What Gardening Should Look Like

You may have noticed that one of my normal topics has lay dormant so far this year. Usually I would have brought up gardening a time or two. But...not this year...because...well, there isn't really a reason. Somehow it seems to have slipped through the cracks. But finally, we've hauled the last of the tomato cages,  needing to be separated from the long since withered up vines, inside for the winter.

But this summer it looked like this...

I would love to tell you that I have finally developed that all essential green thumb. My gardening skills have advanced to the point were my garden looked like a lush, riotous jungle of self-sufficiency.  Except that I know what really happened.

#1 Planted seeds and then immediately began watering like a mad woman. It was bone dry. Few seeds bothered to poke out their heads.

#2 Any seeds who did sprout soon were to regret that poor decision. They were given a trim by a late frost. Worst hit? Green beans. Spent some time trying to decide if I wanted to try and replant. Decided against.

#3 And then it began to rain.

#3.1 And rain.

#3.2 And rain.

#3.3 ...

#3.9 It wasn't one of those drowning type but it definitely was enough to keep me out of the garden for a couple of weeks.

#4 Those green beans were weird. They came back from the root. The half of the seeds that didn't sprout decided to make it happen. We had green beans staggered at a variety of maturation periods.

#5 The end result was the garden in the above picture. My job was to pick the produce and keep ahead of the weeds. And the weeds (aka grass) had a field day too (because it was a field once).

So we planted tomatoes, corn, potatoes, green beans, onions, broccoli, peppers and put in a patch of strawberries.

We concluded that next year we will plant more tomatoes, its easier to buy broccoli from the store, same with the green beans, and we hope the strawberries survive.

I froze a big pile of peppers this year. This is the first time I have had to freeze so many.  Besides the peppers, I canned a lot of tomato sauce, salsa and ketchup but could definitely stand more. The tomatoes didn't do as well as expected because they kept getting eaten by every bug and caterpillar in the area.

Time to start dreaming of next year!

It's The Little Things

I had a pleasant surprise this evening. Feeling that the best way to start off this blogging session was with a glass of wine I looked in the frig and was completely unimpressed with the selection.

I ended up picking out an unimpressive homemade raspberry wine with the idea if it wasn't any good I could toss it.

Opening the bottle I was shocked: it had drastically improved after 10 years in the bottle. Mama is a happy camper.

So where should we start? Right now everyone wants to see the Halloween pictures so here it is!

Karla is a bumble bee, Laura is a gypsy, Gabe is a dragon and Malissa is Annabeth (of Percy Jackson fame). I'm sad this year because Megan decided she was too old for trick-or-treating. I'm sure the wicked cold weather had nothing to do with her decision. Oddly enough, Megan had no trouble "helping" to inhale the treats when we came home with the loot.

In other news Gabe turned 2 this last week.

He did an excellent job of blowing out his candles.

John had his birthday party at the same time. Malissa, who is in charge of the cake making, had a separate cake for him.

Karla made certain she was right there to help. My little tomboy suddenly wants to dress-up in cute dresses all the time. We are doing lots of barrettes and pig tails too.

I would like to point out that while Gabe was opening his presents we were watching Game 6 of the World Series, The picture is too fuzzy to tell who is up to bat but, it is the bottom of the 2nd, Royals are up 1-0 and the bases are loaded with 1 out. So it was early in the run up of the score. Too bad it didn't extend to Game 7.

A Happy Birthday shout out to my Dad who squeezed a birthday in last week too.

And now everyone is all messed up from the time change.

Have a great November!