Another day, another car down

Its happened again.  For anyone that knows me, this is the third time that this has happened to me.  Complete with a story full of stormy weather at night, struggling on back roads, having the road completely blocked with a fallen tree, the car with a failing transmission, and Jon coming to rescue me.  My poor Ford Escort decided that it was done on the way home from Jen's house, and by a miracle I was able to limp it to the family homestead up north.  Jon and I went back up later to look at it with my uncle.  The transmission fluid was empty, which seemed very wrong, but even after a refill, there was no leakage and the car still wouldn't go above 15.  Today, I am looking for someone to tow it away and hopefully give me some money for it.  I'll miss that poor car!

Wedding day photo with the car

Now...who wants to drive me places?!?!

Really.  

We are not planning on getting another car.  There is no way we could afford it, I work from home, and Jon's truck is reliable.  I have enough work to do around the house.  There is yet another pile of tomatoes sitting on the kitchen floor that need to be sauced or made into something.  There are probably more outside.  

My poor garden is a mess.  There were so many critical times when I needed to be out there weeding that we were off in another state or I was busy translating.    The squash bugs ate all but two pumpkins, several spaghetti squash, and one butternut squash.  Then they moved on to my one summer squash plant, then the cucumbers...

I had aphids on my eggplants so bad that they are only now flowering and I have one tiny eggplant starting.  I should not have planted my tomatoes so close to other things and so close together- they are now covering the peppers almost completely.  The weeds are terrible.  I didn't hill my potatoes so they didn't produce well. I didn't weed the herbs in the back soon enough and only a few basil plants survived.  My melons went out so ate that the one tiny melon that formed was consumed by squash bugs.  Ahh...oh well.  There are so many good things that happened with the garden this year, that I should not complain!  This is my biggest garden yet.  I did not have the advantage of any tools besides a hoe and a pair of gloves.  We have enough tomatoes to make me overwhelmed.  The carrots and kale are beautiful.  The cinnamon basil was such a success that I would grow it again in a larger quantity (only a slight cinnamon scent, just like a sweet basil, I still use it in cooking like regular basil, but beautiful purple flowers and tint on the leaves!).  The lemon cucumbers were again a success- hardy, plentiful, never bitter.  I will sit down a write a review for each variety that I planted this year with my comments and whether or not I would grow it again.  

I am going to go finish my tea and then contemplate what to do with those tomatoes.  Maybe I will dehydrate some today.  There are also apples to bake with =)  I long for that familiar smell of spices in the air that seems to arrive with the falling leaves.