Fall Harvest

Our freezer is full of fresh pumpkin puree (I'm pretty sure a from scratch pumpkin pie will be a must this Thanksgiving) and lots and lots of fresh marinara sauce, the cats are super snugly (it's just because the house got colder, but I like to pretend it's because they just really, really love me), Kneaders is selling their Pumpkin Steamer again, and the trees in our yard have turned yellow and red.  

I'm pretty sure we've hit Fall perfection.

We went up and gathered our last harvest from the Farm and our backyard garden.  It was kind of bittersweet.  Bitter because we really love to garden.  Sweet because.. well... I think one of the main reasons we really like to garden is because we can really only do it a few months a year...  By the end of the summer the idea of weekly fertilizing and weeding gets kind of old.  

But the last harvest was fun! Doug really rocked at tomato growing this year and just on that last harvest we filled an entire Costco bag full of tomatoes.  I wish I'd taken a picture- it was sweet.  Doug got to pick his pie pumpkins for eating, and I got to pick the decorative gourds and mini pumpkins I'd been growing all year to decorate the house this fall. (Can you tell who's the engineer and who's the designer?!)   

I am once again bracing myself for dark nights and driving in the snow... but for the next few weeks I plan on fully enjoying every Fall.  ...And probably a few more Pumpkin Steamers, because man, those are good. :)

Autumn Adventures

Well, I have to admit, we did benefit from the government shut down.  Since there was no one working to collect fees on the Alpine Loop, you could enjoy the area for free.  And, more importantly for us, (I'm really just fine paying the $3 or whatever it normally costs) because it was free everyone was talking about it. So we actually remembered to drive the loop at the peak of the Fall!  WOOHOO!!! I have this on my to do list every single year, but we never remember at the right time.  And it's so worth it.  I mean look at this! What could be better?  It was so fun to take the camera out and try out some beautiful landscapes.