Seeds

Back in November I placed an order for seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I frequent their i dig my garden forum, and had read about Ozark Razorback cowpeas. I *knew* that I had to grow some in my vegetable garden that I am planning and hurried to get them before they sold out. I got in the order yesterday and it gave me gardening withdrawal. I have been poring through other sites looking for the rest of the seeds that I want, and it really taxes my self-control. I know that it is very important to start with a small and manageable area and crop expectation. I don't even have the garden built yet, so I need to be realistic about what to plan.

My main goal was to have a salsa garden this coming year, but my attention wandered and I got a few other things. I grew some Blaushokker peas (they have blue pods) one year in North Carolina and I found some blue podded peas in their catalog. I also love okra, but it's hard to find it that isn't tough already in the store so I picked out some Alabama Red Okra. Since I'm growing Arkansas Traveler tomatoes and Tennessee Beauty strawberries, I thought it would be fun to have a plant that is named after every state that we have lived in. I think for Virginia I might get some Carwile's Virginia peanuts, and there is Carolina Wonder sweet pepper. That leaves me needing Minnesota...not sure what I'll do about that one. :)

I can tell that I'm going to have to rein myself in on a daily basis!

ETA: When I was trying to think of seeds for Minnesota it occured to me that I could grow some sunflowers. Minnesota is one of the main producers of sunflower seeds, and I remember seeing huge fields of them when I was growing up there. Maybe that's what I'll do. :)

Snow!

We got between 1-2 inches of snow last night. The Gnomeslayer woke up at about 6:30 this morning, much to my protesting. I went ahead and got up and got her ready to go outside. Snow here tends to melt off within a few hours so I wanted to get her out while it was still on the ground. She wasn't too impressed with it. She kicked the grass for a bit and patted it with her mittens, but she didn't like it being cold. We went out to the back yard and I was showing her how to make snowballs. We were scraping snow off of the fire pit blocks, unfortunately there was bird poo under the snow and it got all over our gloves. So I called it quits and we went inside. :)

Cotton

One of the things that I find so interesting about Alabama is seeing the cotton fields when they are ready to harvest. It's almost like seeing drifts of snow. It was especially dramatic seeing the white cotton fields with the fall colors in the trees behind them.

We got our first heavy frost last night. I could hardly get it scraped off of the car this morning. Looks like winter is finally here, booo!

The Last Roses

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day, I am spoiled by being able to say that a lot now. We're actually supposed to get some rain tonight and for part of tomorrow. I had to go and water a few things that were looking peaked from their transfer today, in case the rain doesn't happen. It's the first time that I've had to actually water things in a while.

The Gnomeslayer and I went out and she got some tricycle riding time in. I cut down The Mum That Ate Alabama today, and those are the remains in the wheelbarrow. Yes, that's one mum plant. I did some weeding in the front bed and it was amazing how easy it is to keep it up when you have a good setup.

The picture above is my 'Joseph's Coat' rose, and I honestly think that it is one of the best pictures that I have ever taken. The lighting was perfect and I like the angle. The flowers look like they glow.

'Neptune' has a bloom opening on it and it smells heavenly.

'Elle' also has several buds on it.

Rocks

My Gnomeslayer loves rocks. One of her favorite things to do is to pick up small rocks while we are on walks, and we have quite a collection of them. So last weekend when we went to Across the Pond she was in heaven. They have a stone yard there, and I wanted to get some decorative stones to make the little streambed in the back yard. I have some flat gray/silver ones that were edging on the pond, but I wanted some other interesting ones to have on the sides. So we spent the morning climbing around pallets and digging through them to find *exactly* the right stones. They aren't that different, just some differences in coloration and shape that looked neat. I also got some black river pebbles that GS promptly dumped out of their bag when we got home. The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend so I think I'm going to do some work on it tomorrow.

Battle Scarred

Sigh....another notch in the Gnomeslayer's belt.

He fell victim to her while we were chasing the bullfrog around the garden. I think I can put his foot back together with some superglue, hopefully I won't glue my fingers together!

