Your Neck of the Woods Chat Fall 2012

Interesting study coleup.

Hey RIc you cook better than many Female homemakers that I know!

Please note, I do windows and floors too. LOL
I take that as a compliment Sally. I spent a lot of time in my Grandmothers kitchen as well as her gardens, I learned a lot from her and my Grandfather. Ric

Ric, you are awesome - windows??? Alas, my windows have not been cleaned in years.

I am watching Scruffy this weekend. He is a West Highland Terrier, aka Westie. I have watched him many times over the years. Definitely a cutie pie. He is sitting here watching TV with me, literally - I've never seen another dog do this in my life. I thought dogs couldn't see the images on a TV, but this dog does. He gets all huffy when any animal is shown LOL.

Terri, You've seen our place, with 128sq' of windows in the great room alone we gotta' do windows. Since we retired even Holly does them. LOL
You've also seen Alfie so you know how I feel about my terrible terriers. He's a Cairn Terrier, pretty much the same dog only caramel colored with some darker coloring about the face. He doesn't watch TV, He's a bird watcher/chaser/barker, if it flies through his airspace, he's off like a rocket. Scruffy looks like a sweetie and terriers can be such company. Ric

I love it- dog sitting what fun! Westies are cute. So is Alfie for sure.

Attention my neck of the woods Home Depot has become a clearance center for a number of area HDs that have already closed their outside garden areas and shipped their remaining trees and shrubs to Annapolis store.

This morning they were having a final clearance on Japanese Maples, I came home with an assortment including:
Ruths Red
Full Moon
Viridis
Butterfly
Koyuki
English Town
Emporer I
Bloodgood

These were in 2 - 10 gal pots retailing from $40 to $180 per tree. I got almost $900 worth for just under $80!!!

There were some nice Bloodgoods and Ruths Reds available if anyone would like me to be your 'shopper' for these and I'll overwinter them , too.

Or, how about a Hydangea paniculata 'Winky Pinky" 10 gal pot for $5?

Just let me know asap as they may be clearing them as soon as tomorrow.

Judy



This message was edited Nov 18, 2012 12:11 PM

Way to go- Great- IF I had room for another tree! My current red japanese (homegrown) has given the most beautiful fall color display for over a week now.

Did you notice any blueberry bushes?

No blueberries Sally. I thought you weren't going to enlarge your patch so I didn't bring my homeless waifs to the swap. Let me know and we can work out something.

Also, let me know if you or your kids want to earn some cash money helping Wayne and I deliver papers in the wee hours of Thanksgiving Day or late Wed pm or afternoon, too (muscle power and/or independent delivery to our condo buildings.) The papers are rumered to be 'the largest ever' and are in three parts.

I am thankful for my customers and job
I am thankful for my customers and job
I am thankful for my customers and job
My mind is willing but my body is tired
I am thankful for my customers and job

Mantra on!

Judy

PS Did I mention that I havepersonally delivered over 3.000.000 (yes Billion) papers?

Oh, and I absolutely agree about the Japanese Maples. Davidsan from the JM Forum says this has been best year ever for fall color: http://www.davidsansjapanesemaples.com/

Mine are glorious.

Some of the new ones listed above work well as container grown trees like
Ruths Red http://www.davidsansjapanesemaples.com/shop/product/ruths_red
Butterfly http://www.davidsansjapanesemaples.com/shop/product/butterfly
English Town http://www.davidsansjapanesemaples.com/shop/product/englishtown

I love growing mine in containers...They take up much less space than an inground tree!

Here's a Winky Pinky link. too.
http://www.provenwinners.com/plants/hydrangea/pinky-winky-hardy-hydrangea-hydrangea-paniculata

Coleup, please pick up a Pinky Winky for me!

Could you also pick up a Ruths Red for me?

Were there any Full Moons left? I'd love a yellow JM.

I wish I could stop by!

Judy, I'd love to have Butterfly, Koyuki, and an English Town if they're still available. Ric

Judy,

Great plants! Thanks so much for offering to do that for everyone. As much as I would love to buy a few JMS I have to pass. It really is a blessing to have such plant buddies!

Hopefully next year!

I know what you mean about potting them. I have a seiryu potted, I just love the foliage of the JMS. If anybody wants assumed bloodgood babies I planted 72*6 of them last week. Hehe.

Judy, I would love if you could pick me up a Pinky Winky if there are any left. Amazing prices.

What a sweetie you are, dear!!!!!

Oh, my, I am praying for your back and shoulders and everything with delivering those humungo papers this week.

