The turkey thawed wonderfully and it was done earlier than expected. We had most of the usual Thanksgiving foods, except for cranberry sauce (didn't even think about it until we were eating) and pumpkin pie. I just pulled a pumpkin Danish Kringle out of the freezer. Yummy.

And weather, yes, we're having some. Ice. We were thinking of travelling tomorrow, but not sure we can safely do so. Maybe I'll get some nice pictures though. The cheesecake I made to bring, flopped. Not sure what happened, except for the fact the top did not crack. It's still good enough for family eating. I would be too embarrassed to let my in-laws see that thing, no matter how good it tastes.

I finished my sewing, so that is nice to be out of the way. I was so tired of seeing the ironing board in the dining room.

Carb overload! I know it's not the turkey that makes us sleepy but all of the carbs that go along with it! No cooking today except for nuking some leftovers for lunch. Cooked Weds for a funeral as well as making 3 pies for T-day. Cooked until 2 pm on T-day. Went to funeral today, took FIL with and stopped for early dinner on the way home. The fridge is crammed with leftovers and will have to sort them all out tomorrow. I did make two kinds of cranberry relish - one from Mother Earth News that contains onion, horseradish, sour cream and sugar. Very good if you like zesty. Made plain cranberries for SIL. DS took all of the cranberries home with him except for a little bit that I like on toast (not the zesty one). DH hates turkey and I'll have to think of some creative ways to camouflage the leftovers. We did a big turkey in the oven and a turkey breast on the smoker. The latter was the clear winner. I did make a pie from a couple of pie pumkins that I had roasted a while back but the flavor was very muted. I used a Mark Bittman recipe instead of the traditional recipe. I think it was the pumpkin rather than the recipe. I did try a new recipe for apple pie - cooking the filling first and reducing the syrup - and didn't have the hollow dome effect which was great. Used Golden Delicious apples from DD's tree with a couple of Granny Smith thrown in - perfect!
I haven't made cheesecake in a long time even though DH and I do love it. I might have to make one for Christmas with some chocolate thrown in. We go big on chocolate for Christmas. Obscene what we spend on all types of it for baking.
Weather was beautiful yesterday even though it rained off and on the whole day. Smelled like spring outside with the temps in the 60's. Today - not so nice, gradually getting colder and windy throughout the day.

The weather has absolutely sucked here in MW MO for the past 30 hours or so. Rain. More rain. Freezing temps and thus, freezing rain. Took me the better part of an hour to chisel our 2 cars out Friday. It was the rainiest Thanksgiving on record, but we had a great time anyway - got together with my only brother and sister and had a GREAT meal. :-)

Of course I remembered 5 new Passiflora incarnata that were newly planted this summer and really needed to be mulched in heavily. So out I went, found a bit of brome hay and covered them to 12 inches. That should help them make it thru winter.

Hate to admit it but I haven't worked outdoors for a couple of weeks. So many other things getting in the way at this time of year. Still have a couple of big pots to empty before the freeze does too much damage. And I haven't even begun to cut down brown and soggy foliage.
I had wanted to plant out a passion flower vine that I've had growing in a pot for several years. Haven't gotten it to bloom in the pot and am ready to give up on it but thought I'd see if it would survive in the ground on the south side of the garage. Maybe in the spring so that it has a season to get settled.

Yeah Cindy - at this point I would wait til Spring. I assume that is an incarnata?

Actually, it's a caerulea started from T&M seed. Vigorous grower in the pot - sends out some hefty roots from the drainage hole. Oh, yeah - I'll have to wait til spring for sure.

What is its rated hardiness zone? Never mind. Monrovia rates it at Zone 6. You might be okay on the South side and protect it well in winter. Heck, I am in Z 5b and have cannas in the ground since 2010. West side right by foundation.

I do plan on putting the passion flower on the south side of the garage, between the west wall of the greenhouse and my double rain barrels. There will be a Caryopteris in front of it. Theoretically, it should be warm enough during the winter (I think) since it's protected on the north and west. If it grows, it can stretch over the GH roof in the summer, giving some shade in there. I tried one there once before but I was probably too impatient to plant it properly. Plus, that would be under the eaves of the garage so will have to watch the watering.
I only have one canna that I grow in a pot. Don't have a lot of sunny spots for it.

More icy weather is coming and we haven't recovered from this last round. The only melting we had was off the roof, so the grass is even slick. We were gone all day yesterday and today, the house sparrows are back! Where do they come from? We had at most three the other day!! Well if the Cooper's Hawk or Shrike come back, they'll have plenty to chose from.

