Last of the Summer Garden

Scott went and worked in the garden just about all day yesterday. There were many weed that needed to be torn down and everything straightened up for the Fall garden. We had two batches of tomatoes to harvest and two batches of bell peppers. Also a huge harvest of banana peppers that were all dried in the dehydrator through the night. I hope to make some more pasta sauce with the tomatoes tonight or tomorrow.

The Fall garden will be much smaller. We will replant our greens, adding purple cabbage. Also Scott replanted some potatoes with hopes of a Fall potato harvest. We have many ideas for next year's garden but are unsure about where the garden may be. As I mentioned before the space we are using now will be sprayed with a an herbicide in the Spring. With 5 other groups of families gardening on this patch and us not having in rights to the land we really can't say anything. We want to grow organically, which is what we did this year. No sprays at all for bugs or weeds. We are looking at a community garden in a small town 10 minutes down the road from us. Of course it won't be as convenient as what we have now but if the community garden won't be spraying that may be our only choice.

Pizza Bake

My family loves pizza and spaghetti, so tonight I tried a casserole with a little of both. You can tell from the picture that half was made without Italian sausage because one kid in the family doesn't like it. Here is the recipe if anyone is interested:
2 boxes of whole wheat penne pasta
2 jars of Ragu homestyle pizza sauce
generous amount of mozzarella cheese
pepperoni and Italian sausage
dash of Italian seasoning

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Then add all the other ingredients and mix. Maybe add some extra mozzarella on top. Very easy.

Buying Local

Went to the local produce store to see if the local apples were out yet. Found boxes of local apples, yeah! Buying from Tiger, GA is alot closer than Washington State where most of the apples in the grocery store come from. I bought a variety to see what we liked best. Mutsu being the only variety I had never heard of before. Right now the local apples are .89 a pound but last year toward the end of the season was marked down to .49 a pound. Another choice would be to buy a box for 26.00 which is 40 pounds of apples. In the grocery store apples are running 1.78 - 1.98 a pound and in our local produce store .99 - 1.39 a pound. Everyone in the house eats apples and they go pretty quick. We also hope to score a deal soon and dry a bunch.

Books On My Bedside Table

This is probably my favorite home schooling/Charlotte Mason book. The Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola has everything you need to start putting in to practice Charlotte Mason's methods. I picked this one up at a used sale a couple of years ago. I think this is my 3rd or 4th reading.

What He Must Be....if he wants to marry my daughter by Voddie Bauchman Jr. This man is amazing and I love to hear him speak. We purchased this book at the state home school convention and had him sign it. Hubby has already read this book and I have just started.

A Practical Guide to Living On An Acre The Self-Reliant Life. So far this one is pretty ho-hum. About half way through it and not learning anything new. May not even finish it.

I am always looking for great books, fiction or non-fiction. If you guys have any suggestions, please send them my way.

Preparing for Fall

Starting to build a cold frame to house our strawberry plants up here at our house as opposed to the neighbors field where we did our garden this summer. We started with 8 plants that did not produce alot and have ended up with probably 30 plants. We still have more down at the garden to transplant. The plants we have brought up are already producing runners trying to get into the ground. That is a good sign. Hoping next week to build another cold frame beside it to plant greens.

Corn from the neighbor that we are drying to crack for the chickens. Just learned from the neighbor that lets us garden on his property that he will be spraying the acreage for weeds next spring before everyone plants. We are very disappointed because none of the other families that garden down there tend to be growing organically like we are. Not sure what we will do at this point.

Getting Back To Normal

Life has been a whirlwind of drs appts in the past three weeks. My acid reflux is not wanting to behave, the new medication that I am on for the reflux may be causing side effects with my joints and muscles, and had the outpatient surgery yesterday. At this point I am awaiting test results for the joint and muscle pain which started a couple of months ago. They are testing me for auto immune disorders like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis before deciding that the reflux medication is causing. Our church family has been very good to us bringing meals yesterday and today. I should be good as new by Monday. I haven't been sedated since I had my wisdom teeth removed twenty years ago. It is a very surreal experience. To be in the operating room and looking at the clock then waking up in a different room with no memories of anything that happened in between. Looking forward to no future hospital visits.

Sorry About the Lapse in Posting

Dealing with some medical issues and had a minor surgery today. Hope to get back to posting in the next couple of days.