Thanks, Jan.
Maybe I'll have a career as an arm wrestler lol "The paper route of a thousand miles begins with the first paper..."

When I left HD this am there were over 30 JMs and about a dozen Pinky Winky s. By 3 pm there were only 3JMs and two Pinky Winkys left!

SS, and Ric and Teri I think your requests can be mostly met...afterall, I did get a few 'extras'.

SS, can you grow JM s along your new back fence? One or two with a pinky winky would look good there.

Paul, that's a nice selection you have.

Just think, maybe soon we'll have a "JM Lovers" thread to go along with our Garlic and Tropical and Holiday Cactus threads.

Judy

Coleup, that's exactly what I was thinking! I need shrubs and trees along that back fence. It's mostly bright, open shade, protected from the wind. I think JMs and hydrangeas would do really well there.

Terp, you planted 76 JMs???

Well 456 total! In seed trays. I figured it would be interesting to see how many come up. I put three trays on the north side of the house and three on the south side.

This message was edited Nov 19, 2012 10:17 AM

coleup- I'll run that by the older one today. He needs the money (don't we all) Thanks for offering and will be in touch.

LOL Coleup. Just went back to work for a month or so.
I am thankful for my job
the mind isn't too willing and the body may not hold up. LOL

lol Holly,

I wonder what marathon runners go through? Like the "Virtual Game " of tennis or golf or, what ever task or goal we set ourselves to...there are lots of ways I can 'psych myself out rather than psych myself up'. They say the mind can't easily distinguis between reality and imagined reality, so the more I dread this delivery, the more I can be wearing myself out before I start! I do that with the Holidays, too. My "expectations" are off the charts so my prep has to be in part about reining them in...like that Que sera sera song, What will be will be. Thinking now that if I visualize that last paper being served and how good I will feel when I'm done will serve me better now.

Anybody watch that Ken Burns special on "The Dust Bowl" last night? Part 2 is tonight. Interesting comments on the role of hope in our lives as that which both 'keeps us going' and keeps us stuck repeating the same actions but expecting a different result.

I watched pt 1 . I thought it was very interesting though i did read, not long ago , Timothy Egan s book and saw a lot of repeated material. Its a time and place we havent heard much about.

This message was edited Nov 20, 2012 9:54 AM

I have seen read some things about that time a very long time ago. I found it very interesting. Have you seen the picks a few months ago out West there was a big dust storm. Can't remember either New Mex or Ariz. Reminded me very much of the pics I had seen from the Dust Bowl Pics.

It was AZ. Last year. Here is a short video clip of it. Pretty impressive. http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=dust+storm+in+arizona&tnr=21&vid=&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.m

Dang....must have been one day last week while outside I noticed that our Japanese Maple was in beautiful colors too. Meant to get the camera and go out and snap a shot or two. Didn't do it, just got up to look and see what it looked like today and I didn't see the tree at all!!! What?.....upon further inspection....every single leaf is now off and laying under the naked branches....what a let down.

Coleup, you will need to bring two vans to the next swap.

Ruby

Well guys, I had another acrobatic fall last night. I had a 12 pack of soda in one hand and a 12 pack of water in the other. I was punching in the code to open the garage door, and as soon as it started making noise, this wild black blur of an animal came flying out of the dog door. It startled me so much that I jumped. When I jumped, I fell against the generator still sitting outside the garage door from super storm Sandy. When I fell against the generator, I lost my balance, hit my right shoulder on the generator, kept falling, hit the back of my head on the cement apron, and somewhere in the mix I lost hold of the 12 pack of soda which went flying up in the air and came crashing down on my left knee. Too bad it wasn't caught on camera - I'm sure it was really graceful, deserving of a perfect 10 LOL. Other than a few very minor bruises, I am fine.

Anyhow, in the process of the fall, I saw that the wild black blur was a feral cat. When I think about it, I bet it has been taking shelter in my garage off and on for months by going in and out of the dog door. I have seen occasional holes in the trash bags - and I haven't seen any signs of mice this fall, so I like the idea of it hanging out. It obviously is doing fine on its own, but should I actually get cat food to leave out for it?

Geeze Teri! I am so glad you aren't more banged up!
You could leave some food out for sure. I am no pro at that. I'd think small amounts . If you don't know its habits, you might end up feeding some other critters too.

Ruby, mine too is dropping leaves very fast now.

Wow that dust storm. Now imagine living with that for years.

Glad you are ONLY bruised(that is bad enough) and don't have anything broken or sprained.

