Wisdom Teeth Removed for Christmas!

A week ago Jeff learned our medical insurance coverage was changing in 2009 and not for the better. Even though our medical budget was gone by May (Andrea's knee surgery), we decided to have Dylan and Andrea's wisdom teeth removed. Doing so in 2008 instead of 2009 saved us a bunch of moolah. The only dates the oral surgeon had available were December 23 and December 31. Neither date was optimal, but at least the 23rd was d0-able. I'm just glad he had time in his schedule for both of them.

What a way for them to spend Christmas!

Going, Going, But Not Yet Gone

I know it won't last forever...
Three days of frost and gray skies have wilted what was left of my lemon sorrel. The spinach might be salvageable, that is if the sun comes out tomorrow; carrots are becoming more difficult to dig out of the frozen ground (especially since Jeff packed away the trowel and now I'm using a kitchen spoon instead).
Tonight's menu: chicken with potato-carrot-onion casserole. No, the chicken did not come from the garden!

December 3rd in Northern Utah and Garden Growing Strong!

September in Utah is the month that people clean out their gardens and prepare it for winter. For the most part I did the same thing--tomatoes, squash, green peppers, and lettuce are long gone. However, I am pleased to report that my garden is still doing well with beets, carrots, spinach, lemon sorrel, onions, and potatoes. This is the second year we have gardened using tires. I am continually amazed at the benefits--plants are contained, no weeding, water usage is dramatically less, and best of all, two and three yields of produce! I haven't even covered the tires with straw yet to keep in the heat for the plants; the tires keep the heat on the plants. Last year we just played with the idea of tire gardening, didn't put much effort into doing it, even so our crop last year was phenomenal so much so that we decided to do it "right" this year. I highly recommend tire gardening!

Tonight's menu: split pea and ham soup, baby carrots and onions, homemade bread, beets, beet greens, and baby potatoes! Bon appetite!