Winter Park Harvest Festival

The Winter Park Harvest Festival is tomorrow! This is a day long, and I mean day long 8a -9p, event celebrating our local farmers, gardeners, entrepreneurs and non-profits. I am excited! The weather has been great lately which adds to the awesomeness of this event! I can't wait! I'm so excited! 

spool down end of year time

This is Rogue. She lives with us, well, actually, she lets us live here, we just share the house with her. She and her sister, Wolfie, let us live here. Rogue is the prissy girl, but a tough ass prissy girl as she is the one that does most of the killing of rats around here. She is very soft, has beautiful color, and walks like a princess. She does, really. She likes to be looked at and adored, not so much touched and petted. Only petted when she says so, as most cats go. 

Wolfie on the other hand, is queenie of the house. She doesn't do much killing, although she has, I just don't think she likes to get her paws dirty too much. She, unlike her sister, LOVES to be petted. You start petting her and she goes into auto purr. No kidding. And it gets so loud too! Then if you dare take your hand away, she reaches for it. Yeah, she doesn't want you to stop petting her. She does run outside from time to time, and I have seen her climb a tree or two, so she is not totally devoid of animal instincts, she just thinks she's queen of the house. She really doesn't like her brother bothering her.

This is Moses. He's our foster turned adopted cat. You can tell from this picture that he only has 3 legs. He's missing his back right leg. He gets along just fine without it. He is one fast cat! He's a little over a year now and LOVES to be outside. He is always looking for lizards and squirrels and birds and rats. He's caught a rat too. I am very proud of him. He has come a long way since he has been with us. He is my baby boy. 

We are spooling down to the end of year here. This time of year I start to wind down, relax, and look forward to having some time off. I clean out the closets, the attic, start raking the leaves (since mowing season is over until June next year), brushing the kittens and dog, and clean out the psyche too. Getting rid of things that don't serve me, whether that's physical or mental. It's all good and I feel refreshed and ready for whatever the new year brings. 

cauliflower

the leaves look great, but where is all the cauliflower? 

rain barrels, and composters, and compost, oh my!

There is a local organization, Mills50, that is hosting a green fest tomorrow. I really like this area of town. It's very quaint, is walkable with many local businesses and has a unique culture. There is a big asian influence in this part of town. Some of the best peanut sauce you can find anywhere! Anyway, at the greenfest they will be selling composters and rain barrels, and these are exactly the same ones that I bought through work for a charitable organization:

and the prices are even cheaper than what I paid for originally. We're getting there early tomorrow to buy 4 rain barrels. Since we didn't have much rain this summer, we have used up almost all of our water from the barrels. One is empty and the other only half full now. These will come in handy next year during summer, if we don't get any rain over the winter. Sometimes we have a short rainy season in winter. Not as much as the summer downpours, but enough to get us some usable water. Hope to see you there!

Coytown Garden

hot peppers from the garden

We have quite a few hot peppers in our garden. We actually only have 2 large plants, but they produce a LOT of peppers. Needless to say, I give them away to friends. I think Nate likes to plant things to see them grow, because neither one of us eats these things. It's fun to watch them change color, and they seem to go through grow spurts. For awhile there won't be any peppers, then suddenly, we have a bunch on both plants. It's a pretty plant too, as you can tell by the different colors of pepper. I wait until they are very red before picking. They just twist off the vine then. 

I saw an ad the other day for community gardeners wanted. There is a parcel of land that used to belong to the navy base that is being looked at for development of a community garden, Coytown Garden, it's called. I know that a mountain bike park is going to be put in part of that land, but the rest is left open green space, and the city is looking to develop it for next years spring planting. I'll have to ask Nate what he thinks about joining. It's not far from home, and we could learn a lot from being around others that garden. 

The weather has turned COLD here! For us that is. It was very chilly yesterday morning as we went for a motorcycle ride. Thankfully our coats are impermeable to weather like that. I didn't feel a thing. But my legs did. and my hands. I did wear gloves, but these are summer in florida gloves, we aren't used to this weather. It makes for going to yoga not so hot anymore. Which is nice, I don't feel so claustrophobic. I am not complaining about the weather, not at all, it is just a sharp and marked difference from what we just had. No smooth transition from one season to another. Just HOT then COLD. This too shall pass...

much cooler weather...

Rogue

It's been so much nicer and cooler the past few days that it is pure joy to work in the garden. The kittens are running around with so much more energy, as am I, it is so refreshing! The lettuce is still doing very well; I have a salad almost every night. The tomatoes are done for the season, and the catnip has come back! I haven't dried it, but I pick off some leaves and leave it in the living room for the cats. They get a little possessive of their leaves. Moses loves to rub all over it, Wolfie doesn't so much with it, and Rogue will eat it all if I give it to her. Here she is coming out of a bag of yard waste that tipped over. Kittens are so funny!

It's supposed to be 44 here tonight. I am not complaining, really, I'm just saying. We need a break. I hope you're getting a break where ever you are...

Happy Halloween!

be safe out there!

day 2

the kids are doing well here and they enjoyed picking some lettuce and hot peppers last night. I had the lettuce for dinner and the hot peppers went in the sloppy joes they had. Every so often one of them would say, "I have a piece of the pepper" and make a strange, large face. I asked if they were ok. They said they were, and kept on eating.

good times...

kids visit

Nate's niece and nephew are staying with us for the week. They helped us when we originally started the garden. They were good at planting. Tonight before dinner we'll go out and pick some lettuce and see if the red peppers are ready to be picked. 

cooler weather, still no rain

Moses, our 3 legged cat

The weather has been so much nicer to work outside, but we still have no rain, and no great chance of rain anytime soon. Only 20% chance tomorrow and wednesday. That's not much. The standard saying here in Florida is that if there is a 50% chance of rain, you will get rain. One of our rain barrels is empty now. We have one that is almost full, but with watering the new bamboo we put in, as well as our other plants, I'm afraid it's going to run out before it gets filled again. 

This was a very dry season for us, and it doesn't bode well if this continues. We've had brush fires around here in years past, and we really don't want that again. 

Time for another rain dance...

lots of lettuce

Nate tells me the lettuce is really coming along and I need to eat some. True, I need to eat lettuce and I don't want it to go bad. After yoga tonight I'll have a good salad. It looks so good and healthy! I am so happy with our progress so far. 

tented food

no, it's not some strange bio-harvesting project subsidized by the gubment.

So this is what the backyard garden looks like at present. I have to admit, as much of a pain as it was to put up these things, it sure has saved us a lot of grief and headache and heartache. This fabric has saved our plants from pests, disease, and the burning sun, but still allowing for rain and sunlight to get to the plants to feed them. I thought Nate was crazy to buy such things, but I've found that we need it in florida. 

The weather here has been beautiful all week. I rode my bike to work one day this week, and we have actually had a chance to open the house windows and let some breeze in. It is beautiful. I always tell people; we suffer through the summers to have winters like this.