Garden vegetables’ Thanksgiving plans

Not that my veggies are aware of their fates for tomorrow, but here are the fates I’ve planned for some of them.


sorrel, holes and all, which I'll mince and add to the mashed new potatoes

In addition, we’re going to grill grass-fed bison steaks from Thunderheart. Also, the new potatoes are from Boggy Creek Farm, and the chevre that I’ll mash into the potatoes is from Bryan’s Wateroak Farms—great stuff!


I'll probably throw a little minced kale into the potatoes, too.


Romaine for Caesar salads


Will roast a few baby beets


and will roast a few baby carrots, too

I'm baking my annual pie right now--pumpkin--but I didn't grow any of its ingredients. Will start out drinking some New Mexico Rose bubbly from Gruet Winery then move to Brouilly with the main food--didn't grow any of their ingredients either.

Day 29 house progress

Not that work has been actively performed every one of those 29 days, but it's been 29 days since the whole project started. The biggest carpentry work is almost completed! Crown moulding, trim work, and porch repairs comprise the bulk of the remaining carpentry. When that’s all finished, within ten days I think, the painters resume their work and we’ll get to see some real colors. Meanwhile, the awning covers have been ordered and the awning frames are being repainted.


Today back


Day 5 back


Today east side


Day 5 east side


Today west side


Day 5 west side

Late garden bloggers’ bloom day

My list is a little late—Carol at May Dreams Gardens asks garden bloggers to post what they’ve got blooming on the 15th of every month.


Dwarf pomegranate


Rosemary with a little house paint dust in it


Plumbago


Society garlic


I can't remember what this little shrub with lots of burgundy leaves is, which is pretty embarrassing because it's a pet memorial plant.


Pansies in the vegetable garden


Mexican bush sage is a favorite for bees and butterflies.

Still hanging in there, especially after a thorough hand watering this morning that took a couple of hours, are Turk's Cap, Indigo spires salvia, pink skullcap, purple lantana and verbena, purple ruellia, and purple fountain grass.

Fall vegetable garden update

Despite being so preoccupied lately with house renovations, I’ve managed to keep the veggies fairly happy. I just realized how far behind I’ve fallen on weeding, but I’ll catch up this week. The squirrels somehow got inside the dog fence and ate all the mesclun and buttercrunch lettuces, and now that bed’s covered in weeds. Weather permitting, I’ll weed that bed tomorrow and sow spinach seeds in the lettuces’ place. I’m puzzled but pleased they left the romaine, beets, and carrots alone. Especially the romaine because husband Kurt is a Caesar salad fiend.





The cilantro is still small but I've used the dill when cooking fish the past few weeks. The broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, arugula, and sorrel are all small but doing okay. We also had our first dinosaur kale harvest a few days ago and I sautéed it in a little clarified butter with shallots—nice!

Day 14 house progress

The detached garage is original from 1941 and has been mostly known as “the shack” until now: I think it now deserves to be called a garage again. The carpenters pulled off the old, rotten roof and erected some strategically placed 2”x4”s, etc to shore up the existing structure without messing with the (admittedly showing its age) original wooden board and batten siding.


(before) Detached awnings and old back door are still living in the back yard, along with many paint-covered ladders and miscellaneous pieces of wood, insulation, primer, etc.







So now we still have its original rustic siding but with a non-leaky roof and the confidence the whole thing won’t fall down for quite a few years:



I also looked at some canvas samples for the awning replacements today and the painters have continued to do some spot hand-sanding and priming. I think they’re going to paint the awning frames soon so we can decide on the awning fabric—whoo hoo!

Day 10 house progress

The painters have finished all the major scraping and sanding and applied the first coat of primer. Next they do spackling, more spot sanding, and another coat of primer. The carpenters still have some rotten wood siding and crown moulding to replace, too.




The crooked column will be replaced.



Our original windows are double hung but the tops have been painted shut for many years until they unstuck them—no small feat. I’ve never seen them work this way, where you can lower the top half or raise the bottom half—very cool!