Summer so far

Wow where has the summer gone.  I can't believe it's almost August.

I started summer by falling in the lake on Memorial Day with my phone in my pocket. I hadn't gotten it into the waterproof case and into the Jet Ski compartment before the Jet Ski flipped sending Don and I into the lake.  Really was pretty funny, except for my cell phone. Accidents happen and thankfully I not only had insurance for a full replacement but I got upgraded as well so it worked out better than expected.

Google images

This summer our project has been gutting the master bath and redoing all the drywall, removing a build out and putting in a new shower/tub combo plus replacing the cabinets, counters, tile floor and toilet.  The plumbing was redone as well.  It looks great and took roughly 6 weeks to do.  We hired the plumber's, tiler's and drywall experts but did the rest ourselves.

We also tackled the garden boxes this year by not just weeding and planting but we also put down landscape fabric and mulch.  Everything is growing like crazy this year.  We have lots of tomatoes, peppers, and blueberries.  The grape plant is growing like crazy too but I'm not seeing any fruit yet. Soon it'll be time to make and can up salsa and homemade spaghetti sauce and roast up the peppers.

First harvest today

End of August we fly to Atlanta for Dragon Con.  I can't wait to see all our friends again. One of our friends who live in the area just finalized their adoption for their 2 boys.  I'm thrilled that when we see each other I can congratulate them all in person.  

There are a ton of celebrities and artists I'm excited to see this year so I'll be standing in a lot of lines for panels/photos this year and Stan Lee leading the parade is going to be awesome!

That’s our summer so far.

As Fall tries to approach

It's been unseasonably warm for this time of year but Fall is just around the corner. The leaves have been falling for a couple weeks now but you'd never know it from looking at the trees. That means an almost winter leaf clean-up.
It's also time to dig up the Iris, divide them and get them replanted.

One of the many types of Iris in the yard

I also need to start pulling out the vegetable garden.  I'm hoping our eggplant and tomatoes make it another couple weeks but that'll depend on the weather forecasts. The pumpkins are still growing and I can't wait for them to ripen so I can make fresh pumpkin bread and curried pumpkin soup. Two of our fall favorites. The dogs also eat pumpkin with their dinner every night so they benefit from our garden too. I can't wait to share my love of gardening with our child.  It'll be so much fun to watch them plant their first garden with me.

One of the heirloom sugar pie pumpkins 

 A few of our ripe heirloom tomatoes and a wee eggplant emerging.

August 9th

8/9/14
Don was staining the wood today on the upper patio and the posts and balusters for the steps so tomorrow we can put up the gate and rail supports on the stairs. I dug up the garlic and cut a bunch of pickling cucumbers so I'll be making at least one jar of pickles next week. I'm debating cutting some of the tomatoes and bringing them in to ripen thanks to the bugs.  Organic gardening is painful at times; I've lost at least 8 ripe tomatoes as well as some about to start ripening green ones. I've also lost some eggplants to bugs. :( Such is life when you don't want chemicals in or around your food.