My Autumn Garden

Cooler weather, welcome rains and shorter days; my gardens are changing with the seasons. I was gifted with this little garden pixie from my Mom several years ago and she keeps a steady watch over all things growing in her realm.

Every year I am truly surprised at the early emergence of daffodil sprouts. A Midwesterner for most of my life, I don't expect them to show until spring. I keep an eye open for a lucky 4-leaf clover!

Here grows a pretty little unidentified bush that is bearing tiny, tight blossoms. Finally, this year we have protected it from the ravishing lips of hungry deer.

Mums!

Geranuims, I love red the best. Lavender and pink from last year are blooming also; I need to dead-head today.

Fern and Mums. The fern is thriving in this cooler, moist weather.

This fella became a resident in June, a birthday gift. I unwrapped the package he was housed in, removed him, and wondered if a mistake was made.... 'umm, he is adorable, how cool to get an Elf in the summer.....' Okay then, he is not a Christmas Elf, he is a Garden Gnome, but I think he secretly heads North in the winter.

Summer Produce and Blooms

Darkness creeps in earlier, the night air is refreshingly cooler, rain is falling in the high country and the oak leaves are falling in our yard. Farewell summer, I'll miss you.

August is a hot, dry time here in California. The grass is 'golden' and thirsty.

The pastures lack green grass, our wild flowers are no longer in bloom, in the country our vehicles are dust covered.

In hot, dry, golden, thirsty month of August we witness the Resurrection Lily.

The stalks seem to grow as you watch.

Bright pink Lily blooms soon brighten the gardens.

One short month and the flowers fade away.

The final day of August was one of celebration. My peach crop was ready for harvest. Our second harvest here at the log cabin was 3x greater than last year's crop.

Tristan was eager to pick the ripe fruit while I documented our great success. I battled three major fruit tree diseases this spring, insects all summer, jay birds that ate every single ripe nectarine. One peach tree survived but bore no fruit, but this tiny little tree not only survived, she gifted us with ten wonderfully delicious peaches. Cool!

Peaches in crystal.

Geraniums have been blooming. Maybe no deer will sneak in to eat them this year.

The summer squash are growing well in some very entertaining shapes. Plenty of zucchini also.

Farewell to August but I am glad that September is here.

Our dusty trails are craving some rain......

Winter Gardening

My daughter sent me this and I treasure it as my gardening slogan (plus it is cute). We are beginning our third year of gardening here at the log cabin in the woods. We started with red clay-like pine needle laden soil. Our first veggies were greatly prized but not very abundant.

With hard work, two years of compost, and rich, black, aged horse manure plus a whole lotta luck; we are eating fresh salads with home grown lettuce already. I picked the above bowl of greens this morning.

Amy attempted a winter garden this year. She planted spinach, brocoli and lettuce. Only the lettuce grew.

And it is growing well on the upper level of the garden.

We have a two-tiered vegetable garden. Last year the lower level supported a variety of squash
that grew surprisingly well. Early in the winter I roto-tilled several loads of compost and manure into the lower level, planning to plant squash and melons in the spring.

This is the lower level. Bunches of lettuce have come up without being planted intentionally; must have been from those seed heads I tossed in the compost pile the past two years.

Two weeks later these plants are growing and thriving, no work - all luck.


and as we know... my garden needs all the luck it can get.

Happy Trails to you.

Lovin' October

Shorter cooler days are here. Autumn. Rainy season. Chili, stews, soups and baked goods.

I love October, especially since I don't have blizzards, frozen pipes and icy water buckets looming in my future.

Today will be a long winded, probably too many photos, look at life here at our cabin this month.





I don't really love 'everything' about October. The rains softened up our rock hard ground which apparently our gophers find very pleasing. Mounds of dirt and gopher holes are not my idea of desirable landscaping. However, the cats and Cort are entertained for hours at a time, which in turn entertains me, so not all is bad. They'll even catch one of those bad boys now and then.

With the rains and cooler temperatures we have things sprouting up all over the place. Daffodils are peaking up through the soil, Resurrection Lilies are just showing their green tips, and pictured above are some new plants coming up in a couple of our rock gardens. I am pretty certain aren't just weeds but what are they? Any help with plant identification is welcomed. Thanks in advance.

Several plants are still flowering. My roses continue to be sad and pathetic, refusing to be photographed.

Vegetable production is winding down but the plants look green and marvelous, I think that they love this cool wet weather. The green pepper plants are still proucing blossoms and peppers.

We tried a new variety of squash this year, Patty Pans, and we think they are great. They are still blooming and producing and hiding little ants.

Amy planted a row of radishes a few weeks ago. They are thriving. I had planted some in the spring, they hated the California summer heat and did not grow. Amy also planted a few rows of lettuce at the same time but they have not sprouted. We had lots of lettuce from the garden all summer long and were hoping for a winter crop also. Oh well......

I planted two rows of carrots in the spring, they also hated the hot summer and seemed to just be barely surviving. I didn't give up on them and I have been rewarded with a spurt of carrot growth. A baby carrot! And it tasted wonderful.

This week's colorful bounty.

And then there's Halloween. I thoroughly enjoy decorating with scary creatures. One poor soul greats you coming in the gate, two if you count the dog.

A closer look, he's not one-legged, just angled that way. I would love to have a large stuffed buzzard or two to perch above him. Maybe next year. Perhaps if I tossed chicken livers up there, real buzzards would come pose for me?

Two Halloween's ago this critter was making friends with Dawg the Sheep, now he is Carson's buddy. Cort just wants to find gophers, good Cort.

