Lately: Fall 2014

Happy Sunday!

I thought I'd throw in an extra post this week, just for fun. Plus, it's Sunday morning and I don't have much else to do. The hubby worked last night and as such, is snoring lightly while he naps on the couch next to me. The dogs must be exhausted from guarding the house all night in the hubby's absence because they are passed out as well. Why not sneak in a little blogging time while the rest of the house slumbers? Here's what's been going on lately-

The hubby was synching his phone to the computer after the latest IOS update, and we discovered he had a bunch of photos from when my parents came to visit. I thought I'd share a couple that he took. This one is one of my favorites. Am I a baby? Or a turkey? I can't decide. 

Dad signing the Oregon plate at Hillbilly Hot Dogs.

Family baseball night. Dad making contact with the ball.

This picture makes me laugh, I'm not sure what I'm doing. The hubby commented that I look like I'm doing the Heisman poise. Maybe??

We've still got Sam the Cat living out back. He's gained a decent amount of weight, and still doesn't appear to be leaving the yard. He's become a backyard fixture, I've gotten quite used to him. He's such a good natured cat. I still wonder where he came from.

He loves the sun, he loves to play, and he especially loves rolling around on the cement of back porch. He's not so fond of the dogs, who still haven't learned proper cat socialization yet. Surprisingly, Gizmo is adjusting faster than Haloti. 

But Gizmo still loves to watch Sam out the back door and bark at him. I haven't shook him of that habit yet.

Well, it's fall here so the garden is pretty much done. I say pretty much because I still need to gather what green tomatoes are left and then compost the plants. I've turned what's left of the lettuce out to the wildlife, all the jalapeños have been picked, and my tomatoes look like this-

Pretty much just brown vines. I learned so much this year. I know when to seed next year. I know what I want to grow next year. I know what pests and diseases (ahem, the spotted cucumber beetle, blight, the tomato hornworm, to name a few) I need to combat next year. I'm armed with a list of helpful plants to grow around my garden to attract the right predators. I'm ready, I'm excited, and...  it's still October. In other words, a looooooong ways from Spring :)

One thing I learned this year was the best way to grow cilantro, for us. I started the summer with cilantro starts. I bought 3 and planted them in a row. This wasn't enough cilantro, as I exhausted that supply with 3 batches of salsa. Next, when I went to plant, I only dug 5-6 small holes and dropped a few seeds in each hole. This technique didn't produce enough cilantro for me either, I used it all up with 2 harvests. I finally took a large pot and dumped half a seed packet in the dirt. This resulted in a large, full pot of cilantro. Within 3 weeks. Next year, I'm going to plant a pot and then stagger more pots throughout the summer. The basil and cilantro were the herbs I went to the most. In fact, the herb garden is still going pretty strong-

It's not really starting to brown, either. I love that my herbs are still right out there. Well, except for the basil. I used all that up about a month ago. Which means, the bottom tier of my herb garden is just dirt. One might think it's just dirt, right? Nothing exciting about that. I thought that too, until I looked out in the yard one day and saw this squirrel-

He was furiously burying nuts in yard. All over the yard. I watched him for quite a while. Since I was inside, I wasn't able to get an awesome picture of him, unfortunately. I was shocked when I watched him jump right into the herb garden and start digging where the basil used to be.

Later that day, the hubby and I went to check out the herb garden. The hubby couldn't resist trying to find the hickory nut the squirrel buried in there. To our surprise, we did find it. At the very bottom. The bottom is about 2 feet down, by the way. We couldn't believe how deep the squirrel was able to bury that nut. Crazy! We re-buried the nut, and had a good chuckle over the incident. 

The hubby loves pugs, so I couldn't resist getting this picture to send to him. I was at my sister-in-law's house for her birthday, while the poor hubby had to work. She was dog-sitting for her friends who happened to be out of town. That's a big puggy smile, if you ask me :)

I participated in a 5k last weekend that was my very first trail race. I actually had no idea that it was going to be a trail race, because I'd ran it the year before when it was very much not a trail race. I learned the night before it was a trail race, and I'd chose to make the best of it. I hadn't done any training on trails, mainly because there are none around here, but my plan was to take it slow. Make the best of a bad situation, I told myself. And that's exactly what I did, because I ended up getting 1st in my age group and earning my first medal! It's been a goal of mine to earn a medal, so I'm very proud.

I think I mentioned that the hubby's birthday was last week, and we had the whole family over for cake and ice cream. Here's the whole crazy group, complete with vacant, unhinged gazes.

See what I have to deal with?  :)

I hope you are enjoying your weekend! Have a great week!