A Harvest!!

It pleases me to take amateur photographs of my garden, and it pleases my garden to make my photographs look professional. ~Robert Brault

My first garden harvest occurred last night. Yep, that's right, we actually had a vegetable to pick! Remember the tomato plants the chipmunks planted for me in the fall that I brought inside to see if they'd survive?

Look what they gave me:



I know ... one little cherry tomato isn't that impressive, but it was still exciting! Maybe it'll look more impressive close up?



Or from a different angle and different lighting?



In any case, it's a start. DD wanted to split it. Yes, really. The thing was about the width of a quarter... lol...

Speaking of DD, she's now addicted to the show, "Extreme Couponing". We're plotting our shopping strategies and learning where to download printable coupons. I've "liked" several couponing and deals pages on Facebook, and once I finally wrap my brain around how to do this (I'm working on organizing the coupons right now, and deciding whether I want to start a spreadsheet of what coupons I have, how many of each and when they expire) I'm going to be a crazy shopping mama! We do need to figure out how to balance healthy foods with couponing, though, which is no easy task... but I think it's possible.

Because, yanno, I had nothing else to do to keep me busy.

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You Are a Basic T-shirt

You are a very humble, low maintenance person. You find contentment easily. You are easy-going and very social. You like being around other people more than anything else. Some may accuse you of being lazy, but you just don't work any harder than you need to. You are happiest when things are kept casual. You think formality is a lot of unnecessary fuss.

What Kind of Shirt Are You?

And ... almost completely wrong! LOL....

Fall's In The Air

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. ~Edwin Way Teale

The past week or so, the nights have been downright chilly. That fall snap is starting to show up in the weather.

This time of year I feel a little lost ... the butterflies are done, the garden is nearly done (all that's left is to pick the last of everything, then pull up the plants and turn the garden). I didn't have enough "anything" that I grew myself to preserve (I had BIG plans for my green beans, but the year was just too hot and the plants struggled and produced very little). Preserving foodwise, all I have left are the butternut squash and apples.

Then it's fall and winter. No more outdoor time really. Walking the dog, sure, but ... nothing else. In one way it's a bit of a relief -- I don't have to feel guilty spending time inside on the computer. But it's also such a loss. There are days I just like to walk around my yard and smile at the flowers.

I know I'm borrowing trouble. It's only August. But, we'll most likely have our first hard freeze in less than a month. I miss long growing seasons.

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I ran into our first dog trainer yesterday at PetsMart. It was great to see her and we gabbed for a while. She was so pleased with Dakota's behavior. Even though Dakota was SO excited to see her (it's been well over a year, but I swear Dakota remembered her), she DID sit for her greeting (whined the whole time, but kept her butt on the ground).

We talked about agility and about Dakota being a therapy dog. I asked her if she honestly thought Dakota had it in her to be one. I absolutely know Dakota has a sweet temperament -- she'd never nip or bite anyone under any circumstances. But she's also a scaredy-dog and I worry about new situations (and wheelchairs and walkers). She'll put up with any kind of human treatment. She's had kids slap her in the face (they mean to pet, but toddlers don't always control their movements well), poke her eyes, step on her paws, etc. And she doesn't even flinch. But new OBJECTS can freak her out.

Take yesterday.

After playing at the dog park and bathed her. And once all her fluffiness was wet, I noticed she'd torn out all the fur on her cheekbone and it was red and raw from all her scratching. Uh oh. Only one thing to do: the cone of shame.



When I held it, she was fine. When I put it (flat) under her face, she was fine. When I curled it around her head? She absolutely flipped out, terrified. Crying, jumping, shaking ... she ended up destroying the e-collar (apparently even fairly pliable plastic WILL shatter if you hit it against the wall, the table, the banister, etc. enough times) and then just lay there, wearing the remnants, shivering.

So... therapy dog? Or not?

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You Are Sweet and Sensitive

You're the type of person who's always taking others into consideration. You are very empathetic. You like to think everything through carefully. You tend to regret rash decisions. You are tentatively playful. It takes you a while to open up to new friends. You prefer calm waters where you can drift along peacefully. You don't like waves.

The Rubber Duckie Test

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... NO. Is there a stronger word for no? If so, insert here.

