Being Thankful

Nice weather, casseroles lined up on the bar and pumpkin pie in the oven. Won't be long now until it's time to eat our Thanksgiving fare. A little strange this year with only the 3 of us here to celebrate. La won't be here until Christmas and Aaron just left on Tuesday to house sit for the weekend in Asheville.

Yes, strange not to have the lively conversation that ensues when everyone is in the same place at the same time. Strange not having a house full of kids in pj's lounging on the couch, watching tv, laughing and asking how soon will dinner be ready.

Yes, strange, different and a bit weird.

There's a lot to be thankful for today..I have job, house, loving family and much more....


.....and I don't know about the rest of you all, but I am starving! Bring on the turkey and the fixins!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Fast approaching Fall

If you haven't given it any thought...perhaps you should. The first day of fall is right around the corner. As a matter of fact, how does Septempber 23rd grab you?

Here's a little tidbit, courtesy of the Farmer's Almanac. The Autumnal Equinox:

The word equinox comes from the Latin words for "equal night." The fall and spring equinoxes are the only days of the year in which the hours of day and night are equal as the Sun crosses the celestial equator. From here on out, the temperatures begin to drop and the days start to get shorter.


We've been readying the raised beds for fall planting. Surprisingly we have lots of peppers still growing and the red rockets are well.....hot!!! As in take your breath away and like hotter than jalapenos. We also have a few potato plants growing and a cantaloupe vine that is blooming(probably will not have time to set fruit).

My fall garden plans are :

1) To plant some lettuce, mesculen and garlic this afternoon.

2) We'll plan on picking up a few broccoli and collards plants later this week and hopefully get them in the ground by next weekend.

The weather has been on the cool side this weekend and the birds have been very active at the feeders. Lots of singing and chirping. Makes me think of ole Bob Ross...how he used to say "happy little trees" but in this case I would have to say..."happy little birds" .

And oh, when Hurricane Irene blew by us, she managed to knock a bunch of green pecans off the neighbors pecan tree. I picked them up for days and put them on the porch to dry in an attempt to save them. Unfortunately green pecans don't ever split their outer husks. Instead their husks dry out hard as rocks, making them impossible to crack open. But today while gazing up into the pecan tree I was amazed to see quite a few pecans left on the overhanging branches into our yard. Seems maybe we may get a few after all....yeah!

Potato Pockets

I sometimes just amaze myself and not in a good way. Several weeks ago I had an aha moment. We made grill pockets and cooked them on... none other than the grill. Didn't turn the oven on, use any electricity or get the kitchen hot.

Hmmm why ever have I not thought to fix pockets before now? I have absolutely no clue. Disturbing to say the least....hehe.

On to the pockets...take a large sheet of aluminum foil. In the center place a couple of cubed small red potatoes, dot with a little butter and put some sliced onion on top. Now any other vegetable will do but we've been putting our green beans and squash (sliced) from our garden on top. Last night we also threw in a small ear of corn. We also added left over chicken(one of the rotisserie baked ones). Folded up the ends and threw that baby on the grill for 20 mins on low.

An all-in-one meal. A great way to use left overs and no plate to wash. Easy peasy. Good grief...why have I never thought of it before now. Go figure!

Rain barrel tidbit

Growing up Grandma had a large flat rock off to the side of her front door where a small rain barrel sat. We were required to stand on that rock and take a scoop of rain water to wash our feet off before coming into the house. The water was always cold and clean. Her barrel had a lid on it, which she would crack whenever it rained to catch what came off the roof. I tell people all the time, Grandma was the original "green" queen. Nothing escaped her when it came to recycling or re-purposing things. But those are other stories waiting to be told.

We have 3 barrels and from the looks of the formula below, we are missing out on capturing a whole lot more!

How much rain you can catch:

Rain caught (gallons) = (inches of rain) x (0.6) x (portion of building footprint in ft2)

For example, if your home's footprint is 1,400 ft2, and you want to know the amount of water that comes from a ¼ inch of rainfall the equation would look like this:

Rain caught (gallons) = (0.25) x (0. 6) x (1,400) = 210 gallons.

However, remember that storage is limited to the capacity of your system. If your rain barrel holds 50 gallons, then 160 gallons will be lost.

Getting good as being cheap..

You know how I like to squeeze a dime. Well, growing your own veggies is a sure fire way to shave some bucks off the ole weekly grocery bill. So far, we have harvested a bunch of hot peppers, a least 10lbs. of potatoes and 11 patty pan squash. Adding up what we would pay for the squash alone is a cool savings of $14, or $13 if I take out what I paid for the seeds.

It's a win-win situation, I have many squash to come from my 6 plants, so of course the amount of savings will only go up. Just starting to get a few tomatoes. Down to my last meal of potatoes, peppers a growing and I just noticed today I have green beans!!! Corn is tasseling so won't be long until we're munching on some ears.

Yehaw...I love my itty bitty garden!!

Oh Happy Day

Corn continues to do well and looking forward to seeing some ears forming!


Dug up the first 2 potato plants and got enough for 2 meals. Only have 5 more plants so don't expect to get but maybe this box full. Very happy with what I did get, so I'll definitely be growing more next year.


Getting squash and the plants are continuing to do great. Bees have been all over them and got at least 5-6 more that will soon be ready.

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