No Meadowlarks were singing, but six were seen foraging in the yard. And more Harris's sparrows than Juncos again. Where's the little snow birds? Kessie was perching on her box, so all is well. Our possum must've been hungry last night and ate up all the millet on the porch. Fresh veggie scraps are out, so may be that will be enough. I've been limiting what seed I put on the ground or on the porch for the ground feeding birds, so it's not enough for me to fret about.

Do your birds go after the veggie scraps? I've only put veggie scraps in the compost pile, spot composting or to my worms. I do have a rubber garden bucket that I put scraps in when they're going out to the compost in the winter. Sometimes a varmint - feral cat, raccoon or possum - will tip it over looking for a midnight snack. There's always seed on the ground under the feeder and the critters will only occasionally bother with it. If I put out stale bread or baked goods, it's only in the morning so I know the birds will clean it up. We've had raccoon problems in the past as my neighbor used to feed them every night. 13 at one time. The birds were chirpier yesterday despite the rain than they are today. We've stayed warm enough to avoid the ice but not for much longer.

Not that I am aware of. We sometimes just throw the scraps in the middle of a garden spot. If the weather was warming, the birds might, but only to get to the insects attracted to the veggies. We only have the one possum. The one time we saw signs of a raccoon was when the sweet corn was just about ready.

Oh, yesterday we saw something we never thought we'd see out here... they salted our gravel road. If they had not done that, we likely would not have been able to leave since the temps did not warm enough to melt anything.

We learned early in our gardening venture to not use fish emulsion. That was terrible, some night time critter dug up some of our tomato plants looking for that fish they smelled.

Thanks for the tip about the fish emulsion. I use more seaweed than fish when planting out. And do you find that the veggie scraps break down in your garden by spring? I have thrown green veggie scraps like cabbage, etc under my leaf mulch during the warmer months but it's hard to dig holes in the winter for spot composting. Even the leaves get frozen into a mat.
I might actually work outside today, cutting down some brown stuff before it turns cold again.

Some scraps do break down, but not all. We have a compost ball that does well. We keep forgetting to put anything in it to break things down faster, but still see some beautiful dark compost in there.

No going outside today. Icy rain and everything is slick. Most of the bird feed I put out is already covered in ice, so I may have to get more out. This is a terrible time for the birds if they do not find shelter. They can lose tails or worse.

I'll be getting some native seeds soon that I am hoping I will be able to sow in the ground this season, but I don't know if that will happen. I may have to put more in pots than I intended to. I have quite a few pots that I've saved over the years.

Were you hoping to winter sow your native seeds?
We're supposed to be staying on the rainy side of the storm system but anything can change I guess. Never thought about shelter for birds. I don't cut down much in my yard in the fall except for tall dead annuals, not liking to prune perennials or shrubs this time of year. And clematis vines don't get cut down until late winter. And then there's the wooded wetland beyond my yard. Years ago in early spring, I came across a group of goldfinches huddled on the ground under the overhang of an exposed oak tree root. Strangest thing I've ever seen and haven't noticed it since.

Finally stopped raining tonight - after over 110 hours here in NW MO.

Would be nice to see the sun sometime today. It has been very mild here - 50 yesterday - so I did some leaf-raking in the morning. Had more like very short spotty rain showers in the evening but it must have rained a bit more overnight as I see puddles this morning.

I did see a pileated woodpecker again yesterday. I spotted him flying over the woods and into my yard - very recognizable due to his size and that huge crest on his head. Chirps a lot, even when flying, but still very skittish.
Warm and gloomy today. I did see a photo of a blooming cherry tree in Philadelphia on the weather channel. Sure hope things don't start growing again here.

Today is cloudy with a rain of STINK! Ugh... I don't know which is worse: manure or anhydrous. No wonder Iowa's water is nasty and the Gulf Coast is paying for it. Our closest neighbor is spreading his cattle's manure on his fields and the smell remains for days.

Even more fun, I think they are building another hog confinement building less than a mile from here. That was one of the few remaining directions where the breeze was refreshingly clean.

Sorry to be a grump. I have to remember I could still be in a city and inhaling gas fumes and not see the night sky.

Sorry to hear about the confined hogs. We're about 30 miles from a huge confined dairy operation and now they've added a "swinery" of about 250 animals. Luckily I'm far enough away but that does embolden more local folk with acreage to push for swine operations. Last I heard, the application was withdrawn due to local opposition. One nice thing about the dairy is that they've developed a methane capturing system to run their farming vehicles.
Cloudy and gray with a fine mist all day. Going out for pad thai tonight so that will brighten a gloomy day.

[quote="Shadegardener". Going out for pad thai tonight so that will brighten a gloomy day.
[/quote]

Pad Thai?