flyfisher51's Blog

November 2009
Nov 15, 2009 | 4:41 PM PST
Tag: November 15th

We finally had our first hard frost last weekend. It killed all of the flowers except the Snap Dragons and Poppies. We cleaned out the gardens on Sunday. After the frost we went back to milder weather and moved the potted flowers from their protected location to the front porch. The spices are still in the garage and will stay there until we harvest them or, in the case of a mild winter, take the back outside next spring. I harvested the mint and have it hanging in the garage to dry. I am waiting two more weeks to rake leaves. I am hoping they will be down by then and blown somewhere else.  Wishful thinking.
I started hanging suet out again. We don't seem to have any Starlings or Raccoons (knock on wood) to eat it in a day. It's been out for a week and the Woodpeckers are coming back. They stopped coming as often when I stopped putting out the peanut and sunflower kernal mix. I have been putting regular songbird mix in the feeders. The peanut/sunflower mix gets moldy in the damp weather. We have had 24 inches of rain between August 1st and October 31st. In contrast this month we have had 3/10ths of an inch. Even the tropical storm that flooded the New Jersey Coast this weekend gave us little rain. I brought the Hummingbird Feeder in the day I went oput and it was partially frozen.
We have a mouse living along the path. Today was a beautiful day, in the high 60's. We sat on the deck this morning and watched it run over to the area where I throw bird seed. As long as it stays outside with the other animals I'll be nice to it. We only have had two squirrels visiting lately. They are small, most likely born this summer. We still have a few chipmunks but the one living in the stones seems to have moved out.
We have a White Cat who looks like our Cotton hanging out in the area. It's not Cotton as he is in a container in our glass cabinet. This new cat looks like he has a home. He appears well fed. I don't like him hanging out in the yard because of the birds and furry critters. My wife wants to grab him, take him to the vets for his shots, and make him a house cat. I don't know how our cats would feel about this and I am sure his owners wouldn't like it either. He probably wouldn't like staying in the house all the time either.
Have to go now as I am being called to dinner. Hope everyone has a great week. Happy Gardening.
John