A Garden

I've been talking about planting a vegetable garden for a while and we finally did it! Matt built a wooden frame so we could make it a raised bed, and last weekend we filled it with dirt and planted a few things. I planted 2 grape tomato and 2 regular tomato plants, 2 broccoli, 2 arugula, and 2 cucumbers. I thought 2 of each was a good number!

We've had rain almost every day this week so we haven't really had to water too much. Looking out the window right now, I think one of the tomato plants and the arugula have grown! The cucumbers, however, aren't looking great. I wasn't too sure about those when I bought them, so we'll see what happens. As fall progresses, I may try some things that are supposed to be planted when it's cooler...especially if I have space from cucumbers not working out. Don't worry readers (ha)...I'll keep you updated on the success (not failure!) of my garden.

Picking Grapes

We took an end-of-summer weekend getaway a few weeks ago to pick grapes at a small vineyard we found near Marble Falls while camping last fall. We left Max with his Nanny and headed that direction on a Friday morning.  We stopped at Flat Creek Estate winery for a tasting and a yummy lunch at their bistro, then drove through the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Preserve. Matt was really mostly looking for some dirt roads so he could try out the new Subaru's all-wheel drive capabilities but we didn't find a whole lot of off-roading. We met up with our friends at a cute historic hotel in a little town not too far from Marble Falls. We had a great dinner with them at another winery/bistro. Saturday morning we were up at sunrise to go pick grapes. The lack of humidity, compared to Houston, made the heat a lot more bearable, and picking grapes was not hard at all. I guess I was imagining bending over or something that would make it hard, but all we had to do was snip the clusters off of the vines. The vineyard is owned by a fairly young family and it was neat to see the kids working too. The owners are very friendly and eager to talk about their craft. After picking grapes all morning, we had lunch and then a wine tasting. We also watched them use a machine that took the stems off the grapes and crushed them. It was pretty amazing because they just dumped the grapes into this thing and all of the stems came out one side and the grapes got crushed and went through a tube into a tank. It was a fun weekend and a different experience - I can't say I ever thought I'd go pick wine grapes!

Balcones Canyonlands Wildlife Preserve

The Outback's first "hill climb" (it actually was a little steeper than it looks!)

Grapes - each box is 1/2 ton and the group picked, I think, 5 tons that morning!