After researching live traps, which it’s hard to catch groundhogs, and then do you know in some places you have to have permission to let them loose on peoples property (like out in the country) and a lot of places you can’t loose them on state property. So, being that I don’t want him as a pet, then I read about poison pellets and decided that was the way to go. Only when I got to the hardware store they didn’t have anything except rat poison, which might work. But who wants to risk killing neighborhood cats and dogs wandering about? So he told me this Fox Urine Granules is all I need. I hope he’s right. If it works I might not even have to share my corn with the raccoons this year or the beets with the rabbits.

I hope everything grows fabulously this year. I saw on CNN about a fellow who started a website to list food pantries all over the country that will take fresh produce. I’m hoping I’ll have enough to share.

I can’t wait for zucchini, I just love that stuff. This year I am feeling 100% better than I was last year at this time so I am ready to deal with the garden and even the critters.

Anyway, my neighbor and a couple of his friends dug my garden up and planted it for me. I wouldn’t have had one at all if it weren’t for them. It wasn’t the best garden year. I had one picking of beans all summer and thought they were done. Then I went out there in the middle of September and found lots more! I must buy more tomato plants next year though. I canned 10 quarts and that isn’t enough for a year. Then I bought a bushel at the farmers market. That was a waste of money. They had a few nice ones on top but all of them had blight. I canned a cooker load and it was gross just taking care of them. Then I had a partial jar that I left on the counter overnight. It was like fermenting or something in that short time. Really gross. So I looked online and they recommend that you do not can blighted tomatoes. So I tossed them all

In August my kids came for my birthday and got me a new porch swing! Mine was junk. I just love it!

They also took my new car for a test drive and I wish I’d gotten a picture of Melissa hanging out the sunroof waving her arms I drove that piece of crap car for 10 years. Three of the four door handles were broken. Although we could mess with them to open from the inside. The drivers outside handle broke last year and I’ve had to open the passenger door, crawl across to open the drivers door, get out and go around…that was a real pain. So my new one is a 2005 Grand Am with only 18,000 miles on it. You cannot know how much I love this car. Between full coverage and the car loan and the insanely high registration fee, I may have to give up food. But I don’t care!

In September I caught the flu so that was bad for a few days, but then I got this whole huge neck/head pain going on. I knew it could be meningitis but I told myself my brain is functioning okay, no worries. After a few days though I broke down and went to the ER. They admitted me and had to test me all out to see if it was bacterial or viral and to make sure I didn’t have hydrocephalus and such. I kept telling them that wouldn’t happen because I have a shunt. But you know doctors. I was in a day and a half and I figure those bills will start rolling in around Christmastime.

The thing about having a pretty lousy year is that it shouldn’t be that hard for next year to be better I figure.

A memory to get me through the winter

“I know the year is dying,
Soon the summer will be dead.
I can trace it in the flying
Of the black crows overhead;
I can hear it in the rustle
Of the dead leaves as I pass,
And the south wind’s plaintive sighing
Through the dry and withered grass.

Ah, ’tis then I love to wander,
Wander idly and alone,
Listening to the solemn music
Of sweet nature’s undertone;
Wrapt in thoughts I cannot utter,
Dreams my tongue cannot express,
Dreams that match the autumn’s sadness
In their longing tenderness.”
-  Mortimer Crane Brown, Autumn Dreams

My garden is a sad, sad place now. I hoped the last of the tomatoes would ripen but they’re doing it so slowly that the slugs are getting more than me. There are still a lot out there and very green but I’ve decided not to hold my breath  waiting on them. A few summer squash are still growing too, and one lone zuchinni. I found last years old seeds about mid July and threw them in my flower bed. From those I will have 2 winter squash (yay!) They are small but better than none. Once I’m feeling better I need to get busy and clean up the mess from this years garden. Oh yeah, and there’s that long overdo (hopefully) last lawn mowing to do. The broccoli plants finally got huge but the broccolis didn’t so I didn’t even pick them.

^Winter Squash plants!^

I almost stepped on this lil guy yesterday. That would have been really really gross. Being that my garden is about finished and the fact that I don’t have the heart to kill him, I just moved him off to where I’m putting the tomatoes already eaten by slugs. I really couldn’t kill any of them, if they crawl into the beer I put out, that’s different. Apparently this one is a teetotaler.

Other things

• I have been cigarette free for 9 days. It’s getting easier.
• I have been going to the Y consistently. I average between an hour and an hour & a half each time.
• I am going into the advanced life skills class (I think that’s what they call it, the next DBT group anyway).
• I wasn’t perfect with my garden but I loved every minute of it and I followed through all summer long caring for it and preserving the food.

Things to do

• Figure out how to be social again.
• Make friends.
• You realize I have no clue how to do that?
• Find someone to haul compost and mulch for my garden.

I have come a long way this summer. I think my blog is great, if for no other reason than here is proof of my progress when I start to doubt myself. And I surely will It doesn’t seem to be appealing to many others and I wish it was but I can understand why it isn’t. For those of you who do read and comment still, I thank you for your kindness, it means a lot to me!

