Oh yes, those penstemon seed take a lot of patience, really all seeds do.
Texas Drought
I didn't know anyone but me put the whole plant in a bag to dry. I have a huge bag of larkspur waiting for my attention now.
Christi
LOL! Where do you think I got the idea?
On the penstemon, we laid the bag on the concrete floor put a board across it and stepped on it to crush the pods. Then sifted them, worked rather well.
How funny! Much easier on the hands initially. I don't how others do a lot of things so I just make it up on the fly.
Thanks, Christi & Sheila. I knew there was such clothing, but hadn't really looked into sun protective clothing before...I'll look at that. What's hard is the temps here. I can't imagine wearing long sleeves unless the temps are very low...it makes me so uncomfortable in warm/hot temps! I'm definitely getting a bigger hat. All three BCC lesions so far have been on my face. I'll just be known as HAT LADY!
Linda, I'm so sorry to hear about your skin cancer. I'm supposed to stay out of the sun so some years ago I bought an ultra lightweight cover that doesn't add much to our summer heat problem. The only problem is that the top is white so it doesn't take much to get it dirty.
Hope you all don't mind if I pop in again. So sorry to here about your skin cancer Linda. I had a friend with skin cancer who wore hats and long sleeves/pants for years. He said that he got used to it quite easily and gardened and golfed and changed nothing else about his life. He considered it a minor inconvenience under the circumstances. He always said that he felt he had been given a second chance to be with his wife, children and grandchildren and that he was blessed. He's passed now but not from cancer. Hope this helps.
I think my area is down to just moderate level drought on the drought monitor map, that's good...next week might be even better. I was hoping that the remaining orange and brown colored areas of Texas would be gone, but I guess some areas still aren't getting much rain. The wind now is really bad! Cold coming tonight, about 44° here, 30% chance of rain...none so far today.
http://drought.unl.edu/DM/DM_state.htm?TX,S
Brrr! Down to 37.6° here in the hills last night. No rain came with this last front and none in the extended forecast. El Nino, where are you???
Oh, yeah, forgot to say that because of the long drought we went through, I get nervous if there's no rain for a while!!
This message was edited Oct 31, 2009 10:16 AM
Ditto here, Linda. T-storms were predicted for Thursday p.m. but didn't happen. Not looking forward to colder-than-usual winter but supposedly will have some more moisture. But please, no ice storms. The trees have suffered enough.
It dropped down to 44º last night. Night time temperatures seem to be every where. It makes me nervous because I still don't have the greenhouse ready for the winter. No rain on Thursday, but lots of cold wind or at least it felt cold as I was out checking on 2 newborn calves.
Fayette County was taken off the drought list. I think it's because we don't have any reservoirs to fill. One of our large live oaks is dying and another has tow very large brown branches. That one could have been hit by lightening, but the rest of the tree appears to be OK. I'm hoping more don't join them.
I've decided a cooler winter is good, just to get all the plants reset to what season it is. Here, we caught up enough with rain that I think mostly they won't die of freezing.
I think I could even work my way around to being ok with an ice storm (one) to clear out all those dead branches and trees in one swoop.
Not happy when I think of that ice storm we had. Power outages for days, no central heat, no phone most of the time, then lost water for a day, ice missiles falling with crashing noises. Not fun, and branches and trees cracked all over this place. But it was a wake-up call. It said: be prepared for disasters!
This message was edited Oct 31, 2009 5:34 PM
I'm in agreement with Linda on the ice storm. We were without power for 5 days. No power = no water, here. We have a fireplace, but it only heated the one room. We put up blankets in the doorways to try and keep it warm enough that we didn't have to wear more than our jackets. We had dead branches falling for a few years. Not fun!
The last bad ice storm here left us with no power for 5 days thus no well water. Nine months later I had my second and last child. So I definately don't want an ice storm.
I have tried to get out between rainy spells to cut back plants that have finished blooming to get ahead since we have a bad prediction for winter. I figured we will get a sudden blast and dip to freezing over night the plants die. I hate trimming back brown mushy plants after a freeze. This way too I have much better weather to do it in.
Of course being retired gives me time I haven't had in the past to prepare.
We have these huge yard carts in the city and I have two and filled them up twice over this week. My compost piles are full already with leaves.
All the creeks, ponds in the area are looking good up here. Hope that those to the south that still need rain get the next rainy spell.
We have water seeping out of the ground. It always amazes me how quickly the weather condtions change in TX. I always thought that when there was more moisture the temps. were higher. This is late for us to have not had a frost/freeze. It was my understanding they were predicting cold weather in Jan-Feb? I don't know. I'm still enjoying my fresh veggies and want to keep doing so as long as possible.
Shelia-what does it feel like to be ahead of things, I don't think I will ever know that feeling.
Feels pretty good, until I turn and see what I am neglecting to be out in the yard! LOL!
I have much more of a problem with neglecting things in the house. My mom says I'm just like my grandmother (old german farming stock) the house might be a mess but I'll still be in the garden or somewhere outside doing something "much more important".
I take it as a compliment.
Lisa
Right, the house can wait until rainy cold days.
Good news, that old brown Exception Drought is history in Texas!
http://drought.unl.edu/DM/pdfs/tx_dm.pdf
My area is still shown in yellow, but as far as I'm concerned, I think it's all over.