Halloween and More!

 Woo hoo... I've got lots of pix today. In preparation for Halloween, I harvested the pumpkins. The Galeau were totally ripe, and the Triambles could go a little longer, but I picked a few of the choice ones for decorations anyway. This Galeau was totally ripe, so it became the designated sacrifice.

 I cut it into wedges. The meat is very thick, and there wasn't much fiber. The seeds were also huge and fat. I cooked these wedges in the oven for about an hour, then blenderized it into a lovely silky puree, which I used for pumpkin bars and pumpkin-black bean soup.

 I put others on the porch for decorations. Jane took these two pix. This is a lovely Triamble.

And another fabulous Galeau.

 Of course, I had to carve at least one pumpkin. Laura came over to help me on Thursday, and she came up with the idea of making a chicken. We started with a turkey pattern, and changed it around to look like a chicken. It got a LOT of comments on Halloween night.

 It's hard to get a good shot of a lit pumpkin with a cheap camera...

 The Halloween party was on Saturday night. This was nice because we got to enjoy the trick or treaters on a different night. We had lots of great food. Laura brought her Ghoul-ash, and also poached pears and Catherine brought pumpkin cheesecake. I made "Fresh Tomb," the aforementioned pumpkin-black bean soup and pumpkin bars, and just to showcase the change of the seasons, I made the year's last batch of zucchini bread.

Bill came as a yuppie.

And Titus and Jane were really cute as bedbugs. Titus always has an insect theme going....

Laura was a beehive.

 Bill was a pumpkin farmer.

 And... we're not quite sure to make of Keith. He's getting in touch with his feminine side. And someone asked Noel if she was a jockey, and she said, "That's not what this whip is for..."

 Rick was a great Gnomish Engineer. You could also call him a garden gnome...

 And I was the blog. Yes, this blog...

 Melinda was vampirical.

 And Lori was such a cute "Farmer's Hoe."

 Cindy and Noel chat.

 Here's Jane with her lovely curler. Notice the I (heart) New York shirt...

 Now you just know these three are gonna cause trouble...

 Melinda, Jane, and Bill played a little music.

 Meanwhile, some folks hung out on the back porch, by the fire, enjoying the autumn night. It had stopped raining by party time, although it rained pretty good beforehand.

 It was a fun party, and I think everyone had a good time. Then Monday was an amazing, glorious sunny autumn day. I went to the farm early, and Rene and Buddy were already there. Rene was framing in the windows for the bar.

 And Ricky C brought over his tiller. On Sunday, we'd cleared all the old zucchini plants out of Row 3a, and set the chicken pen on the area for several hours. The chickens tilled it up pretty well, and mixed all the old straw mulch into the soil. Then when Rick tilled it, it made just beautiful soil.

 Here you can see him with a sliver of the chicken pen in the foreground. Look at that autumn afternoon light... so golden and glorious.

Yeah, I'm still digging on the light... bear with me.

It looks like Ricky C's doing all the work, but I did help a little. After he lined out the rows, I put all the starts along in the right spacing. He want back and filled in the furrows, because he can bend more than most of the rest of us! He just folds himself in thirds.

 And isn't this a lovely onion patch?

Meanwhile, back at the bar, Rene gets the window all framed in and trimmed out. One down and one to go. It already looks beautiful.