Have I got a fun story for you

 Over the past few weeks I've been slowly ripping out the garden. 

I left the broccoli and whatever flowers there were, for the pollinators. 

I thought I had taken photos when I was cleaning out, but I did not.  Instead my phone was being used as a radio. I did catch this bumble bee clinging to one of the remaining cosmos. 

This year was a first for collecting seeds for hollyhock, calendula and a few other flowers that I started from seed in the last couple of years and some were volunteers. 

Okay, so I've been gradually cleaning out the garden, leaving things out there for as long as possible.  I'm in Zone 3b/now 4a. 

Last week I ended up ripping out everything, digging up the onions (the harvest was a joke/disappointment this year.  Carrots are still out there.  I'll dig those up next month before the ground completely freezes up. 

I harvested the last of the tomatoes and will let them ripen in the house. 

So the garden is pretty much empty.  I realize I keep saying this, but it's true, except for the flowers. 

The flowers I left are by the garden gate, where I'm standing to take this photo, and behind me. 

Also, how beautiful are those trees with the sun beams coming through? 

I think it was that night my son was outside, over by the garden, and came running back to the house, asking if it was all right that the chickens were in the garden.  I didn't give it much thought, actually, I said it was fine, cause it was.  They couldn't do any damage on what was left in there.  It was just some flowers, ground cherries and broccoli plants. 

Well, that one is on me.  Cause the deer discovered the garden was open and ate everything that was left.  Seriously.  They ate all the flowers.  The mowed down what was left of the broccoli, the lone jalapeño plant that was in there.  Hollyhocks.  I'm still shaking my head over that one.  They ate a whole hollyhock plant. 

They also ate the milkweed that was outside of the garden. 

I was like "Wow, really?" Guess nothing for the pollinators and the milkweed seeds were mown down, too. 

I made sure the gate was closed after that.  Though that's kind of like closing the barn door after the cows get out, right?  

We had one last thing in the garden area that is precious and that is our pear tree. 

Since I have been all over the place this past summer I don't think I wrote too much about the pear tree that my husband hand pollinated with apple blossoms. This is the pear tree my sister-in-law gave us.  It fruited for the first time and we had 13 pears on there. We were determined to keep those pears. 

A day or two later my husband and I were out by the garden and I was showing him all that I got done and we were just walking around. 

I don't recall if it was me or him who spotted the blow out in the garden fence. 

We both said "What the heck happened?"  He said it had to have been a deer breaking through.  

You'll notice that it is right next to the pear tree. 

Those bratty deer were bound and determined to get our pears. Have you ever heard of such a thing? The fencing is high enough that it can't be just jumped over, either. 

Somehow those deer got in to the garden and ate the pears and then burst through the fence. 

Oh, but wait, there was one pear left, we saw.  So we decided to just go ahead and pick it. So we walked around to the gate and stopped short. 

This one didn't photograph as well.  The deer pushed in the gate until it opened and walked in to the garden. 

The gate was all pushed in and the fence posts are kinda jacked up. 

While I was assessing the damage to the gate and how I could get it closed again, my hubby went and picked the pear and took a bite out of it. He then said I *had* to try it, as this was the sweetest pear he had ever had. 

I took a bite and had to agree that it was THE BEST pear I had ever eaten.  It was *so* super sweet, without being sugary sweet.  And juicy ... yeah ... 

I ate almost the whole thing and fully understood why the deer were bound and determined to break in to the garden so they could get the pears. 

We will need to do some reading to see what other steps we can take to further safeguard to pear tree next year. 

September, I hardly knew you

 I'm in awe that tomorrow is October 1. Seriously. 

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur. 

Let's see if I can try to recall the highlights.  This blog will probably be photo heavy, and not of the important stuff. Doh. 

My hubby tagged out like 10 minutes in to bow opener weekend. We kicked it in to gear processing the deer and got it all ground into ground venison and sausage. 

Meanwhile ... I'm still going out and waiting for my dream buck to come cruising through.  

Well, any buck, really. I've been putting in hours but nothing is walking through.  The buck I have my eye on is not on a set schedule, and doing whatever he wants. 

There have been a ton of squirrels, crows, blue jays ... raccoons. 

The porcupine comes through at night and I even saw a skunk run through at 3 a.m., according to the game cam. Oh yeah, and the bear ... there's at least once bear cruising through.  

It's good knitting time, though.  I take advantage of it when I can. If it's too chilly I don't knit. 

The sock is looking pretty good, yeah? 

I had a neat experience over the weekend. A quail showed up and graced me with it's patience. 

The first day of fall was celebrated with a fire in the wood stove. First fire of the season.  There was a fire that night and the night after.  Then it's been warm enough that none were necessary.  