Froggy Bottoms, Take II

We had a very productive weekend, so much to cover. The main objective was to keep working on the backyard garden area since the front is taken care of. The Gnomeslayer and I went to Across the Pond yesterday, and picked out some accent rocks for the streambed that we are going to put in. Today the objective was to get the current pond cleaned out, get the filter/pump cleaned out and get the fish ready for the winter.

I will go into a flashback sequence here and say that probably two weeks ago, we noticed some very large frog eyes in the pond. Today we plugged a drain hose on the pump and started draining it out. I had a bucket that we were going to keep the fish in while we got the liner cleaned out. Q started fishing around with the net to try to catch them as the pond went down. We have four ornamental goldfish in the pond. He caught the first pretty quick, but then was having problems because some of the edging stones had fallen in the pond. So I got on the pond gloves and started to pull them out. There were a couple of times that I must have brushed against the fish before I got the rest of the rocks out. And then Q said "What the *bleep* is that? I looked down and there was a bullfrog peering up at me. Now our "pond" is 40 gallons. A bullfrog in a 40 gallon pond doesn't leave room for much else. GS took that opportunity to grab a slimy rock from the side of the pond so I took her in to wash her hands. While I was gone Q kept trying to catch the frog. As we were walking back outside, he netted it and brought it over to show me. I grabbed the camera to try to get a picture. The frog hopped out of the net and started hopping around the patio. He doubled back and landed on my foot (which wasn't covered since I was wearing moccasins). I will admit, I shrieked like a little schoolgirl, which must have really made our neighbors wonder about me. He hopped through the garden area and lodged himself between the fencepost and a slat on the fence.

We finished up our work and discovered that three of our fish were missing. To be honest I wouldn't have thought that a bullfrog could have eaten fish that big. When we got finished I went in and looked through my water gardening books and lo and behold, discovered that bullfrogs will eat anything that they can stuff into their mouth. This includes goldfish, mice, small birds and frogs smaller than themselves. I didn't want the bullfrog to get back into our newly cleaned pond, so I went to pull him out of his hiding spot. Unfortunately he wasn't cooperative, and his belly was pretty big, probably full of our goldfish that he was digesting. I ended up having to push out on the slat and keep poking at him to make him move. I finally got him, and went to hold up my prize to show GS and Q. In retrospect I should have had him get the camera and take a picture but it was getting dark and I wanted to get him moved. He took a big (assisted) hop over the back fenceline. Anyway, that was probably the biggest excitement of the weekend. My poor little fishies...RIP.

Monte Sano Visit

We spent the morning up at Monte Sano park, and enjoyed the beautiful fall day. The colors have already peaked but there was still plenty left. The Gnomeslayer got to kick around leaves and pick up sticks and rocks. It was a fantastic day. :)

Fall

I was finally able to get outside and get something done today. I took some pictures but haven't gotten around to downloading them. It was a beautiful fall day - the sky was clear blue and the sun was shining. It was cool outside, especially in the shade. I took the Gnomeslayer outside with me, so that she could get some sunshine and exercise. We started with a wheelbarrow ride to the backyard. I finished digging up all of the plants that were going to be moved to the front yard. I was able to get them all up, with only a few minor interruptions. Mainly when I had to do a highspeed chase across the backyard when I realized I hadn't closed the gate and GS found it open. Running in steel-toed gardening boots isn't that easy. ;)

All of the plants moved to the front got planted, the beds cleaned and the mulch laid down. I still need to go sweep the sidewalk, but ran out of daylight and energy today. The backyard garden is mostly empty now. I need to move the plants that are staying and rearrange the beds. I also need to drain and clean the pond. I was going to move the unwanted plants to the back fenceline, but when I got there to plant everything I decided that I was going to get rid of them and plan out what I want to plant back there when I'm ready. Also, the fence was built right in front of the treeline, and there are roots everywhere. I think I'm going to have to do raised beds along through there. So everything is getting tossed into the compost pile. I've seen the results of putting together plants haphazardly and not planning, and I intend to do better next time. :)

So I hope that everyone else had a productive gardening weekend. I baked some gingersnaps yesterday and think that I need to go sample a few!

