Why I Love Fall

No words needed.......

CSA

We picked up our first basket this morning. Little man is psyched.

Winter CSA

After much pleading with Andy, I have officially signed up for a winter CSA from Jericho Settlers Farm this year. And this one is about as local as we can get without growing everything ourselves; the farm is less than half a mile down the road from us. They are a family about our age that farms the land on their own and other local farms and have quite a bit to offer.

This Sunday was an open house/potluck/listen to some great music and meet your neighbors kind of thing. Of course, the thing they failed to mention was that while they said be there by 3:00, no one would actually arrive until 3:45. Oh well, we got to know members of the band (Red Hot Juba) and the people who run the farm while we were waiting. And Little Man ran all over the place and had a great time. Although next year, we are going to show up fashionably late as well :)

Once people started to arrive, we were given a tour of the farm - or at least this part of the farm. They actually farm at 6 different locations in the community. If you look at the background of the picture above, that is called a hoop house. They actually have several of them and that is where our winter greens will come from this winter. If you look below they also house the chickens in the winter time. The chickens were just moved into this particular hoop house for the winter (they live in the field across the street during the summer), which houses tomatoes over the summer, hence all the green tomatoes still left on the ground of the hoop house for them to eat. If you look really closely, you can also tell that the chickens are running at this particular opening because they think we are there to feed them. Little Man was very thrilled by this, as well as by the two pigs we had just seen in the field. They did not move to another field with the rest of the pigs for the winter because they will be dinner a week from now.

After a tour of the farm we settled in for great food and music. Since the members of the band also happen to be members of the CSA, we hung out with their families and one of the wives showed little man how to play the trumpet. Less than 5 minutes later, she handed the spit-covered trumpet to her husband to play. Poor man didn't even know.

And all of this, was surrounded by this........

Stuff

Due to coaching, I have been lacking my 2 hours of peace and quiet on Saturday while little man takes a nap. Unfortunately, I typically return home from races just as he is waking up rested and ready to go. So I apologize to the grandmas in the family about the lack of updates. Read Andy's blog: he still has the nap-time hour to post. So, what have we been up to?

We have been enjoying all the amazing things fall has to offer.... (I see this driving home from work every day!)

The colors are wonderful this time of year.

Raking leaves. OK, so little man actually does not rake them, he throws them, jumps in them, and rides around in the wheel barrow.

Then he takes a nap.

We have been enjoying time with friends; even when things get a little out of hand. One of our friends brought a coconut to playgroup the other night, and none of us really knew how to get it open - even though the coconut itself was labeled easy open. We started with a screw driver and mallet and were able to poke a hole in it and drain the milk out. Oh, and just for the record, straight up coconut milk does not taste good. Did I mention we shared it with the toddlers before the moms tasted it? After a broken plate due to a flying mallet the coconut was taken outside where it was easily opened by one mom smashing it with a hammer. It tasted great, even if the toddlers were not so sure after the coconut milk incident.

We have planted a ton of garlic. They were selling the stuff by the pound for planting. Does anyone know how much garlic that leaves you with for planting? Let me break it down for you: each clove planted produces a bulb of garlic, each bulb had 8-10 cloves and a pound of garlic equals about 8 bulbs. That is a lot of stinking garlic. It smelled great though and I can't wait till we begin to dig it out next year.

We attempted to make butter again using a different recipe. We were able to make whipped cream with it. We're still working on the butter.

And the Grand Finale if you have not been reading Andy's blog. Our first official snow fall was last night. Not enough to to last for very long, but enough to make a nice slushy mess last night.

So............

I have to admit I am not a garden decoration type of person. I like it when my flowers can speak for themselves (I do apologize to anyone who has ever given me a garden accessory and is currently reading this, but you would have figured it out anyway if you were ever looking for it in my garden). I will admit, I do have a bucket and old milk can that were in my garden when we moved in, but they have been a nice backdrop for my daffodils in the spring and the bee balm quickly hides them as summer takes off.

Where am I going with this you ask? Well, about two weeks ago my wonderful husband(who by the way wants the bucket and milk can out of the garden now!) found an old rusted bird bath and brought it home. In fact he is very proud of his bird bath. Are you getting where I am going with this? Not only do I not want extras in my garden, but I have never been much of a bird bath person. Not that I dislike the robins, yellow finches, wren and several other varieties of birds we have hanging out in our yard. I am actually planning on putting some bird houses just beyond our yard for a focal point into the trees/field behind out house. But a birdbath is a different story. I guess I am asking for some creative advice as to what to do with the birdbath, so my loving husband who will probably edit this post is happy and I maintain the natural zen in garden that I so love.

(Free bird bath saved from the landfill....Some sandpaper and paint and it'll be good to go. Was going to put it in the garden to distract one's eye from the weeds, but now I'll have to find it a new home. -Editor)