Tme For Fall Again

We have been getting ready for winter for several weeks now. At my sister's place, we harvested green beans a few weeks ago and dug up potatoes for 5 hours last Saturday. Sunday she made a trip across White Pass to Yakima and brought back apples, peaches, grapes, huge cabbages, peppers and tomatoes. My sister is great about canning food.


This is what my garden looked like pre-dogs. Now I have a wire fence to keep them out of my raised beds otherwise they dig holes. I've been busy reclaiming my garden. I let it go last year and with events that happened this summer, it wasn't great either. I planted one of my raised beds with carrots and lettus and nothing came up but a tomato plant. (here's where I roll my eyes.) So I made a goal a few weeks ago to plant and prepare better for next year and increase the area I can grow stuff in. By cutting back some bushes and removing some others I can more than double my garden beds next year. I also need to plant on a schedule. Like bare root plants like Rashberries and other berry bushes are available in February (rose bushes too) Cool vegetables can be planted in April like carrots, radishes and lettus. I can plant potatoes now, in areas that don't get boggy like my compost pile. Some of the best potatoes I've grown came from the compost pile. Because my backyard bogs during the rainy season, I've been laying several inches of gravel on my pathways so I can walk thru the garden all winter without sinking into the mud. I'm also bringing home a weekly load of grass and chopped leaves from work to add to my raised beds to compost all winter. In the spring I will mix in the compost from the compost bin that contains peelings, eggs shells and coffee grounds plus rabbit droppings. I have 4 bunnies that live above my compost bin and they process weeds for me. Everyone is saying this winter will be a wet cold one. I guess we'll see.

On the dog front. I recently purchased a miniature apricot poodle to breed to my chocolate toy male Johaan, I named her Liezel. Johaan was supposed to be a miniature also, but he remains small and I won't be able to use him on my larger girls like I planned unless I do artificial and I prefer puppies the natural way. Johaan will also be bred to my sister's poggle (toy beagle/poodle cross) Willow. Willow has a surprising terrier look to her but none of the high energy level terrier personality. All the other dogs are doing great and we have two fantastic litters of puppies, one of golden labradoodles and one of black and chocolate standard poodles.

I'm doing well, I miss my husband and I write about it on another blog that is personal. I've often kept a journal or wrote letters, so a blog is kind of like a journal. My son, Mike, is still driving truck, my son Jeremiah is now a specialist and was recently accepted on the the Scout platoon of his brigade. My little boys, Teddy and Cubby are growing fast and learning new things everyday and are the light of my life.