Embracing the Changing Seasons of Life...

 The first big freeze came by the day after I posted about the leaves last week, and how they were still pretty green on some trees... See how they're still on the trees??? But Logan is holding a plate of ice from a puddle (after massive 9 inches of rain previous week) and the inch was 1/2" thick... just from overnight. Temps dropped into the upper teens and it was C-O-L-D.

So that resulted in freezing all those leaves and now they're all hanging brown and sad from the trees.

Oh mylanta, it's a strange, strange turn of events here, but the ice harvest was fun!

This is a crossed pumpkin. It's from our specialty pumpkin patch, and it's got properties of the blue Jarrahdale (Australian blue squash) and the pink "Porcelain Doll" (a pink pumpkin that is so stinkin' pretty!!!

You can see the pink peaking through the blue. It's shaped like the Jarrahdale but the pink is a giveaway! And it had a shiny surface, a gift from the pink side of the family...

I harvested the seeds to see if I can reproduce a similar pumpkin next year. If it's a hybrid, I may get lucky. If it's a mistake crossed genetics... I still might get lucky! But the fun part is testing the pumpkin inside, and you know that Jarrahdale's are my favorite cooking/baking pumpkin so far.

THE SUN JUST CAME OUT! HALLELUJAH CHORUS!!!
Okay back to pinky/blue-sy pumpkin fellow.

OVER 18 POUNDS.

This is why most places sell these by the pound. At .65/lb, this pumpkin is going to cost someone over $12.00.

We sell them for $5.

Hence our growing popularity!

With seeds.... Like filled with GOLD..... :)

And with seeds removed! Look at that gorgeous orange color and almost NO THREADS!!!!

Ready to bake....

I loosely covered with foil to roast/steam.... and then mashed and pureed the cooked squash.

I ended up with six pounds of pureed cooked squash once drained/sizzled the water away so my pies won't be watery.

It's not a big surprise why these blue pumpkins have won my heart, is it???

Another glimpse of ice sheets:

And a bright sun!

And yesterday it was almost 50° and sunny for half the day so I painted the chicken coop...

PINK.

:) 

Hey, a house filled with little red hens should be designed for girls, right???

I'll trim it in yellow and white in the spring, but I'm so glad I got a coat of paint on it before winter really hit full-steam. 

Today I'm baking for the annual Sisters of St. Joseph Christmas sale this Saturday. The sisters were a huge help to me when I was growing up. They believed in me when there wasn't a nice mom and dad around to think I was special...

But the sisters thought so. And so did some of my lay teachers over the years, so every time I write a book I think about what that belief and confidence meant to me, growing up... and I try to pass that beauty on to my readers. Because it mattered then and it matters now.

So I'm back to baking... the chocolate chip cookies are done... 24 jars of our special Very Berry Cherry Jam are ready to sell... 

Mandy did pumpkin rolls.... Ten of them!

Fourteen carrot cakes will march onto the table later today...

And 30 packs of our special Double Chocolate Chip Whoopie Pies and our crazy popular Peanut Butter Cup Whoopie Pies will join their autumn-spice friends at the sale...

All proceeds go to the Motherhouse for the care of the aging sisters.

And I'll have the fun of shopping at the sale on Saturday morning and seeing if Sister Cathy's Molasses cookies are available. Because everybody has a favorite at the Sisters' Christmas sale.

Inspirational, multi-published author Ruthy Logan Herne loves God, her country, her faith and her family. She also loves the change of seasons, seasons of re-birth and chocolate. She is unafraid to defend all of those things. :) Be her friend on facebook, follow her on Amazon and Goodreads and Bookbub because those things make her editors very, very happy!!!