Thursday, September 2, 2010

Hi Folks!!!

Decided that the smart thing to do was to write before the storms hit.  We’ve got thunderstorms with high wind gusts (60-75 mph) preceding the storms coming across the Okla. City area towards Norman.  No tornadoes are in the storm but we are gonna get a chunk floater for about 15 or 20 minutes then the storm front will pass on by us and keep on going east.

I don’t know with all that has been going on (and not going on) this summer if I told you all that I’ve moved from the country back to Norman.  I love my cousin and being out in the country but I found that what I didn’t like was driving for an hour to visit friends and other family.  I’ve still got some things to move and I’m doing some painting for my Cuz and my Bro but I’m in Norman now.  I went to the country earlier today and painted the ceiling in the bedroom we are working on re-doing, packed up another load in the pick-up and took some photos of the garden so I could wind up my vegetable garden reporting for this year

misc and last of garden 004 This is the last squash and about the last of the tomatoes.  I took this last week when I was out there to do some stuff and to get a load to bring back to Norman.

misc and last of garden 001 Okra is, however, a different story…

misc and last of garden 006 The okra plants are still putting on blooms which, in turn, means more okra… mmmmmm.

misc and last of garden 014 These okra buds and flower are taller than me.  These I can still reach but just barely.  That means that they are more than 6 1/2  feet tall. 

The electricity just went off (7:15 p.m.) but I still have some power in my computer so I’m just going to continue to write.  Since I’m writing this off-line I don’t need the internet back up until I post and the weather man said that the gust front and the rain has only been lasting 20 to 30 minutes, start to finish.

Meanwhile, back to the ranch…

misc and last of garden 022 You can’t hardly tell it, but that’s me in the lower left corner.  The okra plants behind me are over seven feet tall.  Either going to have to get the Bro out to cut them or Cuz or I will have to take a step stool or a ladder to harvest the tallest of the plants.

misc and last of garden 008 The tomatoes are just about gone… the heat that the okra thrives on pretty much wiped out the tomato vines.

misc and last of garden 019 The marigolds we planted with the tomatoes are still blooming…

misc and last of garden 010 As are the zinnias.  You can tell how hot the sun has been here in Oklahoma by the looks of this flower… beautiful pinks with the sun and heat faded lower petals almost white.misc and last of garden 005 The squash plants have adios’d this world for this year.  This is the part of gardening that is hardest for me.  Dealing with death, even of the plants, makes my insides hurt.  The squash from both the good day plants and the bad day plants that made it through the summer were very, very good.  They had a thin outer skin that was not tough in the least, even towards the end of their producing time.  They fought squash bugs and survived long after the other squash plants had given up the ghost.  So I thank you Tipper for doing your good day/bad day experiment this year.  I will be trying to learn more about good planting days before garden time next year.

As soon as I can post this it’ll go up…  In the meantime I’ll ‘see’ you all tomorrow.

Power is back on… 8:40 p.m.  Yea!!!

9 comments:

Ness said...

I have GOT to get caught up on people's blogs! I didn't realize you were living in the country much less moving back. Slowly I'm getting caught up(cleaned out my blog favs today and got rid of ones I simply don't read...you made the cut, BTW :-) I cleaned out my Favorites the other day. This weekend I will catch up on my blogs. I don't have that many I follow any more...just the people I Like...like you! Glad your power came back on quickly.

joanne said...

two in a row...yeah! I didn't know you moved back to Norman, no wonder you have no time to blog! Where are you living now??

Roslyn said...

The zinnias are gorgeous but the okra-hmmm it's only edible deep fried & I don't do deep fried!

Nola said...

I didn't realise you had moved back....as long as you are happy!! That okra of yours fascinates me ... if I ever see any here in Aus I am going to buy it and try it!!

Debbie said...

I knew you had moved but did you move again? LOL

That was so sweet about feeling bad for the crops. I guess when you plant, nurture and love them, you would feel this way.

My Mom used to have gardens. My yard is just not right for it...

Gosh, you work hard!

Reddirt Woman said...

Thank you Ness for keeping me around. I'll try not to disappoint. I just started on a mission to get back to posting more regularly on my blog. The experts say it takes 20 days to develop a good habit so that's my goal to post something every day for 30 days.

JoJo, Carol and I found a 2 bed trailer in a nice trailer park off west Main in Norman. There's a lot of big old trees and people are really encouraged to have nice landscaping on their lots so we will have a lot of flower fun to look forward to and we even have enough space for a small garden, much more manageable size-wise for me.

We skillet fry our okra around here, Ros. Deep fried is for frozen okra that the restaurants cook. Of course it's still grease, but egg and cornmeal is so much better thank the coated okra.

Nola I'll send you a packet of seeds. I planted in April but okra likes it hot so here it really gets going and producing in July and August. I've had to pick as late as October year before last. You ought to be coming into your summer before long. The flowers are beautiful. The okra is in the hibiscus family and if you look back to my posts in the summer of 2008 I got some good pics of the flowers.

Deb I did most of the work in the spring planting. My Cuz has done most of the weeding and picking. The heat just wipes me out. I did some but she did the majority while I farmed on FB in the heat of the day. Yes I've moved twice since last November. I think I'll quit for a while. I really hate moving...

Laura ~Peach~ said...

waving HI!!!!!!!!!!

farmlady said...

You have gotten all the summer heat that we usually get this year although we are getting hot weather this week. Our garden doesn't know what to think. We have "sunburned" flowers too.
Hope this was a good move. You have to live where you're happy.
What is a "chunk floater"???

Reddirt Woman said...

Waving back to Laura\/\/\/\/\/

Connie a chunk floater is a sudden downpour of several inches of rain, enough to float small chunks of wood and sticks... Now a toad strangler is a steady, longer lasting downpour that conceivably can be deep enough to drown toads caught in the flats where they can't get to higher ground. Both sayings are common around Oklahoma and Texas and probably other southern states that are prone to flash floods in downpours. Hope that helps...