Fall-ish

Some mornings of late have felt Fall-ish...there is a chill in the air, along with the scent of dead leaves.  It always comes as a bit of a surprise when Fall arrives, especially this year.  I still haven't had a summer vacation!  I am not ready for Winter yet, but as is typical, I am ready for the garden to be finished.

Things grew like crazy this year (except for weeds - I had very few in my garden this year), although the blueberries were sparse.  This week I processed 4 pounds of rhubarb, and I made 2 pounds of tomatoes into Gazpacho (which no one except myself cared for.)  I still have a big bag of jalapenos and cucumbers to deal with.

I also pulled the carrots and beets.

So I have those to deal with as well.

The pumpkins are ripening up...and taking over the top of my garden!

As of 3 weeks ago, I had 3 of them
weighing over 30# each!

L and I have been doing battle with the invasive and very nasty lanternflies.  We took an extension cord and the shop vac down to 2 trees at the edge of our woods that have been covered for two days in a row.  We sucked up hundreds of the little buggers into the vac full of soapy water.  As of yesterday, there are a few lanternflies remaining on the trees, but just a fraction of what there had been.

Carnage! 2 piles of lanternfly bodies.

Extreme Close Up

Speaking of insects, I noticed this lady on the back veranda.  When I got down on my knees to photograph her, she slowly turned and looked at me.  Isn't she amazing?

We have released the kittens from their cage, and they are now residing on the veranda, but wandering the grounds in between naps and eating.  Poor Fitz injured his toe and/or pad on one back foot yesterday, so he is limping around with a swollen foot.  He is getting plenty of healing rest as well.

L and I have been working in her room.  She has collected many, many piles of books over the past 2 years, as gifts and discards from the library.  They have been sitting all over the floor of her room for months and months because her bookshelves were full. J visited over Labor Day.  JP and I helped move them and their roomie to a new apartment the end of August.  They acquired a new bookshelf and wanted to take some of their books back up to the city with them.  Fortunately, this freed up some room to move some children's books (that L doesn't want to be packed up and stored away) into J's old room, leaving more room for L to shelve her books!

J had organized both theirs and L's books into rainbow order, which is visually appealing, but difficult to find anything.  After working at the library for 2 years, L wanted everything back in alphabetical order, so I spent a long time alphabetizing before we even began the process of shelving!  Here is the end result:

J's bookshelf...you can see that the 
top 3 shelves are in rainbow order.

L's shelves - alphabetized and categorized

Last week we received a package from Costco with an ice pack included.  Imagine my surprise to find that it was actually eco-friendly.  Nice going, Costco!

Sadly, my parents had to euthanize their little dog yesterday.  He was almost 15 years old, and had been in failing health for awhile.  There is another small grave under the oak tree in the Pet Cemetery now for Throckmorten P. Gildersleeves, Morti for short.

Leap Year

Normally I dislike February with the same kind of sinking feeling that I get in my stomach when my husband offers to make me a steaming bowl of oatmeal.  I feel like there are so many other breakfast things that I do like (some of which are also made with oats) so why should I bother trying to choke down porridge just because "it's good for you?"  In the same way, I feel like there are so many other months and seasons in a year, why deal with February when it's always cold and grey and long Long LONG?  And this year, to make thing more difficult, February has to go and add an extra DAY???

This year, somehow, February has been tolerable.  I can hardly believe that it ends this week!!  Maybe it's because of the days and days of sunshine and blue skies that we've been experiencing this year in our neck of the woods.  Who knows?  I'm just grateful that I haven't sunk into the deep depression that I typically face this time of year.

There have definitely been bad days.  L had another low low day last week, but doing better now.  Stella returned to the vet a week after starting treatment for external ear infections because she was doing worse instead of better - vet noted that she now has ruptured ear drums on both sides.  (No wonder she can't hear a doggone thing!)  She is now on both oral antibiotics and new ear drops, and actually seems to be doing a bit better - I think she heard me calling her this afternoon.

We hide her pills in peanut butter...

