Putting The Garden To Bed

As I predicted, we had our first freeze last night.  It was 30° when I got up this morning, and that was pretty much the end of my garden.  I knew the basil would get waxed, which it did. 

Alas, my makeshift greenhouse turned out to be not effective at all in protecting my tomatoes, 

so I picked all of the remaining fruit, 

then took the cages down and chopped up the plants.  

I did the same with the basil.  

This is called "chop and drop" and is a way to feed the garden soil.  All of this will break down over the winter and basically add compost to the soil.  I'll probably go out over the next few weeks and chop it up some more, but by the time I got this much done I was tired and needed a break.  

I knew my pansies would be OK, because they're cold weather plants, but I was a bit worried about the crimson clover and the bachelor's buttons.  

A lot of the videos I watched said these should be planted in the Fall, but as this was my first year doing that, I wasn't sure what to expect.  However, they both seem to be doing fine.  

I knew my bluebonnets would be OK, too, because the ones I planted last year survived being encased in ice back in January, and they did fine.  In fact, I've never grown bigger bluebonnets. 

I didn't do much else today, other than watching a couple of cheesy Hallmark movies, and season 6 episode 1 of The Chosen.  I watched the livestream on YouTube, which will be taken down at midnight tonight, but the first three episodes will be up on Prime tomorrow.  I'd heard there was quite a bit of hoopla about the show portraying angels as different ethnicities, but I found that watching the episode, it didn't really bother me at all.  I mean, throughout the Bible, angels are shown as having human form, and I'm sure they would appear in the form of the people they were interacting with, so I'm not really sure why it would even be an issue.  What got to me was when Jesus...well, I'm not going to spoil the show.  You'll have to watch it for yourself.  

In knitting news, I haven't even cast on a new hat since I finished the ones for my cousin.  Instead, I worked on this one a bit more. 

Yarn:  Forbidden Fiber Co Fortitude

Colorway:  Starfall

Pattern:  Sockhead

Needles:   US 2.5 / 3 mm

I briefly thought about trying to make a flying trip up to Batesville, but changed my mind when I realized I only have 4 more days of work before we have the entire week of Thanksgiving off. I'll go up there one day that week.  Since it'll just be me for Thanksgiving, I won't have to do all that much cooking.  I already have the squash casserole ready and in the freezer, so I'll just have to make the sweet potatoes, jello salad, and pumpkin pie.  Oh, and the turkey, of course. 

By the way, I'm getting two free turkeys this year.  I got one from ibotta by redeeming 40 offers on the app.  It really wasn't that hard.  I stocked up on things I normally buy anyway, like my vitamins, Nasacort, toothpaste, deodorant, and the like.  Then the plant is apparently going to give us one this year, because HR came around and asked whether we wanted ham or turkey. 

They used to do that every year, but several years ago had switched to giving us $25 gift cards to a locally owned grocery store so we could buy whatever we needed.  Last year, they switched to adding that amount to our paychecks, but employees got upset that income tax was taken out of it, so we really only got about $17.  

I don't know if they're going to give us the actual turkey/ham, or a certificate that we can redeem.  They've done both in the past.  I kind of hope they give us the turkey/ham, so I don't have to go into that store -- Spain's for you local folks. 

Honestly, I don't know why everyone is so ga-ga over Spain's.  I hate that store.  It's crowded, cluttered, and expensive.  I'd rather go to Walmart, or the other locally owned store, Grocery Basket.  In fact, I still have the gift card the plant gave us two years ago.  

That's how much I hate that store.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get this published so I can get ready for Texas vs. LSU, because unlike Ole Miss, Texas made it to Baton Rouge on time.