THE WEEKEND WAS GOOD

Its was a beautiful weekend.  Not a cloud in the sky and nice and cool.  

Unfortunately it was SO wet.  Standing water everywhere.  This is the natural run of excess water, across the front yard and down the edge of the driveway toward the road.

But it was standing in many places.  This is where we usually park, closer to the front of the house and it was standing with water.  I had to park further mac (that's the car in the corner).  

Needless to say, no real yard work I could do.  I need to edge and I am hoping to mow at some point (to take down some dormant weeds) before it all comes roaring back in the Spring but it looks like I'll have to wait another couple of weeks.

Here are the citrus trees.  They are doing great on the porch.  These are the lemon and lime, the orange is just out of the camera shot.  All three green and leafy.  No hard freezes (knock on wood!) so they are fine.  An upcoming project will be to build the three additional raised beds behind the house so these can be placed with the other eight fruit trees this Spring.

I did some weeding in the raised beds and got the corner brackets and deck screws out and ready for building.  All we'll need now is the wood for the sides. 

Worked a bit in the garden as well.  Pulled random weeds that were popping up.  Didn't need to water for sure since we had four inches of rain.  Napa cabbage is growing well and getting larger and "tighter" in the center but still looks like we are a ways off from cabbages.  SO weird.  As long as they are green and growing I guess no need to worry just yet.  They are a Winter crop and we still have a couple more months of Winter weather potential before it starts getting warm for Spring.

Garlic is growing nicely.  Both beds look like this.  Should be a bumper crop next Spring/early Summer.

And speaking of the fruit trees, look at this!  This is one of the peach trees.  I gave up on it late in the Summer.  Stopped watering.  Stopped taking care of it.  I even put on the list of things to get this Spring "replacement peach tree".

I went out there this weekend and it is COVERED in blossoms!  Not sure what to do.  Obviously it is growing and doing its thing but they are everywhere on the tree.  I guess I will have to pinch them off but it was pretty amazing to see.  None of the other trees are blooming yet, so I guess you could call this one a "late bloomer"?  Haha!

Remember a couple of weeks ago I found $5 turkeys at the store?  2nd Man stayed in town to roast the two we got.  We oiled it up, inside and out, put our seasoning blend on it (also inside and out), placed it on a rack to elevate it a bit, and then roasted at 375 degrees for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

At the end of that time, he turned the oven off and left it in for another 15 minutes, then took it out to rest.  So a total time in the oven of 2 1/2 hours (just the last 15 minutes with the oven off).  It came out golden and perfect.

2nd Man cut it up and we ate some and bagged up the rest for the freezer.   This was a Butterball "fresh turkey" and we dare say it was the best we've ever had.  So juicy and tender.  I don't know if it's how we cooked it or the brand or what but we'll definitely look for this next Thanksgiving for sure.

Wanted to share these cute little painted wooden blocks that I found for 2nd Man (they were his Christmas stocking gifts).  He loved them, even though I get to decorate with them, ha. 

Hope you had a great weekend!