October

So I've fallen off of the blogging wagon, haven't I?

Rather than apologize and blather on about how busy I've been, the craziness at work, the craziness of travel, the craziness of people visiting, and basically everything I didn't document, I'm going to just move on and tell you what's going on with us.

Gardening:
Is first and foremost on my mind today. I just ordered 2 yards of compost (she wanted to sell me 3) and 3 yards of peat moss (she wanted to sell me 5) to till into our veggie garden this weekend. Doesn't that seem like an incredible amount of dirt for a 20 X 16' garden plot?! The nursery reccomended a layer 3" deep of compost and 2" deep of peat moss. So we're adding 5" of stuff to our garden bed!

Since it slopes away from the house, should I be worried about all of this amendment to my clay soil running off under the barbed wire fence?

Why am I adding so much "stuff" to my garden? Well... because it was a spectacular failure this year. I even failed at growing zucchinni. I didn't know that was possible! About the only thing that thrived were the tomatoes I planted in cointainers in the front yard. And even those weren't exactly a wild success.

I'm blaming this on a number of things:

• Clay soil with few nutrients. I applied Miracle Grow occassionally, but not with many real results.
• Poor watering/ moisture retention. This is primarily caused by me planting in north-south rows when my drip lines run east west. I also need to do a better job of mulching the garden with grass clippings to prevent moisture loss.
• Crappy-ass weather in June and early July. We live in a cold climate, I know that. But I don't know that we hit 80 degrees until after July 15th this year. Bad weather for peppers, tomatoes and other such items.
• I did a crappy-ass job of weeding the garden. See also: clay soil is really hard to weed in.

So yeah, now you know what we'll be doing this weekend. I need to start by pulling everything that died from our first freeze on Monday October 11th. It's funny, we didn't really have a frost, but raher a 22 degree freeze.

... I'm thinking about starting a specific gardening blog. Are y'all bored to tears about this stuff?

House:

It's amazing to me that nearly a year later we're still getting settled into the hosue. I bought fabric to recover the chair in our bedroom to match the comforter.

 I did hang curtains in the guest room and office before the DD girls visited over Labor Day. We moved my loveseat up there a few weekends ago too. Funny that the Office and Guest Room/ Guest Bath are the most "complete" rooms in our house, isn't it!? ! I also sewed a new dog bed since Harlow was destroying the other one.

We still need a linen closet, and haven't cashed in our wedding gift cards for new towels because we'll have no where to put them. I may have found a viable linen closet, but need to drag Dusty out to see it. I'd really rather have a wardrobe with a mirror on the front door, since we don't have a full length mirror in the house.

We still need to insulate and reoganize the garage. This might require the assistance of a professional organizer like my dad.

A new bed/ maste bedroom set is also needed, although I'm not sure i'm ready to spend the $2,000+ that'll require. I'd prefer to collect interesting items, you know?

Friends/ Family:
We've had a solid 8 week stretch now of taking trips and having people come see us! It's been a lot of fun to catch up with everyone. Alli was here this weekend, and Harlow helped her bake Bobcat cookies for Homecoming. My sister also turns 21 next week!

 

Work:
Subtle changes are happening, and it seems I have the opportunity to shape the job I want within the position I already have. I'm grateful for the opportunity for growth and change. More on that later.

Dusty:
Continues to brew beer like we're never going to have the opportunity to purchase it this winter :) He's got quite the system down now! It's a good hobby for him, and he's enjoying thinking about what beers we'll want to drink as the weather gets worse.

Oh, and Harlow is going to be a ballerina for Halloween. I have tulle left over from El Weddingo to get rid of. I'll sew more on this weekend!