Welll, here I am, after a long time away from my journal.
My garden did ok, considering that the first frosts came early. Strawberries and raspberries: small amounts of fresh berries. The raspberries are just getting started (this was the second year). The strawberries are getting old- I think it's time to pull them, amend the soil, and replant this spring. I didn't do like the books say and pull out the older plants to give room to the sproutlets.
The corn was doing well, until the frost hit
The sweet peppers did ok, but they were smallish and thin walled. I don't know if they were suffering from not enough water or fertilizer or what. Anyone know?
The eggplants did ok, but next year I'm going to grow them in containers so that I can move them into the greenhouse if it's not warm enough for them.
Lettuce did great until they bolted. Need to plant a fall crop or even a greenhouse crop for longer season.
Potatoes seemed to do ok, but I didn't get most of the crop dug up before the rains and snows hit.
Somehow, I need to get in there and try to dig up the rest of the crop, but it's too wet now.
Tomatoes would have done better but it was too hot to set fruit in July, and not hot enough in August and September to ripen most of the fruit. I got enough to can up 2 pints. (note: I love my new Squeezo!)
I got a good crop of Poblano chilies, which I dried.
The beets did beautifully!
The green beans took so long to get going that they were just starting to produce when the frosts hit. We got 2 fresh meals out of them. I will try this variety one more year, starting them early in the greenhouse; if they do poorly again, I'll have to look for a different variety.
The winter squash didn't get enough time to fully mature, but I picked them anyway and we are eating them fairly quickly since they don't have the hard shell for long storage. I think I'll try another variety next year- looking at the Lakota squash; the Tromboncinos aren't as sweet as I'd hoped, although the menfolk liked the pies I've made with them.
In other news, I STILL have not set up my freeze-dryer. I have to clear out the junk room for it, and I've been too busy to get to that, what with building the greenhouse, and taking care of my friends' house while she's in the hospital. She and her husband stopped on the highway to help another couple (young and pregnant) that had gone into the ditch. While they were trying to figure out how to tow their car out with her van, another driver in a pickup lost control of his car and hit their car. His pickup flipped over on top of the van, sandwiching him between the 2 vehicles; he was pronounced dead at the scene. The impact moved the van forward into my friend and her husband. He broke both bones in one leg (just had knee replacement too!) and she broke three bones in her hand and two in her neck. They couldn't find her for a long time, because she was unconscious underneath the vehicles. The young couple escaped with nothing but a couple of scrapes (baby unhurt as well). My friends were taken to two different hospitals, and then she was airlifted to Portland from the emergency room. Amazingly, she is not only NOT paralyzed, but the bones in her neck had not moved and will not require surgery. Her hand as well didn't need setting, only a cast to keep everything from moving. She has improved enough that she has been moved from the hospital (ICU, then Trauma, then regular room) and is now in a rehab- walking on her own, and generally taking care of herself with minimal help. But it will be quite a while before she can come home- so we are taking care of animals, picking up mail, etc.
We had an unexpected repair that had to be done to her roof (she rents my mom's old house from me) which wiped out our savings, and we are counting our pennies until the retirement check shows up next week. She wanted to help with the repair bill, but I told her to save her money for now- no telling what kind of expenses might crop up. In fact, I told her to hold off on paying rent until she gets a settlement on the accident.
WOW!!! 
