I feel horrible about the long absence!

I have honestly been wanting to update for ages now, and it seems as if every time I get ready to I find something else to do. It has been a very busy summer around here and the garden is now at the point where I am ready to start some fall planting. I am going to post some pictures as to what has been going on while I was not blogging and then I will be ready to get back to some regular postings!

First I will start with the garden, I dug up all the sod in between the beds and put down weed barrier. We are going to put gravel down over it. I read that if you put any material that eventually breaks down like mulch that weeds will just grow in that.

The various squashes have taken over in this corner. They are actually planted on the outside of the fence but grew so quick I couldnt keep them shoved through fast enough and when we went on vacation they just went nuts.

Here is the area where I planted extra peppers and melons. I didnt get around to weeding and then just figured I would let it go. The dogs love to get in it and root around.

This is a super huge keeper squash.

This is a nice dinner of stuffed tomatoes. I put couscous, onion and peppers inside with the tomato pulp. Then I put a slice of tomato on top with some cheese. Good stuff.

This is the fresh blackberry pie I made for a reunion, it was pretty good I hear, I haven't ate the piece I brought home yet!

And vacation! We went to Summersville Lake, west virginia. It is the 4th time we have camped there. It is a very nice lake with clear water, you can see so far down that you can see the bottom in areas where its 20 feet deep. If you scuba there is clarity to 40 feet. We had nice weather, hot days for swimming. There was some rain too but not so much that it ruined anything. We actually kept swimming through a couple good rains. 

Here is our camp site.

Here is our favorite swim spot that we can get to without the boat.

Red efts. There is a tree on the site where we camped first several years ago that these live under and on. I took the girls to the site and was just saying "Last time there were these..." and looked down and there they were. We had a fun time playing with them. There isn't another spot in the campground where I have found them living at, it must be the perfect spot. We were joking that the tree was like the tree of life in avatar! 

This is a spot where people jump from a lot. There is a spot right to the left of the waterfall. And then there is that open spot all the way at the top on the left where there is a clearing. My sisters boyfriend jumped from there this year and then asked what a broken tailbone felt like soon after!

A turkey vulture that was hanging out above his home in the crack below. He looked very ominous.

We found out our herding australian shepherd is actually quite the water dog. She was dragging back honest logs, not just sticks! She swam circles around us while we floated in the water, I don't know if she just really loves to swim or just wants to be by us? I have to think she just loves it, I have never seen her so tired in my life. She was falling asleep sitting up, and that hasn't happened since she was a puppy.

Here is a picture of our log face. It got changed up everyday.

Well now we are back home and all settled in with all the laundry washed. I will be back to more frequent posting!