Gone With the Wind

"Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, that Tara doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts. "

--- Some fatherly advice from Gone With The Wind.

Much like Scarlett, I worked my fingers to the bone this year, setting up our garden. (Actually we ALL did... but I can't liken my whole family to Scarlett O'Hara can I?) In our garden, we grew enough vegatables to go months without buying salad fixings from the grocery store. Well, except for those darn green tomatoes that never did ripen.

Sometimes as I was out there in the broiling sun, pulling endless weeds, I would recall the famous words Scarlett O'Hara spat out in fury, "As God is my witness they're not going to lick me. I'm going to live through this and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again!" Okay, I know that digging up dandelions isn't exactly the same as rebuilding a post-Civil War plantation, but on those really hot days... it sured felt like it. (Lucky for me, I could always cool off by going into the house and grabbing a diet pepsi out of the fridge.)

Now that that weather has turned cooler, leaves are falling, and the first chill (and snow!) has killed off all our plants, the time has come to tidy up the garden in preparation for the impending winter.

This weekend, Devon and the boys dismantled the entire garden. They pulled up all the flowers. Ripped out all the dried corn husks. Dug up all the weeds (I got tired of pulling by mid-August). And removed all traces of tomatoes, peppers, and chard. All the hoses, sprinklers, and tomato cages have been safely stored away. Our backyard looks empty now, but I'm sure it won't be long before the snow blankets the area where our garden once stood.

Alas, as we move from Fall into Winter, "Purple in Providece" is now... Gone With the Wind!

FALL HAS ARRIVED

It actually snowed here this past weekend... so it looks like "fall" is short lived in Utah. Actually, with snow in June and now in October, we think that there is pretty much more "winter" here, than any other season.

As we drive back and forth to Ogden each week to attend synagogue and/or religious school, we marvel at the beautiful colors through "Sardine Canyon". Gorgeous yellows, reds, and oranges. Sure didn't get fall colors like this back in Phoenix.

So our garden is pretty much kaput now. We had our first freeze (a few days before the snow) and we went from blooming flowers to all shrivelled up. We now have lots of leaves falling in the back yard (again, due to the gigantic trees of our neighbor) and the dogs are having a blast running around on top of them.

Devon and the boys are in the process of erecting a portable outhouse for the dogs to use this winter. The canoe is now going to be occupied keeping our bikes protected from the elements and nobody liked having to beat a path out there in the snow anyway.

So here are some final pictures of our garden in bloom before the dreaded freeze.

Here's two of the dahlias that FINALLY came up. They bloomed just about a week before the freeze. They really were pretty... so I guess we either need to plant them earlier next year or find a place with more sun. (Hmmm... like Phoenix?)

We only got one tiny ear of corn (about six inches long) from all these plants. Maybe we should turn this area of the garden into a corn maze for dachshunds!

We got lots and lots of tomatoes, but so many never ripened. Not willing to eat "fried green tomatoes" (because wasn't that just a movie?) we cut our loses and just ate the red ones we could harvest. Devon spent all last Sunday, turning them into salsa. We decided not to "can" the salsa because we read if you don't do it right... you can put an end civilization as we know it. So we are eating salsa every night now.

Meet Max

Max is a dachshund we found for adoption at Petsmart here in Logan. Poor Max was turned into the local animal shelter because he and his brother "barked too much". Could you imagine what that family would have done with Coco???

Apparently Max's brother was adopted right away, but nobody wanted Max. He has been up for adoption for a month now. Our heart went out to this poor unwanted dachshund (who appears to be a purebred). So we agreed to take Max for a week to see if Coco would be okay with him.

Coco really doesn't seem bothered by him at all. She doesn't like him or dislike him. Instead she just seems somewhat ambivalent. Max absolutely loves Joshua & David and follows them where ever they go. He is so happy to sleep on the floor at the foot of Josh's bed... which is okay with Coco (who happily still has her Queen Bee status).

Tomorrow our week of "deciding" is up. We have decided that none of us have it in our heart to send him back. He is a very nicely behaved dog and we haven't heard him bark at anything except for kids on bikes. So I guess he's staying.