Christmas 2018 has officially begun....

We took our traditional trip to the Pipe Creek Christmas Tree Farm this past Sunday == it's our usual first event of the season.  And as usual, we had such a great time.  Max is old enough now to really "get into it!"  

We wandered through the trees, took tons of pictures of the kids and the big kids, rode the hay ride, and watched the little ones play in the sand pit.

Then we came home and had lunch together - I made two types of sliders, served with chips and dips. Simple and easy. We spent the rest of the day watching the kids run all around the place - they played in the fall leaves, on the treehouse, in the garden, the chicken yard, and rode the donkey. A nice, beautiful family day!

 This little girl enjoys blowing out all of Mimi's candles.....

 JR brought a craft (that's my son!) and we made three clove covered oranges!

It's official -- the season has begun!

Garden Log ---- Fall/Winter Garden 11/28/2018

The garden has been through a few freezes already, one night getting down to about 18 degrees. That's so unusual here, especially this early in the season -- we may be that cold in January or February. So the garden got blasted.  

Some of the plants did fine (all the choys sailed right through it!) Other's lost some tips of their leaves (the cabbages and cauliflower plants) and others are gone forever (beets, onions and spinach.) To be honest, the beets and spinach were pretty much gone anyway from all of the rain we had early in the fall. Sigh.... not crying, just moving on. You can't fight Mother Nature.

Meanwhile, I've got a big pot of fava beans out on the greenhouse porch. They like cold weather, I'm finding, so I'm not keeping them in the greenhouse.  

Two types of fava beans -- Extra  Precoce a Grano Violetto and Aquadulce.

In the greenhouse I have several tomato plants going - Texas Wild Cherry, White Currant, one called Spoon, Pink Bumblebee, Pearly Pink, Ampletomate Himbeerfarbig, and Venus Poppy.  Then I still have the Micro-Dwarfs from the summer going - Pinocchio, Gold Pearl, and Andrina.   

Today I set a few flats of micro-greens. Have you tried to buy lettuce in the grocery store this week? Hardly nothing there, so I thought I'd try to get some greens going. They don't take long at all, we may have greens by Christmas.

Most of my houseplants and flowers are in the outdoor kitchen that John covered for me for the winter.  That's given me a lot more room in the actual greenhouse.

 The outdoor kitchen all covered, with a heat lamp in it to keep the plants from freezing.

So I guess it's time to relax and just enjoy a few months of very light gardening.  Then it will be time to get the seedlings started for the spring. Time marches on!

San Antonio Fruit Box Hooch, Part 2

On Tuesday I strained the San Antonio Fruit Box Hooch through cloth, twice! What a job...the corn meal in there made it so hard to strain.  It has a strong liquor smell, and tastes good with a bitter tinge at the end. I'll be bottling this stuff on Dec. 16th.  I wish I knew how to measure alcohol content -- something I'm going to have to learn. 

San Antonio Fruit Box Hooch

I found a pretty interesting recipe recently, found in the bottom of a wooden fruit box in San Antonio.  Since the peach wine was done, might as well try it out! They spelled it "hootch" on the recipe.  

Supposedly, it only takes 28 days! We'll see..... 

 I left it in the bucket for about 6 days, stirring daily.  It foamed and foamed, and smelled pretty good. Then I strained it into the carboy with an airlock for the rest of the time. I gave it a tiny taste, and it was very orange juicy to me, but John says it has a real "prison liquor" smell to it. ha! I wonder how he knows what that smells like???

It continued to foam up for a few more days but has since settled down.

I'm going to give it a strain again early this coming week, through a fine cloth, to get as much of the cornmeal out of it as I can. Then back in the carboy until mid-December, when it should be ready!

Thanksgiving Week 2018

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week -- full of friends and family!  Starting on Friday, we were invited to Max's Thanksgiving program at his day care.  He was a pilgrim this year, and his hat stole the show!

Max and his best bud, chilling after the show!

On Saturday we got to keep Max all day while his parents had some business to take care of.  Oh the fun we had! He just loves "Mimi's House." Straight out of the car, he ran to the treehouse! Grumpy and his dad were with him out there, so I don't have any pictures. 😟 Then Max and I went to the library. He had so much fun there....

...playing with the floor cushions....

...playing on the library playground....

...looking at all the books and decorations...and we even read a few books and did some puzzles! Nap time after lunch!

Then some fun time with Grumpy, driving all over the property.  Max loves riding on the donkey!

We three went out to eat at the buffet before taking Max home for the night.  Such a fun day!

On Tuesday we got to keep KT and Joss for the day, so we took the opportunity to take them to Fredericksburg for the day.  We love, love, love Fredericksburg during the holidays - so much fun wandering the streets there.  Of course, the girls found plenty to get excited about....

 ...candy store, rocking in the chairs on the sidewalks...

 ...shopping in the Christmas Store, in Dooley's 5 & Dime, and eating lunch at Wheeler's....

 ....and then playing on their playground for a while before heading home. We may have stopped for a Dairy Queen treat in Comfort on the way home! Then just having fun around the place until it was time for the girls to go home.  Another fun day!

Wednesday I cooked for the holiday, making a sweet potato dish, and some Turkey cookies for the kids. I tried my hand at Royal icing, and discovered that I need several more icing tools before I'll try that again! ha! It was fun, and it really takes practice and the right food coloring, for sure! Oh well, they tasted fine!

We had Thanksgiving at Colleen & Jeff's house this year - she used her Granny Gwen's china for the first time.  It was so pretty, I had forgotten what it looked like - it's been in a box for many years.  Jeff's mom and dad were here, too, and we had a wonderful lunch.

 We played Thanksgiving Bingo after lunch while the guys watched some football.

 The competition was on for those Rolos!

We had a great day.  Time for a nap!