Rain

Finally we are getting a little more rain. It has been sporadic at best. Tons, then none for about 2.5 months and then 5 inches then 2.5 weeks then a little. What happened to the Virginia summers that included the 4:15 afternoon downpour that you could set your watch by?

It is chilly and fall-ish and lovely. I am looking forward to a weekend of winter type cooking. Maybe pot roast or bolognese and definitely bread. And with lots of chard in the garden, chard/sausage/pasta yummers.

I have already started scouring the SESE catalog and picking out what I want for next year's garden. So far, on first pass, I have found about $480 worth of seeds and starts. That should keep me busy through March/April. I must admit, mania does make this activity less cost effective. Hopefully on second pass I can make some exclusions. Especially considering the pile of seed packets that I have left over from this past year. Or I can put an addition on the house. In other needs for the garden, I have to get some floating row covers. That is so that I can keep my greens longer. Though with this weather, it seems like we will be having major frost before half of the stuff really even gets started. My bad. I started late on this. Who thinks "It's time to plant fall carrots!" on the 4th of July. Really.

Ok, now I have to come clean. I bilked the system. And I almost feel bad about it. I managed to get the LAST share of a cow herd in North Garden. While many well intentioned people were trying to make the world better for everyone, I was looking out only for me. And I got the. last. share. I can't wait to meet my sliver of cow.

I was emailing with the very nice dairy lady. I confessed my desire for a dairy goat in my future and she was very encouraging. She is a lobbyist for small farmers and is committed to helping people get dairy animals and promoting these small herd things. Anyway, it was nice to get encouragement. I thought that if I can't get the city council to change the city code to allow goats, I'll buy some of those holiday strap on antlers for dogs and disguise my goat as a deer. We have plenty of deer in town and no one has outlawed them. Downright discriminatory. And in this day and age!