Autumn is the best season of the year. It is the time when I feel most at ease. The weather is soothing. The atmosphere of the season sparks my creative juices. Halloween, my favorite holiday, is upcoming, as well as my birthday in October. I will be an aunt once again at the end of September. I look forward to the gorgeous starkness of the bluest skies you ever see in the mountains. I ache for the weeds to die back so I can hike again with John and the girls around the property. I’m ready. I’m tired of all the rain and muggy days. At the Dollar General last night I saw the first signs that I won’t have to wait for long. The Halloween decorations are out.
I found the perfect curriculum for my homeschool, pre-school year with Deladis. Little Acorn Learning offers E-books of lesson plans that are Waldorf inspired and affordable. They are perfect for use with both Deladis and Ivy. I think the plans, from what I have seen in the samples, will help keep me focused and develop a better rhythm than the one we’ve established in chaos. Plus, I’m paying for it, so I have to do it or the money will be wasted. That’s great motivation. The curriculum is largely based in nature and officially begins in September, which is another reason to look forward to autumn. I have bought the summer E-book and am waiting for it to be email to me. It’s exciting and makes me hopeful.
I mentioned before that our fall garden is planted. We only put out more cabbage and some broccoli in hopes it will be ready by November. Honestly, I made a mistake in planting the summer garden. I planted four hills of zucchini, two of squash, and about ten hills of cucumber. It was far more than we’ve been able to eat or store for the summer, and because most everyone grows a garden in these hills, you can’t hardly give it away. The two rows of salad lettuce I planted has allowed us to eat salad almost daily and I’ve made several large ones for social gatherings, given some away, and we still have lettuce rotting in the ground.
We could have used more beans, corn, and tomatoes in the ground. I should have planted more potatoes as well. These things are easier to store or keep unrefrigerated long term. I planted half the garden in organic Painted Hills Multicolor Sweet Corn. I don’t know if it was the seed, the weather, or my novice, but the seeds hardly sprouted and the stalks of those that did are so puny. The ears we’ve gotten from it are tasty, though. A blasted raccoon won’t stop ravenging the newly ripe ears. I’d like to catch him just one time. Our beans are hardly existing because the plan was a three sisters garden, so the beans would grow up the corn. Since the corn didn’t do well, we couldn’t plant but one row of beans. Those are getting their first blooms.
The stalks are so skinny the weight of the beans are bending the stalks to the ground. We’ve added some strong sticks to help them along, and the beans seem to like that. We probably won’t have enough beans to put away for winter, but we’ll have enough to eat on for awhile.
Our cabbage should have had large heads weeks ago, but something is eating them up. I have never gotten a look at what kind of bug it is, so I assume it’s happening at night. I believe it is some sort of slug. I’ve sprayed them with soapy water, but it hasn’t done much good. I planted two more rows for fall, and I hope whatever is eating them now will be dead by the time the fall plants mature. We love cabbage and sausage, and I want to make kraut.
The gloomy look to these pictures completely narrates the mood of the last days. We’ve been stuck inside, and that aggravates me quickly. My biggest excitment was going to the doctor this week. I long, if it’s going to stay summer, to take the girls swimming in the lake. I want to play outside with them in the creek. I want to do something different than what I do everyday in this cabin. Ooo… cabin fever.
*Update: The rain didn’t come today, and I took the girls to the lake swimming! Just me and them. It was a beautiful time and they’ve been asleep since we got home. 🙂
A Mountain Mama - East Kentucky Gal 
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August 7, 2009 at 3:38 am
meorthethoughtofme
i really enjoy the little acorn blog. i hope the curriculum works well for your family.
August 7, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Annita
Halloween is my favorite holdiay too, everyone looks at me like I’m crazy when I tell them that. Our garden was a major flop and I’m a little disappointed that the new home we’ve moved to doesn’t have room for very much.
I am going to check out the Little Acorn site, I’ve been trying to find some stuff to use with Bug. We plan to homeschool and it scares me to death sometimes, so every resource is gold to me.
By the way, I have decided to start blogging again, so stop by if you get the chance!
August 7, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Leesie
So glad to hear you got to go swimming with the girls! No more cabin fever I hope – at least for awhile 😉
Getting to start a little early on schooling sounds like a great idea for you and for the girls and your being a teacher, how perfect.
If slugs are getting to your crop, have you tried putting out shallow dishes of beer? I heard that works very well – one of our friends here in New York has tried it with success. I guess the worst is you’ll end up with an intoxicated raccoon, lol (unless your dog gets to it first – yikes!) Thanks for reminding me about fall vege planting. I’ve actually never done that so with this new garden of mine and tomato blight wiping out my tomatoes, I’d really like to try growing cabbage and maybe some kind of beans also. I won’t do potatoes because of late blight.
I love fall too, but here in the northeast it only means winter is soon coming and even though we don’t get as much snow as we used to like when I was a kid, it’s just too darn long for me.
Thanks for sharing the post on soupbeans – love it!