Yes lucky, so it is just a humorous tale to relay with the real intent of getting some feedback on what to do for the feral cat :)

I need to check out that dust storm video.

Woo Terri glad you're OK.

I don't know what I'd do with the cat, probably lean towards not feeding it intentionally.

Same here, Paul. Did that growing up and ended up with 16 cats around.

Teri, Glad you were not injured. They (ferals) can be as bad as rabbits, as Jan said. However, if it's a Tom and isn't spraying scent about (you'd know) a bit of dry cat food would probably not hurt. A semi-hungry cat is a better mouser and having a dry place to sleep is always welcome. I have a couple that sleep in the barn and I know the neighbors feed them. I like that arrangement, we have very few mice and I occasionally find a dead vole. LOL Ric

coleup, Judy did you figure out what JMs you may have and what I owe you? Drop me a Dmail. Thanks, Ric

This message was edited Nov 20, 2012 7:21 PM

Terri, Pat and I are glad that you are ok, but regret the lack of surveillance footage to post on U-tube. ;-)

I would suggest that you catch the cat and have it fixed/neutered so you keep the population under control. Go ahead and feed the cat some every day. Our cat gets all the food he wants and still catches any mouse/vole that he encounters. It is so ingrained that he is powerless not to.

Goodness aspenhill, I'm glad you're okay. That sounds like a really scary fall.

I had a much "simpler" fall last year but still ended up breaking my ankle. :-/

(coleup- Scott will call you)

I'd rather be gardening! Holiday house cleaning and shopping yesterday. Strictly house cleaning and baking today. I've finished all the windows and I'm just waiting for the freshly waxed wood and vinyl floors to dry now. I need to scrub all the painted floors yet, dust the great room, and vacuum the carpets, walls and ceilings. These things sort of fall off the TO DO list during the spring and summer.LOL Catching the darn dust rabbits is the hardest part. You gardeners know what I mean, the dust bunnies are all grown up and you know how rabbits multiply. I heard Noah had a problem convincing them, "Only two".
I'm planing to bake a pumpkin roll and two pies, using my gingersnap crust for one of them. Holly has her job timing almost perfected, she gets to miss all this fun. LOL Ric

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving all. I'm sure each and everyone of us can find plenty to be thankful for!

This message was edited Nov 21, 2012 2:41 PM

Way too much cleaning!
But I know it has to be done sometimes.
Got to put my pumpkin pie in the oven tonight.

Oh dear, I think I deserve a **bonk** on the head, I'm such an old-fashioned chauvanist, but as I was reading Ric's post, I was sitting here, imagining Holly sitting there typing it, then was surprised when he talked about the pumpkin roll and pies, and Holly's job timing.. I had to go back and re-read, I was like WHAT!? Haahahahahaaa, shame on me!!! < =/ I know at least one thing Holly's thankful for!!!!!! < =D

You are right though Ric, many things to be thankful for, foremost is for a God who loves us all soooo much!! What would we do without our Daddy in Heaven, eh?

Another one of which is that, even though it's just DH and me today, I **am** Blessed with my wonderful Beloved DH, and we're going to have fun starting on that master bath renovation today! =) OK, well, we can only get so far as the first layer of mudding the walls (pre-paint), and doing a dry-run of laying the tiles out and cutting them...but it'll be fun to learn TOGETHER how to lay tile since we've never done this before. I'm thankful that my beautiful DH loves me enough (and LIKES me) to include me in this fun and want to 'hang out' with me like this.
I'm thankful for our beautiful son, and even though he's not with us (he's at college, his last year), I'm thankful that the last college bill IS PAID OFF!!! =) This wonderful son (John) is loving and giving and smart, a real Blessing.
And I am more thankful than I could ever say for the WEALTH of friends I have met and made here at Dave's Garden. THANK JESUS for all of you!!!!! < ='D

Oh yeah, and P.S. I'm also thankful for DH's co-worker's daughter, who's a chef at a high-end restaurant in DC, who baked us a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving!! Now I have all the fixin's for pie-baking ... for another time! =)

Ric, thank you for validating the whole house cleaning priority thing - I can put that nagging guilty feeling to rest about how long and how often I neglect house cleaning in favor of gardening pursuits. I always manage to finally get to it, but usually after the dust bunnies have grown up to become rabbits - love how you put it LOL. Now, do you think you can have a chat with our husbands and convince them how "fun" cooking and house cleaning chores are HA HA HA. For that, I would be really THANKFUL! Happy Thanksgiving everyone.