A Neat Blessing

We had quite a lot of trouble with our garden this year. In the first place we planted a lot of things late, and some things not at all. Then, with the cool, wet summer, things grew very slowly. There were still scads of green peppers on the plants when the frost killed them. A lot of our winter squashes were very small still when the frost came. Then, too, we had a white mold attack our squashes and melons at the end of summer, killing a number of plants and seriously stunting others. Out of my three "Fairytale" pumpkin plants, sprawling in all their pumpkin vine extravagance over a huge section of garden space, I ended up with one pumpkin. We've had trouble in the past with poor pollination of these and I need to have my act together next year and plant more pollinator attracting flowers in the garden. Or something. Take up beekeeping maybe.

Anyway, I watched that pumpkin get bigger and bigger. The frost came nearer and nearer. It was still green. The skin got darker green after a while, but never turned the deep brown-orange I was waiting for. I had prayed for that pumpkin a lot. I bought a little pie pumpkin when I needed to make spicy pumpkin soup for a party. I kept telling myself I needed to stop at a particular store this week and buy a couple more pie pumpkins because the one was so good.

I got my honey to bring the big, heavy green pumpkin inside. I thought I'd at least try making a mock apple pie with some of it. Nate cut it open for me. Imagine my surprise to see this:

And it smelled delicious too! One of the things I love about this particular pumpkin is that it smells like melon. I'm not a fan of the squashy winter squash smell:) We cooked up some of it and it tasted great. So, I spent two days cooking and pureeing pumpkin. I've got quarts and quarts of it in the freezer! So, hurray for pumpkin pies, and cupcakes and bars and soup and whatever else we come up with.

I also discovered, by trying it, that pumpkin works great as a substitute for the ketchup or tomato sauce in meatloaf, yum:)

We're Back :)

Now for lots of "boring" mundane news of what we've been up to...

On the garden front: I have one large, green pumpkin sitting out in the garden. I don't think there's any hope of it turning orange before the first frost kills the vine. I hope there are some good recipes for green pumpkin out there :) I always kind of wanted to try making pie with it like in Little House on the Prairie. Remember when Ma makes the pie out of green pumpkin and Pa thinks it's apple pie?

I also have heaps of green Serrano chiles. Nate was going to make salsa and never got around to it. I'll have to get him to slice them for me (I Don't like handling hot peppers) and I'll pickle them for him. Though, he hasn't eaten his jalapeno slices from last year. I think he forgot about them.

We missed the fall crop of raspberries. Such a short window compared to spring. And only made two blackberry pies and one jar of syrup. No jam, or anything else. I made one pot of pear butter and froze it in small containers. I started to make applesauce one day and decided to make pie instead. I have six jars of tomato sauce in the freezer and one jar of dried tomatoes. And that's it on the preservation front. I really planned to do much better this year. Oh well.

We tried our first crop of meat chickens this year. I have to say, the processing is not my favorite thing to do (obviously.) But it's worth it to have meat in the freezer. We have lots more to do and will be doing a few each weekend until it's done.

Our "keeper" flock has grown as well. We now have six roosters and eighteen hens. So many pretty and fun boys we have trouble getting rid of them all. So, we need six more hens for the four-to-one ratio that's supposed to be best for them :) Nate really wants some more mille fleur booted bantams (if you find a picture of "Little Red on here that's the breed and color) so we'll probably try to get some eggs from our friends who have them and fill our quota that way. The boys each picked two laying hens to order when we got the meat chicks. Brannon chose "Easter Eggers" which are mixed breed Auracanas, Joshua chose Barred Rocks. I find it fascinating that they both chose the same breeds as last year (I guess I expected them to change their minds :) Sadly their previous hens met sad ends, presumably in predators stomachs. Brannon named his girls "Owl" and "Agmes". Joshua originally named his "Black Eagle" and "Agnes".  Then he switched to "Agmes" and "Agnes". Now the two girls are unnamed because he can't decide what he wants to call them. Now if we can just keep the girls alive through the deadly months of April and May we'll be doing good. I think these must be the "baby months" and the predator moms and dads are extra bold and desperate because we lose chickens in broad daylight when we're all home. It's just when there's lots of new fresh food around and the chickens are eager to be out and about after a rainy, cold winter of sticking close to home or being stuck inside. We're planning to build a covered run for them so we can let them out during the dangerous months and still keep them safe.

Our Madrones and Walnuts have been attacked by web worms this year. Wretched beings. The boys were even willing to forgive wasps for being wasps when they heard that they eat web worms. We cut lots of web worms out to the Madrones that we could reach, and thankfully they didn't hit our fruit trees badly at all, just a branch here and there. (the chickens really liked the branches full of caterpillars we kept dumping up there for them). Our big walnut tree survived pretty well. I've seen several trees in town with no leaves left and web all the way to the ground!!

Nate's been really busy with school while working most weekends. The boys and I are always looking forward to the weeks between terms when we actually get to See him :) He's enjoying working for the fire station. He had a really fun time doing open houses with kindergartners. He said if all public relations were with five-year-olds we would Love to it :D

Winter/Fall Gardening

In the midst of our post-thanksgiving lounging this morning we learned that Grandfather was out working on the garden. We quickly dressed and went to join him. His garden has become rather overgrown the past two years. This year in particular. Last November, a couple days before thanksgiving he fell from a barn roof and suffered a very serious break to his ankle. Needless to say, a lot of his projects have gone with minimal attention. The garden fence was not only suffering rotten posts but at least half of it is/was completely covered in wild blackberries. Today we continued the previously begun project of tearing out parts of the fence and getting rid of some of the brambles. Also we worked on pruning some of the trees. Grandfather wants to expand the area under the protection of fencing, which suits us just fine as we will be using the space as well. There is SO much work to be done, but hopefully we will get around to doing it all and have a nice gardening area ready come spring. The biggest and most important project will be the fence. Around here it is absolutely pointless to have a vegetable (or flower for that matter) garden without a very tall fence. Unless your point was to feed the deer...

Here critter #2 is listening to the flames crackle after Papa has jumped on the pile "to give it more oxygen" :)

Tackling an old plum tree. This tree has gorgeous dark red plums. All the fruit trees are suffering badly from years of not being pruned. None of us know exactly what we are doing. But we dive in with a will. Cutting dead branches and branches that are rubbing against one another is not so bad. Trying to shape the tree and cut out excess branches to leave only the best ones is something of a mystery.

Now Grandfather has the leaf blower out to get the fire going. The boys love to hang on to it and feel really big helping with the fire.

More than once when I was sawing at near-dead apple branches with this beauty, I thought longingly of a man with a chainsaw cutting through the limb like it was butter. But, sadly, no chainsaws were in evidence today.

Learning to tie his boots...

And, last but not least...

Tonight's the night. :) Hurray! Less than 2 1/2 hours to go...