Yardwork, Ikea and Pumpkins

My new parents-in-law got us a dehydrator for the wedding. Knowing we were going to be cleaning up the garden and going to farmer's market, we took a gander at our millionth kitchen device during breakfast.

 

Scott added granola to his oatmeal. 

The oatmeal was rather bland, just the way Brooke likes it.

 

Scott was actually cleaning up so I had to take a quick photo of him as proof. 

Scott told me he was, "putting a blanket down for Peanut," while singing.

During the winter months peanut needs a warm place to peer through the window. Seeing as it was nearly November, I setup his blanket for him.

Seeing as the farmers market season is dwindling down, we headed to the market...once again. The close proximity to the cities central farmer's market has to be one of the best assets of living in NoMi. We were both amazed by the bounty of produce still on sale.

We quickly filled up our first bag and took it back to the car.

Brussel sprouts on the stalk. How cool!

Pumpkins for carving later with Cevonne and Jose. 

Definitely a cornucopia-worthy bounty. Pumpkins, apples, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, spinach, broccoli, red potatoes, carrots, green beans, purple scallions, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, red and yellow onions, and brussel sprouts.

I guess we could've bought the pre-shucked brussel sprouts, but then we wouldn't have had this shot.

One of the main reasons Brooke wanted a dehydrator was apple chips. It was perfect for the seconds honeycrisps we picked up at the market.

Once we had all the produce put away we prepped for our fall garden trimming and planting.

Then we did some chores outside. Scott cut down the garden. 

This was all that was left for this year. A tiny carrot, a couple of jalapenos, a green bell pepper and some tiny scallions. 

Meanwhile Brooke cut down the peonies.

Soon enough the sunflower fence was down and we could see into the neighbors yard again.

Scott thought running the mower over everything would help speed things up by chopping things faster.

I quickly decided that wasn't a good idea.

Brooke struggled to bring in this old lawnmower we use as lawn ornament.

We spent the next hour or so breaking and bagging the sunflower stalks.

Of course that got us tired so we ate.

And it started to rain. 

For lunch we had leftover Pizza Town pizza and wings. Earlier this week Scott talked about his photos at the neighborhood meeting. I won free pizza from the door prize.

Not on par with Papa's, but decent pizza. Probably will be sticking with the former and Pair of Dice when we're lazy.

After dinner we went back outside and wheel barrowed  our compost to the garden.

With the "help" of the neighbor kids. 

It was a healthy layer. Hopefully some of this stuff breaks down over the winter. Then we'll till it into the soil.

This year Brooke wanted to plant potatoes, onions and garlic in the fall.

 

After thinking and almost giving up on where to plant the rest of the items Scott began digging up a new side garden. 

A nice semicircle to hold our root veggies.

We planted onions, the rest of the garlic and potatoes. Potatoes aren't the prettiest plant. I am curious to know how this new little garden will look like next year. 

Since we hadn't gone to Ikea the night before and we had some time, we packed up the apple chips and headed out.

At Ikea we did some baby shower shopping.We hadn't been here since Easter.

 

Somehow Brooke's mom and sisters always spend hours there. They probably go as often as us and we never manage to last longer than an hour.

The employees made gingerbread houses. This one was interesting. 

I think someone got hungry and ate the I.  

I'm already pretty excited for Christmas. 

I told Brooke to take a picture of me in this chair. I was just getting ready to be upset of Ikea no longer carrying Daim, my favorite candy in the world. I may never go back.

Or ballerina cookies. But they did have organic moose shaped pasta. 

After Ikea we went to Cevonne and J.T.'s for dinner and pumpkin carving.

She showed us the oh-so-cute wall painting and shelves J.T. made in the nursery. He's quite the handyman.

We brought over a small cooler of beers and juice boxes for the pregnant woman.

Something was funny.

Had to post this picture of Cevonne to show how prego she is.

On their door they have a sticker for the closest fallout shelter, except it doesn't tell us where to go. Spooky.

Brooke and I were thrilled that someone invited us over for dinner. We always feel like we're cooking for everyone else. J.T.'s tuna melt sammys were way tasty.

The two of us pregamed for the pumpkin carving.

We knew that J.T. would make the best carving from the get go.

  Everyone else really took their pumpkins seriously.

Scott is ready to dig out some guts. 

5 minutes of intense carving. 

And he's done.

What can I say, I enjoy instant gratification. 

Meanwhile everyone else continued to work hard on their 'kins.

I added some whiskers to my cat-kin. I thought it looked just like peanut and would look cool from a distance.

Brooke's majestic crooked-mouth creation.

Cevonne's pumpkin had an alien eye. We thought the leftover sharpie ink looked like something out of A Clockwork Orange.

And J.T.'s was the coolest. A wicked clown-o-lantern.

See it looks just like a cat face, on fire.

We were tired so we lounged around before we headed home.