A Day Off... to ICE SKATE!!

At 11:07 last night, we got the "no school tomorrow" phone call. This morning, Ron came in and said "Get your skates!" So... here we are....
Buster came to check on us a couple times, but he wasn't very fond of the ice.

Ron was showing off...

Isn't he cute?

So... I had to try too...

But I'd have to say I'm much more comfortable with BOTH my feet on the ground!

An upper view of the tennis-court-turned-ice-skating-rink... with Ron and some of his projects (a.k.a. junk) in the background.

Falling for fall... again...

I love the crisp air of fall... and the beautiful colors of the leaves....

And although I miss the hummingbirds and swallows, we begin seeing some different birds frequenting our backyard and feeder. Here is our year-round dove (right) and a Northern Flicker (left).



Other beautiful colors come in the form of mums....


I had read where you're supposed to keep them trimmed back till mid-July so they don't get too big and/or bloom too early. The green I cut off was so nice and pretty, I wondered if it would grow too, so I stuck it in some water... and roots began to appear. Now we have two pots of mums instead of just the one I bought last year. How cool is that?!

It always seems like the garden (especially my peppers) look better than they have all year-- about the time the weatherman starts talking about frost. This year the tomatoes were still growing like crazy too. At least I have several bags of each in the deep freeze for winter!

I also replanted some lettuce hoping for some fresh fall salads. (They've been delicious so far!) That's our third patch of pole beans behind the lettuce and herbs. Blue Lake pole beans are the best if you want my opinion!

The bees have been busy too... trying to get that last bit of pollen.

This was taken October 25... no freeze yet, but it's in the forecast. We're getting ready. Today we got the gourds down and hung to dry (after these pics were taken). And notice the box on the right? Ron built that over the lettuce. Hopefully we'll be eating it all winter now.

A closer shot of the cold frame

This is the backyard where we planted 8 snapdragons a couple years ago. They come up everywhere-- and make it through the first few freezes. It's now mid-November and they look even better than this photo. Maybe I should take a new one. (This photo taken Nov 1-- It looks better enlarged.)

Changin' the Face

Saturday evening, Ron said it was time for the awning to come down... so here's the last photo of it still attached... Breaking free...

Buster had to check it out...All done... for tonight....

Comin' Down!

Ceiling tiles down...


Flooring up...




2x10's out....

How the Garden Grew... in June 2008

Well, it's been a month since I uploaded these pictures and said "more info coming... only had time to get the pics up so far... " And now, looking at what's here, I'm guessing there's not much excitement to the average viewer... However, I'm not big on deleting things especially after waiting (and waiting... and waiting...) for the uploads to finish... Plus, I really enjoyed watching the garden grow (which is why I took too many pictures in the first place), so I'm at least leaving it for me. :)

June 7...



After we used up all the ground we'd prepared and even given away some extra plants... we still had more. We decided to put them here. This is the spot that would be much better covered in concrete at the edge of our inground pool... but until that day comes, we can grow some food here. Planted tomatoes, peppers, and watermelon. (June 12)

June 20...
We added some extra wire for the beans and an old satellite dish for the birdhouse gourds to climb.

Snapdragons came back in the old garden spot. We'd never had any this coloro before... and the dill flowered early, adding some extra color to the garden....
June 23... a view of all three spots...

A yardlong bean bloom

June 30...

The birdhouse gourds...