I was shocked!

Yesterday and today was clean up the garage day and put the snow blower away for the year. Elaine said it was way too early. We woke up to snow flakes today with about 2-3 cm forecast. I have been doing it by hand all year so that little amount is really nothing.

I also look forward to the spring seed catalogue coming in. I enjoy looking at all the exotics (Zone 7-8) that we can't plant. We are Zone 2-3.

Well, a seed catalogue did come in and it said "The time to plant is now"

A Working Day

The garden pumpkins have finally ripened on the kitchen table. The biggest one (15 pounds) was sacrificed  and converted to 4 pies.

 I could not get the edges covered in tinfoil. so the crusts are a little dark.

 After doing the 4 pumpkin pies I decided to advance to my frozen sour cherries. These were cut with a knife and the pits removed. I could have used a little more filling, but, what the heck we now have 2 pies from our own tree.

 I guess I will have to tackle the rest of the pumpkins Saturday.

Harvest Time

No, this isn't a harvest moon, but, rather the noon day sun through the (yecht) smoke. It has been almost impossible to take decent photos these last two weeks due to the smoke!

I did try to catch this Red Tailed Hawk, but gave up. The ISO was so high and the smoke so thick this is what I got.

Meanwhile our garden is producing well. We are eating fresh potatoes, lettuce and carrots, also some beets. When you don't have a lot of space, you plant close, and dense. It all works out!

This last shot was from the end of July to show what one month of growing does around here.

Hopefully, your garden is growing and producing well.

Garden Progression

At the start of the year the garden looked a little sparse. This was the first year here for the raised bed plots.

 It kept getting better and better as the year went on

 The potatoes (to the left) grew and grew. It is likely I planted too many as the yield is about 15:1, or about a 150 pounds. That is a lot of spuds for two people!

 They are now dying off at a fast rate.

 The pumpkins and squash slightly over grew the bed! It appears we have 6 pumpkins in the patch. The medium one is 11 pounds, the largest about 25 and the rest around 6 pounds. There are many spaghetti squash hidden in the foliage.

We are fighting nightly frost. It has come close 3 times, but nothing yet. The patch gets covered over at night. There are going to be lots of pumpkin pies once they ripen! I need 2 more weeks of above freezing temperatures, or we will be trying to ripen them in the house.

Surprise!

In this mess of leaves  I found a few surprises. I was rooting around wondering what could be in there, and I found a bunch.

 This big one was completely hidden by the foliage. I cleared some away to let the sun at it to ripen. It is about 14 inches tall, and probably the biggest pumpkin we have ever grown!

 They were all hidden from view.

 There must be about 6 pumpkins and 8 or 9 spaghetti squash. 

I see lots of pies and meals in the near future!

The Dog Days of Summer!

The summer is almost over and the crops are close to being harvested. 

 This  is our pumpkin etc. patch. It has produced far too many Zucchinis and now is getting close to Spaghetti Squash time. (see above) There are also many basketball size pumpkins in there. It is hard to see them due to the foliage. The benefits of well composed horse manure continue to amaze me.

 A trip to the dog park was in order today.Daphne chased the Kong until she dropped, then went for a swim, then back to the off leash section to dry off.

  When her tongue hits the ground, it's time for a rest!

 Brooklyn is, well, Brooklyn. She doesn't run much anymore but still loves to swim

 She has just lost the last of her winter hair. Go figure!

The Garden and Project!

This is a view of the garden that you won't see often. Every thing that we planted has come up and is growing well.

 The reason to be on the roof is a re-roofing job due to the previous owner doing a crumby job. The add on was a flat roof that did not drain causing cracking of the shingles, but no water leaks so far.

 I built the rafters in one day and installed them the second. They will be covered with metal and are guaranteed for 40 years, which might be one or two years longer than I need.

The rest of the roof is more straight forward and won't take long to do. Every body is telling me that I am too old to be climbing around on roofs. That is a negative thought which I am ignoring!

What sort of jobs do you have lined up for the summer?