New Raspberry Patch

Right after we built our house I started growing raspberries on the south side of the house.  They were in the sun most summer days and out of our view for the most part since our house faces east. It seemed like the perfect place to grow them.

Over the years the raspberries started appearing around the corner and really took over the west side of our house, as they do love to spread out. So as we have had this whole southwest corner full of the bushes, I've had to install some fencing to hold them up and out of the way. Every time the grass would be cut it was easy to brush up against the prickly branches and end up all scratched up. Although there was also the benefit of picking them and eating them as we walked by.

We talked a lot about moving them out to the parkway where they could grow more freely. We would transplant them in the fall. That's what we've told ourselves we would do for at least the last 7 or 8 years.

Finally, the project has hit the top of the to-do list and here is the start to our transplant process. The spot Jeff dug out looks a little small right now, but we plan on starting by transplanting some of the plants from the west side and leaving the ones on the south side where they are.  If the plantings take, we will make the new raspberry patch even bigger next year. We are still picking the berries so as soon as this season's crop is finished, we will start digging!

I love when things get scratched off of the to-do list!

Labor Day Barbecue

We pulled out all the stops for our labor day barbecue. Since it is a symbol of our passage from summer to fall we wanted to make all our summer favorites.

We had barbecued pulled pork with a slaw I made with cabbage I picked from my garden....can't get much fresher than that. I also slow cooked baked beans from scratch. Since one of the ingredients for the baked beans is a half of a package of fried bacon, I used the other half of the package to make the delicious broccoli salad.

Our neighbor crocks his own pickles and they are fantastic. They have just the right amounts of garlic and dill that one spice does not overpower the other. I am so glad he shares them with us.  We also grilled corn-on-the-cob to top off our wonderful day.

Luckily, the weather was perfect enough to carry these hardy plates outside where we could enjoy them on the deck. A funny thing happens to me around the middle of August - all of a sudden I get this sort of desperation feel, like I have to eat outside as often as possible because the days of doing that are numbered. So not only was it nice to have our dinner outside, I had a deep appreciation for being able to do that.