"Some" in my family have poked fun at her. She is a witch without a hat, I believe it must have fallen in the river on her way here. And her broom, so it's not a typical witch broom, it is better than the vacuum cleaner that she almost rode to our house. I'm not sure if Carson likes the witch or just insists on being part of my scary pictures. Cort's off somewhere digging up gopher tunnels, good boy Cort.

Last week's rains seemed to clean the dust off of everything. Our sky really is this color. Can you just smell the scent of pine on this crisp, clear day? I can....

Oaks are busy dropping millions of leaves and acorns. I should gather the acorns, pound them, make acorn flour, and find some tasty Native American recipes to try.

HAHAHA I crack myself up. I can't even blog more than once monthly these days.


I bet that Jennifer would do it. ;-)

A little reminder of the BIG storm that we had last weeks. Tristan and I gathered this pile of limbs out of the front yard the day after the storm. We didn't lose any trees, just old dead branches.

May you always see the rainbow!

HAPPY TRAILS!

Around the Log Cabin

I'm glad to be home. Working out of town tires me, I don't sleep well. For two weeks I worked at a hospital too far to commute daily, I came home for the weekend only. Now I am home and it feels good. I am working at a clinic an hour away this week. Distance-wise it's not too far, just some of these mountain roads require slower, more cautious driving.

Just a few notes on our recent daily lives;
Tristan catches the school bus down the street, about a 5 minute walk. Last week a mother and daughter walking to the same bus stop, experienced a mountain lion crossing the road just in front of them.
Tristan will be playing in band, his first time playing an instrument, he has chosen the trombone... ( I took accordion lessons for a short time)
We finished my small riding arena yesterday.
The kittens are cats now. Not so tiny anymore.
We finished the permanent fence around the 'lower' horse pasture.

Several trees here on the property bloomed, beautiful Crape Myrtle Trees.

These funny stalks popped up overnight.

There were several in a few of the flower beds. Not sure what they were.

Resurrection Lilies! I love them. They have faded now. What do I do with them? Dead head the flowers? Cut the stalk off at the ground? Can I safely transplant the bulbs? I'd like them grouped together, or shall I leave them be? I need a garden buddy to help me out here!

And today I gathered these lovelies from my garden. Our bounty has not been abundant but I am thrilled with every tiny cherry tomato that ripens. We had potatoes, green beans and Egg Plant Parmesan for supper. yum

Sunday Roping and Gardening

This afternoon we had our second roping practice and lessons. There were 10 horses this time, all in one arena; ropes swirling, horses galloping, the mechanical steer being pulled around by a quad; pure chaotic bedlam. On top of all of the commotion, I wore spurs on my mare for the first time ever. She was in a snit about the spurs and fretting about the constant action. I suffered through several of her bucking tantrums and then we got down to business. It was fun but painful, I twisted my back yesterday carrying boxes and am paying for it today. I am a wimp.

Did I mention that Jerry was worried about not being able to rope when his shoulder dislocated last week? Well he roped. Needing a bit of a break, I reined into the center of the arena to join Jerry chatting with the arena owner. Jerry laughingly says to me, "hey I just had one of those hot flashes like you always have." Huh??? I'm thinking I heard wrong, but then I noticed his cowboy shirt is drenched with sweat. And he LAUGHS as he tells me that while roping, his shoulder just popped out of it's socket and then back again. He says he got really queasy and almost passed out, but just got sweaty instead. I married a freak folks. Because later he takes his turn at chasing and trying to rope wild roping live steers.

Not me, I roped only a tame mechanical steer. We made it home safely. Rinsed off the tired sweaty horses. Jerry cooked dinner. And now we are settling down for the night. The weekend went by way too fast.

I took garden pictures to share. Our vegetable garden is truly pathetic. Very little of the seed we sowed has germinated. I was hoping to avoid pesticides but we have bugs. I hate poisons but we have gophers. Lots of gophers and they have now discovered the garden.
No carrots came up, no beets came up.

We have plenty of cucumber plants now. I'm supposed to thin them to one per spot, but I cannot.


There are three tomato plants and they look better than anything else. I planted romas, better boys, and cherry tomatoes.

This is a very lonely little lettuce. I planted two rows with two types of lettuce. This is it, one...

We have bean plants coming up beautifully, they are feeding the bugs. I can't see any bugs, I don't see any grasshoppers, but those leaves sure looked snacked on to me.

In the past week I have visited friends with marvelous green thriving gardens. I am envious.

One recommended spraying the plants with a mixture of water, dish soap and vinegar. I'll try it tomorrow, if that doesn't work, I am declaring war and will use insecticides.

It sure doesn't look like I'll have to learn how to can excess vegetables this year.

Goals

I posted last night that we had decided to get up earlier each morning to tend to our garden. And here is Day #1, cold and early, we planted carrots, radishes, lettuce, onions, and for some reason, beets. Additional planting tomorrow. It was a good way to start a day, after a cup of hot coffee of course.

Yesterday, Coffee Bean issued a challenge on her blog, righteousbuzz. I decided to play along since it has come at a time I needed a push. My belongings were in storage for a year. Once we moved into the Log House, we emptied storage and piled my boxes in our spaceous garage. The majority of my 'stuff' is unpacked and put away. But a large mess remains. Boxes of items not needed daily. Seasonal things, photos and albums, decorating stuff, and just stuff. There is plenty that needs to be done outdoors and I have just slacked off on the indoor settling in.

I went out this morning and took pictures. Humiliating.....

...an embarrassing mess

But I have taken the challenge and my goal is to have this stuff unpacked and in proper places by the end of May. *gulp* I will keep you posted on my progress.

Not that anyone really cares, but it may motivate me.

Dang, why not plan to drop 50# by the end of the year while I'm on a roll here.

OK, that's enough, three goals in one post is all I can handle. Anyone else care to play along?