You may remember this pumpkin from my Sept 1 blog.



Did you know that pumpkin is a super food, rich in nutrients? So what do you do with it when you're not carving Jack O Lanterns, turn it into pie or perhaps soup? Those are all good things but did you know there is something else it is good for?

First prepare it for roasting, quarter it and brush it with a little butter.



Roast that puppy until it is golden and tender.



Puree it, mix it with some flour, sugar, spices etc and dish it out into some donut pans.



Bake it to perfection.



They're a little heavy but tasty. A very good pumpkin delivery system. Especially when made with a pumpkin that was purloined from an unsuspecting neighbor!

I decided I'll be The Great Pumpkin this year (reference to the Charlie Brown Halloween show) although I won't be visiting the pumpkin patch. This is an adults only costume.

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Be sure to look at the other Halloween blog challenge participants, which are (or will be) guitartxn, KaioticEvil, hornyman1155, Tardis, Whispermyname, youaremyman, MarkandLacey, masterstoy91, d_licious_d, sidders73, Showy_Showy, nickey69

My cousin who has put himself in charge of this told me a number of years ago our uncle had some pipes put in the ground. He was out there recently and found oil as well as natural gas coming up. He found a company that is interested in drilling it. The person who currently has the controlling interest (that part is a little complicated and I'm not going into a big explanation) has signed a oil and gas lease with that company. But it needs ratification by the nieces and nephews. It's entirely possible this thing could be pumping out $$$ relatively soon. There are more than 20 of us so I'm not expecting great wealth but some pocket money is always welcome. But there is a fly in ointment. The lease needs to be ratified by the nieces and nephews and one of them decided the make himself invisible several years ago. We have no idea where he is. I hope the oil company can find a work around on that.

A number of years ago a dear uncle passed away. He owned a little spread on which he raised cattle. That wasn't his livelihood, he was a judge. But having grown up on a farm and living in Texas it was easy for him to stay close to his roots. The little ranch has oil in the ground. He tried unsuccessfully to interest oil companies in it. There is a big cost to extracting the oil and they were only interested in larger finds. When he passed he left the ranch to his nieces and nephews because he wanted the land to stay in the family in the hopes that someday someone will benefit from the oil. One of my cousins has contacted my brother and reported he has been contacted by an oil company who is interested in the mineral rights. I'm going to talk to him later today and get the details. There are a lot of us so I don't expect to get wealthy from this, but maybe some pocket change will be nice.

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The Great Pumpkin paid me a visit. I took a look at the fence in my backyard and saw something round and orange suspended above the ground. Close inspection revealed a nice sugar pumpkin. I took a look through the fence and saw my neighbor has a pumpkin patch. One of the vines made it's way through the fence and sported a small, ripe nicely shaped pumpkin.





What's on your side of the fence belongs to you, doesn't it? I didn't want a coyote, raccoon, squirrel or other rodent getting it, so I rescued it. I'm now the proud owner of a very fresh sugar pumpkin!

It's a bag that's a planter. In one version a single plant grows out of a hole in the bottom of the bag. In another, there are 3 side ports for tomatoes and 3 ports for herbs. That's the one I have.

Here it is in late May, right after I put it up and put my plants in.



Here it is today, the basil is doing very well.



Here is a closer look.



The fruit of my labor, the first installment.



After several years of not having home grown (i.e. good) tomatoes they are on my plate again!

*does happy dance*

The coyote showed up again today. I was able to take some pics through the kitchen window. It's definitely a coyote. Notice the black tip on the tail and the yellow eyes.

As far as I can tell the robin's nest is unoccupied. Yesterday I was mowing the grass, stopped to pull a few weeds and an animal, maybe a deer, bolted out from the bushes and through a hole in the neighbors fence. I only caught a glimpse of it so I'm not 100% sure what it was. In the last month or so I have seen a fox and then coyotes a couple of times. I'm just a little concerned about the coyotes because they don't run when they see people. They have grown accustomed to urban life. This past winter a couple of coyotes crashed into someone's patio window just as the family dog was let in, a close call.

No, this is not a blog about a certain NN member. Yesterday I noticed a bird's nest in the lilac bush abutting my house. I wanted to trim it back but since there is a bird's residence there I will respect it. Hell, I wouldn't want to get shaken out of my house. I was looking at it today and I thought I saw a bird. It was a little hard to notice because it was sitting perfectly still, which is unusual for a bird. I assumed she was sitting on eggs because otherwise she would be looking for food. So I went into the house and got my camera. Took a few pics. When I put them on the puter I discovered her secret, she has babies in there!

Robin in the nest,



Take a careful look to the left of her, there is an open mouth of one of the babies,



Take a look to the right of her, another open mouth of a baby plus you can clearly see the baby's head,