I had to wear a jacket for the first time this morning. I will have to use my flashlight as well as the sun is nowhere in sight when I get off work. I put the window fan away and realized that for the first time in a dozen years, I never put the A/C window units in. It got warm, but never unbearable in the house.
The squash plants that I showed in my “Busy Bee” post are actually bearing fruit. Too little, too late but at least somewhere a beehive got a last minute topoff.
Persephone day will not arrive for another month, but veggie growth is slowing down. Cooler temperatures are not much help to tomatoes and peppers either. Temperatures are expected to dip into the 30s next week, but no frost yet. Time to close the windows and wash the heavy blankets that have been stored all summer. Next month It will be time to turn the heat on.
The local John Deere plant is part of the nationwide strike. No mention of it in the local media. Maybe the local daily will put it in the paper sometime next week. The Urinal, which publishes two days a week, will probably never get the story in the paper. Every employee at the Urinal is either part time or works primarily for the daily. It is a good thing the local radio stations have gotten less crappy about putting local news on the air.
The local refinery has several unions, some of which have contracts that are due to be renegotiated in the next year. Workers are tired of being treated like garbage while the Grand Poobahs make out like bandits. Frito Lay’s plant in Topeka went on a 23 day strike in July because of mandatory overtime. This is an issue at John Deere as welll
With more rain in the forecast the next two days. It is time for fall cleaning. And with mild temperatures for the next week, the yard cleaning will follow.
It was just an inch of rain, but if you listen to the drama queens on TV, you would think it was the Great Flood of Noah. Ok there was a tornado 80 miles away and there was a lightning delay at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Here we barely had thunder and lightning and then only during a time when most people were asleep.
Temperatures in the 90s are rare here in October, but the last two days were a last gasp of summer. Just now, rain has put an end to that for the year. Temperatures should drop and stay in the 70s, with lows in the 40s and 50s for the next ten days.
Persephone Days are days with less than ten hours of daylight. At my latitude this runs froom November 20 to January 19. Plant growth all but stops during this time. Although I could plant some greens to near maturity before then, I have decided to start work on next year’s garden.
Over the winter, I will clear another area for planting and kill off whatever is growing there now. I will cover the beds where crops did not mature and let them ride out winter. At this point due to the lack of light, they will need considerably more than the days to maturity marked on the seed packet. How many more we will find out in a month or so.
While planting the last crops for the fall, I saw this trying to get pollen from a late blooming squash plant.
In the KCK and Wichita areas, there are not enough football fields for everyone to play Friday night, so one or two games are played Thursday night each week. This week Cherryvale has to play Thursday night because of a shortage of officials. Because there a lot of community colleges, NAIA, and NCAA division 2 colleges that play on Saturday, Thursday night football may be more of a thing in Kansas.
…in with the new. Removed dead stuff out of some beds and planted radishes and kale in them. After this week, only radishes could possibly mature before lack of light becomes an issue. I see the doctor tomorrow and pick up materials for the bathroom remodel. What ever time I have left, will be spent cleaning out old beds and adding to the compost pile.
Footyfried