorted on sleep enough anyway.