Pink Elephants

It's a rainy day here, so I decided to make Lydia a new skirt.  She happily chose this pink elephant fabric that I got on clearance a while back, and we paired it with the green stripe for a really cute look:

I made it from the tutorial here: https://www.scatteredthoughtsofacraftymom.com/free-flat-front-skirt-tutorial-pattern/2/

Lydia generally likes her shirts untucked, but this skirt looks good when it's tucked in, too.

Can you tell that she enjoyed our little photo shoot?

Gyunay wanted in the pictures, too.

Here she's trying to hold him out of the photo, so I took one just of him also:

September Harvest Totals

September is always a big month for gardeners, and for good reason.  It's also the end of summer gardening here, and I'm moving into planting for fall/winter now.  I've still got some crops producing, and I haven't dug up most of the orange sweet potatoes yet. 

Arugula - 1 c
Beans, calypso - 2/3c dried beans
Beans, golden crescent - 1 1/2 c fresh beans
Cabbage, green - 1
Eggs- 168
Herbs - basil, mint, oregano, dill, parsley, thyme, cilantro
Onions, candy - 8
Onions, green - 4
Peppers, Bulgarian - 2
Potatoes - 1/2 lb
Swiss Chard - 1 bunch
Squash, butternut - 4
Sweet Potatoes, orange- 1 lb
Sweet Potatoes, purple - 14.5 lbs
Tomatillos- 1 1/2 lbs
Tomatoes, Black Vernissage - 13
Tomatoes, Golden Jubilee - 14
Tomatoes, St. Pierre - 40
Tomatoes, Woodle Orange - 4
Watermelon, sugar baby - 2 small

also, cherry tomatoes, which I never count/weigh, a bit of kale, and several cups of sunberries

The Cinderella Pumpkins were beautiful, but the vines died before they were fully ripe, so I didn't get to enjoy harvesting those.  They were relegated to the chicken yard. 

Regular potatoes were mostly a failure this year.  Back to the drawing board on growing those.  Also a failure for the second year in a row: eggplant.  Next year, I'm not going to bother with trying to grow them.  I can buy organic ones pretty cheaply at our farmer's market.  And I finally got the sunberries to produce well, but now the kids really aren't eating them, so I don't know if I'll bother with those, either. 

I did just buy some onion sets for fall, and my seedlings that I planted a couple of weeks ago indoors look great.  Nathaniel is going to get my fall/winter bed ready soon, and then I'll plant them out.  Also on the agenda for October is planting next year's garlic crop.  And I took some of my birthday money and ordered a Russet Apple Tree for planting next spring!  I'm pretty excited about that one, even though it will take a couple of years to get apples.

Book Review - Deadly Proof by Rachel Dylan

I recently finished Deadly Proof, by Rachel Dylan.  It's been a while since I've read a legal thriller, and this was a good one.  I enjoyed the main characters, although I did want to know more and get deeper into Landon's character.  The author explains legal jargon without weighing down the story, and the case itself appears to be quite realistic.  There are several twists in the story, which made the plot more interesting.  I also enjoyed the subtle but growing chemistry between main characters Kate and Landon.  Overall, this is a very enjoyable read, and I recommend it.

I received this book from the publisher, Bethany House, for the purpose of writing a review, but all opinions are my own.

New Furniture

When we were in Michigan, we stayed in a house that had 2 couches that converted into queen-sized beds that impressed us.  We decided to buy one for the basement, but in a bright orange color.  My father-in-law and Elijah put it together Friday night:

We also bought a bed frame.  For the past 15 years, we've just used our mattress on a box spring on the floor, but I was looking to get some more storage space in our room, so we bought a bed with drawers underneath.

Elijah and Nathaniel put together the bed while Malachi and I put together the headboard.  I finished making the drawers under the bed today, so now it's done!

Behind the headboard are little shelves, too: 

Lydia put in the middle shelf.  She wanted to help.

Meat Chick Update

Today we moved the meat birds to a bigger space.  They are growing well, and they have feathers on their wings.

Lydia enjoyed taking these chicken photos, actually.  She moved the chickens for me as I got them clean water and food.

The meat chicks will be 2 weeks old tomorrow.  We could harvest them in as little as one month, or wait a couple more weeks.  We'll see how they grow.

So far, they have consumed about half of a 50-lb bag of chick feed.  I was happy to find non-GMO, Kentucky milled chick feed at a local store, and it's actually a good price.  They are eating more all the time, so I'll have to buy more feed this week, but I expected that.

Weekend Project

Our latest project arrived in boxes that Gyunay has dubbed the "Batcave".

We'll be putting together a new sleeper couch for the basement, and a new bed frame with storage for us.  The chicks were a bit noisy during the delivery - that is their orange and white pen to the right.

As Promised...

Chick pictures!

We now have 15 meat birds in the garage.  They are healthy and happy little chicks, and the kids love playing with them.