Mid Winter

It's really feeling wintery now. I got some pics of the leaf season before it was over. Here's the upside: beautiful colors.

And the down side... lots of leaves and berries everywhere. I took my trusty electric blower from property to property, blowing leaves daily until it was over. The trees are pretty bare now, and I'm hoping I've raked the last of the berries.

 The rainy weather made for some lovely rainbows.

 This one was so spectacular that I texted Rick at work and suggested he take a break and look at it. You can't tell in this photo, but it was fully double.

This was something I'd never seen before: an upside down rainbow in the clouds.

 We had Thanksgiving with Titus and Jane and the gang.

My tatting project got set aside in favor of knitting, because wool just seems more fun to work with when it's cold, and besides, people can always use hats and such. But the tatting project is almost done.

In farming news... the lettuce has been really productive. These are the drunken women and romaine. The butter lettuces proved quite tempting to the slugs, but we're still getting lots of production. I put slug boards out in the garden: just old fence boards, but the slugs like to crawl up under them and stick themselves to the wood. Then we just grab the board, turn it over to reveal all the bugs, and stick it in the chicken tractor pen. Goodbye slugs, hello protein-rich chicken feed.

We're also getting astounding amounts of broccoli. Buddy poses with a lovely bouquet. There really is no such thing as too much broccoli, and we're eating it daily.

At 9th Street, Buddy helped me get some rows dug up and we've planted favas in 5 rows now. I need to go over again and plant some more, but it's been too wet and I've been too busy. The first favas are well up however.

I took a walk and couldn't resist the juxtaposition of the red car and the purple church just around the corner from us on 16th. It makes me think of the Red Hat ladies.

Winter Weather

We've been getting as much fall planting and clean up done as possible. Wintery weather is setting in, with a solid rainstorm and cloudy, windy days. I got the garlics planted in the backyard. The rain has made the ground nice and soft to work. I am continuing to work on expanding this garden space. I'd also like to add a couple more fruit trees.

I picked and strung up all the peppers. That's a lot of peppers!

We harvested the pumpkin patch at the farm and got the vines all picked up. Some of these aren't ripe, but they're all pretty. The tactic of growing vines over the old stump seems to have worked, as we don't see any apple shoots. However, the bermuda sure loved the manure... but it will come out fairly easily.

I sacrificed the biggest Galeaux for making Thanksgiving pies.

I didn't get a pic, but Buddy helped me dig up some rows at 9th, and we got three rows of favas planted at least. As soon as it stops raining, I'll go plant some more. 

Sarah Passed!

We all knew Sarah would pass the bar on her first try but... It was still a little nervewracking! Here she checks the results on her computer.

Yay! Break out the champagne.

Sarah Clarke Davidson, Esquire!

Titus's Birthday

Titus's birthday party was fun. We went to Ojiya for sushi and Japanese food.

It was a great group and a fun time.

Buddy even emerged from his lair for the occasion.

I made Titus two pumpkin pies from my pumpkins for a present. We ate one after dinner, but he still got to have one to himself.

Katinka!

After Halloween, we got to have a short but fun visit with Katinka. We brought her to the farm.

So we could pose in the Amber Glen

The elders plus our favorite sister.

Meanwhile, we got straw down on the back yard at the farm.

The trees on Oakdale are lovely for a brief time, then all the leaves fall.

Halloween

Yeah, as usual I'm way behind. I didn't have much enthusiasm for Halloween this year, but it was a fun party nonetheless. The theme was Rock Star, and we played Rock Band also.

Nathan made a ton of food, and was awesome in his Kiss costume.

Delina was her Rock Band character: Flash. Donna was Flash's groupie. Notice the custom t-shirts with the name of our band: Somebody Push X.

Lori also came as her Rock Band character. Noel is the evil pink robot. Of course, Keith couldn't resist a chance to cross dress as Yoshimi.

I'm not sure what Titus was, but he was certainly Rock n' Rollin.

We even had some real, if erstwhile, rock stars.

Lindsey was a killer Amy Weinhouse and her friend Katy was Katy Perry.

Jane! What a hoot.

Lori and Donna ham it up.

I wore my boa. Pink hair was certainly popular.

We played lots of Rock Band.

Karen and Tony even showed up. It was nice to see them.

We insisted that Lindsey sing "Rehab." It was too funny.

Katy wasn't afraid to try the drums.

Must Be Fall

Fall has been beautiful this year. How do we know it's fall? Coats, hats, and fire!

We harvested our pumpkins, and the last of the cherry tomatoes. We're still getting the very last of the early broccoli, and about to get a ton of late broccoli. The lettuce is ready now also.

What are some other signs of fall? A bunch of guys standing around downtown in a corral with pumpkins on their heads...

I guess it was some radio contest, as this banner in the bandshell attests.

As part of the scene, they had some food trucks on 4th street, including this nifty mobile pizza oven.

I finally finished the new coats for Jane's dogs. Rocket's red one comes by way of Ed and Anne, who donated the red knitted piece.

 I made Gracie's stylish quilted jacket out of a bunch of tiny scraps from other projects.

Tom and Nancy invited us to hear Pat and Anna's band on Friday night at the Down Low.

We had a great time.

Sarah and Nathan went too.

On Tuesday before Halloween, we carved the pumpkins. These are both from the farm. Since the theme was Rock Star, I carved the one on the left.

Lori came over to help. She carved the lovely stars on the right.