Lots of little thoughts

Because of the Japanese Beetle, we planted gardens at Michael's house and Jeremiah's house this year. We planted too much and this is the first year we have had more tomatoes and squash than we could use. I froze some of the tomatoes, but mostly we gave them away. There are lots of older fixed-income people in our ward and I took a big box of produce to church every week and set it outside the Relief Society room with a package of bags and a sign that said "please help yourself." It was fun to watch the people get their little bags of green beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. I would think "come on, take more, have plenty. I don't want to figure out what to do with this stuff." and they would be commenting to each other, "oh my, I hope I can eat this much!" Anyway, the gardens are basically done. I am a pretty lazy gardener, so I am glad for me. But I am sad for all my little old friends.

I am speaking to a group of science teachers at their Professional Development Day in two days. Hhmm... how do you make beetles, chemicals, nematodes, inverse distance weighting and EPA/APHIS/USDA/UDAF/GIS and Bayer Chemical sound interesting for 50 minutes (x 2 sessions)? No matter how many different pictures you use in a powerpoint, a beetle is still a beetle.

'Ui has been relegated to the garage at night again, now that the weather has cooled off. The little stinker just can't leave us alone at 3 in the morning. If only she would make the connection, she could stay in.

I am looking for a pumpkin bread recipe like the bread at Kneaders. So far, close but not quite. I'm not sure my waistline can handle all the recipe testing.

Say it ain't so, Shepherds! I will miss Shepherd's Cakes and Candies. They closed at the beginning of the month. They were my go-to store for high-quality chocolate, little tiny zip lock bags and other specialty cake and candy making items. The new occupant of the shop, a party supply shop, will carry chocolate until the end of the year, but they aren't open yet. I hope they carry the brands I like. Of course, after years of not doing any chocolates, I had just agreed to do a simple chocolate class for relief society next month. Hope the new store really does open in time like they said they would so that I can stock up in time. Now . . .where to find those nifty little zip locks? Guess I will have to hide my supply and ration them out.

I planted a few pie pumpkin plants so that we could enjoy some stuffed pumpkin dinners this fall (and one or two amazing pumpkin pies). I haven't tried one yet to see if they are any good (my sweet potatoes were NOT good- too much water maybe), but there must be over 30 little sugar pumpkins out there. Hhmm... maybe my little church friends?