End of the year for the lake

Yesterday we did the final preparations for winter.  It was a good year for closing - never had to feeeze our fingers on a cold rainy or snowy day.  We started early and did a bit each weekend and it was a piece of cake.  The water's off now and that was the final bit.  Adam wll be there next weekend to go fishing while we are in San Diego, so he will have to get water from the hydrant.  It was a good summer, as always.

Starched Ghosts

As always, we had a lovely visit with Mom and Dad. Photos are slim pickings however, as we forgot to take a camera with us ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE. Highlights for me included the Picasso exhibit for which Bob took a rare day off, as well as the fantastic dinner that Mom and Dad cooked up and I enjoyed after working all day. So nice to come home to a happy house with chores already done!

We'll miss you all at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but February is not too far away.

Chris's 45th Birthday

We celebrated Chris's birthday at home and decided to cook our own food inside because of the bad weather we've been having in san diego lately. Chris drank a little bit too much and stayed in bed all of saturday.

Yesterday was Chris's birthday

Sorry I missed the actual day - I hope you had a good celebration with your family. Happy Birthday.






 

This year's gardening successes

We've pulled out most of our garden this past weekend. It's quite ratty looking at the moment and needs some substantial TLC to get ready for the winter. Bob planted some fava beans as a cover crop on Saturday. We've never done that before. As usual every gardening year is full of new experiments as we learn more. There's still cabbage in the garden. THAT was a great success. That is, if you like cabbage; we've eaten borscht a couple of times, coleslaw, and corn beef and cabbage. Ben enjoys a hunk raw now and then. I've been told the cabbage will keep for awhile on the plant so I've left it unharvested as I've run out of cabbage recipe ideas for the moment. We also still have leeks, parsley, asparagus (which can't be harvested for 2 more years,) and a few sad looking beets.

Our rhubarb plant is in the photo on the left and, this year, has provided enough stalks to start a small business. I made some absolutely marvelous rhubarb chutney with ginger, brown sugar, cinnamon and jalapeno peppers. We had it on pork loin the first night, and then made sandwiches with pork, blue cheese, mixed greens, and the chutney. It makes my mouth water to think of it.

Some of the easiest vegetables to grow I seem to always have trouble with: beets, spinach, carrots and radishes of all things. Our cherry tomaotes where so plentiful that we couldn't keep up. I made a ginger/tomatoe chutney, dried many with our dehydrator, and ultimately fed hundreds to our composting worms. We did quite well with squash and found we prefered the yellow summer squash to the standard zuccini.

I'm trying to branch out into livestock, but as of yet have not convinced Bob that chickens are a good idea. He usually points at Lottie and asks if I have enough time for chickens...

Message from Chris

Chris's company just hired a graduate of RIT.  I'm posting this email exchange so the Madhu clan can see it.  Read from the bottom up.

From: Leamon Raasch (Cobham DES SSA)

Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 4:18 PM
To: Chris Ison (Cobham DES SSA)
Subject: RE: Personnel Announcement: R&D Department

Oh yes. He is a master (super effective teaching methods). I had him for Analog Filter Design and for a Motors class. I would give him a tie with one other teacher as being the best in my college career.
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From: Chris Ison (Cobham DES SSA)
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 3:44 PM
To: Leamon Raasch (Cobham DES SSA)
Subject: FW: Personnel Announcement: R&D Department

Did you know Madhu at RIT?

Thunder, Raining and rainbow in the same day