Labor Day unofficial end of Summer

I keep hearing that

end of summer blow out

SALE end of summer

even my kids running around saying

MOoooooooooOOOOOMMM it's the end of SUMMMMER!!! and I did not get to have any fun!

Then we go through the ritual of reminding them of the fun they had and today is just an exhausting day

The fall garden is planted and wants to sprout
we are experiencing a pretty bad drought we have not had a good amount of rain in over a week and we are behind for the month of August the lakes are low etc and my garden is DRY

and tomorrow my helpers go back to school

I hate the end of things

I will not miss the fighting and screaming and thier crying when one brother offends the other

I will miss being able to have a big brother watch the little ones so I can go for a walk ALONE

I will miss showering with the little ones supervised (time to go back to showering at night before bed or EARLY morning like before 6 am neither appeals to me)

Time to look back at the summer and see the large LONG list I made during the cold boring days of winter and spring and see how ambitous I am when I have cabin fever!

I wanted to build a solar oven

did not happen

Zach wrote his book though

I wanted a passive solar hot water heater

did not happen but at least we have the things for it

Dave wanted a working riding lawn mower and he has finally broken down to seek professional help for it LOL (he is taking it to a mechanic)

We planned a rummage sale ..again did not happen yet we might do it one weekend during fall but that all has to work in between football and assorted school things

We did plant a HUGE garden ...and have found that during the summer it was not large enough the plants need more space so we have been working with friends to already plant next years garden

We sure learned a lot this year

we learned how to take care of apple trees so that we can break the biennial pattern they have

we learned how to work with the rassberries and blackberries to make them productive and work better and easier to pick

we read a LOT of information on organic gardening from many sources and learned that one of the main benefits of organic gardening is not only inexpensive to do but it also make healthier produce with more vitamins and better taste!

we learned that we really need to get our butts out to the garden more often so we can grow things like lettuce in succession plantings

we learned we can grow sweet lettuce in the shade (sorry bitter greens are little too southern for this midwestern family)

We remember things like we love having chickens and pigs even though it means lots of work they are just fun to have

I have been researching ways to keep growing things well into fall and how to best transition my outside potted plants to move inside (the bananna tree and lime tree and assorted potted herbs will all be coming inside along with the habenero peppers and perhaps some other pepper plants)

poor Dave will have to live in a jungle again I know he will hate it till he gets a habenero pepper that we grew from seed ..and he said it couldn't be done HAH

So as summer winds to a close it is by no means the end of our gardening efforts we still have tons of work to get done

things like processing the food we grew both the meat and the fruits and veggies my mother in law is coming up next weekend maybe I can talk her into making some applesauce or jam or something

Then we have to prep the garden areas for the winter sleep. Dave has even agreed that this is an important step that he will help with ..I am hopeful he might even take time off work to do that