My computer is dying as I type....

I am currently on my iPad watching Joe try to rescue my October 2013 photo a day folder that is on the desktop of my dying computer.  He is copying the pictures to a flash drive and they will be safe but my computer is pretty much kaput.  He started to rattle off some technical jargon, like he does, but the gist of what he is saying is that it needs a new drive and that might not even work.  

It is sad for a few reasons.  

1.  I like my laptop and use it all the stinking time.  

2. Like, all the time.

3. Any blogging I want to do until I have a working laptop will not include pictures and probably won't be very long as it is a little tricky to type on the iPad than a regular computer.  The auto correct alone is already making me crazy in just this small post.  

4. I am going to get really behind in reading my favorite blogs. Unless...does Feedly have an app?  Yes!!!  Ok, that reason is negated. 

5. I like my laptop. But at this point that mostly sounds like whining. 

So, here's to hoping he can fix it. 

Wooden Shoe Pumpkin Fest

Last Monday, Taelin and I met my cousin Tina and her daughter Lucy at the Wooden Shoe Pumpkin Festival.  Lucy is only 9 months younger than Taelin and I think it is safe to say that they adore each other.  Anytime they know they are going to see each other it is non-stop talk about how excited they are!  The girls had SO much fun!  We were the only ones there for the first two hours so the girls could run from activity to activity with only have to share with each other.

Here are some pictures from our fun morning!

When we first got there!  Could they be any cuter together?!?
 (The answer is yes...just keep looking!)

She wanted her picture taken with this giant painted hay bale!
We couldn't convince Lucy to join her.

Looking for a pumpkin

<3

A pink John Deere!  I sent this one to my dad!

Because it was a weekday, there were some things that weren't running like this
cow ride or the hay ride.  The girls just had to sit it them anyway!

There were a couple different stacks of hay bales and big slides to climb and go down.

There were lots of these little things and Taelin tried every single one!

They had all sorts of little activities for kids to do, including this wheat grinding one.

There were several "tire" swings and the girls had a great time swinging.

Too cute!

Crawling through!

Crawling out!

We were just getting ready to go, when an older gentlemen came out and asked if
 we wanted to take a ride in the cows!  I don't think that the girls couldn't have
 been more excited.  It was a bumpy ride but they loved it!

We drove into Woodburn after we were done and went to a pizza place and then said good-bye. I know that Taelin loved the trip and I think it is safe to assume that Lucy did too!

Photo A Day Oct 1-10, 2013

October is here in full swing!  We have already hit one pumpkin patch and I know that won't be our only one.  We have had some beautiful, crisp fall days and some downright horrible rainy days.  All a part of an Oregon October!

oct 1, 2013
a rare walk with Tucker

oct 2, 2013
we were working on a page from school that she just
 *had* to finish and she just grabbed my hand
I just have the sweetest girl.

oct 3, 2013
blanket fort!

oct 4, 2013
Taelin and I headed to Portland and made a visit to the Children's Museum
and the Zoo.  She loves getting the stamp right before we leave.

oct 5, 2013
we stopped by to get some apple cider and Taelin of course had to
 stop to fix a tractor.  Grandpa would be proud

oct 6, 2013
we went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and one of her
 favorite things to do at the movie theater is sit in the car 

oct 7, 2013
Taelin and I met my cousin Tina and her daughter Lucy at a pumpkin patch
 (more pictures in a different blog post to follow soon)

oct 8, 2013
she wanted to watch different kinds of dancing on the t.v., like
hip-hop and Irish dancing.  This girl has a mind of her own.

oct 9, 2013
our three pumpkins from our garden

oct 10, 2013
Taelin loves the window clings and she got some
new Halloween ones from my aunt.

Garden 2013 is pretty much done!

This year Joe built me another garden box and I filled all three of my boxes to the brim.  This weekend, I went out back and found some pretty moldy plants which was what I expected after the downpour of rain we had.  It was uncharacteristic to have that much rain this year in the fall and it pretty much ended my green beans and zucchini plants. So, I decided to pull everything up (except the two tomato plants) and get the beds cleaned up for the winter.  I thought I would spend a bit of time thinking about what worked and what didn't.

I dug up the onions, sliced them up and put the in the freezer to use for cooking.  They didn't really get as big as I had hoped, but I got those in really late.  I will probably plant those again, and probably more than I did this year as I use a lot of onion in my cooking.  My two cucumber plants produced a total of three cucumbers. I doubt I will be planting those again.  They took up a lot of room in the box, required a LOT of water and I didn't get much in return.  I ended up buying cucumbers at the farmer's market to make pickles for a really good deal so will do that again next year.

Oh my zucchini!  I had zucchini coming out of my ears this summer. I have a ton in the freezer and gave a lot away.  It was great to do that and I will love the zucchini bread that we make this winter but the plants pretty much took over the carrots.  I will probably only plant one zucchini plant next year and I would guess that will be plenty.  The carrots though?  This is year two where I didn't really get anything to show for them, so I won't be doing that again!

My tomato plants are still going strong and I imagine they will be for awhile!  Joe has been loving the cherry tomatoes and there are still a great number of big tomatoes on the other plant.  Another success for sure has been the pumpkins.  We got three pumpkins and we had so much fun watching them grow.  I think I will plant them on the top of our retaining wall next year so that they have more room to spread.  I was doing a lot of redirecting!

We didn't get a lot of berries off of our blueberries or raspberries but we didn't really expect to since they need a few years to grow!

My lettuce/spinach experiment didn't really work but we got some great lettuce from the farmer's market this year so I don't know that I will try that again next year.  My green beans had a rough time this year too.  I think next year I am going to try to do the pole beans instead of the bush beans.  I think they will do a little better in that space!

Here are the last pictures from the garden!

Garden 2013 is in the bag (except for the tomatoes) and while we didn't get a great turnout for some of it, it was a lot of fun!  Until next year....