Happy Halloween!

I'm back!  I have been lost without a computer for all this time, but I'm back in the blogosphere now and can't wait to "see" you all again!  Lots of catching up for me to do, but these pics will have to do until I have time for a proper post, so Happy Halloween y'all!

This week's big event was Finn losing one of his front teeth, no more perfect little boy teeth - he's officially moving into that "awkward stage" :)

We did the "Trunk or Treat" thing this year, here's the Subaru all decked out...

All you 80's moms can appreciate the kids' costumes this year LOL...

Next up, I hear I need to post a pic of an apron pattern, so I'll get to that tomorrow, don't count me out yet - I'm planning on participating in Susan's challenge!  Hope you all have a great Halloween.

Monday?

Yeah, I couldn't think of a creative title today - it's a little of this, a little of that! First, a couple of photos from last night...

I liked this one because it could have been taken in another era! That's Finn streaking through the yard.

Below, the kids trick or treated yet another year with their bags made by yours truly! I thought as they get older they would whine for the huge bags with cartoon characters, etc the other kids have, but they surprised me!

I felt a little lazy today because I had a 20 minute nap with the dogs and also finished a sock, but BEFORE I did that, I managed to get quite a bit accomplished in the morning. Beautiful weather for yard work, high was only 53º today and sunny, I was able to wear my favorite outfit of jeans and a quilted flannel! I mowed the lawn for the last time this year (have I mentioned how nice pooper scooping is with frozen poop in the morning? It's the little things that I'm most thankful for LOL). I also got all the Halloween decorations out of the yard, all packed up and back into the attic. When it's over, it's over around here! I must admit I looked longingly at the Christmas decorations while I was up in the attic, but left them alone. I just want to keep moving on to the next holiday because it makes it seem closer to hubby's homecoming. I wasn't going to do any Christmas decorations this year since we will be driving to Minnesota, but who am I kidding? I am a total sucker when it comes to that stuff! Ask hubby, he thinks I'm nuts with my tradition of decorating the tree right after Thanksgiving dinner. He groans about hanging lights so many years it's me on the ladder stringing lights on the house!

Here's a few photos from the garden today:

Above, the "dwarf" (LOL) burning bush behind the garden is really on fire right now!

Below, starting to see broccoli!

Pak Choy, random lettuces

I never really gave marigolds much thought before as fall color, but these I started from seed last spring are just going gangbusters when the mums are starting to get scraggly

I was surprised by these raspberries while mowing the lawn! I know there was probably more if I had been actively checking, but Sprocket eats them - these were up higher than her head!

A few days ago Mama Pea asked her readers to post photos of their kitchens at night, kind of a "what a passer-by might see" kind of photo. I struggled with this one since from ground level you can't really see much (we are on a crawlspace foundation), and from our narrow porch you are smack dab IN the window pretty much. Combine that with a long narrow galley kitchen plantation shutters and this is really all you get!

Below was taken standing on a chair outside my kitchen sink window LOL

I'm thinking now a better shot would be from my living room side window, but since there is no porch over there, I would need a tall ladder and I'm not digging that out of the shed LOL! Go ahead and post yours so we can all be peeping toms! I've seen some really great photos of some of yours already, would love to see more!

The kids are off school tomorrow, election day? Seems silly, but the school is probably a poll location now that I'm thinking about it. Nice, because we get to have dinner at a normal hour tonight instead of super early like usual. We are having a nice hearty winter dinner to match our weather, venison meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy & green beans! Basic, but good!

Looking forward to more of the above this evening after the kiddies are in bed!

In case you are wondering, that's a DOG napping at my foot - Sprocket is kind of an odd specimen LOL

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Here's to costumes that are homemade,

Scary grape eyeballs in pink lemonade-

I'm gonna be so scary, you'll fall to your knees,

Gimme some candy or I'll T.P. your trees!

No husbands around... but we ain't scared -

Navy wives here, approach if you dare!

Twilight, Anyone?

Wow, I am really bad about blogging lately! You all have been on my mind, and I have been reading your blogs religiously, but I am ashamed to admit... I have been consumed with reading the 'Twilight' Saga! (you can let out a big collective groan now!) Up until 2 weeks ago, I was one of the people that made fun of adults reading teen literature! I was discussing with my neighbor and friend how much I miss getting lost in a good book and the subject of the 'Twilight Series' came up and the fact that she just finished them. Well, she's my age so I made fun of her but at the same time told her that I just couldn't find time lately to get to the library and stock up on some good fall reading. She then told me that I should give the saga a try, to which I responded that I didn't think I would like them, and I really prefer long reads that will take me more than an hour. "Hang on" she replied, and ran into her house and came back with a beautiful set of 4 thick hardcovers! Needless to say, I didn't realize teen literature had expanded to include more than a hundred pages, lol, and eagerly dove in! I have been reading since then whenever I get more than 5 minutes of a chance, and am now into the 4th and last book. I must admit, vampires are pretty cool guilty pleasure reads, and a little more gripping than my Master Gardener manual, although that's pretty gripping stuff too sometimes! So go ahead, let the comments roll on that one!

