Fall is really trying to push it’s way into the end of summer this year. The weather was wet then dry, cold then hot then cold then hot. Outside it smells and feels like fall and every now and then a yellow cottonwood leaf falls, even though it still looks so green, if you look close you can see the leaves changing.

Unsurprisingly, the combination of bizarre weather and small children has not made gardening easy! Also, the mosquitos, so many mosquitos…. So the back garden was a failure (again) but the front garden is actually doing pretty great! We got peppers, tomatoes and herbs this year. Which is a huge step up! We would have gotten cucumbers if it wasn’t for the combined efforts of a very determined deer and some rabbits (sigh). So maybe there’s hope.

Overall, summer has been a success, peas, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, green beans and corn all got frozen. Peppers and tomatoes are up next, mostly (hopefully) going to be canned. And we need to freeze carrots and stash potatoes, garlic, onions and squash in the basement yet. And apples. With the RA, it has to be local apples, most of the ones at the store have coatings on them which is a minefield if I try to eat them. Apples will be made into sauce and pie fillings and (hopefully) canned. And I’m going to stuff a bunch in a fridge to enjoy as long as possible… So far we’ve done really well with what we’ve picked up and added to our projects! Hopefully next year we’ll be able to step it up even further and add more canning. Canning is harder to do but everything is easier to use if it doesn’t need to defrost. Also, canning jars don’t take anymore energy to stay preserved which is a plus for the energy efficiency goals. 🙂

With all of that the local food goals are going great! And with a side bonus, if we do it ourselves, there’s no cross contamination to set of the RA. Frozen grocery store green beans are a hazard… At least even if it’s more work it also tastes way better? So there’s that. At this point, the non-local things are cooking oil, grains, dried beans, fish and nuts. Plus some tropical produce (citrus, avocados, etc). The nuts and fish we are able to get directly for the most part but the others are hard to improve on. I need to see if I can get the RA to be ok with high oleic sunflower oil (regular is right out, but I’m hopefully maybe I can get the other kind to work) since that would help. Nuts and fish can’t all be local, but I can get those seasonally directly from the places that catch/growth them. Citrus I can improve at least some of that by (hopefully!) catching the citrus truck that drives up here in winter this year. Dried beans and grains is harder. Not much I can do about that at the moment…

We also got a lot of projects for the house done this summer, old carpet got replaced in two rooms, the trees that were setting off the RA came down and we started changing the landscaping over to a garden I can use (herbs, vegetables and fruit near the house and native flowers that don’t need to be as hands on) and are easier to manage with the RA. The basement paneling walls got replaced and we’ve made a lot of progress cleaning and sorting down there, which also helps the RA. So hopefully we’re heading into fall and school with a house that works well for us and that will make the RA easier to manage.

We have two more rooms of carpet to go, and several areas of basement to finish sorting and setting up better, and some doors to change, and lots of shelves to build (books! project places!) but so far so good. 🙂

My other plan for fall is books! (and projects!) I made 3 stacks this time. The garden stack, the inside projects stack and the fun to read stack!

First up is the garden, the goal is to get things set up this fall so next spring everything is ready to go. The big areas are near the house. Where should we put the veggies and small fruit? I have my garden in the front, it’s warm and sunny and there’s space and we have the new space right behind the house. So far I’m leaning towards adding veggies and berry fruit to my front garden, it’s close, I can get out there easily and I can see it all the time, all things that increase the chances of success! We just need to defend it better to prevent a repeat of the rabbit + deer + cucumber snacks problem. The other plan is to put native flowers in the areas we cleared out in the front. The ones I have now have had so many butterflies and other pollinators it’s easy to see why it’s important. If we clear up the spaces that are empty hopefully I can just fill that in with native coneflowers, rudbeckia, asters, prairie clover, false sunflowers and so on next spring.

The back we need to finish cleaning up around where the tree came out and on the north side of the house. If we get it cleared we can have more play space for the kids and keep stuff away from the air intake vents, which I really need to keep the RA from being a problem. So that will be some additional grass, some probably gravel or mulch or low ground cover. We’ll see.

Yeah, it’s adding grass space, but the front is going to be no-mow in the long term, and similar goals around the fruit trees in the back so it will even out.

Eventually I want to do more native perennials around the pond but if we get the back garden cleared for planting it in spring, the front set up with beds and the landscaping area cleared and the area around the house and the former tree cleared and covered with something, that’s a big list already.

In 5 years though! It will (hopefully!) be an orchard under-planted with low growing native flowers/grasses, a woodland edge with diverse native trees and under-story bushes/plants, a front yard with a big flower, vegetable and berry gardens and no mow sedge in the center and the back will be a grassy area surrounded by native flowers and grasses next to the existing pond and the big back garden for big messy stuff that don’t need much interaction like squash, garlic, onions, etc. Fingers crossed!

So this fall one stack of books is for ideas on how best to do all that.

Stack 2 is inside projects! A lot of these are crafts for Christmas gifts. I want to knit the boys each a pair of convertible mittens/gloves and a scarf/cowl for the baby (now toddler!) and embroider some bookmarks as gifts for my parents. And then I want to actually try felting to make things for the kids (and cats) and make my own lotion. Plus some fun projects like seasonal fun things and continue my quest for a more environmentally friendly and manageable life, which also helps with the RA. Oh, and I want to crochet a wool afghan, since you know, I need more projects…

And last, but absolutely not least! Fun reading! The new Rachel Aaron comes out Oct 1 (Hell for Hire, standing in for Hell of a Witch here), the new Rebecca Thorne also comes out Oct 1 (Can’t Spell Treason without Tea standing in here) and fun favorites like The Spellshop, FFO: The Once King and Yuletide Gems just for some happy fun reading. And then Soonish and A Short History of Wisconsin which are also favorites to re-read but are interesting and fun. And finally You are Here and Winter Hours which is poetry (and poetry like prose) which are heavier reads, but good ones and nice to mix in. A bunch of things I want to read are coming out in spring so those will have to wait for a future book stack…

So that’s fall this year, lots of goals, hopefully a better fall with the RA this year, plus school and tiny people adventures and books and projects. Hopefully it will be a good one!