Happy Fall, Ya'll

I love Fall. Love the cooler temps, the leaves, the Holiday's - everything. We've been busy the past few weeks partaking in all the Fall activities, so here is a summary and some pics of what we've been up to.

In mid-October, Claire was out of school for 2 days for a Fall Break and Parent/Teacher conferences. We spent one day up at Skytop Orchard checking out their Apple Trees and pumpkin patch that are literally on top of a mountain in North Carolina, with awesome views every way your turned. Because the weather had been un-seasonably warm (yay for our new grass!) the apples were all picked and in the store to be sold, but the hay ride and other activities were in full swing. The girls had a ball checking out the giant spider, farm animals and riding behind the tractor.

We bought our pumpkin and 2 bags of apples - one for snacking, and the other for baking. The next weekend, we diced and sliced and whipped up some homemade Apple Strudel Muffins (recipe on the Skytop web page) which were just divine.

And the next weekend, Jason and girls went to work on the pumpkin scooping insides and carving a masterpiece, which ended up turning to much well before Halloween in the warm weather (yay, again, for the new grass!) I cleaned and roasted the pumpkin seeds for the first time. The girls liked the seeds, but to me they tasted too much like empty acorns - not that I've tried acorns, but it was how I imagined them to be. Not my favorite.

Even now a few weeks later, Claire is still talking about the trip to the mountains, and how she can't wait to pick apples next year.

Plants Have Feelings, Too

The evolution of our grass situation has been 10 years in the making. In our first house, there were a lot of trees in the yard and a complete forest in the back. Not a single blade of grass grew back there until we had 6 trees removed, stumps and roots removed, tilled, seeded, spread hay and lugged sprinklers and hoses all around. It was a TON of work, but we finally got a pretty good looking back yard. That yard was fescue grass which loved our shade and the cooler spring and fall temperatures. In the summer, it would fry. Eventually, Jason grew tired of moving hoses and sprinklers and longed for the day when he'd have that in ground irrigation system.


Fast forward to our current house - no trees or shade, but he now had his irrigation system. So we opted for fescue again, thinking that we could just water it a ton in the summer and it would survive even without shade. Because this yard was sodded, it was looking pretty good from the beginning.


All good things seem to come to an end, and before long the battle began. Through the next 3 years, we fought grubs, fungus, drought, native bermuda grass and over-zealous grass fertilization companies. We spent a fortune on treatments, watering, aerating and overseeding, weed pulling and professional fertilizing. Things would look pretty good during peak fall/spring fescue season, but it seemed like we were always starting from scratch in the fall with a full aerate and over-seed. Too say the least, it was frustrating.

The 2010 season started in the same way. Spring: grass looks like a rock star, thick and lush and dark green. Early summer: the monsoon starts, and combined with some overzealous fertilizing by our lawn service, we ended up with a massive case of fungus. It really looked like aliens visited us and left crop circles in our back yard. Late summer: rain disappears for weeks at a time. The grass scorches and dies out, and my water bill sees levels that would make anyone sick. Finally the day comes, Jason is done. Done with fescue and all it's high maintenance, and he is calculating his next move. He's leaning towards Bermuda grass, which we are not big fans of it's spreading nature, but it make the most sense because of the lack of shade and hot weather. So in mid-August, Jason turns off the sprinklers and tells the fescue good-bye. Time to die, and we'll take another path in the spring.

August 14th - struggling, but hanging in there

Late in August, we head down to the lake for a weekend away and return to a shock. The grass is dead. Every.single.blade. It was like something came through with a flame thrower and killed every spec of grass we had. Could the grass know what we were plotting? And out of spite, did it kill itself to punish us with razor sharp, dead prickles that would stay until spring? It was nothing short of bizarre.

August 30th - Dead. Same exact photo spot as Aug. 14th

One evening, still pondering the instantaneous dead grass syndrome, Jason was out in the yard with the dog before bed when he thought he heard... chirping. He runs in for a zip lock back and returns with some moth like creatures squirming around in the bag. After 15 minutes of googling, he declares the diagnosis: Army Worms. These vultures can kill your entire yard in a matter of days. Dead. Gone. And it was over, the grass had shown us who was really in charge. Because, you know, you can't bite the hand that feeds you. Plants, including our grass, have feelings, too, that need to be considered. And all that bad mouthing finally went too far.

Now I will say that Jason is not one to make decisions easily. Every choice has to be carefully researched to the fullest extent, and here we were faced with the end of the warm weather grass season with the window of opportunity closing up on us with an entire yard of dead grass skeletal remains. Landscapers were highly against seeding Bermuda (sod was recommended) and Jason was still struggling with the nature of Bermuda, and really wanted another grass that was only offered in sod form, but was more costly although tolerant to the drought, bugs and sun. Once he found out that sod was the logical path forward, he sprang into research mode and came to a decision: Zoysia it was, and it was going in on Friday. During his moment of decision making weakness, I threw in the request for a garden box with success! The grass and box were installed the following week. And all is now calm in the Verrett yard.

