Olio 11/20/2020

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things (thoughts)

Every night this week has been a frost night, two nights into the 20’s f (-2-3 c). Though I was hoping for fresh peas for Thanksgiving, the wind was blowing so hard those days that putting down plastic would have been impossible alone. A few years ago I had some very flexible 12 foot long fiberglass poles that could be used to form a tunnel to cover with grow fabric or plastic, but they splintered over time and only one remains. I couldn’t make a tunnel with just one. If a tunnel had been made over the peas that could be opened for ventilation during the day and sealed up at night, perhaps they would have survived until this weekend when we are back in the upper 60’s f daytimes and only in the 40’s at night. Maybe next year the fall garden will be covered with a tunnel to protect it longer.

The chickens have had the run of the garden and they are doing a great job of breaking down the compost pile and weeding the beds.

The area to the left of the boxes will be returned to beds in the spring and the compost moved back to the shadier area. I wish the hens would do the same scratching and weeding in the paths between the beds, and move down to the “mint” bed and the long box below it, but they seem to like this corner. As online ordered and virtual craft show ordered gifts are arriving, I am saving cardboard again for springtime maintenance and more bed building efforts.

I have always been one to accumulate gifts early, to try to be done with shopping by Thanksgiving so that I am not dealing with the rush and hustle bustle, to spend the first week of December decorating the house for Christmas and preparing to have our family here for Christmas dinner or even a few days visit. Though the shopping part is done, the decorating this year is something I’m not looking forward to doing, it will just be us. I’m sure that at least some of my vast Santa collection will come out, we will go get a small tree and decorate it. It will be sad enough to be alone, but worse if we don’t at least try.

This month has been difficult in other aspects. We lost a young member of our family, a young Mom, not to COVID, but a heartbreaking loss, especially for her husband, child, parents, siblings and their families. Another family member is quite ill, again not COVID, but struggling to survive and heal. A friend has had a recurrent illness and is facing a third tough round of treatment. The news of these losses and illnesses of those dear to me have wrecked havoc with my emotions. I blog as a release, but have had to turn to some journaling as some of my thoughts and feelings I just can’t share out to the world.

Every day that it isn’t raining, we don our walking shoes and head out for an hour or so. There are many places to walk, some paved and more traffic than we prefer, the walk in the National Forest around the pond and it’s various trails, and my favorite is to go a couple thousand feet higher elevation to the Mountain Lake Conservancy property and walk one of several trails there, usually meeting only one or two people on the entire walk. We take our masks on these walks and wear them when there are other people around and we can’t distance ourselves 10 or 12 feet away.

This little herd of 6 deer seem to know that near the house is a safe place to be during hunting season, they are seen many times a day somewhere around the house, grazing on grass that is turning brown from the colder weather.

We have had to remove all permission to hunt on our property except for immediate family due to some problems, not serious in nature, but troubling. It is difficult to try to maintain good neighborly relationships, especially since we didn’t grow up here and though my grandfather was born and raised just a few miles from our property and I was born here, we are outsiders.

As a blogger, I like to know that I am being read and perhaps enjoyed. At the bottom of the post there are buttons to share, like, and space to comment. I would love your feedback there. My presence on Facebook has mostly been to share my blog and I may take another social media break so it won’t be posted there. Until next time, stay safe.

9 thoughts on “Olio 11/20/2020”

  1. I very much enjoy reading your blog 😊. It’s been ages since I’ve posted anything on mine…..maybe with winter here I’ll find the time to get at it again. I love that you can extend your garden season so long. Where I am, we’re done in September.

    1. I miss your blog and commented today on an old post that I hadn’t commented on before. Our growing season is basically over in mid October if the frost is right, but the cold nights are generally not so cold that a cold frame or plastic tunnel will extend it a bit.

      1. We’re prepared to cover or cold frame all garden season – we can usually count on a hard frost at least once a month through the summer. Because we get such long daylight hours in the summer, the garden does pretty well regardless.

  2. I am always here, Fran. Your energy and detail for gardening and crafts are always so informative to read. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Pam

  3. I’ve been thinking about you, Fran. I know this is going to be a very different holiday season; we, too, are not going to be with family. That is always such a big part of the season. I hope you find comfort in the thought that by next year we should be able to visit our loved ones and friends. Maybe I should bring you a sheep or two to give you something more to think about!
    Please bring out all your cherished holiday decorations and let them remind you of Christmases past…all the love and joy…and the promise of sharing that with family next year! I send you a hug.

    1. Thank you Gail, I miss seeing you and getting my weekly hug at the market. I guess I won’t be visiting lambs this spring unless things improve. Wish I had the fencing for a couple of wooly critters.

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