Well, it looks like the sale of the garden (AKA  the house next door)  is going to happen.   Barbara has to be gone by 10/9 and the new folks are scheduled to move in on the 11th.  I may get a cucumber or zucchini but nothing else.   The garden is really looking good this year and I hope they either agree to share it or at least farm it actively to take advantage of the high quality soil that I’ve built over the last 10 years.   It’ll be about 75% planted out by then.   Another loss to be dealt with as new neighbors move in is the burn pile.  As with the garden, we share a large burn pile where we both dispose of tree and brush trimmings.   Doesn’t sound like much but you’d be surprised just how much “tree litter” we deal with.  Up until now, this has been a good thing since the wood ash adds nutrients and mass to the compost piles – so eventually ending up in the garden.

I was more than a little proud of the gators almost beating Alabama.   From here on out, “almost beating” doesn’t get it.  I was hoping that the Jag’s would show up with a winner this season rather than pulling up the rear as usual.  So far, not so good.   Ditto the Dolphins.   I’ve never been a Buc’s fan but …………….

We’ve had lots of rain over the past week.  I’ve dumped the 6” rain gauge 3 times in the past week and the lake is the highest we’ve seen for several years.   It’s about 6” from overtopping Barbara’s dock.   The good news is that we’re past most of the hurricane season with no signs of anything to worry about.   Some of the green bean plants in the garden are looking shabby which I suspect has to do with excess water.   Their roots are probably deep enough to be in saturated soil – great for rice but not so great for beans.

Of course the big news is the new great grandson.   Bay Joseph Carbone.  Congrat’s Amy and Simon.

Still no hard definition on next door – supposedly an acceptable offer has been proffered and the deal is at the bank getting a loan.   Barbara is thinking she’ll be moving the end of October.   Toward that end, she’s had a moving POD brought to her house which will be loaded with furniture etc and put in storage.  I wouldn’t think she would do that without feeling fairly certain that the sale will happen.  That means we may get to pick some beans and maybe squash and cucumbers but no tomatoes, peppers or greens.   Most of the seedlings have been transplanted to temporary quarters – aka yogurt cups – where they’ll grow some for the next 2-3 weeks.  I’m really happy with the green peppers.   They’re a hard crop but it looks like I got 100% and they all look strong.   One bad thing is that they’re a 90 day crop so it may be that the new owners get all the benefit. ditto the tomatoes.   I also planted some lettuce – way early.  Lettuce has trouble with heat but I decided to take a chance that it will cool down early enough to produce.  I have the seeds left over from last year so the worst thing that can happen is it doesn’t make it.  Time will tell.  Also, I still have plenty of lettuce seed so if we keep working the garden, I can always replant the lettuce.  One thought I had was to offer them use of our dock for parties etc in exchange for the garden.   Just a thought. 

The new computer is behaving so I treated it to more internet access.  The ATT personal hotspot gave us 3GB of data per month which was perfectly adequate pre I-pad.  The I-pad included plenty of data on the sprint network but we had frequent signal problems.  Never any ATT problems since we’re within a few hundred yards of the tower so we uptick’d the ATT hotspot to100GB.  

Everything has germinated as of 9/1 except for green peppers and carrots.   That’s absolutely to be expected so all’s well.   I did something in the garden today that I had promised myself I wouldn’t do.   I thinned out the turnips and replanted the ones I thinned.  It’s a tedious job and you get a high loss on transplanting root crops.  But it was a coolish, overcast day with light rain forecast on and off all day.  Perfect conditions for the transplants.   Also, the soil where I planted the turnips is so soft that I can remove plants without totally disturbing the roots – at least that’s how I rationalize it to myself.   Last season we found so many ways to eat turnips that I’m putting a lot more garden space and effort into them.   Aside from mashing them with potatoes or carrots, you can roast them in the oven/Holland Grill and they’re really tasty.  Depending on size, peel them or not, coat with oil, season with salt and pepper, roast for an hour and they’re perfect.  I like to cook them with chicken or ribs that also take about an hour on the grill.

Update 9/3 – the green peppers started germination with about 6 plants popping out over night.   So the only question mark is with the carrots and that’s to be expected.   I’ve also moved all the tomato and cabbage starts from the seed beds to plastic yogurt cups.    I transplanted 5 different varieties for a total of 30 tomato plants.   Three varieties of cabbage for a total of 18.  The plan right now with the tomatoes is to eventually move 12 to the garden proper and the rest given away to Nancy’s friends and setting aside a few for garden fallout.   The cabbages will move to the garden in a couple of weeks with a few spares set aside for critter damage.

Now the real news – Barbara sold the house – aka the garden.  Not labeling the change as good or bad at this time. The timing details are not set yet insofar as when she moves out and the new folks move in.   I’m guessing 60-90 days as a reasonable transition time.   That should translate into me harvesting beans, squash, turnips, and cucumbers.   Maybe some cabbage.  No tomatoes, peppers or carrots.  According to Barbara, the lady of the house loves “gardening” but that probably means flowers and other distractions.  I have a lot of time invested in this season but very little money since I mostly had the seeds from last season.  It will probably be a month or so before I’d plant the peppers and tomatoes in the garden and by then I should know whether to go ahead as normal or buy some containers to grow them on the front porch.   Who knows, maybe the new lady will be a bridge playing quilter.