Why I Oughta...

Late last week, I had to take Nat's car in for some maintenance and instead of dropping the car off, I decided (at the advice of the guy running the place) to sit around and wait.  Didn't take more than an hour, but I was bored enough to start taking pictures of my surroundings.  The truck drivers for this place plastered almost every surface of the waiting area/checkout area with these stickers.

Nat's car is a hybrid and I've gotten pretty good at learning how to drive while optimizing mpg. (pardon the dust on the dashboard!) Not bad, eh?

A few nights back, Nat made a big batch of red gravy.  Or...as you guys might call it:  tomato sauce.  Using a bunch of varieties including Romas, Mr. Stripey's and Green Zebras, it turned out delicious.  She used a recipe that called for roasting the tomatoes after halving them and de-seeding them.  She put together a couple pans worth and made gravy to last weeks! I think she improvised a bit, but her gravy/sauce was based largely on this Alton Brown recipe : 20 Roma tomatoes, halved and seeded 1/4 cup olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon pepper 1 cup finely diced onion 2 teaspoons minced garlic 1 tablespoon finely chopped oregano leaves 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme leaves 1 cup white wine Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In 2 (13 by 9-inch) pans place tomato halves cut side up. Sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper, onion, garlic, and herbs. Bake tomatoes for 2 hours. Check the tomatoes after 1 hour and turn down the heat if they seem to be cooking too qu

They're both sitting on 2X4 posts, but the Natcrow has 2" PVC for arms and the Jakecrow has another 2X4 for arms.  The inspiration for these guys were Martha's Scarecrows here . What do you think?  Clearly mine aren't as cute as Martha's, but they're close, no?  

Oh...I didn't tell you there were going to be two of them, did I?  Here's how they look from the street.  Still not done with the "little one", but hopefully I'll get to that on Friday.

While our garden is still throwing off lots and lots of tomatoes, peppers, zuchini, and eggplant, we're now able to harvest a set of fall crops.  Mostly "Jack Be Littles", but we also have a bunch of random gourds.  Quite a few of them aren't quite ripe so I'm hopeful they'll get-goin' before the frost comes. Some of these will be used in our Owl jack-o-lanterns and others will probably just stay put.  I'll toss them back into the compost bin and *fingers crossed* we'll get more next year!

Was able to get him (at least half-way) properly dressed.  Have to figure out the trousers and the stuffing, but that should be done by Wednesday.  Hopefully he'll be on guard by Wednesday night. Indiana Street - Be on the lookout!