If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always had.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Friendly Neighborhood Tomato Wrangler

I put the garden to bed for the winter. I knew I would have a few tomatoes to pick, so I took a colander out with me when I took down the plastic. There were a few not-quite-ripe ones and a whole bunch of green ones--so many I had to go get a second colander. When they started rolling out of the second one I decided that was enough, took them in, and started pulling up the vines. Of course, the first vine I reached for had four beautiful, firm, green tomatoes.

Yes, I did go back in for a third colander. That was is only about a third full. And yes, the green ones are worth harvesting. They'll ripen in a paper bag and then go into the crock pot for sauce.

The vines were tenacious. I had better trellises this year, which made them harder to pull. I finally had to get out my gardening shears and start cutting because detangling would have taken all day. It took me the best part of two hours, but the tomatoes are down and the new raised bed is finished until spring. If these plants are as stubborn as their parents, I'll have baby tomatoes in both beds by May.

This is the first year I haven't bought dirt to put in for planting. I filled it with compost from last year, tomato vines, and dirt from the containers I grew potatoes in this year. They're growing in the old raised bed next year, so it was largely a matter of moving dirt. We did find a birds nest we hadn't seen (but the cats apparently had), and we evicted a mouse from the potato pot.

Now I've had my shower, my hands are dirt-free and smoothed with cocoa butter, and I have coffee and food in easy reach. Time to get some words in. I'll go down later, when I start to stiffen up, and sort out tomatoes.

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Friday, November 07, 2008

Errrggghhhhh!!!!!

I was flipping through radio stations this afternoon, and someone was playing "Silver Bells"! OK, yeah, it's cold here today, but it's not even Thanks-freaking-giving yet! I'm very happy that my kids aren't at the age when they're asking how many more 'sleeps' they have until Santa comes, or it would be a long daggone six weeks.

Sheesh.

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Thursday, November 06, 2008

9611

Almost 20% done. I need just over 1,000 more words for the week, but I'm just too fried to go for it right now. There's still tomorrow, and it looks like we may not be college visiting this weekend after all. I'm fine with that at this point, but he may change his mind yet.

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Monday, November 03, 2008

Decent writing day

Got a little over 3,000 words today. I'm at 7,421 so far. If it seems like I'm pushing, I am. We may be going to do another college visit on Saturday, and if we do, the whole day will be shot. Sunday isn't looking much better. I'm trying to get as far ahead as I possibly can. I'm also trying to let Walter have his head before this book starts to suck the life out of me. I might smell like muscle rub later, but that's all right. It's November.

Better get moving; I have to be to the dentist in half an hour. Life goes on.

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Sunday, November 02, 2008

Sunday

I need to get moving. I just wanted to check the weather forecast for this week, and then Ryan jumped up in my lap and settled in. I decided I could check mail, maybe read a couple of blogs, just for a minute.

We need to go get some building materials so we can get another raised bed made and installed. The weather is going to turn this week and I need to get it prepared for spring. It's not going to magically appear, unfortunately, because I think my husband has disappeared into Napland. Just when I decided I should go yell up the stairs, the cat sighed and went boneless. I'm totally not getting anything done, and I'd be really happy if my sinuses would stop hurting.

Misery loves company. Time to displace the cat and the husband, because if we're not doing the raised bed, I have words to get in. Daggonit anyway.

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