Heavy Lifting

After the false hope of an extended forecast that showed sun for all of this weekend, the sun finally came out today. Friday and Saturday were both overcast and chilly, with heavy showers on Friday. To say the least it was depressing, although we did get some work done in the house. Having to wait until Sunday to get outside work done usually means that it won't. Friday and Saturday are our errand and shopping days, and Sundays we usually relax and laundry is about as productive as we get. After taking a long nap this afternoon I finally headed outside to get some work done. This time of year it's almost like a scavenger hunt in the garden, trying to see what is left blooming. Today I found blooms on the honeysuckle (above) and the Veteran's Honor rose (below). Veteran's Honor has been such a workhorse, and the blooms are do dramatic and fragrant. It has a place of honor (no pun intended) in the front flower bed.

My main objective today was to get the boxwood bushes moved from the front flower beds so that I can finish moving the plants from the back garden that I need to move. At least the ground was pretty moist, so it made it easier to pull them up. The soil here is very heavy clay, and digging up the bushes is hard because the root balls are so heavy. I'll be lucky if I'm able to move tomorrow - wrangling big prickly bushes with heavy rootballs can suck the energy out of you. I took the bushes and placed them along the back fenceline. So now that the bed was cleared of the bushes I moved the camellia and azalea in. I moved the Gingersnap rose in front of the garage, and moved Welcome Home to the middle of our bedroom window. I'd wanted two roses there, but Gingersnap ended up being a very short rose so the display was lopsided. I've come up with a tentative plan on what to do with the pond in the back, but I have to get everything moved out of the beds there first. So here's hoping for a sunny weekend next weekend!

Cleaning Up

We had some more rain for the last few days. It ruined my plans for getting a lot more garden rearranging done. We even had the tornado sirens go off and had to visit the closet in our bedroom. :) Today started out overcast and didn't look too promising, but ended up being a beautiful afternoon. So I took out the Gnomeslayer so that she could ride her tricycle and get some sunshine, and then we went for a walk. When we got back in, I left her with Q and then went outside to get some work done. I am trying to get everything done, slowly but surely. Joseph's Coat is putting on a beautiful display to end the year with, and I got a couple of good shots. I had to stand on tip-toe and hold up the camera to get them, so I'm surprised that they turned out at all.

Today my mission was to evict Lady Banks from the garden. I really didn't want to, I love the flowers on it. Unfortunately it only has flowers for a week or so, and then nothing for the rest of the year. It started going crazy and hanging over the fence into our neighbors yard. Aiyana mentioned that the plant gets heavy and needs lots of support, and I agree with her - too much work for me to put up with. So I waded into the corner it was growing in and scalped it. I have a huge pile of vines to get rid of. ;) I did make an interesting discovery. We knew earlier in the year that a bird had made a nest in the corner of the fence. We were never able to see it, but we saw mama flying in with worms in her mouth. Here is the nest.

The butterscotch jessamine is covered with buds that have started to open.

Elle has a couple of saved rounds left.

Birthday Cookies

One of the ladies that I work with makes cakes for everyone's birthday. So when it comes time for her birthday I make her cookies - I am not much of a cake baker. She had surgery not too long ago, and wanted cookies that were soft and chewy, without much sugar or nuts, oats and dried fruit. I originally planned on doing some snickerdoodles, but since they didn't turn out too good last time I made them, I thought about looking for something else. One of the problems is that since she couldn't have a lot of sugar I planned on using baking Splenda. I am not a fan of artificial sweeteners at all and haven't ever used it, but I didn't think that it would be as good in a cookie that depended on the sugar for so much of its flavor. So I was looking through the Baking Bites blog and found this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Fudge Cookies. I thought that having some more complex flavors would help hide the Splenda. Instead of pumpkin I had some babyfood jars of pureed sweet potato that I have been using for making cornbread with. I also had to mix my own Pumpkin Pie Spice since I don't own any.

