Winter

I think that winter has arrived. There is ice covering the pond, we made an ice mound from the fountain that was keeping oxygen in the water for the fish. That is turned off and the fish are in Gods hands, as if they were any where else. Winter and cold are here and I still have a bunch of things on my to-do list. I did find out what happens when you have a garden hose rolled up on a dispenser, and you get caught in a cold snap. When you unroll it to make sure the water is out of the hose. When you are about 75 feet away from the dispenser and the hose becomes full of frozen water you start making sausages out of the hose, about 12" long and it breaks 12" long and it breaks... Looks like a new section of hose is in the works!

End of fall

It looks like fall is about over. Leaves are falling wind is picking up and it is turning colder. The fields around us have been harvested, and the bugs relocated. We shut down the pond with just one pump putting O2 into the water and the floating ice hole maker to keep ammonia down in the pond water over winter. We have covered the pond with the net to help keep leaves out of it. Mowed the lawn for the last time(I hope). We just have a few more final jobs to do in the yard and it is ready for winter and the snows. I have a few more woodworking projects to work on in the house as well as working on it.

The Pond

The pond project is continuing. We are working on landscaping the east side of the pond. hope to get it completed this week.

Why are my hands making yellow soap?

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes..They just keep coming! Everything else has given up the ghost but we still have tomatoes! We are eating tomatoes at every meal, "have some tomatoes on your toast"!! I love tomatoes but would like to have some nice fresh vine ripened tomatoes in January!! Tomatoes out of your garden are plump, full of juices, red, but not firm. the tomatoes you get at the grosser are picked while still green and hard, when ripened they remain firm and turn red but are missing the juice of a homegrown one. Oh well you get what you can, my Great grandfather never has a "fresh" tomato in January, or for that matter a fresh head of lettuce. Progress It always cost something!