My last post was about how I was going to Iowa and Arizona for a little vacay...well, it didn't happen the way it was planned...*Sigh* Two days before my vacation, you know the one I had been planning to go on for a year, I got a phone call. My dad was in a horrible car accident. He wasn't paying attention and was T-boned by a semi. He broke his back and his pride, but was okay. Good thing I had planned on being in Iowa for a week before heading to Arizona so I could be with my family and help out my mom. After getting to Iowa, my mom informed me that there was no way she could go to Arizona because she needed to be there to help my dad once he was released from the hospital. He'd need help putting on his brace, someone to spot him when he'd stand up and use his walker, someone to run errands for him, i.e. pick up medication, buy food, etc. She told me to go ahead and go to Arizona and enjoy myself. I wanted to, I really did! I love visiting my family and I so wanted to go back to Arizona...but I knew it meant more to my mom to go. She hasn't been to Arizona in probably 15 years and I know she wanted to be able to see her family and her old hometown. So, I told her to pack her bags and I would stay and help my dad. It was nice to be able to spend sometime with my dad, my family, my friends in Iowa and I'm trying not to dwell on the fact I didn't get to go to Arizona...someday I will!
I got to take care of my mom's garden while she was away! Which gave me a gardening fix since I couldn't take care of mine.
These beauties are from my mom's Johnathan apple tree.
My mom always has the cutest gardens!
Her cherry tomatoes were in full harvest! I probably picked a bowl or two everyday!
I was able to shoot a picture of one of the apple eating culprits! I think it is a grosbeak?
I took this at a Farmer's Market I stopped at one day while in Iowa. I just love all the varieties of tomatoes!
I flew back home about three weeks after I got there. It was so very nice to get back home and into my routine again. I do miss my family and friends very much, but I do love being home. I miss Iowa on almost a daily basis but I just look at pictures like these to make me feel better!
Once I got back home, I had a lot to do with my garden. My tomatoes were just coming up ripe, my potato plants were dying down and ready for me to dig up the bounty. I had a few ears of corn, a 4 1/2 ft tall basil plant, and a bunch of carrots to pull.
To preserve my basil. I bought a few ice cube trays and cut the basil up into each well and then filled them with olive oil. This winter I can use a cube or two here and there while cooking.
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My beautiful carrots! They were delicious! I cooked a few in a batch of beef stew and ate the rest raw.
I had sooooooo many tomatoes! The picture above is a batch of salsa I made. I also canned three batches of pasta sauce. We make a lot of pasta dishes so it made the most sense to make more pasta sauce. We usually only use salsa in cock pot taco meals, which I probably make once a month or so.
I harvested about 40lb of potatoes out of my garden! I towel dried/brushed them and then stored them in a single layer in my pantry drawers for a week. After that, I put them in a wicker basket with a layer of newspaper between each layer. I had so much garden surplus that my neighbors sure benefited from it!
I had some fails with my garden. My zucchini and pepper plants both decided not to really produce anything worth eating and my poor pumpkin plants got sick and didn't make it. But, there is always next year! With it now being November, my garden is all done and now lays bare until next Spring. We plan on adding a few more raised beds and trying out some new vegetables.
With September came the beginning of Fall. My favorite! I think my porch looked very cute this year. Now that it has begun to get cold, rainy/snowy, and just nasty out some days, it doesn't look this nice. But it did for a hot minute!
At the end of September, the hubby and I celebrated my birthday! I'm
29...I'm not really sad that this is the last year of my twenties, but I
don't feel like I'm that old. I still feel like turning 21 was a year
or two back, but thank God it's not! I was so immature and crazy as a
young adult and so glad of where I'm at!
My beautiful birthday cake from my husband. German Chocolate, of course! My favorite!
October 20th was our first anniversary! It is so crazy that it has been a full year since we said, "I do." I think I love him more now than I did when I married him. we spent the weekend at a B&B in Maine. It was so fun! I will do a post about that soon, because I took a ton of pictures and I feel like it warrants its own post!
Before I go, there is one more thing. After I got home from Iowa, we adopted a dog! YAY! We have been talking about it forever and a year and decided that now is the time and found our new fur baby!
We named her Waffles and I love her! She is so very smart and such a love bug! She is a Rottweiler-German Shepherd mix.
She has kept me very busy! We are currently taking her to beginner dog training classes. She is doing so well! She has mastered sit, come, down, watch me, leave it, take it, and drop it. She is about there with her loose leash walking, like 95% there. Our big problem area is sitting for a greeting. She has a major case of the wiggly butt and wants to jump. Usually after correcting her once she does it. We'll get there!
I'm going to sign off now and hopefully do our anniversary weekend post in the next week!
