Freeze Warning

The good news is it may freeze tonight.

Best news is, of course, that it's too early in the year for the freeze to stay with us, but a freeze right now would be a good thing.

In particular, it'll bring an end to gardening for the year. And what a year it's been. For the first time since Michelle and I got married twelve years ago, we had a bumper tomato crop. Our secret this year seems to have been twofold, and included planting tomatoes in a year when just about everyone in the region had a good tomato year, plus we plowed turkey manure into the garden before we planted. I like to give most of the credit to the turkey manure.

The frost will not only bring an end to the tomatoes and zucchini, but will also touch the apples, getting them ready to harvest and process. Not that I'm looking forward to that; it's an awful lot of work. But we do enjoy the applesauce, and it's a good way to get food storage at a good price.

As far as bottling goes, all we have left to do is the applesauce and carrrots, unless something else comes along. We've already done tomato soup, salsa and peaches. We do have enough tomatoes to bottle some for cooking, and we may also get plums this year as well.

I rhapsodized earlier this month about loving this time of year. I do truly love it. I love putting the garden to bed for another year, getting the camper stowed and taking the hoses off the ibbs and putting them in the shed for the year. I may only have to mow the lawn one more time this year, then the lawn mower can be put away until spring. I'll have to get the snow shovels and ice melt out eventually, but that's the price I pay for seeing the lawn get buried under the white stuff.

I'll have to see if we can squeeze in a short road trip this weekend so we can see the fall foliage. Lexie's been dropping hints that she'd like to do such a thing, so we'll see what happens.