I ran into a complication as I started baking the cookies. As I mentioned before, I hadn't ever baked with Splenda and thought that it could be treated as sugar. The recipe calls for you to melt the butter and add it in with the sugars and cocoa. When I poured the melted butter on top of the Splenda it caused it to clump together. I used a whisk to help break it apart as much as I could, but there were still some lumps in it. I figured I'd go ahead and bake them and see how they turned out, and if it was a disaster I could bring her some cookies in next week. When I pulled the cookie sheet out of the oven, the Splenda clumps had melted and dripped a bit, but it didn't look too bad. I bit the bullet and tried one of them, and it wasn't too bad (although Splenda lingers around in my mouth for a long time). I want to try to make it again using real sugar to see how it turns out. :) Definately a bit different cookie, more of a grown-up cookie since it isn't too sweet and some kids might not like the spicy flavor.

A Day of Rest

Yesterday we had a very productive day. We headed over to Lowe's early in the morning to pick up some mulch and landscape fabric. While we were there I found some Tiny Asiatic Ghost Lilies in the seasonal clearance area and had to pick one up. It's a really beautiful color, which doesn't really show true here. I haven't had much luck with lilies in my gardening career, so maybe I can change that. I thought that I was very restrained for only buying one plant, since I haven't done much nursery shopping this year. I think it was only the fact that DH was along that kept me from getting more. ;) That and the fact that we are dismantling my back garden and I'm already going to be trying to find room for everything. It was a perfect fall day, cool and sunny with no rain in sight.

Joseph's Coat had a stray bloom on it.

The mums are still blooming.

Today on the other hand has been an inside day. It has been overcast and raining since we woke up this morning. I'm glad that we didn't put off doing the garden work until today or it would have gone undone again. So we were working on getting some housework done and I spent a large part of the day reading If You Give A Pig a Party to the Gnomeslayer. It as a good day to not have anything to *have* to do outside. :) I also made a big pot of chili, so we'll be eating good for the next few days.

Deconstruction

We have been enjoying beautiful fall weather over the last few days. Yesterday I finally got to go out and do some gardening. When we first moved here I missed my old garden so much that I hurried up and made up a garden in the back and planted plants in the front flower beds. Since then I decided that I wanted to have a kitchen garden in the back where the scree garden is. I have to find homes for all of the plants back there in the front beds. Some of the plants aren't very mannerly, so I'm going to plant them along the back fenceline.

Yesterday I started deconstructing the garden in the back yard. I dug out the boxwood bushes in one of the front beds that came with the house. The bed has been a neglected spot since we got here because the things that I planted there never took off, and I didn't ever get around to tweaking it. So yesterday I dug up everything in that bed, and moved these plants in from the back garden: Angel Face rose, iris fulva, louisiana water iris, pentestemon, coerepsis and bee balm. Today I'm going to bring over the hen and chicks and the Nile Crane daylilies. My goal was to get one bed finished this weekend and work on the others next weekend. I'm going to move some of the other plants to the back fenceline too, the ones that are less mannerly and wouldn't do so well in a front yard flower bed. I was happy to finally get working on this because it was raining for the last month or so. :)

Drying Out

We finally had a day without rain!! I could hardly believe it. When I went outside, it was really steamy and buggy. Lots of mosquitoes flying around, I assume from all of the standing water that's been around. I had lots of plans for what I wanted to do today, but the ground was really too wet so I had to put them off yet again. We went for a drive today and it was a perfect pre-fall day. The sky was sapphire blue with white puffy clouds. Thistle down floated through the air, and stray yellow leaves blew down off of the trees. Little yellow butterflies fluttered around on the plants. The Mum that Ate Alabama started blooming over the weekend. It is currently about the size of four or five regular mums. It was a really nice day. I made a new recipe for dinner tonight, Brat, Beer and Cheese Soup. Talk about a perfect fall soup, though not the healthiest. :)

Snickerdoodles

It's been a really quiet, relaxing weekend. It's been raining all weekend, and we haven't left the house at all today. That's actually very strange for us, because we're usually either running errands, going to get some food, getting some coffee or pastries or just getting out of the house for a drive. Since the concert is in town all weekend and it has been a monsoon outside, there was no temptation to leave.

