Mmmmm....and other stuff...

On the "good news front", the corn from the garden was really yummy this year.  The bad news?  There seems to be only one ear.  Tonight we cut it into fourths and we each had a tiny, yummy bit of corn. IM says that next summer the garden "needs more sheep poo compost".  Sure.  Whatever...

The tomatoes are starting to be ready and the cucumbers, carrots,  and peppers continue to grow.  Today I harvested the smaller bucket of potatoes--I wasn't thrilled with the harvest...not many potatoes...but the soil was really wet, and I think they like drier soil...maybe next year we'll have to put the buckets further from the sprinkler.  I have high hopes for the big bucket though...high hopes...I'll just keep singing the "Potatoes in a Bucket" song....

Other than last weekend's pickles I haven't frozen or canned much either--
Kind of makes me sad when I see Zucchini being used for games like "toss the zucchini" and "zucchini car crash" on facebook...I want to say, "no, no! Freeze it!  Dry it!  It will be good in the winter!!!! Give it to the food bank....Ack!  Stop playing with your food!"


Also this weekend, IM started using some of the pallets from our landscaping projects (to make room for more pallets next summer when we "do" the side yard?).  This buffet/bar is his first creation--he says it "sucked up a lot of paint-he had to go back to the store to get more...the next pallet project will probably be a freestanding flower box thing....something to cover up the electrical box in the "secret garden" because we moved the bistro set (keep reading).  The problems with the pallets are 1. They are not made of good wood (duh?) , so they are super splintery and it is possible to get "death splinters"  (not kidding) 2.  It is super challenging to break them apart, due to the crazy spiral nails (yes, we know, use a "all saw") 3.  They suck paint...4.  They are crazy heavy. But it was fun to make something out of them that is useful...now we have to find a way to create a custom screen (like at an old drive up window) for that window, so we can just pass things out from the kitchen and still keep the cat in and the bugs out.



While The Boy sold Cub Scout popcorn at King Soopers (want to buy some?) for four (yes, four) hours, I browsed the "clearance" plants--found a strawberry plant in a hanging basket for $2 and a big basket of mums for $5.  The mums are particularly awesome, because they are identical (except for more dead blossoms) to the $17 baskets of mums...score!  A little pruning by me and my bargain basket is ready for the new patio.



 The new patio, with the clearance mums, basket of strawberries (hidden behind bistro set) and the old bistro set (from our first Denver apartment...awwww)

The yard is looking pretty good!  My hummingbird friend has been at the feeder a lot lately--he is a pretty little guy--I hope he has his winter plans ready, we hear it may be snowy this year (blah).  The tarp is left from painting the buffet/bar and harvesting the potatoes...it is back in the garage now

 These are some of the wildflower mix that IM spent all summer telling me were weeds--don't they look pretty?  I mean, they might be weeds, but they are pretty weeds!  And now that they have flowers, there is a good chance that I was right and they are really the wildflower mix that I think I planted!

 Ack!  The catnip has spread to the flower boxes...it is taking over....

 The last three pictures aren't very clear, I was laughing so hard I didn't get good pictures.  A couple weeks ago our pets, the dynamic quadruplets, managed to rip the screen door again.  Fan.tas.tic.  So, we tried to fix it and realized that the screen needs to be re-done, and that just wasn't going to happen this weekend...so we put a baby gate across it.  Indy, the wonder dog, went outside, and apparently we weren't moving fast enough to let her in...so she used her little velociraptor claw, moved the screen, pushed the gate over, and came in.  Liberty, of course, could not figure out how she did it, and stood by the door, waiting to be let in (ironic, since she is the one that broke the screen in the first place) while Alice The Cat hovered behind the curtain, preparing to make a fast break..

By the time I finished laughing, these two had flopped down (notice the identical poses) to contemplate their next foray into chaos.

Never a dull moment around here.