October - feeling a lot like fall around here. We haven't had a frost, but I'm determined to keep better track of the dahlias this year, and the only way to do that is to dig them and label them while I still know which are which, so I dug dahlias this week. I put them in two of the big Costco totes with the yellow lids that I buried in a hillside in a pile of mulch that I will pile more mulch on when I'm done.
Since I'm too much of a wimp to swim in 50 degree water, I ordered a wet suit and had my first wet suit swim yesterday. Oh my! What a different experience that was! First of all they are supposed to be tight....and boy, is it tight! I got as much exercise getting into and out of it as I did swimming. When I dove in, I popped up like a cork, as the suit is VERY buoyant...I had a hard time maneuvering as I felt like I was encased in balloons. It feels like having compression socks on my entire body. I DID stay warm...so there's that...But when I got back to the house, I needed Ron to help me get out of the suit. It's going to take some getting used to!
Gene sent me a text a couple of days ago asking if I noticed the cat and kittens in the woodshed. Yikes! Just what we need: a feral cat with a batch of kittens! Ron immediately decided they needed food, so we gave them some fish sticks that had been hanging out in the freezer for a long time. They disappeared, but then so did the cats, and I guess I don't mind a few stray cats keeping rodents at bay.
We're rebuilding the fence to make more of a fortress against the deer that have decimated the raspberry patch. Most of the garden has been tilled and is ready for garlic planting. We're going to Co-op today to pick up winter rye to seed the rest of the garden.
Most of our harvesting is done. The days are definitely shorter and colder, and we're ready for the winter slow down season where we do more reading and cooking.