Cookie Tosser 5000

Ahhhhh Fall, back to school time. The time of year where leaves fall off the trees and money flies out of your wallet as schools ramp up their PTA fundraising efforts to provide for our students what the government has cut out. I don't even have to say how long it has been since I have been involved in an elementary school, but I did know that wrapping paper sales started early, and membership in the PTA is a big deal. I felt so supportive of the education of our children as I happily signed up for the PTA, wrote a donation check, roped both sets of grandparents into buying wrapping paper and signed up to be a volunteer in the PTA Fall Carnival at Claire's school - dubbed "Eaglefest." Besides volunteering at the actual carnival, pleading letters were sent home to support other areas - like sending in blown out eggshells or baked goods. I signed up to provide 3 dozen of my baked good finest, all individually wrapped and ready to be sold. I couldn't help but pat myself on the back for being such an involved parent.

After sneaking out of work early on Friday to make it to my 5:00 - 5:30 volunteer shift at the "Silly String" booth (whaaaat.....???) we packed up the family to head over to the school for the carnival. I figured the girls would like it - sure there would be a couple bounce houses and some food to keep them entertained while I did volunteer booth duty and my chocolate chip blondie bars were being sold. Slight underestimation on my part, the "carnival" rivaled the state fair with pony rides, choo choo train and several fair style rides - two spinning/make-your-stomach-churn rides and the big swing ride. I couldn't believe the size of this elementary school gig.

I checked into the volunteer table and Jason and the girls went out to scope out the ponies. The Silly String booth was down near the pony area, and I saw exactly what my job was going to be. For a mere 6 tickets (the exact amount of tickets also charged for a Chick Fil A sandwich, meaning a LOT of tickets) kids could purchase a can of silly string and blast it all over their friends, the ground and them selves. And that stuff was everywhere. In my 30 minutes of duty, I must have sold 500 cans of the stuff. We must have been the most popular booth in the whole fair. I was starting to wonder if anyone would have any tickets left for my blondies! After my 30 minute shift, I walked to the other side of the carnival to meet with with Jason and the girls down in the inflatable slide area - Claire's favorites. No sign of them. I walked back to the pony area... no sign of them. After giving them a call, Jason says they are in line for the 2nd time on the giant swing ride. I couldn't believe Claire would be so brave - I guess in part because she caught up with gal pal Abigail from her class and we all know that bravery triples when you have a buddy to pressure into things. The girls sailed around on the swings with big smiles and Jason tells me that the two already went on one of the spinning rides - kind of like the Teacup ride on steroids - and no one threw up or cried. Impressive! Claire and Abigail bolt off the swings and I hear one exclaim "let's go on THAT one!" pointing to the one Jason dubbed the Cookie Tosser 5000. It was a double sided, stand up ride that rotated while spinning the giant carts - both around and up and down, meaning you would be completely horizontal to the ground while 40 feet in the air and fast. Really fast. Almost a sure thing that someone would toss their cookies while on that thing. Screams were continuously coming from that ride from 5th graders and their older siblings. Claire and Abigail get in line, shorter then everyone else in line by about 2 heads.

I tried to talk them out of it, then gave up when I surely figured the ride operator would toss them for being short. It was a stand up ride after all, and these kids barely could reach the containment chain. They had a good 15 minutes in line to watch the screamers and think about the consequences of their choice, but in the end they made it on the ride. Everyone was all smiles, until the speed ramped up. I tried not to laugh because it really wasn't funny. But we stood there with Abigail's parents as we watched our first borns sail around on the Cookie Tosser in their matching hot pink "Stephenson's Spectacular Frogs" class t-shirts. They scrunched down their heads into their necks and just stared at each other with a look that knew the end was near. The ride duration wasn't that long, but long enough for their entire 5 years of life to flash before their eyes. Finally, it was over. Except the other side of the ride was unloaded first and Claire and Abigail were stuck in the horizontal position 40 feet in the air. Finally, Claire's frozen look defrosted and she started crying.

Yep, that's them - the 2 short ones in the upper right

After an eternity, the first cart was unloaded and she was lowered back to the ground. On shaky legs, she sobbed over to us clearly positive that the end of time was right in front of her. I whipped out a brownie/cookie hybrid from the bake sale and she pulled herself together. I never did see any cookie's tossed, but think that Claire certainly had her fill of the fair for the next few years.ht