Snow Sisters

Snow Sisters

Friday, August 9, 2013

This Year's Garden

The first trellis ended up with tomatoes and spaghetti squash growing up it. Several jalepenos and an okra plant are growing in front of the trellised plants.
 A gourd volunteer from last year....I let it grow and has been one of the most productive plants in the garden.  The three gourds here will add to the three I've already harvested!
Talking to the Academic Dean at Milligan one day (who is an avid gardener), he mentioned a fall crop of carrots.  I thought that sounded awesome so Lily and I made this raised bed and planted carrot seeds in it this week.  If you look closely, you may be able to see some of the plants emerging!  Here's to fresh carrots for Thanksgiving dinner!
 The Red Noodle!  These took a while to get going, but have been prolific in the past couple of weeks.  In the bottom right, there is an eggplant.  This is a "trap crop" whose purpose in my garden was to draw all the flea beetles onto it instead of the other plants.....it has worked fairly well.
 The area behind the trellis row....popcorn, melon, squash (spaghetti and butternut), and a rosemary bush that has been growing for about 3 years.
 A couple of spaghetti squash actually growing on the ground.
 Lily's cherry tomato plants.....including the "sun sugar" variety on the right (an orange tomato said to be "sweet as candy"....though Lily disagrees).
 Some of the new gourds on the far end of the trellis.
 Another variety of this year's gourds (harrowsmith).
 Brussel sprouts....maybe on the menu for Thanksgiving as well?!?
 The whole garden.
 Inside the first trellis...jalepenos to the left, tomatoes to the right, and a giant spaghetti squash in the upper right.  Lily and I finally had to tie it to the trellis because it kept slipping and knocking the tomato plants over.
A close-up of the trellised spaghetti squash....I guess there's a reason these are usually grown on the ground.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Fried Okra!

One of the fun new vegetables I grew up in the garden this year is okra!  If you've ever been around me at the buffet in the Milligan Cafeteria, you know that fried okra is near and dear to my stomach....so I thought I'd take this year's first pieces of okra and give it a try.  Here I've got my first three okra from the harvest.  Unfortunately, I talked to my good friend Commodore Bob about harvesting okra a bit too late and let the one on the far left get far too big....and it turned out to be hard, stringy and useless.  But the other two were great so I used them.....
 ....to do some improvising with an online fried okra recipe and came up with this....not bad for an off the cuff attempt!  It could have used a bit more salt, but other than that, it was delicious.

First day of school for 2013-14!!!

Today was the first day of school back in the JC....its been a more exciting year than any that have preceded it.  We took a long journey in finding the right fit for Lily after leaving Sherwood Forest, and we think we found it in St. Mary's.  It is a Catholic school, and to my great satisfaction, requires students to wear uniforms (I'm just thinking morning wardrobe choices will go a little easier :)
 
 
CJ started school at ETSU's Child Study Center.  This is where Lily spent a year right before leaving for Winston-Salem.  We are thrilled to be back at the CSC because of the amazing job they do there.  There will be one change for CJ, instead of being a Ladybug like Lily was, CJ will be a Cricket!
 

 

 



Friday, August 2, 2013

A Trip to the Aquarium in Gatlinburg

For the second leg of our big summer vacation this year, we went to Gatlinburg with Gran and Jonathan for a few days.  We started out with a trip to the aquarium!
 
Captain Shmee J!

 Penguins love each other :)