Category Archives: Gardening

Fall, Freezes and Feathers

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We had a pretty hard freeze the other night and so all our beautiful flowers out front, our basil, peppers and tomatoes all just turned black and shriveled up into a mess. The same thing happened in our greenhouse. We also had some horrendous winds and so most of the yellow and red leaves have blown off the trees. Still, in true Colorado fashion the weather shifts between mid 70s to 30s depending on the day.

Front after the freeze…all withered and wilted

The chickens have been laying a lot fewer eggs and Henrietta started molting which means no eggs from her at all until that’s done. Some people put a light in their coops for about an hour at night to increase their laying, but we don’t. We figure it’s a good time for them to rest and follow nature’s rhythms. I know that I want to sleep a lot more too!

Henrietta’s Spikes

A close up

Pretty soon we will be moving them into their winter home: the greenhouse. After the freeze I went in there to check it out and so did they. They helped clean it up by eating some of the over-ripe tomatoes for us. Also, don’t miss Kitty’s cameo 🙂

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Fall Around Our Yard

The shift to our Colorado autumn is in full swing. We usually get about one to two weeks of glorious weather with the trees changing colors and the temperature in the middle of the day maintaining at about 75. Up in the mountains the leaves have all changed and dropped, but here where it’s a little warmer we still have some.

At night we have had a few light frosts and our tomato plants, basil, and peppers probably have about a week left till they are toast. We’ve started cracking out the cold weather foods like hot spiced apple cider, chili con carne (with Fritos and cheese of course) and an evening chai latte or hot cocoa. Still, during the day you can where short sleeves and take walks in the changing colors.

Here are a few pictures of fall around our yard.

Fog over the lake behind our house at dawn

The chickens enjoy our white birch trees’ new colors

The flowers out front still look great!

And a few bees are still out working!

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Stuffed Peppers and a Nice Weekend

This weekend was nice. We didn’t have anything scheduled for once in a long time. So we took care of a few things, did all the laundry, did the dishes, went grocery shopping. You know the usual, normal domestic things. Not remodeling a house, not writing up leases, not going to various events and activities.

After that we even had time to cook a nice meal! We made stuffed bell peppers with things like tomatoes, basil, peppers from our garden. We don’t use a recipe, but just by heart here’s how we make them.

The finished result

Cook some ground beef/turkey (about a lb)
Boil your bell peppers until soft
Cook some rice
Add some tomatoes (I also put a can of diced tomatoes and some tomato paste), spicy peppers, cut up bell peppers, garlic, fresh basil, italian seasoning, salt, pepper, turmeric, etc to the beef mixture.
Add in the rice
Shred some cheese into the warm mixture

Fill the bell peppers with the mixture.

Place in the oven for about 20 minutes on 350 degrees with foil over top.
Add some more shredded cheese to the top for extra yumminess when they come out.
You can put the bell pepper tops on for a decorative effect, if you want.

It’s one of our favorites, if a little time consuming.

We also went for a couple walks and a bike ride. It was a great, relaxing weekend.

We stopped and took a walk through UNC’s campus

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Closest Thing to a Palm Tree in Colorado

Tonight we took a short bike ride after work down the Poudre River Trail near our house. We stopped by where the big floods this year had taken out the bridge down by the dog park on “F” Street. They had fixed it and put in a new channel for the water and had taken out the old one that had been destroyed by the water.

They had left it standing on end and I thought it looked a bit like some sort of art sculpture. Then Britton noticed it looked just like a palm tree without leaves! The closest thing to a palm tree in Colorado -ha! I guess we’ll have to wait for Puerto Rico for the real thing!

A palm in Colorado?

Sure!

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