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<\/a><\/p>\npeppers,<\/p>\n
and cherry tomatoes that were still coming in.<\/p>\n Grilled veggie panini is always a hit around our house.\u00a0 Just not for more than 3 times a week.\u00a0 Thanks to the last hurrah of the basil plant we managed to make some pesto veggie pizza, too.\u00a0 But we were pretty close to having to fry or stuff the vegetables just to get the kids to eat them.\u00a0 I’m pretty sure battering and frying eggplant or stuffing pepper strips with cream cheese and bacon negates all the nutrients and antioxidants of fresh veggies.\u00a0 But if we must, we must!<\/p>\n Luckily we were saved from monotony by one (one!) pie pumpkin in the pumpkin patch that resulted in some scrumptious pumpkin muffins.<\/p>\n Plus three butternut squash (which only counted as one butternut squash thanks to the nibbling by the squirrels)….<\/p>\n ….for a decent squash casserole.<\/p>\n In hopes of diversity, the fall transplants had to be put in and the seeds planted.<\/p>\n Then I moved on to fencing the chickens out of the front yard, spreading compost, and planting grass seed.\u00a0 All as part of the Create A Lawn<\/strong><\/em> plan.<\/p>\n I know, I know.\u00a0 Last year I was busy mulching the front yard and choking out the grass.\u00a0 As part of the Create A Mulched Natural Area<\/strong><\/em> plan.\u00a0 For me, growing grass is kind of like having bangs.\u00a0 I wake up one day and decide my life would be so much better if I looked in the yard and was overcome with the blinding green of rippling grass.\u00a0 Or looked in the mirror and was amazed by my fashionable and well-groomed bangs.\u00a0 So I then get grass and lose my mind with the seeding and fertilizing and mowing and raking.\u00a0 I get the bangs and freak out over the styling and straightening and trimming and, eventually, pinning back of the bangs.\u00a0 It’s a vicious circle.\u00a0 And it always ends with everything reverting back to it’s natural ragged and frizzy state of being.\u00a0 Nature is always stronger than nurture around here.\u00a0 But it’s not stronger than the desire to make the same mistake again and again.\u00a0 And again.<\/p>\n Speaking of mistakes, Harvey got moved outside.\u00a0 The farmer I got him from warned me that although French Angora rabbits were friendly enough to be indoor pets, they were stinky enough to be barnyard animals.\u00a0 Who would’ve thought that a woman who’s been raising rabbits for 15+ years would know what she was talking about?\u00a0 When the bunny smell from Pretty’s room started wafting down the hall, I started building Harvey a new hutch.<\/p>\n He ended up with 2 story townhouse on the deck.<\/p>\n With the added benefit of the fenced in deck as his personal patio.\u00a0 So that whenever I was cleaning the house or working in the barn (or spending hours and hours seeding and reseeding the front yard), he could enjoy the freedom of hopping around, stretching out in the shade of the table, and nibbling the ivy.<\/p>\n Speaking of the deck, I finally found a place for the last crib mattress that was hanging around.\u00a0 I used to keep that mattress under my bed for whenever a kid was too sick, too weepy, or too scared for his or her own bed.\u00a0 Since sleeping in our bed was out of the question (keep your attachment parenting to yourselves, people!!), I settled for putting the crib mattress on the floor in our room next <\/strong><\/em>to our bed.\u00a0 A sleep-sleep solution for everybody!<\/p>\n But now they’re all too long for a crib mattress.\u00a0 And old enough to settle for sleeping on the couch in the den, next<\/strong><\/em> to our room when they’re too sick, too weepy, or too scared to sleep alone.\u00a0 And in case of emergency that couch is just long enough to accommodate me, too.\u00a0 A zombie emergency.\u00a0 Like when I took Little to see World War Z<\/a> and we both ended up cowering under the quilts on that couch together until the sun came up.\u00a0 Just for the record, people, World War Z is not a kids movie.\u00a0 If you’re picturing Scooby Doo zombies in that movie (like I was), you’re picturing it all wrong.\u00a0 Wrong.\u00a0 Wrong.\u00a0 Stay-up-all-night-hiding-under-the-covers-Wrong.\u00a0 Just so you know.<\/p>\n Anyhoo.<\/p>\n That crib mattress converted into a lovely new bench for the deck.\u00a0 With just a few shower curtains and vinyl tablecloth.<\/p>\n I was going to get some outdoor fabric and sew a slipcover for the mattress and a pillow.\u00a0 But the tablecloth and the shower curtains only cost $6 and took 15 minutes to hot glue together.\u00a0 Which gave me more time to reseed the lawn again.\u00a0 And time to move the water lettuce and flowering hyacinth into the greenhouse.<\/p>\n Lots of pond care magazines and plant nurseries will tell you that you can’t overwinter water lettuce and hyacinths in the greenhouse.\u00a0 Supposedly, they’re too tropical and just turn to mush when nighttime temperatures get too cold.\u00a0 I’m not sure why people who have been doing things for years and years think their experience is going to stop me from trying things on my own.\u00a0 I’m just not the kind of gal that learns from others’ mistakes.\u00a0 Learning from others’ mistakes.\u00a0 Bah.\u00a0 Booooring.<\/p>\n Besides, I’m trying to keep annual herbs in the greenhouse over winter, too.<\/p>\n Some kind of mite has already started in.<\/p>\n It’s a race to death.\u00a0 Death by mite or death by mush.\u00a0 Care to pick a winner?\u00a0 Or is that a loser??<\/p>\n Regardless, the pond plants and the herbs were better off than the rest of the garden when the first frost finally arrived.<\/p>\n Which meant we didn’t have to worry about using up cherry tomatoes any more.\u00a0 Hurray!\u00a0 And, besides, the fall crops did just fine underneath their frost covers.<\/p>\n So now we’ll have lots of\u00a0 lettuce and no….um,…..tomatoes.\u00a0 Huh.\u00a0 Kind of makes you want to trim your bangs by pulling your hair out.<\/p>\n That cold snap had some benefits, though.\u00a0 By staying inside by the woodstove, I got caught up on some of the half-created crafting I’d been working on.<\/p>\n I finished the string art pictures I wanted for the hallway.<\/p>\n And the glass plate flowers I was making for yard art.<\/p>\n I even used some dollar store supplies to finish some new wreaths just in time for Halloween.<\/p>\n Lucky that I was caught up because the kids needed my full-on attention for Trunk or Treat.\u00a0 With only an hour before the event, we had to find a black jacket, a robe, glasses, a trident, and a wand.\u00a0\u00a0 Good thing emergencies are my specialty.\u00a0 Because the cyborg, farmer, Percy Jackson, and Harry Potter were ready with just a few minutes to spare.<\/p>\n I might have pulled it off but I did have the scars to show for it.\u00a0 Hah!<\/p>\n So I’m looking forward to falling back.\u00a0 I need that extra hour.\u00a0 To take down all those bats.<\/p>\n Or rake the new grass.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n