Fall is Coming

It always seems the weather quickly turns cool once the kids are back in school.

Now that we're having really cool (sometimes downright chilly) mornings and evenings, it's time to start winnowing out my houseplants again.

Each year, I get to decide which will make the cut and spend the winter inside with me and which are going to freeze and die.

Such power I have!

I have pulled all my onions, not wanting them to get waterlogged and rot in the soil since some rain finally arrived. They've been lying in between the rows where my drip system couldn't add to the dampness the rains brought.

Soon the green tops of those onions will get twisted off to seal the onion tops. Then I'll gather them into a couple old potato sacks, which will get hung up.

Our back bedroom doubles as my overflow "pantry." I try to keep the heat to a minimum in that room so the onions (and eventually the green tomatoes) keep pretty well.

I'm still pinching the ends off all the vining vegetable plants. They just will keep on vining.

The cucumbers are rewarding me with more fruit. The orange winter squash (it really looks like small pumpkins, but isn't) has likewise set several good squash.

The other squashes are just making very nice but useless plants. They flower, but I'm not seeing enough fruit to justify having given them so much space to grow. I'm going to miss having delicata squash.

The orioles we so enjoyed watching last spring have returned to the feeders. A freshly cut half-orange and fresh grape jelly was their reward for showing themselves again. I'm sure they nested and raised their babies in our tallest shelter belt trees.

My birding books agree they prefer tall trees far from people for nesting. They must like their privacy for raising their offspring because they sure stayed out of sight during all the hot days of summer.

That half an orange attracted a small hummingbird. We usually see a few hummers each spring, and again in late summer, as they migrate through. I'm not willing to maintain a hummingbird feeder as the sugar water needs freshening too often and it attracts ants, yellow jackets, hornets, wasps and other pests.

But I will keep freshening up the grape jelly and the orange as long as the hummingbirds and orioles stay.

We are finally able to run the combine again, so we're getting the wheat cut and stored. There was enough rain and then dew to stop progress on that front for a couple of weeks.

The drought has allowed me to not have to run the grain cart this year (small silver lining), so I'm back to being a cook and 'go-fer.'

I'm planning to feed the crew most of what remains of my corn. There wasn't any damage done by raccoons this year - yet.

The trap gets checked daily. It's only caught that one young fox I talked about before. Maybe not shucking the corn in the garden is the answer. I'll have to test that theory again next summer.

This new recipe was tested last week, when it was only Dennis and me to try it.

It made plenty of marinade for the one huge chicken breast. The meat was sliced thin while still partially frozen.

It stir-fried up quickly in olive oil with a bit of butter.

I thickened the juice for a white gravy. I served it with fried potatoes, featuring bacon and onion, with parsley, chives, and basil added at the end.

Lemon Chicken Marinade

• 1/4 C EVOO

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 3 Tbl lemon juice

• 1/2 tsp ground mustard

• 1 Tbl fresh dill

• 1/2 Tbl honey OR maple syrup

• 1/4 tsp salt

Whisk all together. Pour over chicken in a baggie, turning to coat the meat. Marinade at least one hour.

Grill or fry.