November 2016

It's already mid-November and I don't know where the time has gone..... the weather is still pleasant, no freezes yet and daytime temperatures have been ranging from 60 to 80 degrees.  I've been harvesting tomatoes both from our own garden and from the Community Garden, which I give away.  I planted some sweet potato slips kind of late in the year, but since the weather has held up we are hoping that we are able to harvest at least a few.  I just saw an episode of the OSU Oklahoma Gardening show on Saturday and they said the end of October is about the right time to harvest.  Next year I plan on getting the slips in the ground a month earlier.  This year it was a fluke -- I happened to have some sweet potatoes in the kitchen that looked like they were trying to grow "roots" on their eyes, so I cut those eyes off, put them in water, and sure enough they grew roots and voila, I had sweet potato slips to plant!  I took a chance and got them in the ground and they have survived.  We aren't supposed to get a freeze until the end of next week (Nov. 20 maybe), so I'll be checking to see if there is anything to harvest. 
 
We started the month off with a BANG, providing a venue for a pre-wedding pre-rehearsal dinner get-together on the patio with a wood-fired pizza dinner for 22 people who gathered here from all corners of the US - Okeene, Iowa, OKC, New Mexico, and some from Watonga.  We were honored to be able to participate in the festivities for this wonderful group of people, and made new friends to boot.  The party went on till all hours..... no names or other details (what happens at the Retreat stays at the Retreat!)


Then on the first weekend of November we had returning guests, a father and his two sons who come out to this area for a family reunion every year and spend time mountain biking at Roman Nose State Park.  This is the fourth year they have come to stay at our place, but alas one of the boys was unable to come due to the loss of a family member.  They are always great guests and bring homemade beer to share.  I made a new, special recipe for breakfast for them to  try.......


The acorns have been falling for over a month, and the leaves are starting to change color and drop to the ground.