My Celosia is looking quite "Vampire-ish" and I hope it lasts until my party Saturday evening!

Other than reading and shuttling kids around, I have been busy doing general cleanup and the occasional bean picking. The bell peppers are now finished, and the beans are on their 3rd "pick" and looking good. We had our 1st light frost last night, it got down to 39 degrees, but up to 70 for the high and supposed to be 80 tomorrow! I am just so glad to see the sun after the last 5 days of gray, cold and rain. I know many of you were dealing with the same nor'easters that moved through my area so I won't complain too much.

I planted some garlic last week that was from last year's box of sets and it sprouted yesterday! I was pretty worried since they have been sitting in a cardboard box for the past year on my desk, but they popped their heads up during the cold rainy spell. They were the only residents of my garden that appreciated the dreary weather.

This is the last of the Bell Peppers, 3.5 lbs

Today's harvest of pole beans, 3.15 lbs was added to last week's pick of 2.14 lbs.

This should say something about my children's eating habits - I have a family of 4 yet these are my "serving size" bags! Pretty much just my husband & I and a few extras just in case the kids decide to surprise me one day. I have exhausted every possible means of bribing them, taking things away, point systems with rewards, even force feeding at one particularly awful "bad Mommy" moment! Any other ideas?

How very cool is THIS GUY?!! This photo was from my Master Gardener class last week on Entomology. Yes, he is as big as he looks compared to the other insects! Not a very focused picture though, took it with the iphone. I need to start bringing a real camera to school I think!

I never imagined I would have a second flush of toddlers in the Black Swallowtail Daycare! I was looking at my fennel the other day and there were at least 20 on there ranging in age from the 1st instar stage all the way to full-on caterpillar action! I have recently found a bunch more on the dill in my raised bed garden, but since that is the last of their food reserves out there I am leaving them to it, there is gobs of dill so they should leave all my other stuff alone.

The next few days will be spent doing fun stuff in anticipation of our Harvest Party Saturday. You know, the usual... flinging blood on tablecloths, stabbing scarecrows with knives, calculating how much booze needs to go into the bloody punch bowl... good times! I hope to get some pics when when we do our "trial run" Friday night, just in case The Ghostess with the Mostess has a little too much punch and forgets to take pics during the party, lol!

Fall Days...

Have I said how much I love Fall? No more disgustingly humid days with 100+ heat indexes, mosquitoes are fewer and the garden chores can be done at a slower pace and be enjoyed - the well behaved fall veggies are a stark contrast to the hyperactive summer tomatoes and such! Every day I can't wait to get into the garden now and work, but find it difficult to watch my $$ since it's easy to go overboard planting new things now that I have time to spot all the bare patches in the perennial garden!

I just finished week 3 of Master Gardener training, and am loving it! It is nice to meet so many people who share a love of growing things, whatever their specialty is. I come home after every class ready to tackle some forgotten project I had going, lol!

I spent the whole afternoon in the yard today cleaning out "my shed" (hubby has his own!) and was inspired to actually sow some seeds in flats. It seems like yesterday when I was so tired of tomato and other seedlings all over the place, how soon we forget the pain and only remember the pleasure. Good thing, or no one would ever do it! Here a few pics shot this evening:

Mums again!

Montauk Daisies are blooming now - love these since they bloom from now until past Thanksgiving. Mine were planted 4 years ago when my young Crepe Myrtle trees weren't shading anything yet, but I am sure you can see they are suffering in the shade now. They will be dug up and moved into a sunny location. They are normally about 3-4 ft wide, and 2 feet tall!

Flats of pansies I got yesterday for a STEAL! They were $5 per flat on a clearance cart at a big box store since they needed deadheading .... what, lol??? Needless to say, I bought 3 flats!

The peas are up!

My second crop of Edamame will be harvested tomorrow, and be steamed, salted and eaten with a glass of homebrew by tomorrow night! I think I mentioned before, you need an acre of these to have any to freeze for winter - I was lucky to get 2 crops in this year, but will start earlier, and plant 10 times the amount I did this year.

Every time I walk out the back door, I am now greeted by this guy!

You never know when you may see ghosts of gardeners that have passed before us!