I can go out there any day and not be sure what gifts I’ll be bringing in that day. They are always yummy though. Today, I found 5 ripe tomatoes, 1 summer squash, enough beans for a couple more freezer bags and yet another precious zucchini. It finally rained, I was watering because so many days it’s been a false alarm. This evening when it slowed to a sprinkle I went out to see what I might discover this time and it was more than I expected. And there is still more to come!

There will be more summer squash in a few days. I think I finally have 3 peppers out there. I do hope they get a little bit bigger. There will be lots more tomatoes and probably beans. I am still hoping to see a winter squash turn up somewhere. And brocolli! I’m glad I didn’t pull those unindentified plants. But I think I figured out that you are meant to pick it before it turns to flowers :p Ah well, I was hoping it was going to get bigger. I still see some hope for more goodies before we are done for the year, and I can’t call it a failure. Thus far only 4 quarts of tomatoes, 8 bags of beans and all that I got to enjoy all summer long.

In the hopes of salvaging my tomatoes from all their afflictions (fungi and slugs) I am now bringing them in not quite ripe. They only seem to get bad at the very end so these look great. I did can two quarts of them last night but I had to cut a lot of bad off the tomatoes.

I watered again and I think I had let it all get too dry. My mom said you didn’t need to water later on like this but I’m thinking I should have been right along. I have new blossoms on my squash now so I’ll be more diligent about the watering. It’s been quite a dry summer except for very early on. I’m not liking to do the watering. My water bill was $20 higher last month and I clearly didn’t water enough.

My poor corn, I thought it was looking ripe but they are so small so today I checked one. It’s a beauty isn’t it? The cob is exactly 3 1/2 inches long. They are all like that and the stalks never got tall. So I am supposing that is also a lack of water. I’m just going to pick them and enjoy what little there is. When my kids come this weekend maybe I’ll serve them corn on the cob like they’ve never seen before

I believe I might have found a winter squash plant, but I see no squash on it. It is a vine one and has run across and through the pole beans with no poles and into the tomatoes and beyond. I hope it grows some squash!

This garden hasn’t been a huge success produce wise so far but it has done wonders for me. I’m totally attached to it, it’s my baby It’s gotten me outside, given me a great project and really helped my mental health.

I’ve been doing some reading and I know what I’m going to do next year. No till gardening. It sounds so healthy for the soil, you don’t have to dig the garden up, controls weeds, adds lots of yummy nutrients to the soil. I’m not sure I have enough waste to make a good compost pile but there seems to be a place in town I can get that and mulch for free. I’m already looking forward to next year. I’m sure my garden will be tons better than this one was. Then I visited a friends blog with a new post about saving seeds. That hadn’t even crossed my mind so  I’m going to give that a go. She did promise an article on saving seeds for tomatoes, squash, cukes and peppers, all of which I have in my garden. I’m stoked about the idea of saving my own seeds, and hey, even more money saved if it works!

• There are such things as pole beans.
• If you plant pole beans, you should have a pole.
• You probably only need one kind of summer squash.
• Tomatoes would be good with a support too so they don’t all grow on the ground.
• Slugs love tomatoes.
• Beer kills slugs.
• Tomatoes can get several different kinds of fungi, esp. if you water them with a sprinkler and they are growing on the ground.
• You should water the ground with a hose, not a sprinkler.
• Corn can fall over really easily, consider support for that.
• Keep your seed packets so you’ll remember what you planted.
• If you find a random radish that you didn’t plant, enjoy!
• Sunflowers can surprisingly end up growing in your garden.
• 7 foot tall sunflower plants can fall down in a heavy rain (unless of course it really was a big animal).
• Corn can fall down in a heavy rain (see above).
• Beans are really hard to find when the pole bean plants without the poles are wrapped around themselves and every surrounding plant they can reach.
• Sunflowers make excellent poles for pole beans (until they fall down).
• Tomatoes are really hard to find when they are overgrown with pole beans.
• Don’t plant asparagus in your garden that you will be digging up every year.
• Plant things farther apart, even with poles.

I’m sure I have more education coming but that’s all I can think of for the moment. Look how much I learned in one year! My disappointments this year, the cauliflower, winter squash and catnip never grew at all. Nor the asparagus but that’s okay.

In celebration I had a beautiful fresh tomato from my garden with cottage cheese.

We had a really nasty storm last night. I went to bed early because I pulled one of my 30 hours awake things again. The thunder was scary. When I got up this morning my computer was offline. Yes, I left it on, thank the gods it wasn’t fried! So I found that the cicuit breaker blew that the modem was on, then it was all good. Until I went out to go to group. The first thing I saw was that my corn was completely flattened. Then my garage door wouldn’t open. Back to the circuit breakers, yep, that one blew too.

After I got home I tried straightening the corn up with limited success. I think I’m going to need to pack dirt around every one of them but I didn’t finish. I worked until I got that whole hypoglycemia thing going that I always seem to get when I try to do anything. Really annoying. I hope they survive. It also toppled 2 sunflowers that are inexplicably in the middle of my garden. I don’t see any other wind or storm damage anywhere, it’s very strange. I would have thought a large animal ran through there.

On a positive note, yesterday I got 6 birthday cards. I think that’s a record. Okay, one was from my insurance carrier and I’m sure they’re happy I’m still alive

I did get a birthday card from one of my kids. My baby seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. I guess I’ll have to call her to tell her she can now wish me happy birthday :p