season

 a whole month since i last posted. time speeds by this time of year. especially this stretch between thanksgiving and xmas.

 i xmas-ified my house just in time for this strangely warm, non-xmasy weather. it's 10 at night right now and almost 60 degrees, i even have the windows open, with a nice cool breeze blowing through.

 i thrifted a pair of hand-knit stockings for the boys, and three mini stockings for the ladies (anyone have chicken stocking-stuffer ideas? i can't think of anything they'd want besides food.)

 i put up my tree last weekend. all the ornaments are handmade--i still need to figure out a tree topper.

 jason and cam came over for "white friday" craft night. jason spun dog fur into yarn while cam and i made xmas tree ornaments. i found a couple neat dough recipes on pinterest--a porcelain-looking one made out of corn starch, baking soda and water, and a gingerbread-colored one made out of apple sauce and cinnamon.

 i collected random objects to press into the dough, and cam brought a set of letter presses.

 the pups made paw print ornaments. i was going to attempt chicken footprint ones, but these were enough of a struggle.

 i made an egg-shaped ornament with their initials instead:

 the applesauce/cinnamon ornaments smell so damn good...

 ...and so do these clementine pomander balls.

 roasted brussels sprouts with homemade garlic aioli for white friday snack. i've made this twice in the last week, it's so yummy.

 a living xmas tree for my kitchen. it's an italian stone pine, supposed to produce edible pine nuts when it gets bigger.

 on thanksgiving the chickens enjoyed their own feast before the dogs and i headed over to my parents' for dinner. they scarfed down a bowl of warm oatmeal with homegrown tomatoes and a side of sprouted wheat berries. they contributed eggs to our thanksgiving dessert, bread pudding.

 i thrifted another ceramic egg crate like the one cam gave me, only this one holds a full dozen.

 this is the reason i can't leave chairs pushed in next to tables anywhere around the house. i worked from home last week, writing about TV tuner software. one afternoon i returned from the bathroom to find potato working in xmetal.

 my cute boys cuddling on the couch, fast asleep.

 potato wearing his warm sweater, shortly before i trimmed his hair. he was so shaggy.

 a flattering picture of scout, from election night. he was so excited about obama he almost passed out.

 potato kept stealing andy's bed, so i got him one of his own. at first he just wanted to play with it and carry it around the house. andy immediately recognized its comfyness potential, and totally disregarded the size limitations. he kept trying to scrunch his big snausage-dog body into this tiny cat bed, diving in and squirming until his front half was mostly in. eventually he quit trying. now potato understands what to do with it, but he still steals andy's bed sometimes.

 mid-november tomato harvest, can you believe it? i still have some left. these ripened indoors, but at my parents' house a few miles away they didn't get a frost until sometime in november. my mom was harvesting vine-ripened tomatoes up until about three weeks ago. boise's micro-climates are crazy.

 in september i made gallons of delicious end-of-the-garden salsa. lots of tomatillos, at least a dozen varieties of tomato and half a dozen varieties of pepper. very complex flavor. all fresh, nothing cooked, all homegrown (except for the fresh-squeezed lime juice and some seasonings).

 i gave away most of it and it was all gone in just a couple of weeks. i brought a 32oz jar and tortilla chips to my mom for her birthday, and she nommed half the jar in one sitting. she's a very light eater, i don't think i've ever seen her eat that much all at once.

 the first seed catalogue, from seed savers exchange, arrived in the mail a few days ago. that means it's officially garden-porn-swooning season, when everything's all excitement and fantasy and potential. it seems like summer just barely ended.