Welcome to our Fly on the Wall group post. Today 14 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house,and then check out the other houses too! Links to all of the crazy bloggers are at the bottom of this post.
Summer is slipping past us quickly, which means frantic scrambling at our place. Our first frost meant complete panic, as I picked as much of the harvest as possible. I saved most of it, but the “light frost” turned into a “killing freeze” and anything I missed or didn’t have time to deal with was history. Here’s the sad proof:
Dead beans.
Wait, did I say sad? I was so sick of picking beans, that I was actually relieved to see them die, DIE, DIE!!! Whew. I feel better.
Dealing with the bounty means I haven’t posted a blog post since last month’s Fly on the Wall! And yet, I have been lucky enough to have understanding followers, because my Facebook page just hit 5,000 likes – which is incredibly exciting to me! I was trying to figure out what to write on the pumpkin and the pie for my photo. I had some help:
The Man: “Put 5,000 on the pumpkin and gracias (only he pronounced it “graw-shus” on the pie.”
Me: “Graw-shus? Maybe you need to go back to Spanish class.”
The Man: “I was just being fecalcetious.”
Oh.
Wooo HOOOO!
As if the garden wasn’t enough to deal with, it was also hunting season. (Here’s where you’ll want to scroll waaaaay down the page if you’re anti-hunting or a vegetarian. Okay…I warned you!)
Let me set the stage here, okay? I love hunting season! We have a deal: I make lots of food and he leaves for 10 days or so. Sweet, huh? Except…he got an elk after just a few days. So not only did he come home early, he came home dragging a bazillion pounds of gory meat with him. While I’m thrilled to have meat security, it took us almost 2 days to cut and package the meat because (and though I say “we” I mean “he”) we cannot have any fat, gristle, or bone in our meat. That means each piece must be cut with surgical precision. All scraps are frozen for the dogs, so nothing is wasted, but my hands looked like prunes before we finished because I had to keep washing my hands, cutting boards, and knives to “start clean”. OCD much?
Do you remember last year when I showed you what a bear penis bone looked like? Well, this year I had something even more impressive, but was afraid of offending too many of you. Let’s just say that a bull elk is called a bull for good reason, and leave it at that! I really don’t want the picture out there for anyone to Google, so use your imagination. Just….whoa!
Now comes the REALLY nasty part. The Man, in his efforts to thwart marauding neighbor dogs and cheat the coyotes, put the poor elk’s head up on the garage roof, under the assumption bugs would clean it off and then he could bleach the skull for the wall in his man cave. (Don’t think I didn’t notice you disappeared for a few days, little fly.) After that frost we had very warm weather, and the smell got worse and worse. I was at the brink of buying a case of face masks or moving to my daughter’s when he gave in and removed it. It’s now soaking in a big tank of soapy water. No smell, so I guess that’s a step in the right direction. Ugh.
The man hadn’t been gone 30 minutes when my dryer stopped dead. No flicker, no pulse. Figures. So I hung everything on the line and resigned myself to roughing it. (It’s a top loading, computerized prima donna dryer, not easily repaired.) My son, Lord Voldemort, rolled his eyes when I wanted to try my computer “cure”, which was to unplug it and plug it back in. Guess what? Uh huh, oh yeah, who’s the dryer fixer here? That be me!
We have two chest freezers, and both are full to the top with meat and veggies. It makes my squirrel instincts happy to see all that food for winter. I’m on to dehydrating things now, because that doesn’t take up much room. A trip to Costco for coffee and wine dog food and I’ll be ready for the snow to fly!
Russ: “Man, that Middle East is a messed up place. Makes you wonder why Israel doesn’t just move their country somewhere else.”
He’s a bright guy – much more into politics than I – so I’m pretty sure he was messing with me. But…WHAT?!
Gardening isn’t all grunting and dirt. Sometimes it provides amusement. Case in point:
Cute little potato family.
I have a few other examples that are also rated “G”.
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Just to show how much influence a female has over a male, Daisy has finally taught old stodgy Otis to throw caution to the wind and play! It may not look like much fun, but they’re having a great time wrestling together. Makes me happy.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets a leg chewed off!
This has been an “all work, no play” kind of month. If anything funny was said it probably just went right over my head. I see some calm times coming though – after the tomatoes and apples are processed and the garlic is dried and the dry corn is picked and the potatoes are sorted, and the elderberries are made into syrup…well, I’ll try to make time to jot down funnies as they happen. ‘Til then, click on the links below for some good laughs.
