Backyard Harvest: Is it too soon? When will it be too late?

So, I didn't plant too much in my new backyard this year: some chocolate-mint, a few tomato plants, chives and a Kale plant.  I've been wondering what to do with my chocolate-mint. It doesn't taste too much like chocolate, but it sure does smell like it.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday, and with September in Alberta, you never know when you might get an overnight freeze.  I decided to go pick all my mint and dry it out to use for tea later in the winter.

Alas, as I got down on my knees with some scissors, I saw this little friend.

I couldn't bear to take away what little food this friend has now that the fall is here, so the chocolate-mint harvest has been delayed for another couple of weeks.

Mary

The Boy Next Door

Not everyone has their last born child, the one they tried to give away, move next door to them. But I had mine move next door. In the summer he mows my lawn. In the winter he shovels my sidewalks.

And bonus ... this week ... Richard showed me how to change the electrical chords so that I can use my VHS tapes, and then rehook up my DVD player. I didn’t want to learn how, but he made me. Richard changed the spotlights at the back of my house, from burned out to shining brightly. Nice to walk into the back yard and not have to pretend I am blind when it is late at night and so dark that I can’t see. Especially good now that the deep, dark hours of winter are coming.

Richard goes hunting most weekends. . One outing when the animals were scarce, he did find a skull that has horns attached. I saw him putting those on his head and chasing Vegas around the yard. Good dog game, especially now that we have changed our backyard from 2 yards to 1 yard – a lot of good space there now for dog games.

Last night he called to see if he could put a coupled of hooks in the garage from which to hang his moose. “You got a moose?” I said, excitedly “That’s great!”.

“No,” he said. “I am just planning ahead in case I do get one and need to hang it for a couple of weeks before I get it butchered.”

Stay tuned. The hunting season is not over.

I know from my childhood, when hunting season begins. That is the day that my mother cooks a big Thanksgiving dinner for the rest of us, and the day that my dad heads to the hills to get game for the coming winter.

And when Richard asked if he could hang a moose in my garage, I could remember an animal hanging in our basement when I was a child (maybe more than one), down by the washing machine. In fact maybe more than one animal hung there, for I can remember the sweet meat smell of bear.

Hanging a moose out in the garage seemed like such a better alternative than my basement, that I was happy to say yes.

Three Mid-Terms This Week

"I have three mid-terms this week."

That is what Connor said to me this morning as a reply after I said to him, "Sad. Both of us up and have had our showers before 5:45 am. I haven't seen you for a long time. Nice to say hello. I was wondering if you live here, or if you just shower here."

"Oh, I shower at the university, too," he said. "I do it by just splashing water on my face." Then laughing, he went off to make his breakfast ... and study.

Mid-terms aside, life is good here. A chinook has brought strong winds, so strong that the garbage pails roll up and down our alley unless they are pinned down to the ground. The door of Richard's salvage-for-parts-van swings in the wind unless it is duct taped closed. And the clothes on my neighbour's clothes-line flap as though agitated by extra-terrestrial forces.

While the flowers are all gone, still there is green grass and no snow on the ground. A nice long fall.

Arta