[quote user="Pat"] Also, if your tomatoes are still green when the first frost is predicted, pull them and wrap them in newspaper, put them in a box in a dark place and they'll slowly ripen. Actually, I've just put them in layers between newspaper and they ripen just as well as having to wrap individual ones.  ...

Yes leasmom, it's been a pretty good year for my garden.  Like you said, it has been strange weather this summer tho.  Very mild.  We ran the A/C only 2 days the whole summer.  Now the nights have been chilly.  The cool temps are not helping my tomatoes and peppers along.  In fact, some of my peppers have ...

Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve been on Stretcher - this thread is still going!  Have kinda got addicted to Facebook and strayed away…  This summer has been pretty productive from the garden.  Froze a lot of green beans.  Did strawberry jam and blackberry-grape jelly (yum).  Besides green beans, have been harvesting ...

happyhappy, I can understand your frustration.  DH had a buddy, and we'd get together occasionally with this friend & his wife.  Go to their place for cook-outs, go out to dinner, etc.  They were kind of "keep-up-with-the-Joneses" people, and in a lot of ways, total opposites than us.  Initially I ...

[quote user="Pat"] Maybe the chickens are eating more bugs and fewer garden vegetables?   [/quote] That thought crossed my mind.  I hope so!!

I have 3 hens and yeah, have gotten attached to them.  They are so stupid and silly!  I think growing scratch feed is interesting.  Also about the winter squash as well...  Will have to try that.  I let 'the girls' roam and forage around the yard, and they get some food scraps & stuff from the garden, like ...

Went out to the garden this morning and found my green bean plants had lots of green beans that were ready to pick!  I thought I bought pole beans, so really hadn't paid much attention since they haven't climbed.  Maybe they are bush beans after all.  Picked beans and blanced & froze them today.  Was going ...

I've done something similar.  We have an ornamental grass in our yard called Arundo, and it grows pretty tall.  A couple years ago, I found if I stripped off the outer stalk covering, the inner stalk was very much like bamboo.  When I updated our one bathroom with new paint, shower curtain & towels, I cut 5 stalks and used ...

Recently it seems I've seen quite a few houses where the laundry is hanging out to dry.  Maybe I just never noticed, but I'm glad to see it! Re winter drying - I also hang clothes indoors to dry in winter.  The air in the house is dry anyway from the furnace...  It's pretty rare for me to use our dryer.  When ...

Thank you all so much for your kind words and well wishes.  mamasjob/Erika, two of the vets at the animal hospital mentioned socks possibly being eaten, but we were pretty certain it wasn't that.  Probably a good number of dogs do get sock toys or just plain like to take them & tear them up (and eat them).  When Jack was ...