Baking In a Tornado
Stacy Sews and Schools
Just a Little Nutty
Menopausal Mother
The Sadder But Wiser Girl
The Momisodes
Follow Me Home
Go Momma O
Dinosaur Superhero Mommy
Spatulas on Parade
Juicebox Confession
Someone Else’s Genius
Battered Hope
WOW!! You have been BUSY!!!!
YAY for all the goodies in the freezer!!
YAY for 5,000 Likes!! That is AWESOME!!!! 😀
Thanks, Stacy! It all seems worth it when I can stand in front of the freezer and fruit room shelves, rubbing my hands together laughing maniacally.
Congratulations on 5,000 Likes! Here’s to 5,000 more!
Thank you, Mary Rose!
LOVE the veggie art, but I sure wish you hadn’t kept this post G rated. I SO want to see what all the hype about a bull elk is all about!
It might make your toes curl, Karen 😉 Let’s just say they make walking sticks out of them.
Now I have the visual. Thanks. :O
😀 I have the photo to prove it, but it’s really inappropriate.
There may have been wine involved
My inner squirrel loves the thought of freezers full of meat and veggies. <3
High five for the magical dryer fixing maneuver!
I usually try kicking and swearing first but I shall try unplugging next time.
Mmmmm your pumpkin pie looks divine! I love the all things pumpkin season.
I can imagine a walking stick of that magnitude would be quite the conversation piece. 😉
Stay cozy and safe up there as the weather changes!
Oh, I think there may have been a little swearing in there somewhere, but I usually get the worst end of the deal when I kick stuff! I’m honestly looking forward to the cozy time of year coming up. I love winter!
Your potato families are hilarious! Congrats on the 5000 likes–love your hub’s comment “fecalcitious”!!!
Thank you, Marcia! There are so many crazy-big pages out there, but 5K was HUGE to me!
Lorinda, Those G-rated veggies are adorable! And 5000 likes? It sounds like you’re doing everything right! Congrats on your computer genius! Sometimes unplugging and plugging stuff back in really does work 🙂
You have been so busy, but come winter time, your family is going to be well-fed.
Thanks, Michele! I keep telling myself the same thing – this will all seem worth it this winter, but in the meantime, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Congrats on 5000! I just passed 150. 🙂
Does your hubby gun or bow hunt? I’m just curious. I don’t hunt, but I would think bow hunting would be cleaner.
Thanks, Robin! 150 is still a lot of love!!!
He hunts elk with a bow. It’s much more humane/cleaner for sure,
Squirrel is the best reference – sounds like some amazing food ready to go! The veggie pics were funny! I’m hungry reading your post!
I feel like one of the little buggers! I just LOVE seeing food stack up. I’ve never been truly hungry, so I don’t know where this compulsion comes from, but it makes me feel so secure.
You have been a busy lady!! I just don’t have the patience for this sort of thing. Nor, ya know, do I have a green thumb.
Hey, if I have to choose between cleaning house and gardening, I’ll dig in the dirt any day!
5,000 likes – Congrats! I envy you having the chance to make all those goodies — Loved the weird vegie pics and especially the word pics about your hubby’s hunting — I can SOOOO relate. He stopped hunting a few years ago and I don’t miss it. I know, I know nice to have the meat for the winter but…….
Too true – there are benefits to it, for sure, and it really helps our food budget…but it gets right in the middle of our Fall chore time, and is a big yucky mess. Last year we had a bear and 3 deer (I took my first buck) to butcher. Nasty.
WOW, happy 5000 on FB. Those veggies are cool, frost? girl it’s still in the 80s here.
eww a skull on the roof? I’m sure the smell was…nasty to say the least.
LOVE the photo of the pie and pumpkin, very creative.
Thanks, Dawn! It’s in the 80s here during the day, but at night it was dipping into the 20s! Makes for nice sleeping weather, but not so good on the veggies in the garden. Meh.
love the idea of a squirrel…yes, I try to squirrel away freezer meals, but then I never want to use them…for fear of them getting low, yes… I have issues
awesome potoato family…love it.
Laughing. I do the same thing. I’ll make 2 or 3 chicken pot pies and then have to force myself to use them. It’s just so nice to know they’re in the freezer!