Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

 

Happy Thanksgiving! I've been really busy sewing, making some crafts for a couple of Christmas craft sales coming up in early December.

Clothespin bags! A limited market, for sure, but I'm hoping a few RVers might find them cute. These will be my first craft sales ever.

I've also been doing a few paintings for potential sale, encouraged by my art teacher, Kathy.

I'm keeping my expectations low, which is my usual M.O. (modus operandi), so I won't be disappointed if I don't sell any. And I'm using scenes from around the ranch, which is fun. This is an old bicycle of Sam's, and yes, under this tree is where it lives. We don't have enough space or storage. Or we have too much stuff. Take your pick.

I still have lots to do before we join friends for Thanksgiving dinner, so I'll close with a few other activities that have been going on around the ranch.

Sam has continued sanding and polishing wheels. And working on the horse trailer. And changing the oil on the car. He always has what seems like hundreds of projects that need to be done. 

I cleaned out the brush under the trees in our front yard a few weeks ago. 

This is what it looked like before. 

Lettuce is the only winter vegetable that is still growing, although we're getting lots of small tomatoes off the dead plants. And Sam harvested 4 or 5 pounds of jalapenos. Anyone want some?

We went to Benson High School homecoming football game, which was great small town fun.

Finally, all our nice flowers got eaten by stealth visitors the other day, right in Mom's front yard. We found deer tracks around the pots and later saw 5 deer cross the driveway. In this dry year, with few plants growing, I'm sure they were thankful for some tasty treats.

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend, everyone. Remember to be thankful for all that God gives us!

Cleaning out the garden, and other things

We had a couple of nights with temperatures below freezing. 28 degrees...in October! It pretty well killed off the summer garden, so Sam cleaned out the tomatillo plants and we filled the basket with 5 pounds of green bell peppers. I gave them to neighbors and friends, then cut up and froze lots more.

It even snowed!

We left most of the jalapenos for now. This was a week ago, after we gave a lot of them away. 

Our harvest after the first frost was 5 pounds, our biggest yet, but was eclipsed the very next day. 

Yellow squash are still doing pretty well. The leaves are huge.

I pulled 4 radishes, the first fall vegetables, exactly a month after planting. So I planted more.

The loofah grew very large and the plant has now died, so we'll soon see if it is big enough to use as a loofah sponge.  But enough about the garden!

Sam has been working on the horse/utility trailer.

He cut out the heavy steel wall between the main trailer and the "tack room," for more space to put the motorcycle.

Sam also set up our workout equipment in the shade beside the storage trailer, and we started using it last week. 

Today Mom Virginia wandered up to see what we were doing and Sam talked her into joining us!

Meanwhile, I've devoted my time to more artistic projects. I found some teal pumpkin paint, perfect because Mom doesn't like orange, and ended up with this weird looking face. I left the hair orange in honor of my redhead, Sam. 

Since I now use a clothesline while doing laundry, I needed a clothespin holder and found a cute "caravan peg bag" design on Etsy. I think the creator is from Great Britain: Rainbow Hare Peg Bag

It's really cute and works great. If anyone wants one for Christmas, let me know!

I continue to pursue new endeavors in painting with acrylics, and truly love it. This was an exercise in painting upside down, to encourage my brain to look for shape and color, rather than objects or scene. I think it helped! It was copied from another Erin Hanson masterpiece: ErinHanson.com

Last week, for the first time, I painted from a "live" object, a bouquet of flowers our teacher brought in. I'm fairly happy with it, and Kathy was very encouraging (as she always is). If anyone in southern Arizona wants to join us, it's really a fun class: No Fear Painting Workshop

Last, but certainly not least, last weekend we had a really fun visit from old friends, Dean and Peggy. 

We walked around the ranch.

The men had plenty of guy time to talk about tractors, trucks and guy things. 

And the remaining family members, Slinky and Jasper, totally wore themselves out. It was a fun day.

I'll say goodbye with views of a recent sunrise. 

Sam suggested sitting in our front yard to see if the clouds would produce a good one. 

It was worth it! I hope you all have a great week.

Projects

 

We've been working on a few projects here at Pumpkin Patch Ranch, most of which involve Sam doing the work and Mom Virginia or I helping. 

But that's okay because he's been on Fall Break! He took apart a couple of pallets to make a platform for the washing machine. It's nice and sturdy.

Meanwhile, I cleaned out part of the raised beds in the garden and planted fall crops. I'm so happy the summer heat has finally eased up.

The cabbage plants have already been partially eaten by rodents (we need to fix a hole in the gate), but other seedlings are coming up: carrots, radishes, turnips, collards, spinach, lettuce. 

The existing plants are still producing. I've gotten lazy and don't harvest every day, which makes it seem like more. Notice how there's still no tomatoes? We have over 20 plants, but almost no fruit. 

Sam was inspired to start a project we've put off for a few months. He cut some fence slats into shorter lengths. 

To make wooden arms for two of our metal lawn chairs where the plastic arms have broken off.

He routed and sanded.

And sanded some more. 

Then we took scraps of wood and tried out the 3 colors of stain that we bought at Walmart. 

Sam did a trial run (on the right), then got really artsy on the arms for his chair. What do you think of the pattern? I haven't decided on mine yet.

Of course we aren't always working. Almost every Saturday morning we drive to Benson to visit our new friend May at Benson Donuts. She's owned the shop for years and makes the best donuts we've ever tasted. 

Here's a close-up of the birdcage on the shelf behind May. Sam tells her she'd better start feeding the leftover donuts to the bird, or he may not last too long.

One day last week Sam drove the Benson High School's volleyball teams to their games in Tucson. 

He had a good time. They stopped for a hamburger on the way home. 

Also last week Sam and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary with lunch at our favorite restaurant, Mi Casa. Sam brought me those beautiful flowers. 

The food is always exceptional in flavor and presentation. The owners, Andy and Santa, were finally able to set up their outdoor patio, thanks to Covid restrictions!

Here's what it looks like at night. A magical place!

This past weekend we cleaned up our magical place and were finally able to host a barbecue for a dozen friends and neighbors. 

It was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to have a good time. 

Can you tell I almost forgot to take photos again? We hope to host many more get-togethers in the coming years. 

I'll leave you with a beautiful sunrise from last week. Photos don't do it justice. 

And another glimpse of my lovely bouquet. I enjoy them so much. 

Blessings to you. I hope and pray you're all doing well.