Boo!

Pumpkin Harvest & Halloween!

We always grow way too many pumpkins
They're just so irresistible

Just up the coast from us is the town of
Half Moon Bay
Where they have a big pumpkin festival every year!
The winning pumpkin/gourd this year weighed in at
a whopping 1,658 lbs!
And the winner walked away with the coveted title
and a prize of $9,948.00!

Anyone care to take a guess at our biggest pumpkin?
Ours is nothing near the big whopper at the HMB festival...
but it weighed in at triple digits in US pounds!
(triple digits in kilograms too... I looked it up! LOL!)

You can make your guess
by eyeing the size of it next to DH in the photo above.

The one who guesses the closest to the correct weight
will win this lovely little handmade button bracelet
from the Art Festival up at Crystal Bay Farm last weekend.

(sorry its not a better photo...
I should've had a manequin arm... much cuter) (:

This posting of our pumpkin harvest is a little late, on purpose.
It goes well with Halloween

As you can see... we got a little carried away,
but the Homeless Shelter will benefit.
We always take our extra bounty down to help them out.

We let the artichokes go to flower
Aren't they gorgeous!?

The Bees love them too.
They burrow down inside the purple pin cushion-like flowers


Fall Decoration in the house

Apples are now in canning jars as applesauce
They looked so lovely sitting in the baskets


A few other farms just down the road

~Calla Lily Flower Farm~

Brussel Sprouts are in full production


And a few fields are under wraps
They cover the whole field in plastic, and fumigate the soil
It looks "other worldly" doesn't it?

I have admired the house (below) ever since we moved here.
It was built in 1887 and used to be located in town,
but a few years ago it was moved out to this spot and remodeled.
Isn't it lovely?


And here is our spooky green house all lite up for Halloween

Happy Halloween Everybody!

Its Pumpkin Time

Come take a walk with me...

...up the hill to a place behind our house,

Crystal Bay Farms

Our neighbor's Organic Farm

There's lots to see and eat!

Meet Farmer Jeff

and Farmgirl Lori
Have a bowl of Lori's specially brewed pumpkin soup!
Mmm Mmm good!


Grab a wagon!


There are pumpkins enough for all!



WATCH OUT for the SCARY THINGS though!
You never know when one will show up

...you can toss em aside...
IF you're not to scared!


Guard your stash!

Because there are lots of scary characters out there...
who might just try to take it!


Be sure and look at all the booths and wares!
You never know if something just might fit very well
into the Christmas stocking
of a cute little red-haired granddaugher! (:


Halloween at Crystal Bay Farms is a blast!

Tonight:
Scary film night for the neighborhood
8:00 pm sharp

*********************
And elsewhere
in a town waaaay too far away from her Nami (that's me)

A little red-haired Bumble Bee hunts
for just the right pumpkins to take home,
and turn into jack-o-lanterns!
~Wish I could be there~

Satisfying Simple Pleasures

Its satisfying to see him coming home
with a big truck filled with firewood
to keep our house warm all winter.

Its satisfying to clean up the area
where we will stack the wood in neat rows.

There's nothing quite so satisfying to me,
as to see things buttoned-up and ready for winter.

... and to know that at least this part of the world is well.

Its a huge load, and we spent a whole day unloading,
and stacking it...
sharing it with neighbors and family.
We go together on the cost...
we all benefit.
That's how community should be,
don't you think?

Good thing we have big, strong, handsome sons!
Ah... the men in my life!
What a lucky lady I am!


I must tell you a story about my son...

If he reads this, he will likely be embarrassed,
but oh well... he's got a proud Mom!
What can I say (:

In the early years of his life, we lived on a ranch.
He and his 2 brothers had every day chores to do,
one of them being to bring wood from the woodpile
down to the back porch, so we could more easily stoke our woodstove.
Mind you, all my sons are special, and each has special traits
... and I'm in no way partial!
But this son's personal trait fits well with this post.

One day, when he was about 5 years old
Dad had given the boys their marching orders...
to bring 1/2 cord of wood down to the back porch and pile it there,
so that later he could make a neat stack for the week.

Somehow the two older brothers got distracted...
it was much more fun to have snowball fights
or roll balls for a big snowman.
I looked out the window to see how the boys were
coming along with the job...
and there he was... the lone worker.
It was only him...
trudging back and forth between the woodpile and back porch
trip after trip, until the whole pile was where it was supposed to be!
...at 5 years old! (:

He was always this way...
Never afraid of a little hard work and sweat.
He's still that way.
He'll roll up his sleeves and dig in every time.
It does a parent's heart good.

That day the other two...
...well, suffice it to say they got to do the whole
pile by themselves for the next two weeks.
Mind you though... this was one lesson learned.
The other two are good workers too.
That's the way our family does things.
Their Papa (my Dad), is famous for a saying
that each of the grandkids can recite from memory...

"If a job is once begun,
be it great or be is small...
do it right, or not at all"
(:


And so it is today... job done right~


...as the regal old cat looks on!
He's 15 years old, and counting.


and two for the road...
Fall garden

And the ol fence latch...
which is so quaint that we don't have the heart to replace it.