Falling into November...

 The leaves are falling, the temps are falling.  This morning the temperature had climbed all the way to 30 by 9 AM.  It's chilly, but not rainy, so I guess that's good. Autumn has made her debut. Welcome, old girl... it's really beautiful around these parts. All the reds and golds and browns. I thought about taking today off and going out for a while with my camera to take some last ditch photographs of the beauty, but I have SO much to do today. Laundry, last minute garden preservations (carrots, peppers, etc.), finish up the 3 lbs of spearmint that is drying in various places around my house, and all the pumpkins that are in the garage.  I have to get these things done because the upcoming week is going to be pretty busy for me. I might still get up off my butt and at l;eat take off for an hour or so and shoot some pictures.


 I have a bunch of peppers that are going to be canned into Unstuffed Bell Pepper Soup.  I have  to make sure I have enough jars for this, and of course lids too.  I think I do. I have been eating things out of the pantry regularly and so am collecting some more empty jars. (My rule is that after October 1st, I can officially start eating out of my pantry stores. LOL  Any time before that I eat out of the garden).  I have a 5 gallon bucket full of carrot greens that need to be made into pesto.  I made a recipe the other night (we had a guest for supper) that was a warm chickpea and carrot greens salad. It was awesome people !!!  I also found a recipe that looks suspiciously like a Seaweed Salad, only it is made with carrot greens, and I seriously want to try that. The carrots and their tops are looking a little wilty (they were pulled Friday afternoon before the first frost) so I'm going to take that bucket and fill it with cold water and see if I can shock those greens back while washing the muddy carrots.  lol


  This is National Novel Writing Month too...starting yesterday.  NaNoWriMo is one of the highlights of my year, even though I sometimes don't finish my novella.  I started writing yesterday on Nov. 1st (that's the rules) and have gotten about 1200 words down so far.  I was just thinking that it's crazy sometimes how...the more I have on my plate and the more I have to do, the more I do and the more I get done.  When I have some downtown from having a ton to do...I get lazy and sometimes accomplish almost nothing.  Once an old timer in AA told me (I was on a committee) to always ask the busy people for help--they are the ones who get things done. He was right.  The title of my 50,000 word novel is ...A Rainy October.  And that's all I'll tell you for now.  (Of course the title could change at any moment, but for now, that's what it is. LOL)

  I am going to go start a load of laundry. It can be going while I write here... okay. So the first of  3 loads of laundry is sorted and started,  the carrots are in the bathtub full of cold water and I stopped and made my bed on my way through. I am finishing up the first 3 pound bag of spearmint...last night I manicured and trimmed and filled 2 dehydrators and 3 brown paper bags. I think I am going to prefer the old paper bag method...I don't know. The mint just seems like it is losing it's potency in the dehydrator. Or maybe it's just me.  I guess when I steep some in boiling water for tea, I will know for sure. I have another 3 pound bag coming...I had no idea how to even visualize what a pound of mint looked like, lol.   But to give you an idea, here's part of a 3 pound bag...  

That's a kitchen can sized garbage bag.  My plan for all this mint is a couple of things...one is obviously, Tea.  I also want to try my hand at infusing oil with spearmint. And my wonderful friend Crystal tells me that she makes a mesmerizing pesto using mint. All of which intrigue me to no end. And I will certainly have plenty, lol.  Crystal is the goddess that is an herbalist,  farmer at a CSA with her handsome husband Eric, and mother extraordinaire to her 2 beautiful children Cayan and Iris.  One of those women that you meet and immediately think--I HAVE to have that woman in my life !!! I am blessed to call her my friend.

   It's not going to get real warm today. Low 50's they say and there isn't a lot of sunshine out there. I'm still in my elegant soft cotton nightgown that looks like something my grandma would have worn, and my Joe Boxer longjohns with socks and Birkenstocks. (How's that for a visual ???) I could get dressed, but...

  Tomorrow starts a busy week again, filled with another workshop  (Herbs and Edible Weeds) followed by a potluck. After that I'll head over to meet my husband at a speaker meeting to hear our friend Jeff share his ES&H. Monday also starts another of Oprah and Deepak Chopra's 21 day guided meditation series that I am going to do.  Tuesday morning I have a dentist appointment  to have some work done, followed (I hope) by my volunteer commitment at the Service Office.  I also have to vote in there somewhere...probably first thing in the morning before I head to the dentist.  Wednesday will be a slow day with just the usual stuff. Thursday I have another dentist appointment at 5 PM.  More work.

  Somewhere in there I have a car trunk full of pumpkins to massacre and keep seeds from. (Actually, the pumpkins are now residing in the garage, not in the trunk. My wonderful son came in yesterday morning and said  "...hey, I took all those pumpkins out and put them in the garage. I didn't think you wanted to drive around all day with them in there."   I have another 3 pounds of mint to pick up. I'm still looking for beets. I didn't grow any and no one seems to have any.  My novel will be calling me to work on it every day, hopefully a minimum of 1200-1500 words.  I also have blog posts to start writing for the Mother Earth News, as soon as they let me know when the first one is being published.

  My busy life. A good thing. Now...shall I get dressed? I need to call my little market and see of they have 8 pounds of their freshly ground beef available to can that soup...





Namaste.