Sunday, October 30, 2016

October 30, 2016

Tomorrow is Halloween and then October is gone too. 

I turned 65 on October 15th and it seems that the last two months have been spent dealing with that.  Medicare, Medicare supplements and trying to retire from full time work seems to take up a lot more time than it should.  Dealing with Blue Cross/Blue Shield for supplemental insurance has turned into a nightmare of epic proportion.  E-mails, phone calls, and a letter have all been virtually ignored. 

Most of September and October were spent cleaning up the garden when I had time to spare.  I decided to really cut back everything this fall to have a nice blank slate this coming spring as I want to move some things around, divide others and nuke others.  I gathered up some free large-ish cobblestones this past spring and want to try to re-do some of the borders this spring and also got rid of most all of the hosta on the east side of the house.  That was a huge undertaking.  The hosta were so crowded and so overgrown that it was mind numbing.  I have also been seed saving this year from my native plants.  The seed is going into LaPorte Rd Access and Hickory Creek Junction as those sites are buffer for the Nature Preserve.  I have some native seed in the fridge and freezer getting cold stratified and hope to start some of my own seedlings in the spring.

I have not been doing much in the way of Star Wars events.  I did do a photoshoot with others on my birthday.  I don't have much in the way of photos to show for it though.  My friend Caroll was in town from Seattle and she came along for the day.  It was good fun to visit with her and we went out for dinner after the photo shoot.  We tried to do the photoshoot at the Joliet Iron Works, but got asked to "move along", so the group went back to Dellwood Park which is more user friendly. 



 The Goji Berry plant I put in this spring has been going like gang busters and has been blooming and even setting a bit of fruit in its' first year.  I do suspect, however, that this plant will be difficult to control once it gets really going.  They say that you can also plant this shrub in a pot and that will limit its' size.  I may have to do that.  I know that the plant roots easily when a part of the stem hits the ground, so I may take a cutting and try to root it for use in a large pot next year.


I have been doing some workdays for the Forest Preserve as always, but the weather is always a crap shoot on if one can get out to work without rain interfering with the spraying.  Linda and I did get out last Saturday and continued spraying a huge area of reed canary grass.  It will be interesting to see the result in another week or so.




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