The Fall Harvest-2009

The Grapes of 2009

FINALLY!!! FINALLY!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

Those of you who knew me in my townhouse days know I always wanted a garden. A real yard where I could plant things and harvest them, etc. etc. So three years ago I planted grape vines, two of them and nothing....the first year they hardly had vines, the second, a few vines but no grapes but finally this year I got some grapes! Only off one of the vines but still, grapes!! I steamed them and we had delicious grape juice. I can't wait to see what they do next year. Maybe I will get enough juice to make some jelly. My next culinary purchase will be a fruit steamer. It is a big kettle steamer with a spicket at the bottom that the luscious deep purple juice drips out of.

More on the harvest of 09

Can you believe the size of the carrot Ali picked in the garden? You have never seen a more excited child than when she pulled that monstrosity out of the ground. Yes, we actually grew that baby. She munched on it like it was corn on the cob for the whole afternoon. I was thoroughly amused.

More fall time fun! Ali was my assistant in baking these lovely apple pies. Our apple trees gave us 5 apples this year. They are only two years old and we are expecting a large harvest next year, well larger. I was just excited to see apples at all this spring and they tasted so good. A little small, but delicious. Hopefully they will get larger as the tree grows.

It is so much fun to start and see some fruits from my labors. The home we bought had little landscaping and nothing in the way of fruit/food producing options. We are on our way now though. Three peach trees produced this year, one cherry tree, (very small crop but delicious nonetheless.) One of the two apple trees produced apples and one of the two grape vines. The raspberries are doing amazing, we have two raspberry patches that Ali goes up and picks nearly every day. We also have an abundance of strawberry plants that we all share with the birds. I just love it!!! I guess it is the potato farmer genes in me....oh yea, no potatoes. We did carrots, tomatoes, onions and peas. I only plant what I like to eat.

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Tooth Fairy Hits the Pollan's House Again

Tyler was so very proud to have his first tooth come out last Saturday. Dad helped him wiggle the last little bit and he was exceedingly brave and didn't even cry. Vast improvement over our first first tooth.... (Carter cried like a little baby over the whole event.) Tyler has been wiggling this "loose" tooth now for probably 6 months. He would ask me to feel his loose tooth and I would feel nothing but he was sure it was loose. Either the tooth below finally pushed it's way up or Ty just wiggled his tooth so much it came out on it's own. When Ali looked at herself in the photo below she said, "Why is my face doing that?" Good question Ali.... She was very thrilled for Tyler's accomplishment and went right to wiggling her teeth. Hopefully they won't come out too soon.

Byron and Carter went out for a hunt this weekend. They got two Ruffed Grouse. Way to go!!! This is what Byron had to say about it.....

Carter joined me for a hunt today. He brought his BB gun along for backup in case I missed. We found some great farm land that has been opened up for public access. After about 20 minutes of walking some grain fields that had already been harvested, we decided to work some fence lines that had more natural habitat. We figured it was about time for a pit stop and stopped to take a pee. Wouldn't you know it, but a big covey of birds flushed right as we were focused on the matter at hand.

Luckily, we found two more birds to take a crack at. Carter even got a shot in. We were hunting for Hungarian partridge, but were pleasantly surprised to find these ruffed grouse. I brought the first one down on the first shot. Jessie immediately was on the case. She found the bird and picked it up, but for some reason decided to put it down and wait for us to come to her. I missed my first shot on the second bird, but was able to bring it down with the second shot. Jessie ran to the downed bird and hunted ferociously until she found it. I was thrilled to see her pick it up and start to trot back to us. She stopped about 10 feet from us and laid the bird down. It wasn't a retrieve to hand, but I was happy that she brought it back as far as she did. We had a great day and had to stop at McDonalds on the way back to celebrate our success.