Trees Updated

It almost looks like I'm missing a picture between Oct and Nov, but I am not!  This is just fall in Arizona... the leaves quickly turn brown and fall off.  It was a disappointing fall this year.

Pumpkins and Squash

I decided to work in the garden today, since our first freeze seems right around the corner.  I didn't want to lose the few things I knew we had!  I didn't think we had much, but once I started digging around, I was very impressed, especially since our garden was quite neglected this year.  We planted several things, but only the pumpkins grew.  The butternut squash was not planted intentionally by us, I think it came through composting!  I am fine with that though, in fact, I plan to compost these seeds so I can get some more next year.  I liked how easy they were to grow!

I spent some mega time working the two beds and clearing them out.  Do you see that tiny tomato plant in the back bed?

That's one of the things we planted that didn't survive.  I just discovered this plant with 3 whole tomatoes on it!  If it gets too close to freezing at night , I will pick these and fry them up for some fried green tomatoes!  Otherwise, I hope they turn red soon.

I filled 2 dumpsters with our garden debris!  Yikes!

I also sprayed for weeds today, cleaned out the front garden bed, and tomorrow I need to mow the lawn.  When I'm out working, I think about how for years we wished for a yard and years later we finally got one... and then sometimes we wish for a bigger yard, but when it comes to actually taking care of it, I'm glad we have a smaller yard!  I can't imagine caring for anything bigger than this!  In fact, sometimes I miss apartment life where the groundskeepers care for it all!

But the veggies and apples we can grow make it all worth it!

New weaving book, a CD, and Pumpkins!!!

Did you know there was a new weaving book out there?  I saw this book called Simple Weaves on amazon.com the other day and got super excited!  Supposedly it came out this month, on August 1st.  I'm excited to say I ordered it, and it came, and I haven't had a huge chance to sit and look though it in too much detail, but I really like what I've seen so far.  I love the pictures and the projects!  I'll tell you more later when I see more!

It was fun to buy myself something, since the last time I bought anything weaving related was way back in May!  I'm really sticking to my stash-busting and bill paying plan that I made back here on this post!  I just couldn't resist this new book, and also I was able to justify it because it's not part of my stash, it's part of my library!








This new book is written by the same author that wrote the book Favorite Scandinavian Projects to Weave, which is also very awesome:

I also treated myself to this cd... so I can get the free shipping!

I love this pair!  They have such great music!!

Now onto the pumpkins... the gardens haven't done real well this year, mainly because Brian was so busy with work and I was left solely in charge.  As you can see, I spent way more time weaving than gardening!

We do have a few pumpkins for pie, and also a few unknown squashes, I think they are butternut squash grown from seeds from our compost pile.

Really, the garden is a nightmare and kind of sad looking!  Things are dying off, and I'm not sure if it's the time of year or the lack of care it receives!  I truly don't know what I'm doing and have a brown thumb!

Next year, Brian is in charge of the gardens and yard again!  I'll gladly weave from the porch!

As for right now, I'm going to go look at my weaving book some more and enjoy a few moments to myself!

Don't forget the weaving

We decided to try some tomatoes this year, and hopefully it will work out this time!  We've given tomatoes a try in our garden for the last 3 years and have had very little luck.  The back of the seed packet said to start them indoors, so that is what we are doing this time.  We also have noticed our bell peppers haven't done a thing yet, so we started a few more of those, too. 

The pumpkin and lettuce look ready to plant!  I really need to get the east garden bed ready.  Hopefully in the next few days I can find a morning to work on that.

 

They are so cute!!

The west garden bed  is all ready, so we planted carrots on the right this year.  The tomatoes are going to be on the left.

 Brian taught me all about irrigation yesterday.  Very fascinating stuff!

The tree in front has slowly been dying.  We had another one of these tress that died last summer.  We cut it down and planted a pear tree in it's place. 

 Here are some July 2010 pictures of what it used to look like:

 

 So I cut out all the dead branches.

It's really lopsided and dumb looking now. I mean, it's REALLY BAD!!!

So, I decided to just go all the way:

This is your last chance, Mr. Tree!  Did you hear me?  LAST CHANCE!!!

 But the dumpsters are certainly full for this week!  (And next week, too!!)

While doing my weekly weeding rounds yesterday, I found a little cactus hiding in-between some rocks!  I think I'll let him be and just grow!

In non-outdoor news, I have been doing more spinning in the evenings lately.  I am trying out some 2-ply yarn.  I want to weave something with this... a blanket maybe.

My dad got several bags of alpaca from someone at work.  I'm excited to dig into it soon!  I'll have to start by washing it up first.  Zip is seriously interested in that animal smell!  Look at him dig his nose right into it!!

And now some weaving!  Let's not forget the weaving... 

Here's Linda's project getting warped.  We are warping 324 threads at 8 yards each in the lipstick color.

It's so rich in color and luxurious in texture!

 I think the two colors will look great mixed together in overshot!

Linda has a good eye for color!

Onward and upward to tying on 324 ends!!

I'm really looking forward to it... :-)

Garden update

Our garden is wrapping up nicely this year.  We enjoyed our many cobs of corn over  the summer and TONS of zucchini and cute little potatoes!  It was a lot of fun to eat our feasts of garden food.  Next summer we have some big plans to plant more garden in our backyard.  

Our apples are growing a lovely shade of pink and some are even ready.  I've picked a small box full and started to dry them with the dehydrator.  Just a few more weeks and we will be swimming in canned applesauce!!

Garden update

We're not looking so well over here in our garden.  While we were on vacation, something happened.  Maybe it is getting too much water?  We're not sure, but we're kind of sad.

 
We dug up some of the potatoes and cooked them and they were small but tasted good.  Here is a closeup of the plant:

But in the other garden bed, the zucchini are thriving...






Every time I turn around, more zucchini are ready to pick!  It's totally amazing!  We have so many zucchini we don't know what to do with them all!

 

Here's a good recipe for zucchini bread and it made 12 muffins.  I had to double it because I wanted to use an entire zucchini.

1 cup minced zucchini
1 egg
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar (I reduced this and it was still good!)
1.5 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Add all contents to blender and secure lid.  Blend.  Cook in greased muffin tins for 25 minutes.







We also made the Moosewood Restaurant's Zuccanoes. 

 In other garden news, the corn is looking great!

 And the apple trees are getting so big!

Garden update

The garden has grown like crazy lately!  I can't believe how great it looks!

The corn has been corning...

The zucchini has been zuchinifying...

The applies are appling:

The potatoes are potatoing:

The carrots are a little lost in weeds:

And thanks to the bugs for all the help pollinating!

We have 2 cherry trees that produced this year!  These should be ready REAL soon!

And unfortunately we lost two trees worth of peaches to the frosts this spring.  But Brian found TWO peaches just thriving... so hang in there two little peaches!!!

Our garden update

We got the garden planted much earlier this summer than last year!  We did the potatoes first, it seems like a long time ago now, and they are huge!!  There are 17 potato plants:

The Beets:

Zucchini:

Corn:

There are a few more that haven't started coming up yet.  Maybe by next week we will see the red bell peppers and some carrots.


I'm most excited about the 3 trees of apples!  Our first summer in this house, the buds all froze in April and we were so sad.  But this year, they survived the spring frosts and so we shall have applesauce, apple slices, dried apples, apple pie jam, apple pie filling, apple fruit leather, and more!  YAY for apples!!!!