The weekend was productive, but most of the scramble took place on Saturday. It was a beautiful, sunny day when we first woke, but by around 1PM the weather started turning. I had pre-staged everything Friday, and slammed through everything as quick as possible on Saturday.
We completed the final harvest, moved all the “overwinter” plants inside or to the deck, and covered the raised bed I’m trying to keep a few more weeks with sheets and blankets to protect from the frost. We also put away all the “summer” tools and things back in the shed, along with our window A/C unit.
Frustratingly, I made it the whole season without a wasp sting, but got one Saturday afternoon. I was grabbing a bucket to move but it had some trash in it – an empty soil bag. I grabbed the bag to pull it out and apparently there were a couple wasps sheltering there. One stung me on my finger, so I probably won’t be playing bass for a while.
I also sealed up Toad Hollow for the season. Friday, I saw the last toad of the season sitting miserably in the barren egress window. This is the one with a rocky bottom and is mostly clay, so they can’t really burrow. I moved it to Toad Hollow and it quickly went off to a secluded corner and started burrowing. Saturday, I put the foam insulation cover over the window well and set up the lights to keep the plants alive over winter. The insulation should keep the soil in the window well from undergoing a hard freeze.
The first season I didn’t really insulate it (just a bit of straw) and found the remains of several frozen toads that spring, so I got a sheet of the insulating foam to use as a cover. That seemed to help the toads, but none of my perennials (except the horseradish that escaped the pot) returned – I think it was too dark and got too dry. This year I have lights setup in the window and will water it a bit weekly. Hopefully all the plants return next spring.
I think next season, I’m going to also do up the other egress window well – maybe include a water feature. That will come after finishing the main landscaping project however.
The rest of the weekend was mostly relaxing. We had rushed around all day Saturday so Sunday we were able to enjoy the peace for a bit, and enjoy it we did. We spent most of the day enjoying the warmth from our season’s first wood stove fire and eating warm comfort food.
There’s still snow on the ground today. It’s melting pretty quickly, but it is still chilly out. I’ve already cleared the snow off the covered plants, but plan to leave the sheets another day. I have a fire going already and the cats are all lounging about, enjoying the peace. We do need to make a run to town, but other than that, today will be another chill day…
Song of the day: Working for the Weekend by Loverboy
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