By the way, one breakfast food utilizing oatmeal that I really enjoy is granola.  I have been making this recipe from America's Test Kitchen lately, that is a real winner with all of us:

Maple Almond Granola

1/2 C vegetable oil (I used 1/4 c coconut oil and 1/4 c avocado oil)

1/3 C Maple Syrup

1/3 C brown sugar

4 t vanilla

1/2 T salt

5 C Rolled oats

2 C raw almonds, chopped

2 C raisens (I used 1 1/2 c craisens instead)

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with vegetable oil spray.

Whisk oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla and salt together, then fold in oats and nuts.

Transfer mixture to baking sheet and spread into an even layer and press until compact.

Bake at 325* for 35-40 minutes, rotating sheet about halfway through.

Cool thoroughly and then stir in dried fruit.

I got a new cookie cutter from an Etsy store just in time to make Valentine's Day Cookies:

Fridge Facts - Valentine's Edition

A week ago, JP & I, and a friend (L was being a butt and backed out at the last minute) drove to Wheeling for dinner and a concert.  We heard Renee Elise Goldberry (Angelica Schuyler from "Hamilton") sing with the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra.  It was a great concert!  JP drove us home in a blizzard that dumped about 4 inches of snow on our town.  It was gone by Saturday afternoon.

We got another 2 inches of surprise snowfall yesterday morning, which disappeared by nightfall.

This week I made 60 newspaper pots and planted 20 different varieties of seeds.  My SIL recently gifted me with this fun container of heritage seeds.  They are packaged in 5 different lots, and I have only dipped into Lot A this year, but from that have planted tomatoes, peppers, winter & summer squash, 2 types of melons, cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard, eggplants, okra and dill.  I also dipped into my previous stash to plant pumpkins, jalapenos, sweet basil and Thai basil.

Fridge Facts - Gardening Edition

My Lenten Roses are blooming with abandon, and Punxsutawney Phil did NOT see his shadow, so spring is on it's way... hooray!

A Fresh Grave

I dug another grave today out under the big oak tree, where our Pet Cemetary has grown to include 6 of our pets.  We found L's bunny, Chaz, stretched out in his favorite spot in the grass, but no longer living last night.  He was 10 years old, which is at the upper end of their typical lifespan!

He started out as a 4H project for J when she was in 5th grade.  She did show him at the Fair in 2015, but then lost interest first in 4H, and then in having a pet rabbit.  When I finally got tired of taking care of him, J was given the ultimatum:  find a new home for him.  This is how L adopted him, and she has taken excellent care of him for the past 6 years or so.

Chaz was sweet and super soft, but not super smart.  He loved dandelion leaves, carrot peels and apple cores.

He would walk on a leash albeit tentatively.

He was interested in his visitors.

I enjoyed taking him treats and chatting him up while he nibbled.  He will certainly be missed.

How My Garden Grows

Just a quick post and a few photos tonight...

My garden is actually starting to produce a few things FINALLY!

I've picked a few tomatoes and enjoyed the thoroughly summertime lunch of tomato sandwiches exactly twice so far.  There are pumkins and winter squash growing to decent size, and tiny cucumbers and yellow squash starting.  The 3rd planting of beans came up, and have since disappeared.  I think I have a total of 8 corn plants after 3 plantings as well.  It's very disappointing.  

I did send a soil sample in for testing.  The results show that the garden is low in phosphorus and high in magnesium.  They gave some suggestions for correcting this, so we will try to make those amendments this fall.

In other news, J and I made these delicious and colorful spring rolls out of crab meat, seasoned rice noodles and veggies last week.  They were lovely!

L and I finally finished painting the grave markers for the kitties and Kali.  Here is our complete Pet Cemetary:

From L to R:  Lizzie, Ernie, Kali...

Kali, Zach, Daisy

And finally, I am enjoying using my new glass fronted side by side freezer/fridge as a giant bulletin board.  I write a "Today in History" factoid on the left, and a quote on the right.

Miss Elizabeth Bennett

We had a sad, sad weekend.  Our remaining kitty, Miss Elizabeth Bennett, or Lizzie for short, disappeared.

She was acting a bit strange on Friday evening, mouth breathing and not as active as usual, but still appearing happy to see us, and purring quite loudly.  I had planned to try to get her in to the vet on Monday morning.  But she didn't come back Saturday or Sunday morning, so the girls and I went out in the woods to search for her on Sunday.

We found her body in the little hollow in the brambles where she liked to hang out when it is hot outside.

