I'm Baaaaack!

Hey there. I'll bet you've been wondering where the heck I've been. Well, August was more than a little crazy, but fun. September was spent catching up.

We spent our yearly trip up in Canada, hanging out at a cabin next to a lake. The boys went horseback riding, and did some swimming. Unfortunately, due to the wildfire danger, we weren't allowed campfires, but we did manage a BBQ. We spend the same week up there each year, as do the other families, and it is so fun watching all the kids grow. My eldest was literally getting chased by the girls this year. I guess I don't need to worry about him yet as he's still running away. :-)

We were home for four days and then left for two weeks in France. We spent a week in Paris seeing all the sights, then drove south to Provence for a week with my in-laws. Provence is so much slower than Paris, it was a little hard adjusting. The food there was spectacular, though, and we ate our way through a lot of escargot, cheese and olives.

So, basically, my garden fell apart during the high season of August. My neighbor took care of the watering needs, but he had his own tomatoes and needed none of mine, so they rotted on the vine. The pears were ready, and he took almost all of them - there were two very ripe ones left for me. They are so yummy! So August's harvest was only about 5 lbs and a lot went to waste. Unfortunately, I didn't have my neighbor weigh what he took, so I couldn't add it to my harvest total. I'm guessing he took about 10 pounds of pears?

We came back in early September, and what a load of work I had before me! The rest of the boys' school supplies needed to be purchased, and I had trees full of apples waiting very impatiently for me. The garden was in dire need of help. So I hit the ground running, pulling out the food dehydrator and baking like crazy.

I have decided that four semi-dwarf apple trees are really too much for my family of four. At least at this time. Either that, or I need to rent a cider press. I've brought in 118 pounds of apples so far, and I still have another tree to go. AND it was one of the tree's "off" years. This last tree is a "keeper" variety, so I'll try to wrap and store the better-looking apples in the shed to see how they do. The bugs seem to dislike this tree's fruit, but unfortunately, it's not scab-resistant.

So I'm about to surpass last year's harvest total of 255 pounds. I don't think I'm going to make my goal of 350 pounds, but I probably will be within 25 pounds of it. I'm upset that I didn't get anything in for fall and winter except the garlic. I'll just need to get my rear in gear next year if I'm to make an even higher goal. What do you think? 400 pounds?