Why I Oughta...

Another loss in Downtown Elmhurst as Leonard's Fine Mens Clothing store is 'quitting business forever'. Have to admit that I've never stepped foot in the place, so I'll take some of the blame, but this is another open storefront in the City Center and one less reason for some folks to head down there.  Sad for the business.  Sad for Elmhurst.

I'm going to be an adult about this vehichle stuff and take this thing head on. Live in the suburbs.  Check. Have three (gasp!) kids.  Check. Go to bed before 9 pm.  Check. Got the swagger wagon?  Check!

I've tried growing pumpkins for a few years and either mold or critters ruin the fun.  This year, I saw a few promising 'fruits' that had blossomed and I decided to try to keep the critters away with some fencing.  This is the biggest pumpkin that I've ever grown that doesn't have a single nick in it from squirrel teeth. Gnome for size reference...

Like in year's past, this year we tried another water putty witch.   Here's the mold we used in 2012. This years is smaller, but has her riding on her broom.  The Babe is going to get busy painting this gal over the weekend when we have other things we need to attend to!

Who would have thought that we might end up with a van?!? We went looking at vans over the weekend and we've narrowed it down to between the Sienna and the Odyssey.  I'm leaning towards the Swagger Wagon.  We'll see if we can make a deal!

We may have created a bit of a problem by planting so many different varieties of pumpkin seeds.  With this cool, wet weather, they're thriving.  Still hoping for a giant jack-o-lantern for October.

Hard to believe that the printers up in Coloma for the Friendly Tavern got it right once, but then just a few inches away, they messed up, isn't it?

We've been picking one or two strawberries off our little plants almost every other day the past few weeks.  This morning, I went out and peeked at the blueberry plant and it had some ripe ones that came off the branch so easily. I planted this bush just about a year ago and it started to pay off in this small amount this year.  I had to put a small fence around the bush as it kept getting eaten by rabbits (the bush) and that was causing it some stress.  The berries last year were all picked away by birds, so this year the fence helped big time. Nat wants more, so I'm going to see if I can find another few bushes and plant them - permanently - in the garden.

Planted a set of heirloom beans in a different spot this year in an attempt to rotate the crops a bit.  After the birds picked away a half dozen or so of the seeds, these seedlings emerged and are on their way to grow up that trellis net.

In addition to the Jack-O'-Lantern seeds that I planted over the weekend , I also put in these Big Moon seeds right in the same area.  From the look of the seed packet, these are supposed to grow big but have a neat shade of orange on the flesh that give these a bit more romantic look to them. I've put in 2 different 'hills' of the seeds, so once the seedlings emerge, I'll thin them down to 3-4 strong growers and hope to stay on top of them as they grow.  I'm thinking I should invest in some of these pedestals for these guys this year.