They're everywhere!

In the bird feeder

under the bird feeders

in the cinder block garden

and running around the yard.

This is four different squirrels, and I took all of the pictures within about 45 seconds. Before I grabbed the camera, one of them was in the composter and another in the asparagus bed. I later realized one of them was stuffing her mouth with straw out of the asparagus bed and hauling it up a tree.

About a half hour later, I caught this:

This is the first time I've seen two black squirrels in my yard.

For as much as I complain about the little devils, Squirrel TV is pretty entertaining.

Guests

Mr. and Mrs. C

Hope he ate that peanut and didn't bury it somewhere.

Fuzzy rat climbs up the pole

grabs some seeds

and jumps back down.

Five days in the deep freeze

The garden November 15th

Strawberries

Radishes

Kale

That'll be the end of it

The garden November 11th - 20 degrees

Strawberries and radishes

Garden surprises

I've had a couple pleasant garden surprises lately, in addition to the peanuts.

When I pulled out the pepper plants a couple weeks ago, I found this giant among the last peppers waiting to be harvested.

I'm pretty sure it's the biggest pepper I've ever grown.

The other day when I dropped the last of the bean plants in the composter, I found these two petunias.

I dumped the wheelbarrow in there a couple weeks ago, and apparently these guys didn't want to give up yet.

I like nice surprises like these.

A tale of two weeks

Two weeks ago, I started getting the garden ready for winter.

The garden October 25th before

I cut down the pepper plants, most of the zinnias, and the last of the tomatoes and basil.

The garden October 25th after

Since then, we've had a couple below-freezing nights.

The garden November 8th

The volunteer zinnias, the marigolds and the scarlet runner beans have all died.

And half of the nasturtiums on my hugul bed have frozen.

As you can see, however, the kale and the cover crops are still flourishing.

Radishes

Oats and radishes

I even have quite the radish forest growing in a corner of the yard.

With much colder temperatures coming this week, however, even these hardy plants will be gone by the time I get another picture.

It just occurred to me that I should get those marigolds pulled out or I'll have more volunteers than I know what to do with next year.

Peanuts

Look what I pulled up while I was cleaning out the garden last weekend:

From the looks of my asparagus bed, I'll have a lot more next year.

Not long after I covered the bed with straw, I started noticing the holes.

Those damn squirrels are burying peanuts and who knows what else all over in that bed.