October Bounty

Pumpkins and white acorn squash! It's harvest season. But first, puppy news...
 

Annie Puppy is growing by leaps and bounds... and doing a lot of leaping and bounding... She looks calm here, but only because she ran and played... and chewed things up... all night.

 

Poor Mr. McCoy  babysits all night... and sleeps all day.

Sometimes friend Mary and I take Annie with us on hikes. She loves exploring.

 

 

This is the season for picking grapes and having Johnny freeze them for his winter snacks. I cut down the vines and make wreath rounds for future Christmas wreaths. I made a lot of rounds this year.

 

As always, young witches with flying permits but not enough experience crashed in our back yard.

A "pod" of eight children came to choose pumpkins and run through the arboretum. They are schooling online at a neighbor's house.

 

 Johnny and I took a day off to drive up Agency Creek road and look for Dippers. We found one at the rock quarry. 

 

 Johnny also spotted a weasel that then ran out into my view but I wasn't fast enough with the camera. It was a beautiful long-tailed weasel in golden brown summer coat.

 

Here Johnny looks for Dippers but we did not find any at this stop, "The Chutes". 

 

 It was scenic, though.

 Lots of scenic spots on our route...

 

 Many work days later, I took a day off to meet an old birding friend at Baskett Slough. By chance, another of our old birding pals went there the same day. I think we'll start an Old Ladies' Birding Club.

We saw lots of Cackling Geese...

 

And one Snow Goose...
 

 The next day frost warnings were out... so I picked the tender produce still in the garden... cauliflower heads I didn't even know were there! Also broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, zucchini and...

 

 

tomatoes to ripen in the window upstairs.

 

Ghosts suddenly appeared in front of the house... really frost covers for tender plants.

 

A very long ghost for the tomato plants with green tomatoes still in the garden.

 Johnny has been spending much time up at 90 year old neighbor Irv's, bringing in wood for the winter for Irv and repairing his spring box and water line. Johnny likes that better than all the machinery repair he has had to do on our farm. He also picks up apples here daily and periodically makes wonderful cider.

I have, of course, been harvesting and canning and freezing and storing the winter squash. These white acorn squash are delicious! I love October.  It's a bountiful, busy time of year.