This morning started out slow. I heated up some of the leftover pumpkin pancakes I made last weekend. We got a lot of housework and decluttering done. For lunch Q made some Beef Picadillo, and then the Gnomeslayer and I took a nap. I made Pork Schnitzel from Cooking Light for dinner and it turned out pretty good. I agree with most of the reviewers that said that they didn't call for enough oil and you have to add more to make it brown right. The cabbage/noodle mixture was really good though. Then afterwards GS and I made some Snickerdoodles. She's too young to really understand what she is helping with, and most of her effort was taken up with sticking her finger in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and licking it. I'm not sure what to think about this recipe. It appealed to me because there was no shortening in it. The dough ended up being to dry, and the cookies took longer to bake than the recipe called for. The second and third batch didn't even get done all the way. I'm not sure what the deal is, but from reading the reviews some had it come out perfect and some had similar problems. I have to make another batch next week and I'm not sure I'm going to use this one.

Chuckles Goes for a Ride

Today started out as a very peaceful, quiet day. I woke up with a slight fever this morning and wasn't feeling very good. The Big Spring Jam concert is going on all this weekend in Huntsville, so it isn't a good time to be trying to get out and do anything. We'd planned to get groceries and stay around the homestead for the rest of the weekend. We just finished eating supper, a Tater Tot Hotdish recipe that I've been wanting to make for a while. I was cleaning out the skillet, and Q cleaned up the Gnomeslayer and was picking her up to carry into the living room. As he was carrying her by the tank of Chuckles, our betta, she kicked out her food and knocked the tank onto the floor. I was standing frozen by the sink, watching as the wave of water, plastic aquarium plants, aquarium gravel, and ultimately Chuckles washed over the kitchen floor. I grabbed a cup from the cupboard and filled it with water. I had to scoop up Chuckles and get him in the cup. Q ended up mopping up the water while I got the tank set back up and he is back in the tank hiding behind the plants. Poor guy, he had just gotten settled in from the big move when I brought him home from work. He just started blowing a bubble nest again yesterday, which is what male bettas do when they are feeling happy and secure. Ahh well, all's well that ends well, and I don't have to add another notch to the Gnomeslayer's belt. :)

Caramelized Onion Bao

I've had a recipe in my trial folder for a long time now. It was from a Cooking Light magazine and it was Ming Tsai's recipe for a vegetarian Chinese steamed bun (here's a link where someone has it posted, I'm too lazy and it's long). My husband and I are very fond of steamed buns, although when we made them before we used some frozen bread dough or something like that. I have always had an aversion to making things with yeast doughs, they haven't ever turned out for me. But I decided that I wanted to try this recipe. When we went grocery shopping yesterday I got all of the ingredients.

I set out this afternoon to make them. I couldn't find the Chinese Black Vinegar at our supermarket, so I had to substitute some vinegar that I had on-hand. I got the filling made, and then set out to make the bread dough. This time I made sure to check the temperature of the water before I put the yeast in. The kneading and resting went well. I filled the buns as directed and let them rest in the refrigerator for two hours before I cooked them. The buns turned out in perfect form. The bread dough was perfect. The problem was the filling. I know that I didn't have the exact vinegar called for in the recipe, but the filling turned out PUNGENT. I still smell like it. My stomach is upset for sure. So I think I'll keep the recipe for the bun and experiment with other fillings. Or I might adjust the filling recipe, and try to get some black vinegar on my next trip to the Asian market.

Anyway, the important part is that I made a yeast dough, and lived to tell about it. Woohoo!! :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Seriously, I know that rain is good, but come on!! It seems like it has been raining for the last two weeks. Mushrooms are taking over my yard and my garden. I want to go outside and get some work done, but it is RAINING!! So for the last few weekends I have been working on decluttering our spare room. We are getting ready to set up the Gnomeslayer's bedroom, and we're going to have to do some rearranging of rooms. But before I can do that, the spare room had to be emptied out.

I have a confession to make. I come from a family of hoarders. When I was growing up, our room was always a terrible mess, because we were never made to get rid of anything. Most of the time our house was so messy we couldn't have people over. I grew up to be a cluttery adult, and it took a whole lot of embarassment and determination to break out of that cycle. I have swung to other extremes and am very much into the simplification movement. When Elaine St. James came out with her 101 Ways to Simplify Your Life book in the 90's I had an epiphany and learned how to control the things in my life instead of letting it control me.