I got poked and cut from all the twigs and brambles, but I was finally able to get her out.  We buried her under the big oak tree, next to her buddy, Ernie (and Kali and Zach and my parents' dog, Daisy.)

Lizzie joined our family after my dad inadvertently caught her in the raccoon trap as a tiny baby.  She chomped down HARD on my finger when I tried to rescue her, but we all fell in love with her in the 2 weeks that we kept her in a cage on the veranda and observed her for signs of rabies, so we ended up keeping her as a friend for Ernie.

The two of them spent a lot of time together until Ernie passed earlier this year.

Her favorite things to do were to find shady places to relax...

...and roll in the dirt...

She would also visit me in the tree house now and then, by climbing up the tree!

She went from being a scared little feral kitten in a trap, to the sweet and beautiful cat that spent a decade as part of our family.  We miss her so much.

Nine Lives

Back in 2010, a friend gave us 2 kittens, who came to be known as Bert and Ernie.

Bert disappeared long ago, but Ernie has been with us for the past 13 years until yesterday when the last of his 9 lives came to an end.

He was such a funny cat!  He loved lying on the woodpile in the sunshine.

He preferred to drink out of buckets, or with both front paws IN the water bowl.

He had a foot fettish, and if you let him near your bare pigs, he would be sure to bite them.

He was a good hunter, and frequently left "gifts" on our doorstep.  After he arrived, we did not have to worry about mice in the house any longer, even though he lived outside on the veranda.

His first buddy was Bert, but his longest friendship was with Lizzie.

Towards the end, he became very ill, but he would still purr, rub fur all over us, and drool.

I prefer to remember him like this:

Out with the Old...

You know how the symbolism for the New Year is an old guy leaving, and a baby in diapers coming in?  Out with the old, in with the new?  Well, I've been thinking about it lately, and realizing that all the animals on our farm are elderly, and JP and I are definitely feeling our age recently as well.

Our 5 surviving hens are laying 1 or 2 eggs daily, some of which are so thin shelled, that I have not always been able to get them into the house whole.  They are almost 2 years old, which is middle-to-late aged for hens, and they definitely do not produce as well during the shorter daylight hours in the wintertime.  We will likely get new peeps in the spring.

One is wearing an apron to protect her from picking
 by the other chickens

Stella turns 11 in a week or two, and she has been acting like her energy is waning as well.

Ernie cat is almost 13, and has recurrent eye infections that we are unable to effectively treat, so he looks terrible and is basically blind.  Lizzie kitty is a mere 10-ish and doesn't appear to be affected much by age yet.

L's bunny, Chaz, is about 9.  We were told that the average lifespan for a mini Rex is 7-8 years, but he's still kicking (literally), although he does seem to enjoy the old towel that we put in his cage, and we find him curled up under the heat lamp most mornings.

J also has a goldfish, Copernicus, who is now over 2 years old and shown no signs of slowing down.  Unfortunately, J has chosen NOT to take him to her dorm for the 2nd year in a row, so Mom is taking care of him again.  JP discovered that he enjoys eating fruit flies, so he's been chowing down on organic food lately and getting bigger and bigger.

We're all aging up here, and it isn't always pretty.  Except in L's case - she had another birthday on Dec. 27th...number 17.  Last week we finally went to the DMV and she got her Driver's Permit!

Before that birthday went down, we enjoyed our Christmas!  L got her Elvish cape, so both girls can now dress up!

JP's sister, brother-in-law, and niece came on Christmas evening for dinner and stayed for a couple of days.  They helped us make tamales, as did J's friend.  I cooked the pork up a couple of days before - 6 lbs of pork roasts, 6 onions, 4 complete garlic bulbs, plus a bunch of jalepenos and spices turned into this:

I also made a bunch of other new things:

Santa Hat Brownies

Loaded Potato Waffles

And last, but not least, my Christmas present:

That's right, I'm building the Titanic!

JP and J drove back to school this AM, and L starts back tomorrow (along with the 7th and 8th graders who will be having their first day at the newly created Jr/Sr High School) - should be totally NOT chaotic tomorrow!  JP heads back to work tomorrow, and I'll be back on Tues.  (We did work last week as well.)  So...in with the new!