What Feels like Autumn in Texas is What Summer is Like Everywhere Else in the US

Today when I got up I went out on the back porch to have coffee and the temperature was 68 degrees! I can't remember the last time it was that cool! The high was around 90, which isn't TOO bad, considering we just went through a horrible drought and heat wave, where the lows were around 85.

I got quite a bit planted in the garden today: spinach, beets, swiss chard, carrots, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, sugar pie pumpkin, and sugar beets.

I am hoping that we won't get an early frost and I'll be able to harvest the winter squash I planted today. I'm going to plant more butternut squash tomorrow. They grow like weeds. I have a laundry basket full of butternut squash already and more to pick tomorrow. I am going to make muffins out of some tomorrow. With the abundance of the all the squash I am going to try some new recipes. Maybe I'm going overboard with the butternut squash but I refush to buy any high priced store squash again! The last time I went to buy one at the store it rang up $4.50. I told the clerk to take it off - I'm not paying $4.50 for ONE squash!!! It wasn't even organic! So that weekend I planted the first butternut squash and they've done great.

I have some acorn squash "making" right now. The variety is Honey Bear and they're a miniature "personal" size. I think they will be perfect for two servings.

So, sugar beets you may be wondering. I have had this weird fascination with sugar beets, so I finally found a source for seed. Supposedly they grow to be huge and we can cut them up and feed them to whatever animals we have.

Here are some garden pics:

This is the new field that Marc worked up a month or so ago. You can see eggplant on the left. These rows are 100' long. On the right is a row of French cantaloupe. I have never tried them and can't wait. Supposedly it's the best melon you can grow. The seeds were quite expensive, so I started them in seed trays so I wouldn't waste any of them. The cantaloupe we grew over the summer were very good - SO different from store-bought melons! The butternut squash over-ran the melons so I missed a few and they got overripe, but Pig-Pig LOVED them. He even ate the rinds.

Fall tomatoes. Our timing on our spring crop was way off, so I am hopeful that we'll get a nice fall crop. We have a LOT of them. I've lost track of exactly how many. Note the plastic. Mulch is the only way to go. We just can't stay ahead of the weeds without it. Marc put down irrigation first which has really made it easy to keep everything watered.

This is my Earthway Seeder. I got it from Johnny's Seeds with a gift certificate from Stephanie. It has "plates" sized for different seeds. You pour your seeds in the hopper and start walking. Talk about a back saver!! It drops the seeds at perfect intervals and covers and tamps down the dirt too.

We live about 125 miles from the coast and yet our pond has had a flock of whooping cranes on it for the past week. We could drive back and forth over the dam and they stayed in the pond, but flew off if we walked along it. They probably got every catfish in the pond. Yesterday Marc snapped a few pics of the birds (I really want a telephoto lens!!) and today they're gone.

As we drove by the pond today we saw yet another water bird. It was pink like a flamingo, but had a spoon shaped bill. Marc says it's a Spoonbill. We saw them at Freeport. I need to get a bird watchers book for Texas.

Our bell pepper plants are still going strong even after the drought. We have gallons stored in the freezer. This picture shows just one picking!