So flash forward to now. After having the baby, we ended up moving a lot of the things out of the common areas to help with the child-proofing. Then I went through our big bookshelf and culled out about half of the books. They got moved into the spare room too, waiting to get taken to the library bookstore. Then I went through my closet and got rid of clothes that I didn't wear or were too small for me. They also went into the spare room to get taken away. Ditto for various knick-knacks that I have been lugging around with me for a long time, because someone gave them to me. I still had a unicorn blanket from when I was a teenager that I finally decided that I could let go of. There are a lot of things that I had, more out of habit than real desire to keep them. So I got it all bagged up yesterday, and this morning it got taken to the Salvation Army and donated. The SUV was packed full, and I couldn't believe that all of that stuff had come from our house. ;)

I've been watching the "Hoarders" show on A&E for the last few weeks. It reminds me a lot of when I was growing up. My grandpa was definately a hoarder. He had outbuildings stuffed full of cardboard and banding materials that he picked up from the local box factory. There were outbuildings full of discarded books that he brought home from the library. If he would have had the choice of this junk or his kids, I'm pretty sure that he would have chosen the junk. It's watching that show that made me even more determined that dysfunction not be passed along to my daughter. People in my family still suffer from obsessive hoarding. I haven't been in my mom's house for 8 years now, because of her obsessive animal hoarding and the environment there. So watching other people struggling through their problems helps give me ideas on what might help her. BTW, if you need any motivation at all to get up and do some housework, I strongly recommend watching that show (it isn't for the faint of heart sometimes). I haven't watched an episode yet that I didn't have to get up and declutter something or clean something in a commercial break. :) You can even watch episodes online here.

And just so this thread isn't too depressing, here are some pictures of my asters. They have been blooming like mad this week. :)

Rainbow

I caught this rainbow while I was looking out the front door today. It was a perfect rainbow, both ends were in big, puffy white clouds. I caught it right before it stopped sprinkling. It looks much less dramatic in the picture. :(

New Resident

I discovered this new resident of my garden today when I went outside. Unfortunately her web is built backwards, with her on the inside so that it was hard to get a clear shot. I had to do some creative climbing over bushes to avoid destroying her web. This is what it looked like standing on the path behind her. Not a very good shot. :)

I did a quick inventory and found that Angel Face has bloomed again.

Laura Bush is blooming too.

And there was a guest in the garden today, hope it stays away from the lady at the top. :)

Earlyworks

Today we took the Gnomeslayer to the Earlyworks children's museum downtown. It's good to get her out sometimes so that she can run amok somewhere besides our house.

The museum features many exhibits that are both educational about Alabama and early American history, as well as some that are just fun playtime.

There is a giant talking tree that tells stories from back in the Civil War days. Today he told us the story of the "Knee High Man that wanted to grow sizeable", and how he went to a Horse, a Bull and an Owl to get advice. He finds out that it isn't your physical size that is important, it's how big you think.

There were exhibits that detailed Native American culture, African American culture, architecture, handicrafts, transportation, mining, farming and commerce.

There was also a play area that had a tank with floating fish and ducks, a post office, grocery store, garden, chicken coop and puppets. This is our favorite part, because it keeps GS occupied for a long time. It's definately a great place to go when we need to get out of the house for a while. :)

Brooms

I figured that I would take a break from lots of pictures of flowers with raindrops on them and talk about something else. Back in the late 90's we went back to Arkansas for a visit and while we were there we stopped by the Ozark Folk Center. One of the things that I was fascinated by was the brooms that one of the crafters was making. They are truly works of art. I picked one up, and for years it was the broom that I used to sweep our floors. Now we have updated to a Swiffer sweeper and don't use it, so I have it out on the back porch to sweep off the patio. It has stood up remarkably well, at least until the GS discovered it and started playing with it every time she went out in the back yard. It has been left out in the rain a couple of times now, but still does the job. Next time we head up that way I will have to see if I can find another. :)