Happy Halloween!

Here comes Frosty!

Awww yeah! This has some real promise. I mean, hey, you can't have snow days without snow, right??

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It's not what you think it is...

Just got the lawn aerated. It only LOOKS like a pack of dogs came through and pooped all over.

Went with a different guy this time who charged a lot less. I'm just hoping his smaller and cheaper tool did as good a job as the guy who came out two years ago for 3x the cost but bigger plugs. Problem with that guy is he never followed through on his appointment this spring.

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Just because...

... all the other apple stuff I was making just wasn't enough. Well, that takes care of another 14 apples out of a bushel. Sure hope it tastes as good as it looks! The dough was being difficult (must remember to make a 1.5x batch next time!), so it's a "rustic" style crust.

Ugh, as I'm typing this we're finding the pie filling boiled out and is smoking up the place. Peeuw!

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Smells like fall!

17 apples peeled, cored, sliced and loaded into the maxxed out dehydrator? Check! (And check out how different from each other the different varieties of apples look minutes after being sliced!)

14 more apples (that's 5 1/2 lbs) prepped the same way, then combined with cinnamon, cloves, salt and sugar and loaded into the slow cooker.

Tomorrow there's gonna be a lot of apple butter and dried apple rings!

Hm, should I make an apple pie??

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Late bloomer

This is my first year with clematis - I had no idea it would continue to bloom so late in the season!

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Look closely!

There's four more figs starting to ripen!

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Oh no! Hot lava!

Did you ever play hot lava as a kid? My brother and I did, and I think Brett says he and his did the same. Maybe it was a boy thing... I don't know.

You'd be on the sofa or the stairs, but in your head you knew it was really a rickety boat or a collapsing hillside, and the only way to survive was to not fall onto the floor, aka hot lava (don't ask me how a boat was in hot lava...maybe there was volcanic upwelling?) And you know it was nearly as much fun if the boat or hillside was stable, so there was a lot of thrashing around, pushing each other off to save yourself, grabbing each other's arms to save them at the last minute, etc.

Hm, this 'Hot Lava' echinacea doesn't look like it's going to scald anyone any time soon, but it sure is putting on a dramatic, one might say "firey", show in the garden.

I just put it in this summer....got it in a special buy two, get one deal. It's supposed to be a perennial... Let's see if it's tough enough to make it through an Ohio winter. I've been watching the extended forecast and it sounds like the combination of el Nino, La Nina, and other longer term weather cycles could be lining us up for an extra cold winter (if we're lucky!). ;-)

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This berry's a beaut!

I gotta say, as beautiful as beauty berry is in the garden, I always find it has an almost artificial look about it. There's just something about the color and all those perfect little berries I think?

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Sophisticated kitty

Does Tucker make this table look small?

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Getting figgy with it

The first (and probably only) fig from the new tree. OMG was it good. I split it with Sharon since she and Andy are over. She was real skeptical but tried it, and her eyes popped open and she said "oh that's good! "

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Apples at Stotlers Orchard

The very tasty annual tradition with Sharon and Andy.

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Best smoothie yet?!

I recently splurged on a bag of frozen mango chunks... Over $4 and I'm thinking it's only going to be enough for four or five smoothies? The last smoothie I tried with it was a bit lackluster.

I usually make smoothies to 1) use up bananas and 2) try to get yogurt in me. I really don't care for yogurt, but I'm finding I can tolerate it in sweet smoothies. Better than plain yogurt is vanilla, although I suspect it's packing a fair amount of sugar as well.

So into the cup go the usual 3-4 ice cubes, a broken up reeeally ripe banana, about 1/3 to a half cup of vanilla yogurt, and this time a bit more mango than last. In trying to oomph it up I drizzled in about a tablespoon of honey and tossed in one piece of crystallized ginger (this one was about 3/4" square).

Wow!

Just that one piece of ginger really gives it a nice depth I never expected in a smoothie. Any more ginger and I'd need it to be pumpkin and cinnamon instead of mango. And I think the honey also helped round out the various flavors. Yum!

(btw this made a big smoothie. That's only about a third of it in the clean glass dirtied only to take the picture.)

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Wet nose

This explains the wet dog nose sensation I keep getting on the back of my neck!

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