The Summer of the Bear

This summer was certainly the summer of the Bear. I saw a lot of our bear this summer. If the bear wasn't knocking over our (bear-proof, of course) garbage can, he (or maybe she) was out all times of the day. Our neighborhood bear got very bold this year showing up in broad daylight.

It's been an odd summer. Our garden was almost an epic bust. I have a small enclosed garden to keep the critters out, but this year, no matter how many breaches we sealed, the chipmunks got in and ate almost everything. It's been a dry summer and I suspect that the animals are hungrier than usual. I planted several varieties of sunflowers, but they never had a chance. I found bear prints in the sunflower patch and I caught the foxes eating the seedlings. I live in the middle of a wild animal park! My highest hopes were for the strawberries to grow abundantly. Every year, I dream of strawberry shortcake and home made strawberry jam. They might have flourished, but those pesky chipmunks devoured the flowers before the strawberries could even bloom. Needless to say, I kind of gave up this summer, but as I am always hopeful, I am already looking to next year. I plan to relocate the garden to get more sun. Next year, I will have my strawberries!

This was my garden at the beginning of the summer. It had so much potential. I bought a single Concord  grape plant thinking that at some point I could have grape jelly along with my strawberry jam plans, but the grape plant doesn't look as if it grew at all. 

I thought that the garden was a total failure, but I looked in the other day and I found six small pumpkins! I've been trying to grow pumpkins for almost six years! I am so excited! So, no strawberries, but I have these miniature pumpkins to decorate the house for Fall! I guess chipmunks don't care for pumpkins! I also found some garlic chives that the critters left alone! Even in disappointment, there's much to be thankful for. We're leaving strawberry season behind and moving into pumpkin bliss!

Summer ends a little sooner up here in the mountains. Around mid-August, I hear the first rustling of the aspen leaves and that seems to signal the end of summer here. School begins in August and as I have one child in public school, we find ourselves scrambling to wrap up summer, change gears, and get ready for the new school year. I know I'm not alone in thinking that September is really new year's. I will always feel that the academic calendar more accurately fits the transition into a new year. I'm okay with the end of summer, but I am not okay when I see the leaves on the aspens and maples drying out, turning brown, and falling too soon. Like I said, it's been a very dry summer! Autumn, I look forward to you every year and I will be bitterly disappointed if I don't get spectacular golden yellows and magnificent complex orange leaves to look at every day.

Today, we started our home school year. Luke is in 8th grade and he will turn 13 this Thursday.  I can't believe we're getting so close to high school. We've got some big decisions to make in the coming year. I haven't written much about home schooling on my blog in a long long time. More on that soon...In the mean time, here's a picture of Luke with Rhodie, his Rhode Island Red. He's become somewhat of an expert on poultry in the last year. Some of his chickens started laying eggs this Summer and he usually brings me an egg a day.

Well, here's to the end of the Summer of the Bear and to the beginning of a challenging and exciting academic year. It's time for pumpkins, cool nights, apple pie, and reading under cozy quilts.

I will reveal the winner of our Big Summer tomorrow!

Happy September Friends!

Yarn Along: gardening and knitting at the same time

I planted our small garden this weekend. Again, I'm hopeful for a small harvest. It isn't easy to garden at our elevation (8600 feet). I'm ever optimistic despite the past few years of midget carrots, pumpkins that start off promising, but fizzle and pathetic strawberry plants.  This year, I planted Carnival Blend carrots (they grow in yellow, orange and purple), chives, strawberries, marigolds, Mammoth sunflowers, kale and snap peas.  With all the tall evergreens surrounding our home, I suspect my plants don't get enough sun.  I keep trying because like knitting, time in the garden is relaxing to the soul. 

I cast on this hat called Seedling by Alana Dakos. I have yet to knit something by Alana that I didn't like. This hat is done in Reverse Stockinette which means that it's a lot of purling. It's a good thing that I don't mind purling. Each row, I'm growing little seedlings. This is what I call easy gardening!

If you've been following my Yarn Alongs over the past few weeks, I'm still on Row 4 of my Baby Surprise Jacket.  Oh well.  I will eventually get back to it.

