The Plan

Our local (i.e. 100 miles away) "big" TV news station keeps suggesting that deep freezes might be on the way, and given I'm unsure what that means for me in little outlying Tenino, I figured last night was as good a time as any to pick all the last appealing green to semi-orange tomatoes off all our plants, lest a freeze kill them all off. I ended up with three dog dishes full - one of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, one of Romas, and one of Early Girls. Since I actually needed those dog dishes this morning to feed the mutts their morning ration while in doggy jail for the day, I dumped the cherries in a bowl for the kitchen and piled the Romas and Early Girls in a Nordstrom bag (all I had for "paper" bags), and left those in the garage. My plan is to check them periodically, maybe jostle them (gently!) around a bit to make sure none stay at the bottom of the pile too long, and hope at least some will ripen over time so that they can be frozen or used or canned or something.

Next year I'd like to do better. I'm already starting to scheme and plan, which I'll have loads of time to do this winter because we were too lazy and disorganized to plan, let alone plant, a winter veggie garden. We need to amend our soil somehow, and I'm thinking that since the paddock needs to be cleared of old hay and cow patties, perhaps I can rip all the rest of the expired garden plants out of the soil and then dump the hay/poop mixture I'll gather up over top. I'm hoping I can then lazily let this decay somewhat over the winter, so that we can till this into the soil in the spring. I'm going to post that idea over on one of the cow discussion boards I'm on (which has a "garden" space) to see what the other cow owners think about that. I know fresh patties are too "hot" to put on plants, but since there won't be anything alive that we really care about, maybe it will be ok. Besides, we raised a mighty crop of weeds without fertilizing or using manure this year, so I can't imagine the weeds in the cow poop would be any worse. (I might eat these words later.)

Here's what's not in the plan for the future: horn bruises. Check out this doosy I'm currently hiding under the long sleeve of my yummy gray Costco cashmere turtleneck. I earned this badge Wednesday when I stayed home sick but decided the cows needed their beet pulp/alfalfa/tiny bit of grain mix. I wasn't feeling 100% "there" and therefore wasn't paying enough attention or moving quite fast enough to get Sheila to back off as I was trying to retrieve the beet pulp/alfalfa bucket that she REFUSED to touch (there was no grain in it at the time), and a hauty turn of her head (not directed toward me, I'm pretty sure) resulted in right-horn-connecting-with-left-inner-arm. Bummer. Remarkably, this doesn't hurt at all...I'm kind of enjoying watching the color changes. I think it goes nicely with my lilac nightshirt. Paul swears I'm nuts. You decide.