The Fruits of Fall

 I have been meaning to post something about our garden since we started it this past May.  That obviously has not happened so I guess better late than never.  We followed the Square Inch Garden book in putting together our 2'X4' garden and have been able to enjoy lots of great produce with not much work (when you use the soil combination they suggest you never have to weed...we really have not weeded the garden once).  Our tomatoes were the main producers and the plants still have tons of tomatoes on them (I hope they turn red before it gets too cold).  We also had a green pepper, basil, a few potatoes, carrots and zucchini.  I have always heard how zucchini produce by the bushel full but it didn't quite work that way for us this year.  The plant made one huge zucchini and then I think it developed some kind of fungus because the end of each zucchini would start to rot before it was finished growing.  Our dying zucchini is the one you can see hanging out of the side of the box.  And no, my children don't usually run around in their underwear and diapers.  Only when we declare it white trash day.

 I have only canned twice this year but I was able to use my garden for one of them.  I found a delicious salsa canning recipe online and used up some of our many tomatoes.  We've been downing this stuff, I think we only have 2 jars left.  I was also able to can berry jam (black and red raspberry mixed) and we love it.  There's just something about homemade jam, it can't be beat.

 I have very limited pictures of our garden, but this is a gem that happened just last weekend.  Every Friday night we switch off babysitting with one of our good friends for a date night.  It works out great because our boys are about the same age and love playing together, and we actually get to go on a date twice a month.  This past Friday the boys got into costume right away and spent half of the night running around fighting the bag guys.  The stealthy Blue Batman is none other than our young Grant and Tate is actually the Spiderman "helping" in the garden.

 Since I'm catching up I have to mention about another quick but fun trip we took about a month ago.  Ryan's sister, Cheryl and bro-in-law, Bart recently moved from West Va to Spokane.  We had to visit them one more time before they moved cross country.  It was great to spend time with them and we will miss being relatively close.

 Bart was awesome to show Grant a thing or two on the ol' guitar. 

 As part of the trip we drove over to Charlottesville, VA to visit Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's famous house and land).  I've been a couple of times and had wanted to take Ryan.  It was a beautiful day to enjoy a beautiful house and a beautiful countryside.

Grant doesn't nap anymore.  So one day I grew suspicious the more quiet he got during his quiet time.  What can you say, it's exhausting being a fireman!