The garden is slowly getting ripped out and I'm preserving what I can: Tomatoes and peppers.  Everything else I'm pulling out I've been using right away, like green beans in soup. 

Today I was out there ripping up pepper plants and I had to stop and stare at the marigolds that took hold in their little spot of the garden and are thriving. Sorry, I don't have a photo.  I didn't have my phone with me while I was out there.  Can you believe that? 

I did get a video of some bumble bees earlier this week.

Spent some time in the greenhouse, cleaning it out a bit and kind of prepping it for late fall. 

Aren't those coleus gorgeous?  I bought a few succulents, to go with the succulent my husband rescued and brought home to me.

On the sunny days when I'm feeling chilled, until it starts staying cold, I can go sit out in the greenhouse and soak in the rays and the solar heat.  The plants, however, have only a short time before I must bring in the plants I want to keep. Last year the first really cool overnight temp was Oct. 9. Brrr. 

Here's some photos I took when I was out in the woods.  Enjoy! 

Weekend happenings

 Right now I think I'm *way* more exciting during the weekend. 

If you can call cleaning a car exciting. 

At least once a year I clean my hubby's vehicle. It's either a birthday gift or Father's Day gift to him. 

It usually doesn't last too long, given the line of work he's in.  But, for at least a few days, he can ride in a clean, sawdust-free car. 

That's what I spent Saturday afternoon doing.  By the time I was done, I was tired and was glistening just a wee bit. 

Then I was able to come in to the house to a tasty supper: smoked ribs.  Yum! 

We haven't had ribs in forever so this was a treat!

Bet you can't guess what I did after that. 

If you guessed that I settled into my chair and crossed stitched for most of the evening, you'd be correct. 

Other "fun" things on Saturday included working on my Princess Passenger sock while we went to town and picked up supplies for the week.

I also went out to the garden and heard all the bees buzzing while I pondered what plants and weeds to rip out. I ended up ripping out very few.  The bees seem to really enjoy the violas, so I left most of them, despite them looking a bit ratty. 

We also looked for a "new" spot to set up for hunting. We are going back to the beginning, so to speak, and put the game cam out where we used to hunt, to see if any critters were still traveling through. 

I was also entertained by the hummingbirds and the young hens.  A few of the "babies" of the flock figured out how to get on top of the open air coop and they were hanging out up there. 

Oh yeah, I made a batch of "Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup," which turned out really good.

Sunday the weather switched and it was humid out.  We checked the game cam and saw critters moving through so we spent a few hours out in the back 20 setting up a blind.  

By the time we were pretty much done with the set up, I was done with the day. Temps were in the upper 80s and so flipping humid.  I was going in slow motion, and felt itchy, moist and uncomfortable. We sweat off the bug spray and the mosquitoes found us irresistible. 

I may have been a wee bit cranky, too. 

After going in the house and cooling off in the air conditioning it was decided to stay in for the rest of the day. 

 Sunday afternoon I finished off a bobbin I was spinning and had a ply party. 

I'm not bothering to count yardage yet.  

When I have a decent amount plied up I'll give it all a soak and start counting yardage.  Plying took longer than I thought it would. 

Then, while watching "Columbo" with my man, I worked on the "One Piece" cross stitch. 

Over 300 stitches. 

Monday morning started off with a mild bang. My husband was taking the truck to work and the battery was dead ... stupid battery. 

It was moist out again. The grass was soaking wet and the air was like you were walking through a mist. 

There was a frog hanging out on my window this morning.  Fun! 

Work was kind of chaotic and made worse by all the alerts and notifications I was getting via emails, texts and such.  I ended up putting everything on silent for an hour. Then I was stressing because I couldn't find an article I thought I had laid out on a page last week. ... Turns out I hadn't. Ugh ...  It felt like such a Monday. 

I was pretty happy to punch out at the end of the day. 

My son *begged* for a specific soup to be made. He's feeling poorly and I guess only mom's hamburger soup will heal all that ails. 

For "real" supper, though, I smoked pork chops. 

Ooo, they turned out good.  There are no leftovers. 

It has the makings of being a busy week. Tonite there is chance of thunderstorms going through.  This doesn't surprise me because it's SO miserable outside. I feel really bad for the hens. They are panting and looking miserable. I made sure they had plenty of water and their favorite spot to be when it's hot out is under the deck. They appear to me moving slow today, too. When I saw the rooster coming out of the woods with one of the hens I realized I haven't had any good chicken stories.  Pity.  I haven't been outside enough.  Cause, you know, the weather this summer. 

Next weekend is Labor Day weekend.  Where did the summer go? I feel like I say that almost every year now. I'm looking forward to the long weekend.  And then, just maybe, the weather will behave until the snow flies. I have accepted the change in the seasons now, even though we are having season-appropriate weather.