More snow expected!

                                                       Stay Warm!

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Luffa harvest and Gas prices!

We arrived back home today to snow flurries and I thought frost was bad!  The frost did arrive down south actually a day earlier than up  north here, so for the record Frost October 20th in Southern IL and October 21st in Northern IL.  oh gosh, here comes winter …    Another major, major difference with the 2 locations has been gas prices all summer.  We watched them fluctuate day to day and as we made our trips down south we watched as the prices went lower and lower.  This weekend we paid $2.83 up in Northern IL and $2.14 down south……….What’s up with that?!?!  I did gather all the Luffa and it is now drying on racks indoors

  Soon I will unveil the sponges within!  We also went to a small town Fall festival and Halloween parade – it was the kid’s parade and there were 300 kids parading down the main street in their costumes….they were So proud!  Check out this old water tower in the town –

We had quite a scare with 2 of the dogs – they disappeared for hours!  There is no way we could go looking for them since we would get lost ourselves in the country.  They did find their way back home and I was so Happy!  Here’s Frankie ….

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Official Frost and I’m Famous!

Tuesday this week, October 21st, we were hit with our first frost and I captured some pictures.  Down south I am hoping we have a few more weeks of frost free, but according to my calendar frost appeared on October 29th last year.  I am thinking that my two different areas have basically the same frost dates, the difference in weather is a more milder winter down south than up here in Northern Illinois.  I never really considered myself living in Northern IL (always said western suburbs) but if ya look at the map, it surely is Northern!

I mentioned in the heading title “I’m Famous!”  Well, a few months back I started blogging for GRIT magazine and it can be tough at times to come up with a topic since I am not officially living in the country yet and when I read what the other bloggers are writing about … well, it’s tough.  The staff over at GRIT have made it very easy though and in this month’s issue of the magazine the editor, Hank Will, names each of us bloggers by Name!  So they really appreciate our input and it’s totally awesome to be recognized IN Print and for everyone to See!  Blogging at GRIT is a little more personal and they sure do make ya feel at home … stop on over … GRIT blogs.

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Extreme weather, Garden work and New discoveries

I have mentioned in the past the weather in Southern Illinois is quite different than up North – although we had rain and high winds in both locations this weekend, we arrived down south to 5 ½” of rain which came down in 24 hours.  We were fortunate enough to miss driving in the downpour and I realized I need to find an accurate weather site to check before heading down – I had NO clue what we were heading into.  We are limited to the local radio stations when we are actually down there since we don’t have TV or internet hookup as of yet.  We found out Sunday morning as we listened to the winds whipping around outside that we would have to stay another day!!  Since we have been hauling the trailer back and forth it was too dangerous with winds at 35 mph and gusts of 50 mph to even attempt the trip.

 

We did have two gorgeous days to Garden and I was out there at 7 am in my “new boots” hacking away at the Clay Soil….a definite challenge after all the rain – heavy clumps!  I did find this wonderful information on clay soil which also has a list of plants that do well.  I planted more ferns, purple coneflower, yarrow, another sedum, moved some blanket flowers that weren’t doing well, several types of hostas and some more lavender.  The luffa transplants I had planted several weeks ago were shriveled and gone – the flower plants seemed to make it through the weather, but not the luffa, so more will have to be planted.  I laid down a layer of wet newspaper and dumped topsoil on this (12  40 lb. bags of soil disappears quickly).  This will smother the weeds that were as healthy as ever!

 

I took my new paddleboat out on the lake and was Very Happy when I spotted several Purple Martins.  It was hard to miss them since they were swooping right at me – probably because I was close to the purple martin birdhouse.  They sure are bold birds!  Spotted some Bluebirds also – very cool sightings!  We ventured out to a new town  and were quite impressed with the Grand Opening that was taking place at a new farm and garden store….they even sold baby chicks and geese!  The geese I don’t understand since we have thousands here up North and they are considered a nuisance.  Also we spotted a dead cow in a pasture – legs straight up and he appeared bloated … the other cows were out in the pasture chewing grass, but this guy was definitely done in – Never saw that before!

 

 

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