Another Frog. 10.27.22

These little frogs are all over the place.  Frogs eat insects.  So I'm happy they are here.

Cosmos. 10.20.22

 The cosmos finally bloomed.  It's nice having such perky flowers, this time of year.

Planting Garlic. 10.20.22

 Each year, I set aside enough if the garlic harvest to plant the crop for the following year.  Each bulb usually has six to ten cloves, which makes a row in my garden.  This year, I planted four rows of Music garlic (hardneck) and four rows of Lorz (softneck)  garlic.  Supposedly, softneck will keep longer although last year the hardneck Music kept nearly a year.

Music.  These have huge cloves.

Lorz.  Cloves are nice size but not gigantic, and there are more of them.

This is how deep I plant them, about 3 or 4 inches deep.

All planted.

Wildfire Warnings. 10.17.22

 I'm temporarily away from the homestead due to wildfire warnings.  We are a few miles from the evacuation zones, but it is smoky.  I'm a couple of miles northeast of Battle Ground, which is in the Northeast corner of the map.  The map is from the county website.

I always keep a Go-Bag although the contents are a bit old now.  Last night I spent an hour chasing one of the hens, who didn't want to go back to the hen house.

Over the years, we removed flammable shrubs and trees from areas adjacent to the house.  The mulch next to the house is lava rock gravel.  The big propane tank is gone.  The neighbors' towering Leyland cypress are the main risk.   Right now it's wait and see.

Completed Star Quilt. 10.17.22

 Yesterday I finished the star quilt.  It's very warm and white heavy.  I'm not sure when I started it.  I think June, last year.

Some of the individual star blocks up close.

The backing is also made from thrifted cotton men's shirts.

Im happy with the result.  It's better up close than in photos.  I think my next quilt will be full of bright colors, as a contrast to the muted colors I've been using lately.

The original pattern was published in a UK quilting magazine, Today's Quilter and was designed bt Lynne Goldsworthy.

Tree Frog. 10.15.22

 I see a lot of these around here.

Apple Harvest from Miniature Trees. 10.15.22

 These are from trees on super dwarfing rootstocks, or short columnar trees, or espaliers.  For many, this is their fist year bearing, so I don't expect much.  I'm surprised some are so large.

From top to bottom, these are Jonagold, Cosmic Crisp, Honeycrisp, Golden Treat  The small ones in the container above, are Redlove Calypso.

More Flower Seed Saving. 10.15.22

 The first flower seeds that I saved were damp.  Then I may have left them too long in the sunroom to dry, where the temperature surpassed 100 F.  So I saved more today.  Today was dry so they did not need additional drying.  Just put the flower heads into paper bags, and staple the top,  They will be in the cool, dry pantry until I clean them up during the winter.  I collected Rudbeckia that had petal markings, French Marigold, Yellow Four O'Clock, Fuchsia pink Four O'Clock, French Marigold, Blood Flower (Tropical Milkweed), African Marigold, Pink (but not white) Cleome.  

Planting Daffodils and Hyacinths. 10.15.22

 I bought a few bags of bulbs to plant in the meditation garden / border.

All but one packet of daffodils are planted now.  They will be nice in the Spring.  In this location, it doesn't matter if I let the leaves remain after blooming.  It is meant to look a little wild.  So, they have a good chance to multiply and bloom in years to come.

Finished Hot Pepper Sauce. 10.15.22

 Here is the finished hot pepper sauce.  I used the food processor the peppers, after decanting about 2/3 of the brine.  This hot sauce is very hot, with a generous garlic flavor and hot pepper flavor.  It's basically, Sambal Oelek.

I saved the decanted brine, to use as a starter if enough additional peppers ripen.  Alternatively, it could be returned to the sauerkraut to impart hot pepper flavor.   Here is how the liquid looked before decanting, on top of the glass weight.

Here is how the fermentation looks.  The gas bubbles are carbon dioxide, produced by the beneficial lactic acid bacteria.  There was a fair amount of overflow, brine forced out of the nipples due to gas production.