The House Is Back To Normal

 Our daughter flew home and the house is back to is usual quietness. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed the peace and quiet until all the kids were gone. Don't get me wrong, I love having them here, but the level of energy was through the roof! She's the type that wants to go, go, go, and that's not us anymore. Our son entertained her a lot - both being close to the same age. He took her hiking, around the town he lives in and catered to her whim of wanting to go to an arcade. I know he misses her a lot, so when she came, he wanted to do a lot with her, so it all worked out. Unfortunately, he wouldn't go to Pittsburgh with the same opinion about the city as we have. The city life is not for us!

Speaking of my son, he's had a streak of bad luck lately. He had a hard time finding the sewer leak in him house, but finally, after lots of drywall removal, it was located. Then, the wall and ceiling work was done, along with painting. Then, the roofer that was going to do his roof, pulled out at peak roofing time and finding a new roofer wasn't the easiest. Sadly, he had a time frame to get his new roof on, and the insurance company cancelled his insurance. He was on top of all this, and contacted the mortgage company when the roofer cancelled. The mortgage company worked with him to find a new company and he found another roofer that will be installing the roof this week! Then, while entertaining his sister, his transmission died. They didn't know if they were going to make it back, but they did and he got quotes only to find they exceeded what he paid for the car. So, after a lot of research and many visits to car dealerships, he came home with a Subaru! It's used, of course, but was certified from the dealership. I haven't seen the car yet - he's coming today, so I'll get to see it!

Have you seen the Kaleb Cooper Tour on Prime Video? I enjoyed it, but my husband thought it was boring. Kaleb told his life story and I was amazed at how much he has done in his lifetime! There's a person that deserves to succeed! He's a true hard worker.

Fall grown potato plants

We've had so much rain lately, that I can't get into the garden to hill the potatoes. I never expected them to do as well as they are doing, so they need hilled badly - but I don't think they would appreciate mud clumps. This is frustrating, especially when it rains overnight every night. 

Heirloom corn over 10 feet tall!

There's nothing in the garden that the groundhog likes. We planted tomatoes, peppers, corn, potatoes, and squash, so he's leaving everything alone but he does like the carrots, beet, etc. in the frames. That's our next issue to solve - keeping him out of the frames! Next comes the battle of the squirrels and racoons. The racoons love our corn and we find ears eaten and stalks knocked over, but they always seem to leave more than enough for us. LOL The squirrels on the other hand LOVE tomatoes! The take bites out of the green ones, but the red ones... those tomatoes can be plucked off the vine and end up half eaten in the dirt or even still on the vine. When we were upstate, we didn't have these problems. There were deer and rabbits, but they didn't damaged out garden as much as the pests here! There's also more bugs here. We live in a different growing zone and gained about a month more for growing. We were so excited to have a month more - but the pests are much more destructive here!

Some of the Fall Potatoes Are In

I couldn't believe it when I received a message on Tuesday that our local greenhouse got me some seed potatoes to try and plant for a fall harvest. I honestly thought that I would have to wait until next year. I called the greenhouse right away and they said there was a box of potatoes waiting for me. On Wednesday afternoon, hubby had to go out and get a few things and stopped by the greenhouse to pick them up. He texted me and said the box was $10. I was ecstatic and was expecting a small box to experiment with - maybe 40 or so in the box. That would be a great number to try out and not a huge loss if I didn't have success. 

When he arrived home, I was on the phone with my daughter so never saw the box. When I got off the phone with her, hubby said they were out in the garage. I was planning on planting them in the morning, but had to go out and take a peek at my treasured seeds. The box was by no means small and the amount of seed potatoes stunned me! It was about the size of 2 cases of 15oz size cans of tomatoes! WOW! Now, I know that all will not take - but good golly miss molly, I never expected near the amount I received! 

I went out Thursday morning and got some in - probably close to half, but the air quality (this is before I knew it was a problem) had me back inside before I could get them all in. Then it got so bad (in the 300's) that I haven't been out to plant the rest. I still can't get into the garden today because of all the rain we had yesterday, but at least the air quality is decent and we can now open our windows. Tomorrow is another day.

The basil is looking healthy and should be pushing out the first true leaves soon. Then on to be transplanted. I ended up with more plants than planned - 11 total! I had no idea I had dropped that many seeds in the pot. Oh, the joy of small seeds LOL That's OK though, because my son wants a couple.