Backyard Farmgals

It's early morning, the clouds are thick on the mountains with bits of red and vibrant orange colors from the leaves peeking out in various patches.  Rain has come and will soon be disappearing up and over the mountains, on with it's journey.  These are my favorite days.  Every year, I fall madly in love with fall.  I love everything about it.  I love that crisp feeling in the air and the way the light changes to highlight the colors that appear and give them a sort of vibrance you don't see anywhere else.  The leaves lightly falling to the ground and the storms that roll through the valley that remind you winter is coming and invite you to enjoy the moment that you are in. With all of this comes a desire to cook and preserve, I am not sure why.  Maybe it's the whispers of the generations of women that came before me that relied on the harvest being "put up" so they could eat through the winter.  Or perhaps it is just the comfort that comes from having

Of all the crazy things a girl could do, I have gone and done one of the craziest.  I made a split second decision to go back to school for a second bachelor's degree.  I know what y'all are thinking: she's already got a degree what in tarnation does she need a second one for?  My first degree is in nursing, which is a great profession, with great pay, that can be a little (or a lot) stressful, and I have an established career built around orthopedic surgical nursing.  But, you know when you get into your late twenties and early thrities, and you tend to "find" yourself.  That's exactly what happened, I (finally) found myself.  I have a very clear picture of what I want to do and where I want to be, (un)fortunately it requires that I put in some effort toward a degree in plant science.  The good news, everything from my previous degree counts!  I only have upper division classes to get through, which is easier said than done, and it's already kicking my

We have a visitor to the garden!  Actually, I suspect from the webs I have found that there is a population of these glorious spiders hanging around the garden.  They are quite elusive, but when you find one as big and beautiful as this, you instantly become friends.  This one is bigger than my thumb, it's about 2-inches in diameter with legs included.  Oy vey!  Yeah, that sucker is big!!! I will admit that I am not a spider lover.  Spiderman and I don't go for coffee.  I get a bit creeped out by the eight legs and the sucking juices out of bugs thing.  I will also admit that I have grown to like this guy - not enough to pick it up and make kissy faces at him, but enough to catch grasshoppers for him and feed it while my kids watch wide eyed! He has a beautiful web that he has rebuilt about four times over the last few weeks.  It looks like the classic spider web with "spokes" radiating outward and concentric circles of progressively larger size.  He has a