Tomatoes, garden plans for next year, and chicken drama

I got to steal an hour to be out in the garden at dusk tonight. I love feeling the seasons shift. The air is much cooler, the wind has picked up and the leaves are starting to rustle and swirl.

Tonight the moon was out--Oliver came out with me just before bed and said hi to the man in the moon. I said:

The man in the moon
Looked down from the moon
and what do you think he said?
It's time for all children on earth
to be thinking of going to bed.

And Oliver responded, "yeah." So from now on, maybe the moon needs to be the one to say it's bedtime, since I don't usually get such a positive response!

Anyway, before that sweet moon-time, I did some serious tomato picking. I have four big bowls of tomatoes in the house now, just waiting for me to make sauce. I'm not sure what I'll do once it's made, though, because the freezer is already full and I don't have a canner. Maybe time to invest in one, or in a stand-alone freezer for under the house.

I have to move my tomato beds next year. This year the plants have some kind of disease. They are looking miserable, and a couple of them are actually dead. So, at least one year off from tomatoes in that spot, maybe more.

Other garden plans for next year:

Turn one of the beds into a raspberry patch. My mom suggested yellow raspberries, and I sampled one of hers. MMM. So good. I'm also planning to expand the strawberry bed. I love having our own fresh fruit, and both of those two types of berries are two fragile to hold up well when they are sold.

More cucumbers! I said that last year, planted three plants this year, but only ended up with two, and that still wasn't enough.

More bell peppers and fewer hot peppers, since I'm the only one in this household that likes the spicy ones. They sure are beautiful, though!

More green beans. I never have more than a handful at a time, which is really not enough to motivate me to cook them. I love making a big bowl of steamed and dressed beans.

Start the tomatoes earlier, with frost protection. I may try pruning them, too, to see if that helps them to ripen more fruit.

I'm also going to try to grow some of the things the gophers love the most in wine barrels (garlic, onions, potatoes). We'll see!

So, the chickens have gotten too big to all fit comfortably on their roost, and they don't want to split up and use the second roost. Tonight poor Sally tried to get on the roost, engaged in some frantic wing-beating and sparring with the chicken she was trying to land on, fell right through the hole in the floor and landed on the ground outside, panting. I guess it's unfortunate that the roost is right over their "door" in the floor where their ladder comes through. We need to make a longer roost. The coop finally has a roof, though, so it is ready for the rains to start!

Directions for visiting your childhood home

1. Stumble inside, a little bleary and stiff from the car. Notice the warm glow of the wood and tile, the good smells of cooking.
2. Check the cupboards and fridge; catalog the snacks available for the weekend.
3. Survey the reading available in the bathroom--any good New Yorker articles?
4. Visit the long built-in bookshelves in the hallway. Greet old friends, consider re-reading a mystery or maybe a girl-meets-horse-faces-and-overcomes-adversity-wins-blue-ribbon story.
5. Check reflection in the bathroom mirror. Still more flattering than mirrors at home--why is that?
6. Go to bed in the darkest of velvety darks. Lie awake listening to the roar of crickets, tree and bull frogs, and the wind in the pine trees.