The Rest of Our Weekend

~ Happy kids playing outside
~ Ryan not working
~ Starting two new knitting projects
~ Sunny and warm weather
~ Ryan getting a lot done on the fence
~ Our walk

Red Wing

Last week when Grace had three days off of school we got to spend a few nights down by Red Wing where Ryan was working.  It wasn't quite a vacation for Ryan or I since, well, Ryan was working.  But we had a lot of fun anyway.  My favorite day may have been the first day when the four of us (Ryan drove separate since he needed his truck) worked together to get out the door by 10:30 and made it into Red Wing for an early lunch.  We found a cute little tea shop that we liked so much we stopped again on our way home.  I think Grace and Jackson had the most fun swimming in the pool.  We all loved our hotel which was right on Lake Pepin.  We also picked out pumpkins, ate extra treats, watched a potter throw two pots  at Red Wing pottery (they were mesmerized), made homemade bread (our room had a kitchen), and saw some beautiful sunsets.

This was the scene on the way home...

Harvesting

Over the past month and a half we have been working hard to harvest everything from our garden.  There is still more to do yet but we are getting close to being finished.  The beets did well this year and we still have several to go.



The broccoli also did very well.  In fact after the top shoots bloomed the side shoots have continued to bloom all summer.  This makes the large plants much more tolerable.  I can't remember what kind it is but I need to look it up so we can do this kind again.




The tomatoes, not so much.  I didn't do so well this year.  This is the last of them.  I picked them green before the frost and put them in a bag with a banana to ripen.  That's why they look so perfect.  Unfortunately the taste is more like store bought this way but they are tomatoes none the less.  I also just learned that you can put them right into the freezer as is.  So I'm trying that with this batch since I wasn't in the mood for soup.



The onions did pretty good.  They didn't get as big as we would have liked but we did get a lot of them.



But maybe my favorite thing in our garden this year was the beans.  Those delicious green beans that we then let dry to black beans.  Jackson and I harvested them all a few weeks ago.



We go through A LOT of black beans at our house so growing them ourselves is very exciting to me.



Last year we saved them to seed and then replanted this year.  This year we dried enough to save for seed for next year AND to eat this winter.
I can't wait to try them!



We also harvested a lot of edemame at the end of the summer.  We couldn't keep up with eating it so we decided to blanch it and freeze it.



I think we will have enough for the whole winter.



There is still butternut squash, more kale and beets, and a second crop of lettuce and carrots out there.  Overall I'd say it was an okay year, and I guess considering we had a new baby it was probably better then I expected.

A Golden Walk

New Pants For The Moving Baby

Over the past few weeks I found some time to do some sewing and making new pants for Nora was at the top of the list.



I made reversables just like the Christmas jams I made last year so that there would be some room to grow.





And growing she is.  Last month she started crawling.  Up until yesterday it was just this nice slow no-where-important-to-go sort of a crawl.



But this morning she woke up on a mission.  She explored every inch of our house today, paying particular attention to all of the not yet baby proofed areas.



Yup, time to dig out those baby gates.

Autumn Class

Taken here.  They made leaf crowns and fall paintings followed by a story and snack.  Very sweet.

Weekend Highlights

~ Making oatmeal on the woodstove
~ Reading a new book I LOVE
~ More sewing
~ Lazy Sunday morning
~ Fall work
~ Knitting with Grace
~ Beautiful weather
~ A visit from Katie and Kris
~ The chili they brought
~ Cozying up by the fire

A Beautiful Fall Day

Sidewalk Art