As for reading, I'm re-reading The Magic of Ordinary Days for upcoming book club.

I must go to put the twins down for a nap. We're kicking our Summer break off today with a trip down the hill to the library. We'll also meet up with daddy and get some ice cream. Okay, the babies are sleepy.  Must go.  So, head on over to Ginny's to read about more yarn and book adventures this week.

Glimpses of home

 The garden is planted. The Aspens are blooming.  The wild rose bush is green again.
Blessings everywhere!

The state of my garden

Here's one of my pumpkin flowers. At the time I took this picture, I was still hopeful that I would see at least one little pumpkin. When I say "little" pumpkin, I mean those miniature pumpkins that come in the bag with the ornamental gourds. Well, I watched this plant grow from tiny seedlings and I was impressed with how much it grew. I even saw a tiny green little pumpkin and I got excited about having that one pumpkin, but some critter made off with it. Well, I think a critter took it because it disappeared.


Here are my strawberries. I was delighted to see the bigger one ripening slowly to its red color, but I never got to see it turn completely red because once again a critter stole it. So, what have I learned from this season's pathetic little garden?? Well, for one thing, I've learned that no matter how vigilant I am about watching my plants as soon as I turn my back, a chipmunk or a squirrel will steal everything. I literally photographed those strawberries and had them stolen the very same hour.

I've learned that even if you prop your grape tomato plants up with old knitting needles, the rainstorms will win and both your knitting needles and tomato plants will be destroyed.

I've learned that I have to start the seeds indoors sooner. I planted everything too late.

I've learned that just when you see a small bounty of cherry peppers (that are still green), they will be harvested by some animal that has easy access to your deck.

I've learned that two unripe strawberries is not enough for home-made jam anyway. I'm sure the squirrel or chipmunk needed them for winter storage.

The carrots never really got going. Everyday that I looked in the pot I was sure that I saw tiny footprints in there.

I planted several sunflower seeds just hoping I'd get one or two mammoth flowers, but I'm sure the stellar's jays and chickadees had something to do with that too.

So, next year, I will abandon the container gardening pots on the deck and create something critter proof.

On a happy note, I did discover that I have wild strawberry plants that I had never noticed before. I'm sure that I hadn't noticed them before because at the time I couldn't identify their leaf pattern. I suppose they're called alpine strawberries and I managed to find a few of the miniscule berries before they were all eaten by the squirrels, chipmunks, birds and maybe even a bear. Who knows??

I won't give up even though gardening at my altitude has many challenges.

As for my jam plan? I broke down and bought $27 worth of organic raspberries and made freezer jam last week.

The Lone Strawberry

Last week, I went outside to check on my strawberry plants. I had one strawberry and it finally ripened to a nice red. I took a picture of my one little tiny strawberry and walked away, but not a few minutes later I decided I'd go and pick that strawberry. So, I went back out on the deck and the strawberry was gone! I suspect some squirrel ate it. He must have waited patiently until it ripened and he saw his chance while I put my camera away. Well, one strawberry wasn't enough for my jam plan anyway!

I guess we weren't completely unsuccessful...

While I was hoping that my flowers would grow, somehow we managed to get 5 tomatoes on our little tomato plant. My mom had bought Luke a tomato plant from a farmer's market this summer and well, I have to admit that we didn't care for it as we should have, but I was impressed with our small plant. When we finally picked them, I was fascinated as I watched them ripen in our living room window. They were decidedly green and slowly they transformed to red!

I'm grateful for this

Today, Luke and I cleaned out our garden barrels. We started out with such high hopes in May as we planted several varieties of sunflowers, pumpkins, daisies and marigolds. I was really disappointed that not one of our sunflowers bloomed until Paul discovered this tiny flower in one of the barrels. We had planted kid-sized sunflowers in this barrel and I found that I was completely grateful for this tiny humble bloom. The marigolds got close to blooming, but never quite opened and then we got our first snow of the season yesterday. It was just the tiniest of snows, but it was cold enough for the marigolds to completely shrivel. I should have brought them inside, but I knew that they were way past the blooming stage. We will definitely have to learn how to grow things at our elevation of 8600 feet. I have hope for next season though.