Well, here I am again. It's been how long? I assure you that it was not my choice to stay away. I tried to get on and stay in touch, but something somehow changed in my settings, and me being so tech savvy - NOT!, took this long to figure out what the problem was. And now I am so so so so so far behind and you so totally missed my Halloween!! Not that anyone out there really cares anyway. I know that my loyal attentive audience consists of a very large crowd of one or two people. But that's okay, I write mostly for my own gratification anyway. Kind of like a not-too-personal diary.
Well, what should I catch up on? Should I start with my garden? Because of our moose visitors we didn't get a whole lot. But we did have a lot of beautiful tasty sweet carrots. I don't know if the moose don't like carrots, or if they just never found them growing next to my deck, but I was pleased to have the carrots cuz they were SO sweet and YUMMY! We had so many of them I thought I would freeze them, but we actually ate them all before I had the chance to freeze them. I will definitely repeat the carrots this summer!! Also, a big surprise:
I actually reaped THREE pumpkins!! Yeah, they were still green when I picked them but the first winter frost was imminent, so I decided to bring them inside and see if they would finish ripening on their own. I cut one open around Halloween time and it was still green inside the ridges. I baked it and used it in smoothies, and also learned how to make a healthy version of pumpkin spice lattes. The second one was cut open after Thanksgiving. The outside was less green, but I could tell the meat still wasn't as ripe as it should be. Again, I baked it and used it for smoothies and lattes. I wanted to wait for as long as it took to let the last one ripen, so I waited until January. And it was perfect. No green inside the edges. And it smelled just like a pumpkin should smell!
What I learned from this: even if it seems too early, start them even earlier than last year (inside the house) cuz they obviously need more time outdoors before they should be picked. And also, after I do pick them, I still need to allow plenty of time for ripening. Luckily, if kept dry, pumpkins can last for months and months before going bad, which makes them great long-lasting props for fall decorating.
Okay: next topic - Halloween. My theme this year was Skeletons. I wanted the "restaurant room" to look sort of like an outdoors graveyard scene, so I brought in lots and lots of trees/branches that I salvaged from our burn pile. Real trees make GREAT indoor decorations, but they do make a huge mess to clean up afterwards. Leaves and little twigs everywhere! I places trees inside the entry way and all over in the "restaurant". There were so many trees in there you had to duck in some places. I also crowded up the front deck with trees to make it spookier for trick-or-treaters. Here is me dressed in my costume.
Since we were doing a skeleton theme, I finally splurged on buying a life-size skeleton. I've had several smallish/medium sized ones, but I've been wanting a life-sized one for years, so this year I just HAD TO have one, and surprisingly Chuck was okay with it. (it wasn't exactly cheap, even on sale!)
As you can see, we had a lot of fun with it. I still need to think of a good name for him/her. I really wish I was blogging you through the Halloween season cuz now all I can do you give you the highlights. Here is a picture of Bossy. She found a lap to sit on while she watched me do my decorating.
There is so much more than I regret not showing you but I have to move on to the next highlight. Christmas. At church they were having a gingerbread house contest, which Chuck and I entered. Here is what we ended up with:
Pretty pathetic, huh? Actually, it looked a lot better in real life than the picture. But, we had no idea what (who) we were up against when we entered this contest. We have some ladies in our congregation that are VERY talented. Here is the one that made first prize:
There were about a dozen entries and some of them were pretty amazing.
I wish I could spend more time and share more pictures of recent events, but that would be one long blog, and I know how easily I can get carried away. Now that I know what the technical problem was, I should be able to focus on just one topic at a time, and bore you to death. But no one is forcing you to read this, ya know!
Happy 2015!
snowshoeing at the cabin
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