On 12/18/2016 7:05 AM, George Shirley wrote:
Well, the weather heads hit it on the button this morning. Yesterday we
picked the whole garden. Three buckets of green tomatoes, eggplant, etc.
Just in case the temps might actually hit freezing. I got up to give the
dawg her meds and grub at 0530 and, sure enough, the thermometer said it
was 36F and still dropping.

We will put the tomatoes on the kitchen counter and let them ripen and
then we will turn them into bacon and tomato sandwiches. G We have a
freezer full of eggplant so they will go to the church pantry along with
what's left of the okra. The small sweet peppers will, as usual, be
chopped, frozen and vacuum bagged for later use. We eat a lot of sweet
peppers as you might notice.

My allergies are driving me crazy, runny nose, weeping eyes, sneezing,
etc. Guess I will have to make an appointment with the allergist and see
what can be done. My doctor has already told me that it is probably
caused by the meds he and other doctors have prescribed for me, mostly
the heart and stroke meds that I have to take to stay on earth instead
of in it. You have to be very brave to get this old and still standing.
It is a PITA but I guess I still have great grands to train. VBG

Our lemon tree has leaf curl so will be pulling a lot of leafs off and
burning them. It is not a true lemon but is a cross between a lemon and
a grapefruit. The fruit is almost grapefruit size but is very sour. We
brought the seeds when we moved here in 2012 and the tree is already
over six feet tall. Probably going to pull the blueberry plants up and
toss them, they aren't growing well at all and we don't have enough
sunshine for them. May put in blackberries or dewberries, local garden
store has domestic dewberries and those are our favorite. Dewberries
will grow well in shade and produce fruit.

I think I will go watch the news and see how panicky the locals are
getting. It has been over four years since we had a freeze here,
probably going to be some wrecks too as the furriners who moved here to
get away from the high dollar taxed states are always in a hurry. They
work downtown Houston and live out here in what used to be the boonies.
Since we moved here in 2012 more than seven thousand homes have been
built in our immediate area. So much for peace and quiet. It's 0600 CT
right now and I can hear the cars going by on the four lane east of here
by three blocks. I am so happy I am retired and don't have to go
anywhere in a hurry. G

George

I take an otc allergy relief tablet, cetrizine HCl and Nasacort spray
for my allergies. I find, even with cold pollen free weather, I cannot
spend a lot of time outside without them. They do not interfere with
other meds like antihistamines might.

We've had frosts for a couple of months and hard freeze here in Northern
DE and yesterday warmer rain froze to surfaces causing accidents like
reported on I95 in Baltimore.

It is nice to be retired, staying home when things are bad. Traffic
seems to be bad everywhere. In spite of being an east coast state like
neighboring NJ where people leave because of taxes, DE continues to
grow. Property taxes are lower and while we have state income tax up to
7% there are no sales taxes. Half the cars in our shopping centers are
from neighboring states, shopping to avoid sales tax.