Garden Tomatoes

In November?  Yes.  Would I rather have them in July?  Yes.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to start eating them until August.  I may have planted later than I had hoped, so, next year I will remember to plant earlier.  Plus, we have this nice frame Jacob built since they were growing so well.

In the middle of October we knew that we were looking at a night freeze, so I sewed some blankets together to make covers for the tomato cages.  We knew we would have a night, maybe two of freezes, and then multiple days of warmer temperatures.  So, it was nice to extend the time for the tomatoes to grow.

October 26th, we knew we were looking at hard freezes.  We made an attempt to save as many tomatoes as possible.  In the middle of my “harvest” it began snowing on me, and kept going well into the day.  I cut long vines and spread them out on the counter.

In a moment of brilliance, as an attempt to make them last even longer, I filled flower water tubes and put them on the ends of the vines, and refill them as needed.

We have been able to snack on the smaller ones, and I have been able to fill two  2-quart sized bowls from tomatoes off the counter.  Here is the “harvest” from this morning.

I really wish we had had lots of the bigger beefy tomatoes.  When I purchased the plants (we did not start our own from seed this year) I was under the impression that I had grabbed two plants of bigger tomatoes, and two cherry tomatoes (one yellow and one red).  as the plants grew it became obvious that they were all small.  So, back to the store I went to purchase a couple bigger-tomato plants.  That time I made sure to only get pots with the label still attached.

I wonder just how long we will be able to see them turn before we have to give up and return the remains to the earth….

Not All Excitement is Good

When you live in small town USA you have to drive a ways to get places.  Today took me out of town. On the drive back my dashcam caught some excitement that was not so fun, but I am glad the view was not more exciting.






Frames 2 through 6 all happened in the same second. While I did see something moving in my peripheral vision, I didn’t realize what I was seeing until somewhere between frames 4 and 5.  By frame 6 I could see the deer, that is off-screen, next to my window.

Keep in mind, the view from the camera looks smaller/farther away than my eyes see. (Remember the warning on the side mirrors, “objects in mirror are closer than they appear”? That applies here, too.)

I just hope the car behind me escaped the deer as well.

All is well that ends well. Or something like that.

Musings

Edmund Burke – “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg – “You can disagree without being disagreeable.”

Spencer Johnson – “Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.”

David A. Bednar – “People of integrity and honesty not only practice what they preach, they are what they preach.”

Heartwarming

Last week we had parent-teacher conferences.  I can see from home how I think the kids are doing, so it was nice to hear from their teachers how they think the kids are doing.  Both school age kids are doing well and received good notes.  I cannot describe how much it warmed my heart to know how the teachers care for my children, or how it brought me to (good) tears to hear that a teacher is keeping an eye on faces and anticipates struggles to address before they become problems.  I know we are not alone in having a  stressful year, but a year ago, I didn’t know how relieved I could feel this time around.

Thank you to all the good teachers out there!  These parents love you!!

Highlights of the Day

Since March Marcia and Hinckley have been attending Jiu Jitsu classes over Zoom. Today they had their third (from home) belt testing online. They’ve earned their blue belts! It is a lot of work and they are learning great things.

While they were doing that Corban watched a video in the dining room on an iPad and played with his Mr. Potato Head.  When I checked in on him, I found that he had stuffed his remaining candy from Halloween in the trunk.

On the Eve of an Election

I have these words running through my mind:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” -Declaration of Independence

AND

“The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy.” -John Lewis

Never Gonna Give You Up

There may be a global pandemic disrupting our normal plans, but we don’t have to give up everything we love to do.

For Halloween, which is likely my favorite holiday, we still celebrated with the kids.

Kids dressed up as Harry Potter, Hermione, and Ron. I told them I was Mrs. Dursley on wash day, and Jacob said he was the coronavirus and fake coughed at them every time they asked where our costumes are.

We used dry ice in pink lemonade to make “potion” to drink with supper, sent the kids on a scavenger hunt on the property to gather candy and snacks to enjoy, while we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

I made us some dairy-free nut free candy bars. We were pleased that they taste good.

I hope you were all able to make the most of such a strange time to have Halloween.