This week

On and off wet weather with
more wet weather next week.

Temps ranging from lows of 30-39 F;
with highs of 46-52 F.

Good weather to clean up the leaves; 
one final lawn mowing;  control unwanted
weeds;  remove the warm season plants
from the garden or do some spring prep
on fields and orchards.

Holiday's

Take time to have a good Thanksgiving day.
Relax, enjoy your friends.

Enjoy the day with family, friends and/or relatives.

Try to incorporate some of the marvelous bounty
of the past years produce in the holiday meals.

It is a time to be thankful for living in a great
country that provides us with untold opportunity
and bounty.

After traveling to many foreign countries, be
 thankful for living in a free country, were we
have the opportunity to elect our officials. 

To live in a country where most people are
pretty well off;  not as in other countries that people make
$20-100 per month and where doubling their income
can be accomplished by teaching people how to prune,
 how to sort fruit, and how to direct market produce.

Yes, we have it pretty easy here.

This past trip we are very thankful now for a
 toilet that flushes.

Nice but cold

The next while will be very nice, sunny but on
 the cold side, ranging from 27 degrees to 40
degrees during the night;  t hen shy rocketing to
 a high of around 52 degrees.

Cover the faucets, drain the hoses, protect
watering features and animal dishes.

Any warm season plants will be "done" if not
protected with walls of water or mini greenhouses
or cloches.

A good week to finish cleaning up the warm season
plants from the garden;  maybe too late for
 transplanting but hey, why not.

Tree fruits should all be picked, stored and/or
preserved.  Nuts - should be dried.

Winter squash placed in a protected area where
the squash won't freeze, especially the next 4-5 days.

Fall crops

The fall cole crops planted in September are still doing
quite well.  Kind of slow growing but still growing.

So far the weather is near perfect for growing the
cole or cool crops that grow well in the cool weather.

Growing cabbage, lettuce, kale, fava beans,  garlic,
cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustards, turnips.

Fall

There are a LOT of leaves still falling from the
trees, especially maple, oak and birch trees.  The
maples are covered with the "whirly bird seeds"
which is often an indication of a colder winter.

Rake, mow, compost the leaves.  They are great
for the garden, for putting into the flower bed, for
placing around colder sensitive blueberry bushes
with shallow roots.

It looks like we will behaving a nice, LONGGGGGGGG
fall, winter period, as the fall started back in mid
September and  the cooler weather usually lasts until
 after March or mid April.  That could be as long as
6-7 months. 

What we really need is .......................a lot of rain. 
Yes rain and 15 foot of snow in the mountains.  The
last three years have been really down on moisture
so a good, wet-snowy year would do wonders for
 the ground water which looks to be down a lot this year.

Pre holidays

Ag is slowing down as the holidays approach.

Some farm produce stands still providing product.

Pruning starting.

Field renovations - starting.

Growers getting ready for ag meetings and 2014.

Enjoy the holidays as they provide a time
to slow down and enjoy family.

Rain + -

Rain, good and bad.

We need the rain to fill up the depleted groundwater,
actually around 60-100 inches would do the trick;
but it makes yard, garden and farm work tough.

Pruning has started..  In January thru May there
will be about 35 opportunities to take a good  class
on pruning to learn the principles to prune most
anything, but we spend the most time on tree fruits.

Anyone wanting to the Master Gardner class, register
ASAP as the intro class is the first week of December
and the regular class starts the second week of
January and goes for around 10 weeks.