The Haunted Garden is coming along nicely, unfortunately now I am afraid we may scare all the little kids at our party! I am a sucker for campy horror flicks (can you tell I grew up in the 80's?) and can't seem to stop myself! Next hubby and I are going to put a 'dead guy' in our canoe and splatter him with blood with a butcher knife sticking out of him... yeah, we might have to dismantle that one before little kids get here, lol. Too bad we don't live on a lake, I have already dreamed up a classic summer camp theme with floating bodies tied to the dock and overturned canoes and blood spatter on the dock... that one will have to wait until we get our cabin 'up north'! Mama Pea, we will be in your neck of the woods then, so you will be expected at the party! So how about the rest of you? Do you go all out for Halloween or do you lock the doors and turn the lights out and pretend you're not home? :)

Blood Spatter in the Garden?

I have been taking a "burn & blister holiday" since the canning fiasco, but I will make up for it now with a bombardment of pictures! Yesterday was a good day cleaning up the yard and stringing up a trellis for peas. I love fall days when the new garden is immature and doesn't require much work, and the weather is conducive to just hanging out there and enjoying it! We took the kids to "Safety Day" at the local Farmer's Market and got the obligatory fire truck picture:

I also took a photo walk around the yard, and here are the current happenings:

I recieved a bunch of bare twig volunteer Rose of Sharon last spring that I figured would never grow, but here they are on the right, and developing quite a hedge at just 5 months old!! Not to bad for FREE!!

Marigolds perking along as strong as ever!

Last year's potted mums were planted and are coming into bloom

Perfect example of Mother Nature at work... literally over 100 cherry tomatoes sprouting up in my bed of peas, complete with a still red tomato attached! Remind me again why we baby those seed flats so much in the winter, lol??

My first year actually planting my containers on the deck for fall, usually my guests are greeted with assorted dead stuff by Thanksgiving!

Don't get me started on this.... I grew gourds all over my fence so when I have my kids' Harvest Party they are able to pick out and harvest their own gourds to paint - neighborhood kids have been stealing them off the fence and carting them off at the rate of 5-10 per day. This is all I have left. I caught the little ba*%ar#s yesterday and told them they were for a party and now there weren't enough for us to invite the whole neighborhood... that seemed to have stopped them, lol! What is it about the 9-12 age range? Even the nicest ones seem to transform into hoodlums overnight. No offense to any of you with kids that fall into that range, and I know... my time is coming in just a few short years!

The kids have been begging for me to get started on our Halloween decorating, so this morning we dug out all the stuff from the attic (thank goodness I am OCD, since this was an easy task with all my labeled orange containers, lol) and the kids proceeded to run all over the house with spiders, rats, and anything else creepy they could get their hands on. Thankfully, I snatched the spider web stuff before they could get that crap all over the place! So fifteen minutes later, my organized box was strewn all over the house and the dogs are barking at the fog machine and rubber rats, total chaos! I told the kids it was too early to decorate, but they pointed out to me that it was already Christmas at the stores lol, so I gave in to their demands. I must admit that the older the kids get, the more into Halloween I get! There was a time when all I liked was a simple 'Harvest Display', consisting of straw bales, a scarecrow, leaves, fall wreaths, pumpkins, mums and the like, and I could leave it up all the way until Thanksgiving! Now that the boys are getting old enough to enjoy a good scary display, I am going all out, and I admit that it is pretty fun - my challenge is to be old-school scary, and not give in to the tacky inflatables and all that junk even though the kids seem to love that stuff. I am keeping the front yard 'Harvesty', but am going to do a Haunted Garden this year for our 2nd Annual Harvest Party, a fun social for grownups but with enough activities to keep the kids out of our hair for the evening! The kids get to do Pumpkin Painting, play camping in tents we set up with buckets of cheap flashlights, treasure hunt, etc but it is just a guise to enable the grownups to imbibe in our own creepy punch bowl and yummy apps and get some much needed adult time!

Even though sailor/husband/farmer had to work this afternoon, he went out in the rain this morning to create headstones, signs, etc out of scrap lumber for the kids & I to paint today. I know he was tired and has to work all night tonight, but the kids will remember their dad doing some fun stuff for them! Too often I think what they remember most is either him being gone or getting ready to leave - the Navy doesn't always jive with creating family traditions, but we try to do it anyways! Here are the day's projects:

Headstones courtesy of hubby and his stash of scrap lumber

Miscellaneous crosses in the garden - this area will become a haunted garden over the next few weeks. It works perfectly since it's in the back yard so neighborhood hoodlums can't destroy our fun!

Painting underway: signs for the food table

Signs for the yard

Gravestones maybe only the adults will get :)

Sign for the adult beverage area...

I highly recommend blood spatter as a stress reliever! I did this tonight and was having so much fun that my kids were whining and telling me it wasn't my turn anymore. I couldn't seem to give up the brush... even some neighbors came over to my driveway to see what all the arm throwing and giddiness was all about... try it, you'll see! More on the Haunted Garden as it develops...