Urban Homesteading

Autumn is almost here!  It’s my favorite time of year, and I’m especially looking forward to it this year.   My dad always called this time of year Indian Summer.  When the days were still hot, but the nights were cool.  My senses are just itching for the fall.

Monday Rick and I spent some time harvesting about two thirds of our sunflowers and all the Indian corn we grew.  I was surprised at the variety of colors the corn had, and the sunflowers… well what can I say?  WOW!

I planted the sunflowers thinking it would be cool to have ten foot tall flowers, but the seeds… what a bonus!  I had no idea!  Some of the flowers got taller than the garage… they had to be over 15 feet tall.  And the heads on them!  Well you can see that one above was a foot across, and it was not alone.

We also had some sunflowers that had all black seeds… they are gorgeous!  We are going to have so many seeds from all of them…. plenty to share!  Don’t be surprised if you get a package full for Christmas… I hope you like them!

I wish I had taken a picture of the corn in the sun.  I had them lying in the shade, and you can’t really see the colors as well as I would have hoped.  The harvest was small, but since I grew them purely for decoration, it is sufficient.  I’m not disappointed!

I’ve only seen one pumpkin in the garden, but there are so many acorn squash that I can’t keep count.  I’m really looking forward to the acorn squash… I’ve grown tired of the summer squashes.  The garden has done especially well this year, but as usual, Rick and I can’t help but plan and scheme for next year’s already.   The other day, Rick shredded and froze enough zucchini for something like 32 loaves of zucchini bread!  Yikes!  He has big plans for me this winter I guess!

Hunting season is around the corner and Rick’s been binocular shopping.  We really need him to get an animal this year.  The freezer’s been empty for a while now, and it really would save us a lot of money if he brought home a deer or an elk.  I’m especially hoping for an elk, but would be happy with either.  Please be praying for him to get one!!

It’s funny, but until we finished off Rick’s last deer, I didn’t realize how much money it saved us not to have to buy meat.  And I am surprised at how much pride I took in feeding my family from meat that he killed and vegetables we grew.  If only we had a cow to get our own dairy products….  😉

I was just thinking about how the last few years, my cousins have come out to visit.  Either Kelly or Michelle or both, and a couple times my aunt & uncle came too.  I realized that I associate fall with their visiting, and am really going to miss seeing them this year!  I did get to see Chelbert in July when she was on her way home from Iraq, but the visit was far too short… just a couple of hours while she waited for her next flight.  I wish Rick and I could have afforded a visit to Tennessee to see everyone this year.  Maybe it will be in the cards next year… I want to try to plan it.