Thanksgiving/Christmas 2011

This year for Thanksgiving Ken and Arlene came and stayed with us. It was nice celebrating with family. We made a feast and ate leftovers for days, yumm! They helped us find a Christmas tree at the tree farm that Saturday. I can't believe that this is already our 3rd Thanksgiving and Christmas in Alabama, but our first in our new home this year.

2011 Garden Totals

Here are the total counts for how many of each vegetable we picked from our garden in 2011.

Okra: 684
Tomatoes: 159
Zucchini: 21
Yellow Squash: 56
Green Pepper: 27
Eggplant: 16
Yellow Pepper : 4
Salsa Pepper: 13
Beets: 3
Lettuce: 19 salads
Spinach: 3 salads

We figured that we saved approximately $190 on groceries. Not too bad. We learned a lot this year and have ideas on how to improve next year. We definitely will not plant as many Okra plants. We were sick of Okra by the end of summer. They were the easiest of all the veggies to grow. We will try some new veggies next year.

Walls of Jericho

We went hiking at the Walls of Jericho this Saturday, Nov 5. We had been wanting to hike there for over a year and finally made it. It was a great hike but the most challenging one we have done yet. It was a 7 mile round trip hike with over 1,000 feet descending elevation to get to the Walls of Jericho, which meant we had to hike 1,000 feet back up to the start. The Walls of Jericho is a limestone gorge with waterfalls and a natural amphitheater that is 50 yards wide with 200 ft tall cliffs on each side. It was a beautiful fall day to be outside.

Camping and Hiking

Last weekend Jesse and Teresa came down to visit us and we had a great time. Friday afternoon we drove to Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee and camped overnight. Saturday we spent the day hiking. It was beautiful there and we had sunny weather in the 70s. Couldn't have asked for a better day. We first hiked to the cascades and nature center crossing over a hanging bridge. We then went to Fall Creek Falls which is 256 feet tall, the tallest waterfall east of the Rocky Mts. We enjoyed the view from the top and then hiked to the base and ate our lunch. After that we hiked to Pikey Falls and then to Milikens Overlook.

Sipsey Wilderness

Saturday we went hiking at Sipsey Wilderness which is located about an hour west of us in the Bankhead National Forest. I was so excited to finally get to hike, since it had been so hot this spring and summer that we couldn't. It was a beautiful hike with the river on one side of us and the bluffs and caves on the other side. We will have to go back in the spring when there is more water flowing to see the waterfalls.

Burritt on the Mountain

Back in July we went to the Burritt museum which is located on Monte Sano Mountain. The mansion was built in 1955 by Dr. Burritt and is now turned into a museum. There are 19th century original homes from alabama that have been relocated to the mountain to make it a historic park. There are also hiking trails located around it. It was a beautiful day to be there with a great view.

Garden Update

We have been eating vegetables from our garden every night since June. Our garden has done pretty well for our first year. We've had some problems with insects and now lately the birds eating our tomatoes, but we've still harvested a lot. Our running total so far is 61 tomatoes, 95 okra, 11 peppers, 21 zucchini, and 39 yellow squash. Hopefully there will be much more to come. Our favorite things to make with the tomatoes are salsa and spaghetti sauce. With our other veggies we usually saute them or put them in a frittata.