Thursday, Oct 17

Good morning farmers.
The sun is shining brightly, the temperature is rising (from 30 overnight), a fox is hunting in the field to the north of us, horses are happily eating their hay, and there is no wind.
Yesterday I left here before daylight with a neighbor who is recovering from hand surgery, we drove to Payette, Idaho (right on the Oregon border) and picked up Ponditis, went to Boise, stopped at Petsmart to return the cinch I bought about 2 weeks ago, it didn't have a ring for the snap on the breast collar to attatch so I couldn't use it. We went over to the hospital to see Tim, but he had a lot of activity in the curtained off space around his bed so I wasn't able to see him. He has an infection, is hooked to IV tubes again, and I hear that he also strained his shoulder getting from bed to wheelchair. The good news is that his back hurts less. My friends and I went to several nurserys and got a few plants at each place. We got home after dark, so it was a long day but a lot of fun.
Today I will work on the compost pile, hopefully I can get it all piled up in the same place to cook. I need to see if there are any beans to pick, they have had floating row cover over them for 2 weeks. All the other tender things in the vegie garden are looking sad, but there are still cabbages, beets and things like that that are ok. The old tomato vines can be added to the compost pile. I've been digging potatoes as needed, will leave the undug potatoe vines in place to tell where the plants are until I get to them. I have 4 days to do lots of cleaning up, planting the new plants, and organizing and packing for the weeklong series of endurance rides. Next week I will be riding 255 miles in 5 days if all goes according to plan.
Have a great day everyone, count your blessings.