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This and That

Weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance but disappear when you get up close to them. ~John Shirley

DD has to make a potpourri pie for her art lesson this week. It's different smelly things in a dish covered with strips of felt to look like a pie. She went outside with our harvesting basket (the one we use to pick veggies) and came back in with stuff I wouldn't have thought of putting together. Her "pie" ended up being chives, rosemary and cinnamon (which she grated from cinnamon sticks). Surprisingly, it smelled AWESOME. In fact, I think I'm going to put it in my bathroom :-)

Tomorrow our 4Runner goes to its new home and I won't be able to avoid learning how my new-to-me car works anymore. How sad is it that I'm overwhelmed by The Pea? Mary mentioned yesterday that she had family members who recently bought brand new cars and had to attend a class to find out how everything works!! A CLASS.

Dear heavens.

Our local fair is coming up in two weekends. DD is bouncing off the walls about it -- says it's almost as good as Christmas. She asked me what I liked best about it (I said "the food" ... lol) and she said, "I like the horse shows and the exhibits and the rides and the cows and the food... I like EVERYTHING."

She's thinking about going on the big Ferris wheel this year, but isn't sure because I won't go on with her (yeah, I'll do roller coasters, but Ferris wheels terrify me). We're torn between going on "bracelet day" when you buy a bracelet for $20 and can ride rides until you vomit, or going on a different day when the fairway won't be so crowded, but you use tickets -- and she'd only get to go on 5-6 rides. Tough decisions to make at ten.

We're not sure what to do with Dakota on fair day, either. We'd either have to crate her for 6 - 7 hours or take her to day care. Every time we've taken her to day care, she's gotten sick, but I don't love the idea of crating the little bundle of energy for that long either. Days like these, I really miss my last dog. She was so easy.

DH wants to get a log-splitter for our three cords of wood this year. The past couple of times we've taken down our own trees for firewood, we've split it all by hand. It's great exercise, but very time-consuming, and we're running out of time this year. Guess we'll find out...

I'm going to pick all the apples off of our trees today. I think I might make applesauce, though the idea of it exhausts me. But, we got enough this year we can't just eat them all, so I have to do something with them.

Got any fun ideas of what to do with a bunch of apples?

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You Are North

Like a Viking, you are assertive, decisive, and dominant. You seek power and destroy those in your way. People admire that you are so confident and independent. You seem to have the world figured out. Sometimes you come across as pushy and aggressive... not that you mind! You like being seen as tough. You make a fairly good leader, especially in times that require grit and ruthlessness. You are a warrior.

Are You North, South, East, or West?

Blogthings: Quizzes and Tests and Memes, Oh My!

Next stop: World Domination! ........ muhahahahahaha.......

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Preparing for Winter

When the bold branches
Bid farewell to rainbow leaves -
Welcome wool sweaters.
~B. Cybrill

I started tearing down the garden yesterday. On the one hand, it makes me sad, but on the other, we had such a terrible year (garden-wise) that it's almost a relief to pull everything up and get it out of sight.

I think I picked three full-sized tomatoes this year -- off about a dozen plants! And, though we certainly had more cherry tomatoes, there were never more than we could easily snack on in one sitting, and that was from another dozen plants. We should have been swimming in red.

We picked five cucumbers this year, off of eight plants. A few handfuls of beans and peas. The carrots died for no apparent reason. The only thing that produced decently was the squash, which is starting to die now, and I'm not sure why. I'll probably get 4-5 more squash off them before they're gone.

So disappointing. I really wanted to have tomatoes to can this year. And maybe more pickles. Good thing we aren't pioneers, and can go to the store when the garden flops!

Today, I'll finish pulling up what's left, except for the squash which gets to live until it dies on its own. I'll also finish chopping down most of my perennial flowers which are done blooming. All I have left are the fall bloomers: asters and chrysanthemums.

Then I need to do my bulbs -- I want to plant pink daffodils for the spring since the voles and chipmunks have decimated my crocus and grape hyacinth bulbs, and I want something besides yellow. I think there are a few other deer resistant bulbs (which probably means vole-and-'munk resistant), so I need to research that as well.

And then hunker down and get ready for a long, white winter.

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ACK! A bird just flew into my slider -- not hard, but still. We don't have a plain glass one, either. What was it thinking? We had a bat slam into it once a couple winters ago and then land, motionless in the snow on the deck. I couldn't just leave him there, so I donned oven mitts and grabbed a towel, picked it up and put him in the rafters underneath our deck where he'd be safe until he regained all his facilities. I like bats. They are good doobies.

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